The ABC's and 123's of children's television programming: An examination of its content and creation

The children’s television industry is flourishing, specifically for the preschool audience, with more than 70 different “TV Y” shows currently on air. There is a plethora of content available to the child audience—programs run the gamut from animated to live action and from educational to entertaining. With such a wide variety of shows targeted at preschool children, there are bound to be differences in the levels of educational and/or purely entertaining messages. Consequently, it is important to analyze and evaluate the messages children receive through television in order to ensure that the needs of society’s youngest, most vulnerable members are being served. A content analysis of children’s television shows currently on air that carry the television ratings “TV Y” and “E/I” was conducted to determine what types of educational, prosocial, and behavioral messages are incorporated into children’s programming. In addition to studying the content of children’s programming, this study also investigates how these programs were created through interviews conducted with a variety of industry professionals, from creators of educational/informational programming to writers of comedy adventure entertainment. Their responses helped to inform an understanding of the creation of children’s television programming and explain the variations in content on air today.