Children’s preferences for TV show hosts: an international perspective on learning from television

Abstract

The human hosts of knowledge-focused TV programs for children play a significant role in young people’s discoveries about themselves and the world. The fact that the majority of these personalities are slim, young, and White men, and the unquestioned truism among TV producers that children prefer such hosts, led an international research team to ask 3399 youth ages 7–10 from 27 countries to describe their ideal host, as well as themselves, through linguistically sensitive and age-appropriate surveys. Key findings include that the same percentage of boys and girls (84%) prefer hosts of the same gender, and that children self-identifying as having non-“light” skin tones are far less likely than those with a “light” skin tone to prefer hosts of the same skin color. These results suggest that marginalized children worldwide struggle to see themselves represented through respected TV figures, which has broader implications for their identity development and socialization.

Keywords:

• Children’s television
• cross-cultural research
• gender
• diversity

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the researchers who organized and conducted data collection in the various participating countries: Diana Nastasia and Sorin Nastasia (US Midwest), Kristen McGregor (US East Coast), Meryl Alper (US West Coast), Lynn Whitaker (UK Scotland), Alexandra Swann (UK Northern Ireland), Aldana Duhalde and Alejandra Rabuini (Argentina), Pablo Ramos Rivero (Cuba), Anne Egerer, Christine Bulla, Judith Schwarz (Germany), Murari Guragain and Khem Guragain (Nepal), Stephanie Schaidt, Peter Mugano and Anthony Kimbugwe (Uganda), Thaissa Armond (Brazil), Arathi Singh and Subha Das Mollick (India), Kayen De Vera and Grace Panganiban (Philippines), Stefania Simon (Romania), Felicity Woodward (Australia), Mimi Dadson, Afua Dake, George Nketiah and George Crentsil (Ghana), Oluyinka Esan (Nigeria), Seham Nasser (Egypt), Josephine Wareta and Natascha Schwanke (Kenya), Martina Peštaj (Slovenia), Marieke van Oostrum and Marianne van Oostrum (Netherlands), Macharia Koigi (Tanzania), Nilüfer Pembecioğlu (Turkey), Cissa Carvalho and Camila Aguiar (Brazil), Suzanne Wilson and Alicja Wicinski (Canada), Noman Here (Pakistan), Markus Nikel (Italy), Andreas Klempin (Thailand), Yuri Kitagami (Japan), Charu Uppal (Sweden), and Margerita Stukanova (Ukraine).

Notes

1. Henceforth, we use this term interchangeably with presenter and host.

2. Several pre-tests with a small number of children were administered in the US, UK, and Germany to insure that the questionnaire was understandable and suitable for the target age group.