Papers by Jennifer Kotler
The impact of the Children's Television Act, which requires broadcasters to provide educational a... more The impact of the Children's Television Act, which requires broadcasters to provide educational and informational programs for children, was examined by having 141 second through sixth graders watch 16 popular and unpopular television programs and then assess the motivational appeal of, and children's learning from, these programs. Popular and unpopular prosocial and academic programs broadcast by the four major commercial networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox) were compared to comparable programs broadcast by PBS and Nickelodeon. Younger children and girls liked educational and informational programs more than older children and boys did. Popular programs were liked better than unpopular ones. Older children understood program content better than did younger children, particularly those programs that focused on academic content. Popular programs, prosocial programs, and network programs also tended to be better understood. Findings suggest beneficial effects of commercial educational and informational television programs for children, thereby affirming the beneficial effects of governmental policies that are designed to improve the quality of children's television programs for the nation's youth. (Contains 2 tables and 26 references.) (NKA) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.
Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 2003
This special issue of the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology is dedicated to our friend ... more This special issue of the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology is dedicated to our friend and colleague, Rodney R. Cocking. Among the many contributions Rod made to developmental science, one was to advance the media research field. Rod understood the importance of media in the lives of our developing youth as well as the need to embed this research into a broad theoretical context. Although his life was over all too quickly, Rod's legacy continues. We are grateful for the indelible mark he left on our field.
Media Psychology, 2003
Children in the 2nd through 6th grade wrote reports about their favorite educational and informat... more Children in the 2nd through 6th grade wrote reports about their favorite educational and informational television programs, and the reports were examined for the presence of gender stereotypes. Children's written reports contained more male than female characters, more male than female pronouns, and more masculine than feminine behaviors. Effects were most pronounced for boys. Over time, preadolescent girls showed a greater preference for educational programs that featured female lead characters, and the girls used more feminine pronouns, behaviors, and expressed a greater range of feelings in their writings about their favorite programs. Girls and boys, however, were more likely to report masculine behaviors for male and female characters. Moreover, gender-stereotyping effects were eliminated for boys who selected a favorite program featuring an adventurous female lead character. Although memories of educational television programs are often gender stereotyped, a few nontraditional programs can drench the audience, providing nontraditional images and models for those who search for them.
Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 2003
Our initial decision to study what children were learning from programs mandated by the Children'... more Our initial decision to study what children were learning from programs mandated by the Children's Television Act (CTA) was inspired by content analyses of these programs (e.g., Jordan, Schmitt, & Woodard, 2002; Kunkel & Canepa, 1994). While it is the access to educational content on commercial broadcast stations that is required by law, we believed that an equally important question was if children got the message. Our studies suggest that they do indeed get them, and perhaps more importantly, that they are reasonably good at generalizing those messages to their own lives. That the messages they have available to them for processing and learning are primarily prosocial rather than academic in nature is not surprising. Broadcasters are concerned with ratings (Mitroff, 2003; Stipp, 2003). Is this show profitable? Does it get enough eyeballs on the screen? For broadcasters, getting the educational message to children is an incidental outcome of their legal obligation (Mitroff, 2003). Yet the truest value of the CTA may be just that: getting children to understand the educational messages (Kunkel, 2003). Is learning prosocial content enough to consider the CTA effective media policy, or are our children being short-changed on the academic front? 1. What is educational content? We are educators. Educational content to us is ''1, 2, 3'' and ''A, B, C.'' However, with a single act, the academic tradition of educational television was lost. Educational and informational programming was defined so broadly that just about any content could be
The Children's Television Act of 1990 requires broadcasters to provide programming that furthers ... more The Children's Television Act of 1990 requires broadcasters to provide programming that furthers the development of children. The purpose of this study was to examine second through sixth grade children's learning from educational programs broadcast by affiliates of ABC, CBS, NBC, and FOX compared to PBS and Nickelodeon. Using the Internet as a data collection tool, 97 children in locations throughout the US reported their viewing patterns and their learning from educational and informational programs. Children viewed about four different educational and informational programs a week, primarily from Nickelodeon and PBS, with the educational strength of children's reports being comparable for the commercial vs. cable/PBS offerings. Children reported more social and emotional lessons and knowledge information lessons than cognitive skills lessons or physical well-being lessons. The results indicate that many children are learning lessons of social and informational value from programs mandated by the Children's Television Act. The implication is that governmental regulation of children's television results in measurable benefits for child viewers.
Child Development, 2001
For two cohorts of children from low- to moderate-income families, time-use diaries of television... more For two cohorts of children from low- to moderate-income families, time-use diaries of television viewing were collected over 3 years (from ages 2-5 and 4-7 years, respectively), and tests of reading, math, receptive vocab- ulary, and school readiness were administered annually. ...
Igniting the Power of Community, Jan 1, 2010
... support for the expansion of Takalani Sesame's radio programming to more of ... more ... support for the expansion of Takalani Sesame's radio programming to more of South Africa's eleven official ... reception, and in response to the great need to educate all South Africans (including ... the project partners made the deci-sion to add a special HIV/AIDS educational focus ...
Journal of Marriage and Family, Jan 1, 2005
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Marketing, Self-Regulation, and Childhood Obesity …, Jan 1, 2005
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Papers by Jennifer Kotler