Watch and Learn: Gendered Discrepancies in Educational Messages on Television Channels Targeted at Boys versus Girls

Abstract

The contents of cable channels targeted at children are an important and persistent source of images of education and yet they remain unaccounted for in the research on children, media, and education. Although existing literature indicates a correlation between children’s television programming and attitudes, there is minimal research on how education is itself represented on children’s television. This study begins to address this gap using a content analysis of 6 months of programming on Cartoon Network, Disney, Disney XD, and Nickelodeon. Transcripts of 8,624 hours of programming on the channels were examined for the frequency of (a) general educational terms; (b) science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM)–related terms; and (c) humanities-related terms using customized recording and searching software. Educational terms were frequently found on children’s television, with some terms appearing in 20% of time blocks, and STEM terms appeared more frequently than Humanities terms. Most significantly, the frequency of educational terms and messages varied by channel and target audience, with channels targeted at girls significantly more likely to contain educational messages than channels targeted at boys.

Notes

¹ The 30-minute time blocks were recorded exactly as they ran on the channel and, therefore, included commercials and commercial breaks in the length. However, the transcripts, in the vast majority of cases, did not include commercial content. Therefore, our keyword searches do not include commercial content.

² Kindergarten through 12th grade, the entire span of the U.S. public education system.

³ The added word depended on the subject (i.e., “English Paper” but “Art Project”).

⁴ STEM includes qualifying terms used on science and math to best compare with humanities.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kyra Hunting

Kyra Hunting (Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Madison, 2014) is an assistant professor in the Department of Journalism and Media at the University of Kentucky. Her research interests include children’s television, genre, and television branding.

Adriane Grumbein

Adriane Grumbein (Ph.D., University of Florida, 2014) is an assistant professor in the Department of Integrated Strategic Communication at the University of Kentucky. Her research interests include branding, brand personality and visual communication.

Maria Cahill

Maria Cahill (Ph.D., University of Tennessee, 2009) is an associate professor at the University of Kentucky with a joint appointment in the School of Information Science in the College of Communication and Information and the Department of Educational Leadership Studies in the College of Education. Her research interests include the literacy development of children and adolescents within the context of library services and programming.