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Abstract
From the opening of each Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood (MRN) program, Fred Rogers invites his viewers to converse with him. MRN viewer letters demonstrate the efficacy of this call in the familiar and conversational manner in which viewers address the program’s host. This article examines a sample of these letters from the perspective of Mikhail Bakhtin’s dialogical theorization of the conversational moment—a moment that “provokes an answer, anticipates it, and structures itself in the answer’s direction.” Along with Bakhtin, the dialogical perspectives of Roger Burggraeve, Paulo Freire, and Martin Buber are examined and applied to further elucidate the communication ethics at work in the lettered correspondence and on the television program. MRN viewer letters reveal a remarkable consistency in their thematic quality and constitute a field of study about the dialogical relationship between Rogers and his audience.
Funding
This research was partly made possible through funding and support from the Grable Foundation and the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
Notes
[1] See Sonja K. Foss and Cindy L. Griffin, “Beyond Persuasion: A Proposal for Invitational Rhetoric,” Communication Monographs 62 (1995): 2–18.
[2] See Mikhail Bakhtin, “Discourse in the Novel,” in Critical Theory Since 1965, ed. Hazard Adams and Leroy Searle (Gainesville: University Presses of Florida, 1986), 672.
[3] See Jeffrey Murray, “Bakhtinian Answerability and Levinasian Responsibility: Forging a Fuller Dialogical Communicative Ethics,” Southern Communication Journal 65, no. 2 (2009), 133–150.
[4] Roger Burggraeve, “A Holistic Values Education: Emotionality, Rationality and Meaning,” a Paper Delivered at the Ninth European Forum for Teachers of Religious Education Conference, Järvenpää 2004, 7.
[5] Ibid.
[6] M[ikhail] M. Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination, ed. Michael Holquist (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1981), 280.
[7] Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed (New York: Continuum, 1993), 69.
[8] Michael Holquist, Dialogism: Bakhtin and his World (New York: Routledge, 1990), 30.
[9] Ibid.
[10] After completing his Master of Divinity degree from the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary, Presbyterian authorities were hesitant about granting Rogers’ degree since he did not have a formal congregation. Rogers noted that he considered his television program his ministry. He was ordained in 1963 by the Presbyterian Church with a charge to serve children and families through television.
[11] Jack Gareis and Ellen Cohn, Communication as Culture: An Introduction to the Communication Process (Dubuque, IA: Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 2008), 15.
[12] Rob Anderson, Leslie A. Baxter, and Kenneth N. Cissna, “Texts and Contexts of Dialogue,” in Dialogue: Theorizing Difference in Communication Studies, ed. Rob Anderson, Leslie A. Baxter, and Kenneth N. Cissna (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2004), 6.
[13] James Carey, Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and Culture (New York: Routledge, 1988), 18.
[14] See Erik Barnouw, Tube of Plenty: The Evolution of American Television (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990).
[15] See Dorothy G. Singer and Jerome L. Singer, eds., Handbook of Children and the Media (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2001).
[16] Fred M. Rogers and Linda J. Philbrick, “Television and the Viewing Child,” undated, 1, in Fred Rogers Archive, Fred Rogers Center for Early Learning & Children’s Media, Saint Vincent College, Latrobe, PA [hereafter “FRA”].
[17] Fred M. Rogers, Speech delivered at Yale University symposium on young children and television, on panel, “Television Professionals Look at Children’s Programming,” New Haven, CT, October 16, 1972, FRA
[18] Singer and Singer, Handbook of Children and the Media.
[19] Fred Rogers, “Senate Statement on PBS Funding,” United States Congress, Senate Committee on Commerce, Subcommittee on Communications, Washington, DC, May 1, 1969, FRA.
[20] See Cy Schneider, Children’s Television: The Art, The Business, and How It Works (Chicago: NTC Business Books, 1987); Ellen Seiter, Sold Separately: Children and Parents in Consumer Culture (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1993); Norma Odom Pecora, The Business of Children’s Entertainment (New York: Guildford Press, 1998); Susan E. Linn, Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood (New York: New Press, 2004); Juliet Schor, Born To Buy: The Commercialized Child and the New Consumer Culture (New York: Scribner, 2004).
[21] Ronald C. Arnett, Janie M. Harden Fritz, and Leanne M. Bell, Communication Ethics Literacy: Dialogue and Difference (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 2009), 11.
[22] Ibid., 13.
[23] Ibid., 17. Robert N. Bellah, Richard Madsen, William M. Sullivan, Ann Swidler, and Steven M. Tipton, Habits of the Heart: Individualism and Commitment in American Life (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985); Robert D. Putnam, Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001).
[24] “About Us,” Fred Rogers Company: The Legacy Lives On, July 1, 2013, http://www.fci.org/FRC/about-us.html.
[25] Glenn Greenwald to Fred Rogers, February 11, 1982, FRA, Box EUFan4_Folder5. All quotations by Glenn Greenwald in correspondence with Rogers are from this one letter.
[26] Judy Rubin, trailer for “Lessons from Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood,” Expressive Media IncArts: Therapy Films & Resources, February 3, 2015, http://www.expressivemedia.org/f15.html#.
[27] Julie Cruise to Fred Rogers, March 4, 1975, FRA, Box EUFan4_Folder3. All quotations by Julie Cruise in correspondence with Rogers are from this letter.
[28] PBS is the abbreviation for the Public Broadcasting Service.
[29] The absence of Julie’s nephew is notable in regards to the way in which her second round of viewing takes place in a setting where she and Rogers are the only two (read: dialogic) present in her space.
[30] Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 69.
[31] Ibid.
[32] “Fox News Spends 6 Minutes Describing Why Mr. Rogers Was An Evil, Evil Man,” Upworthy.com, June 27, 2013, http://www.upworthy.com/fox-news-spends-6-minutes-describing-why-mr-rogers-was-an-evil-evil-man-5
[33] Burggraeve, “Holistic Values Education,” 17.
[34] Ibid.
[35] Ibid.
[36] Ibid. It is important to note that Burggraeve’s definition of “emotionality” excludes many emotional phenomena due to its basis in an ethical appeal. Because it is an experience of belongingness, it inherently excludes violence, bigotry, fear, shame, and other negative or dark primary emotions.
[37] Ibid., 2.
[38] Fred Rogers to Julie Cruise, 2 April 2, 1975, FRA, Box EUFan4_Folder3. All quotations by Fred Rogers in correspondence with Cruise are from this one letter.
[39] Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 52.
[40] Ibid., 60.
[41] Ibid.
[42] Fred M. Rogers, “The Weekend Song” (1970), The Neighborhood Archive; All Things Mister Rogers, http://www.neighborhoodarchive.com/music/songs/weekend_song.html
[43] Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 61.
[44] Sally Rector to Fred Rogers, October 23, 1974, FRA, Box EUFan4_Folder4. All quotations by Sally Rector in correspondence with Rogers are taken from this one letter.
[45] Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 70.
[46] Ibid., 71.
[47] Ibid., 72.
[48] Fred Rogers, Letter to Sally Rector, November 1974, Fred Rogers Archive, Box EUFan4_Folder4, Latrobe, PA. All quotations by Fred Rogers in correspondence with Sally Rector are from this letter.
[49] Henri Nouwen, The Wounded Healer (New York: Image, 1979).
[50] Pierre Furter quoted in Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 74.
[51] Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed, 53.
[52] Arnett, Harden Fritz, and Bell, Communication Ethics Literacy, 9.
[53] Fred Rogers, “Opportunity for Creative Work Needed in Our Educational System,” Congressional Record, July 29, 1969: E6404-E6405.
[54] Ibid.
[55] Ibid.
[56] Ibid.
[57] Ronald C. Arnett, “Toward a Phenomological Dialogue,⃜ Western Journal of Speech Communication 45(Summer 1981), 201.
[58] Ibid., 203.
[59] Ibid.
[60] Ibid., 204.
[61] Ibid., 206–207.
[62] Ronald C. Arnett, “A Dialogic Ethic ‘Between’ Buber and Levinas,” in Anderson, Baxter, and Cissna, Dialogue, 81.
[63] Ibid.
[64] See Melissa Morgenlander, “Adult-Child Co-viewing of Educational Television: Enhancing Preschoolers’ Understanding of Mathematics Shown on Sesame Street” (PhD diss., Columbia University, 2010).