The Reflection
on the Screen: Television's Image of Children
by
Katharine Heintz-Knowles
Assistant Professor of Communications, University of Washington
A Children Now Executive Summary
University
of Minnesota Children, Youth and Family Consortium. Permission is granted
to create and distribute copies of this document for noncommercial purposes
provided that the author and CYFC receive acknowledgment and this notice
is included.
Children
Now is a nonpartisan policy and advocacy organization for children.
Children Now acts as a strong and independent voice for the millions
of children who cannot speak for themselves-- in the public policy arena,
in the mass media, and in the community. We focus particular attention
on children who are poor or at-risk.
CHILDREN
NOW:
Educates
the public and decision makers about the needs of children
Develops and promotes effective strategies to improve their lives
Generates new resources for cost-effective programs that benefit children
and families
Reaches out to parents and children to inform them of opportunities
to help themselves.
LOS
ANGELES
Suite 100
2001 S. Barrington Ave.
Los Angeles, CA 90025
1-800-CHILD-44, (310) 268-2444
OAKLAND
Suite 530
1212 Broadway
Oakland, CA 94612
(510) 763-2444
OVERVIEW
by JAMES P. STEYER, founder and president of Children Now
By
the time a child today graduates from high school, he or she will have
spent more time in front of a television set than in a classroom. One
of the things kids often see on television is a reflection of themselves:
images of children, as interpreted by the entertainment industry.
Last
year, Children Now sponsored the first-ever content analysis to examine
how children are portrayed in television news and newspapers. This year,
we are turning our attention to another under-examined arena: how children
are portrayed on entertainment television.
How
children see people their age portrayed on television is important.
Television's images help shape how young people view themselves and
their place in the world around them: TV can expand a child's aspirations,
or it can limit her horizons; it can teach him what is important or
unimportant- what is to be valued and what is to be shunted aside. The
picture television paints of kids also affects overall public perceptions
about children and the validity and importance we attach to their concerns.
It
is for these reasons that we set out to explore how children are portrayed
on entertainment television. The Reflection on the Screen: Television's
Image of Children offers the results of the most comprehensive content
analysis study ever completed about how children are portrayed on entertainment
television. The study was commissioned by Children Now and was conducted
independently by Katharine Heintz-Knowles, Assistant Professor of Communications
at the University of Washington.
KEY
FINDINGS
Children
shown on entertainment television are motivated most often by peer relationships
and romance, and least often by school- related or religious issues.
One
way to determine what messages children may receive from television
is to look at what appears to motivate the children on TV. The motivations
of TV characters could send young viewers influential signals about
the importance and value of various aspects of life. Our study found
that in almost twice as many instances, children on television are motivated
by romance rather than school-related issues. Of the primary child characters
on entertainment television,
53%
are motivated by peer relationships. 36% are motivated by sports and
hobbies. 27% are motivated by romance.
24% are motivated by family relationships. 16% are motivated by society
or community. 15% are motivated by school-related issues. 1% are motivated
by religion or spirituality.
Entertainment
television almost never shows children grappling with important issues.
While
many children in the real world are forced to deal with increasingly
difficult family and societal problems, this study reveals that their
entertainment television counterparts are leading much simpler lives.
-
Only 10% of
television shows featuring child characters deal with major social
or family issues, such as racism, substance abuse, public safety,
or homelessness.
-
Only 2% of television
shows featuring child characters deal with major family issues such
as family crises, child abuse, domestic abuse, or family values.
-
Less than 12%
of the children on entertainment television are shown confronting
important issues.
On
commercial broadcast networks, a majority of the child characters engage
in anti-social behaviors, and those behaviors often yield positive results
for the characters.
Research
has demonstrated that television can have a positive effect in teaching
children important values and the benefits of pro-social behaviors,
such as helping others, sharing, or telling the truth in difficult situations.
Unfortunately, experts also agree that television can have a negative
effect on children, encouraging anti-social behavior such as dishonesty
or violence.
One
purpose of the study was to examine the kinds of messages kids receive
from television and the lessons they could learn from the behavior of
children their age on entertainment television. To do this, we recorded
the number and characteristics of children shown on TV, and the behaviors
they engaged in. To determine the kinds of value lessons children may
be learning from television, we analyzed how often the children shown
on TV engaged in pro-social actions such as sharing, telling the truth
in difficult situations, meeting their responsibilities, and helping
others and how often they engaged in anti-social actions, such as lying,
neglecting their responsibilities, or being aggressive either verbally
or physically. We then looked at whether those anti-social or pro-social
behaviors were shown to be effective or ineffective in meeting the character's
goals. For example, when a child on television lies, does that behavior
tend to pay off, or does it have negative consequences?
The
study revealed that while many children on television are shown engaging
in both pro-social and anti-social ways, the majority of behaviors shown,
across all forms of television, are pro-social. These positive acts
are shown to be most effective in helping the characters achieve their
goals.
-
70% of child
characters on fictional shows engage in pro-social acts, while 40%
engage in anti-social acts. [multiple behaviors were recorded for
each character.]
-
Pro-social behaviors
are most likely to be seen as effective in meeting the child's goals,
while anti-social behaviors are more likely to be shown as ineffective.
61 % of pro-social behaviors were effective, while anti-social behaviors
were effective just 34% of the time.
-
Although most
anti-social behaviors do not pay off for the children on television,
several significant forms of anti-social behavior are shown to be
effective. For example, physical aggression is effective in meeting
the child's goal most of the time, and deceitful behavior is seen
as effective nearly half of the time.
-
95% of the anti-social
behavior found in this study appears on commercial television. A
majority of the children (53%) on broadcast network programs engage
in anti-social behavior, while between 35- 47% of the child characters
on basic cable, pay cable and syndicated programs behave anti-socially.
-
PBS presents
the most positive role models for children. Only I 0% of the children
on PBS programs engage in anti-social behavior.
Child
Behaviors Most Rewarded on Television
Cooperating....................................91%
Helping........................................ 73%
Physical Aggression......................... 53%
Affection...................................... 46%
Explaining Feelings.......................... 45%
Deceit.......................................... 42%
Performing Responsibilities................ 32%
Verbal Aggression........................... 16%
Minority
children, especially Hispanic/Latino children, are under- represented
on entertainment television.
According
to television researchers, one important issue to consider when assessing
how a particular group is portrayed - such as minority children or girls
- is the issue of recognition: how often a member of that group is shown.
The results of this study show that minority children are underrepresented,
especially Hispanic/Latino children.
-
On commercial
broadcast television, 80% of all child characters are white; 13.7%
are African-American, 4% are Asian-American, and a mere 2.1 % are
Hispanic/Latino. According to the US Census Bureau, 69% of children
under 18 are white, 15% are African-American, 3.3% are Asian-American,
and 12.2% are Hispanic/Latino.
-
While cable
television's record nearly matches that of commercial television,
the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) does a much better job of
reflecting the ethnic mix of America's children: on PBS, 27.5% of
child characters are African American, 13.8% are Asian-American,
and 20% are Hispanic/Latino.
Distribution
of Child Characters By Ethnicity and Source
| |
White |
African-American |
Hispanic/Latino |
Asian-American |
| Commercial
Broadcast |
80.1% |
13.7% |
2.1% |
4.1% |
| Cable |
76% |
13.1% |
3.3% |
2.2% |
| Public
Broadcast Service |
35% |
27.5% |
20% |
13.8% |
Girls
and boys are almost equally well represented on television.
In
contrast to the ethnic breakdown of child characters, this study shows
that entertainment television does a good job of representing both boy
and girl characters.
-
On commercial
broadcast networks, 52% of all child characters are male, while
48% are female.
-
Gender representation
on cable lags somewhat behind: nearly 57% of child characters are
boys, while just over 43% are girls.
-
Action-adventure
programs have the fewest girls: 58% of the characters on these programs
are boys, and just 42% are girls.
-
PBS does the
best job of representing girls as often as boys: 5 1 % of the children
on PBS are boys, and 49% are girls.
There
are important differences in the ways girls and boys are portrayed.
The
study also analyzed the behaviors of child characters on entertainment
television, and revealed several differences in how boys and girls are
portrayed.
-
Girls are twice
as likely as boys to show affection.
-
Boys are 60%
more likely to use physical aggression. As noted earlier, when the
study examined whether a child character's behavior was seen as
effective in meeting the child's goal, it was revealed that physical
aggression was effective most of the time.
CONCLUSION-
Television
is sending mixed messages to children. In a positive development, children
on television are relatively equally divided between boys and girls,
although the behaviors for the different sexes are shown to vary in
ways that could reinforce gender stereotypes, because girls are portrayed
as more affectionate and boys as more physically aggressive.
Television
lags behind, however, in portraying children from minority groups, with
fewer than 3% of child characters on commercial television being Hispanic/Latino.
The absence of minority characters could leave children from these groups
without significant role models, and could lead children of all ethnic
groups to form a skewed vision of their community and their place in
it.
The
study also revealed that few role models are presented on television
to help teach children how to handle the many important social and family
problems they face in real life, with surprisingly few shows offering
examples of children coping with such problems.
With
regard to whether television is showing positive or negative role models
to children, we found mixed results. Unfortunately, the majority of
child characters on commercial broadcast networks were shown acting
in an anti-social way. Certain significant anti-social behaviors, including
physical aggression and deceitful behavior, are frequently shown to
be effective in meeting children's goals, sending a potentially negative
message to the children in the audience.
In
addition, the children on television are seen most often being motivated
by peer relationships and romance, and least often by school issues
or religion.
Throughout
the study, it was found that the Public Broadcasting Service plays an
important role in presenting positive role models to children. PBS is
the only place children from minority groups can see children like themselves
often on television, and PBS also offers children of all ethnic groups
the most examples of positive behavior.
METHODOLOGY
This
study was conducted by Katharine Heintz-Knowles, Assistant Professor
of Communications at the University of Washington. It is based on a
comprehensive analysis of regularly scheduled entertainment programs
featuring child characters on broadcast and cable television. The study
surveyed early morning, afternoon, prime time and Saturday morning broadcasts
on ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX, and PBS, and the USA, Nickelodeon and Disney
cable channels. In addition, the top syndicated programs airing on non-network
channels were also included. Entertainment programs covered by this
study include dramas, sitcoms, variety programs, cartoons, and action-adventure
shows. Daytime soap operas were not included. News, talk, and reality
programs are not considered entertainment programs for the purposes
of this study. Because the study reviewed only regularly scheduled programs,
the sample does not include movies shown on television. Only programs
featuring regular child characters (up to the age of 18) were selected
for analysis. Three episodes of each program selected were videotaped
in October 1994, and subjected to systematic coding analysis.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This
report is published as part of the Children and the Media Program at
Children Now. Children Now would like to thank the Charles Stewart Mott
Foundation and an anonymous donor for their generous support of this
program. These donors are not responsible for the statements or views
expressed in this report.
