"Play School" vs. "Sesame Street"

Paper Summary:

This paper discusses children's programming. It specifically compares "Play School" vs. "Sesame Street." The paper discusses specific episodes of each program and compares their format. It then looks at how both "Sesame Street" and "Play School" prepare children for school in some manner. Finally, the paper discusses the production context of the shows.

Table of Contents:
Episode Summaries
Sesame Street Episode 4138, "Lucy and the Lazy Lizard"
Play School, "The Sea" Episode
Format
Sesame Street
Play School
School Preparation
Production Context

From the Paper:

"The disbanding of the Children's Programming Committee in Australia was viewed as a poor move in the education of Australia's children (Hodge, 1992, 132). Now the ACMA is largely responsible for regulating content in Australia (ACME, 2002). The CPC's main point of contention that led to disbandment was that it could not agree as to the status of ambiguous characters, ones where it could not be determined whether they are human of animal. Children appear to have two different mechanisms for coping with the fantasy world of television and the real world (Hodge, 1996, 40). Play School does not have that type of ambiguity. The characters on Play School are definitely either human or a stuffed animal. There is no confusion as to where fantasy ends and reality begins."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Acma. 2008. Overview. Available from <http://www.acma.gov.au/WEB/LANDING/pc=BROADCASTING_MAIN>. Accessed 30 September 2008.
• Buckingham, David. 2000. 'Changing Paradigms' After the death of childhood: growing up in the age of electronic media. Malden, MA: Polity Press. 2000, pp. 215-216.
• Children's Television Standards (CTS) .2002. Children's Television Standards Variation. (1).
• Hodge, Bob. 1992. Is there a case for regulating children's TV? Rpt. Media Information Australia. 1992. 65: pp. 70-75.
• Hodge, Bob. 1986. 'Television and the mind of the child: a developmental perspective'. Children and Television: a semiotic approach/ Robert Hodge and David Tripp. Cambridge Eng: Polity Press. 1986. pp. 73-99.

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