Reflecting on Childhood Entertainment and It's Uses

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llezjMibxp4 (This isn't the clip I watched for the blog, but it's similar. The one I watched is in the first episode of Season Two - the Classics - on Netflix.)

    While television in its current form is often brain-rotting playing to the lowest common denominator of intelligence, it is not so across the board. In particular, children's television programming is one area that psychologists and programmers have done extensive research on to ensure they are beneficial to kids. For example, when Joan Clooney implemented her idea for an educational program that would begin a learning epidemic among kids and parents alike, called Sesame Street, she tested the educational value of the show and found that it rated higher than any other kids show at the time. The key to this success was the "stickiness factor" or the ability for an idea to stick in someone's brain.
    As I watched an episode of Sesame Street at the age of 20, I could see where this "stickiness factor," which turned out to be an annoyingness factor more than anything, came into play. In particular, one scene that caught my attention was when the puppets were singing a song teaching how to count to three. Each character had three items - food, animals, sports equipment - that they sang "three [items], one, two, three!" Later, as I walked around after the show preparing soup for dinner, I found myself sing-song-counting the spices and cans as I put the ingredients in my crock pot. As silly as this was, I could see how kids might actually learn some useful skills from the show.
   However, when I was a kid I didn't watch much television, especially not Sesame Street. I was very fond of reading and read voraciously, sometimes two or three books a week that were a few levels above my supposed reading level (when I was in elementary school.) My parents read to me every night before I taught myself to read. I gained my extensive vocabulary and love of learning from these books, not from TV. But, I did still enjoy TV for entertainment and watched shows like Arthur or Little Bear when I could. I watched Blue's Clues, too, but I preferred shows with a plot line over overtly educational programs (like Sesame Street.) These shows still had a "stickiness factor" for me as I was invested in the characters, so the lessons they learned - which were often morally educational as well as scholastically educational - stuck with me.
   Years from now, whenever I have kids, I'm hoping to be able to find shows that combine an entertaining plot line with scholastic education (in addition to teaching a love for books) so that while they may think they're watching TV solely for entertainment - through the plot line - they are also learning useful skills such as counting and spelling. But, I still don't believe is using television as the major mechanism for teaching. The most effective way of learning is always through interaction (with text, a peer, a teacher, or an object) and TV is exclusively a one way street as kids cannot actually interact with characters on television. So, while educational television programs can certainly be used as supplemental tools to drill basic knowledge into children's brains, it must be backed up with actual interactive teaching.

Evolution of PSAs and why they should be integrated into television programming

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1HkqeORgn_U (Friends Episode, can start around 2 minutes)

    When I hear the words "public service announcement," I immediately imagine cheesy, homemade videos with terrible one-liners. They may have a great message promoting health in a variety of different areas, but for many years, PSA's have had a bad reputation for being over-acted and under-produced.
    PSAs have been around longer than television, in fact during WWII the government used them to promote the war effort over the radio. Billboards, newspaper ads, brochures,  are other media through which organization spread important announcements to the public. However, in this television age, PSAs are most often run on TV.
    And, as technology has improved, so have PSAs, so that now it is their messages rather than their production, that people pay attention to. This entertainment education has helped promote messages informing the public about substance abuse, teen pregnancy, HIV/AIDS, cancer, bullying, and physical fitness that help spread knowledge to the public about healthy ways to handle each of these problems.
    Yet, many of them still don't work, because people don't really want to learn anything while watching mind-numbing television. Often, rather than listening to important health information, people change the channel or mute it. But, there are some eye-catching announcements that are actually fairly effective. The best ones use conventional advertising methods such as personal stories, humor, basic statistics and catchy slogans. 
    For instance, in the campaign against texting while driving, personal stories and catchy slogans raise awareness of the dangers of texting and driving. In each one, a "normal person" gives their testimony of what happened when they texted and drove, who got hurt and how terrible the consequences are. These are particularly effective because I know I've been close to those same situations and have only been lucky to escape unscathed. Each short ad ends with the phrase "it can wait" which sticks in my head every time I pick up my phone while driving.
    I think the best way for groups to promote healthy informational messages is actually in the television programs. For example, in a 2002 episode of Friends, the characters discussed the issues of unplanned pregnancy in the plot of the show. As it was in the dialogue itself, and not in a commercial, viewers paid much more attention to their favorite characters' plight and also learned better how to use condoms and why to practice safe sex. The Kaiser Foundation helped the RAND corporation fund a study of this episode's reception and they found that 65% of teen viewers remembered the episode, and many discussed the issues with an adult. As the analysts behind Use of Mass Media Campaigns to Change Health Behavior showed, media campaigns typically have only moderate or less evidence of benefits to the public. However, PSAs within television programs could use celebrities, humor and personal stories (of the characters viewers are invested in) to promote healthy behavior much better than statistic-spouting, over-acted commercial PSAs.