Sunday, November 2, 2014

Coding for Gratitude

So my group in my media class is coding children's TV programs for gratitude, seeing how many times these characters say a simple "thank you" or how many times they show non-verbally or physically signs of gratitude toward another. And in all honesty, I thought that one of the only programs that would have significant results would be Arthur the aardvark, or other PBS series; nevertheless, I've been proven wrong while coding for Cartoon Network and have found at least one sign of gratitude (and mostly verbal thank you's) nearly every 15 minutes of time.
Now I'm not saying this proves anything enriching about television viewing, no not ever, but I am saying that after coding this stuff I don't feel as offended toward such silly shows like Uncle Grandpa or Adventure Time. The shows are still in need of something more wholesome inplot and style like most PBS programming, and all TV should have some kind of co-viewing between children and parents - I'm just saying now I don't feel as bad for my nieces and nephews, nor my future children as I did previously. I don't think these signs of gratitude are on purpose, or given with any deep abiding focus of teaching children something ethically valuable, I only feel that programming hasn't completely gone to pots. Where there is the greatest evil, there will always be the greatest good as well; the wrong shall fail and the right shall always prevail, and that's good to be seeing even in this limited form for children. It's still not all justified though, lol

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