American children’s TV programming is entertaining and educational, and in the case of Sesame Street and other kid’s TV shows, both. However, regardless of their educational or entertainment value/purposes, commercial and non-commercial children’s TV shows are composed of ideological representations and narratives that uphold particular norms, values, and behaviors, telling audiences what is good, bad, normal, abnormal, desirable, undesirable, and what amounts to “common sense.”
For example, the G.I. Joe cartoon I watched as a young person in the early 1980s, taught viewers that there was “good” and “evil” in the world, and that military action is justified, if not ideal, if it is intended to eradicate “evil.” “The Joes,” were the “good guys” – a diverse, elite force representing American military agility and might. COBRA was a “terrorist organization,” main enemy of “the Joes,” and were the “bad guys.” It was a simplistic program that encouraged nationalism and violence to solve problems in the world. Those ideological perspectives were very prominent at the time (the Reagan Era) and expressed on the show.
As another example, since its beginnings in 1969, Sesame Street has encouraged communitarian ideologies, and embraced diversity and multiculturalism (which are considered negative ideologies by some people in the US). What ideologies have you observed in American children’s TV programming in terms of hegemonic/dominant/leading ideologies and those counter-ideologies that have challenged them over time? Be sure to bring in specific examples and position them in historical social and cultural contexts.
