Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

From Knowledge to Efficacy: The Greening of Children’s Television

  • Chapter
  • First Online:
Environmental Communication for Children

  • 211 Accesses

Abstract

This chapter investigates the role children’s television plays in the communication and construction of environmental issues and problems, looking particularly at the building of knowledge and a sense of efficacy through the depiction of pro-environmental behaviour in children’s television programmes. Examining a range of case studies, the chapter investigates the encoding of environmental themes into children’s television, with a particular eye towards the depiction of environmental behaviour in terms of virtue and vice. The chapter also explores how adult conceptualisations of the ‘curious child’ inform the production of children’s environmental television. This adult belief that children are (or should be) curious about nature opens up avenues for the encoding of environmental themes into various genres of children’s television. However, the ‘curious child’ construct can also be constraining for the audience it addresses and for the environmental issues it helps to depict.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
eBook
USD 16.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info
Hardcover Book
USD 109.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • ABC Television. 2021. Play School Early Education Notes—Series Green Team. Play School. Accessed November 12, 2021. https://www.abc.net.au/cm/lb/13368768/data/play-school-green-team-notes-data.pdf.

  • ACMA. 2017. Children’s Television Viewing and Multi-screen Behaviour: Analysis of 2005–16 OzTAM Audience Data and 2017 Survey of Parents, Carers and Guardians. Canberra, Melbourne, and Sydney: Australian Communications and Media Authority.

    Google Scholar 

  • BAFTA Albert. 2019. Subtitles to Save the World: Understanding How the Broadcasting Community is Covering Climate. London: British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

    Google Scholar 

  • BBC. 2021. Climate Heroes: Blue Peter Launches New Environment Challenge. Newsround, April 1. Accessed October 19, 2021. https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/56601717.

  • Bell, Alice. 2014. What Shall We Tell the Children? In Culture and Climate Change: Narratives, ed. Joe Smith, Renata Tyszczuk, and Robert Butler, 37–44. Cambridge, UK: Shed.

    Google Scholar 

  • Benchetrit, Jenna. 2021. As Young People Brace for Climate Change, Kids TV is Going Green. CBC News, November 13. Accessed December 20, 2021. https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/kids-television-going-green-1.6246223.

  • Bonner, Frances. 2003. Ordinary Television: Analyzing Popular TV. London, Thousand Oaks, and New Delhi: SAGE.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Brereton, Pat. 2018. Environmental Literacy and New Digital Audiences. London and New York: Routledge.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Brooker, Emily. 2012. Tune into Kids: How Children, Television Producers and Academics can Further Our Understanding of Children and Their Engagement with Television and the New Digital Technologies. Adelaide: ANZCA Conference.

    Google Scholar 

  • Browning, Sally. 2020. Interviewed by Erin Hawley. Melbourne, Australia, August 21.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buckingham, David. 1995. On the Impossibility of Children’s Television: The Case of Timmy Mallett. In In Front of the Children: Screen Entertainment and Young Audiences, ed. Cary Bazalgette and David Buckingham, 47–61. London: British Film Institute.

    Google Scholar 

  • Buckingham, David, and Margaret Scanlon. 2001. Parental Pedagogies: An Analysis of British “edutainment” Magazines for Young Children. Journal of Early Childhood Literacy 1 (3): 281–299.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chawla, Louise. 2009. Growing up Green: Becoming an Agent of Care for the Natural World. The Journal of Developmental Processes 4 (1): 6–23.

    Google Scholar 

  • Comber, Barbara, Jo-Anne Reid, and Helen Nixon. 2007. Environmental Communications: Pedagogies of Responsibility and Place. In Literacies in Place: Teaching Environmental Communication, ed. Barbara Comber, Helen Nixon, and Jo-Anne Reid, 11–23. Newtown: Primary English Teaching Association.

    Google Scholar 

  • Common Sense Media. n.d. Environmental TV Shows. Accessed November 14, 2021. https://www.commonsensemedia.org/lists/environmental-tv-shows.

  • Coward, Rosalind. 1990. Greening the Child. New Statesman and Society 3 (102): 40–41.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dahlstrom, Michael F., and Dietram A. Scheufele. 2010. Diversity of Television Exposure and its Association with the Cultivation of Concern for Environmental Risks. Environmental Communication 4 (1): 54–65.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Davis, Julie M. 2015. What is Early Childhood Education for Sustainability and Why Does It Matter? In Young Children and the Environment: Early Education for Sustainability, ed. Julie M. Davis, 7–31. Port Melbourne: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Dickson, Jeremy. 2020. What Broadcasters Want from Eco-conscious Content. Kidscreen, January 28. Accessed January 8, 2022. https://kidscreen.com/2020/01/28/what-broadcasters-want-from-eco-conscious-content/.

  • Elliott, Sue, and Julie Davis. 2009. Exploring the Resistance: An Australian Perspective on Educating for Sustainability in Early Childhood. International Journal of Early Childhood 41 (2): 65–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Emerald Films. n.d. Project Planet. Emerald Films. Accessed October 1, 2021. https://emeraldfilms.com.au/production/project-planet/.

  • Fisch, Shalom M. 2003. Children’s Learning from Educational Television: Sesame Street and beyond. Mahwah, NJ: L. Erlbaum Associates.

    Google Scholar 

  • Foster, Laura, and Yaroslav Lukov. 2019. Climate Change: Bafta Calls for More Environment Plot lines on TV. BBC News, May 15. Accessed September 16, 2019. https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-48269930.

  • Gauntlett, David. 2005. Moving Experiences: Media Effects and Beyond. Eastleigh: John Libbey Publishing.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gerbner, George. 1998. Cultivation Analysis: An Overview. Mass Communication and Society 1 (3–4): 175–194.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hartley, Bonny L., Richard C. Thompson, and Sabine Pahl. 2015. Marine Litter Education Boosts Children’s Understanding and Self-reported Actions. Marine Pollution Bulletin 90: 209–217.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hawley, Erin. 2018. Children’s Television, Environmental Pedagogy and the (un) NATURAL world of dirtgirlworld. Continuum 32 (2): 162–172.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Higgins, Chris. 2015. 11 Sesame Street Videos for Earth Day. Mental Floss, April 22. Accessed October 19, 2021. https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/63336/11-sesame-street-videos-earth-day.

  • Hill, Lisa. 2009. Play School keeps it Real. Media International Australia 132: 67–77.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hill, Jennifer Ann. 2011. Endangered Childhoods: How Consumerism is Impacting Child and Youth Identity. Media, Culture & Society 33 (3): 347–362.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kapur, Jyotsna. 2005. Coining for Capital: Movies, Marketing, and the Transformation of Childhood. New Brunswick, New Jersey, and London: Rutgers University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Keliher, Vicki. 1997. Children’s Perceptions of Nature. International Research in Geographical and Environmental Education 6 (3): 240–243.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kellstedt, Paul M., Sammy Zahran, and Arnold Vedlitz. 2008. Personal Efficacy, the Information Environment, and Attitudes Toward Global Warming and Climate Change in the United States. Risk Analysis: An International Journal 28 (1): 113–126.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • King, Donna Lee. 1994. Captain Planet and the Planeteers: Kids, Environmental Crisis, and Competing Narratives of the New World Order. The Sociological Quarterly 35 (1): 103–120.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kos, Marjanca, Janez Jerman, Urška Anžlovar, and Gregor Torkar. 2016. Preschool Children’s Understanding of Pro-environmental Behaviours: Is It Too Hard for Them? International Journal of Environmental and Science Education 11 (12): 5554–5572.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lemish, Dafna, and Colleen Russo Johnson. 2019. The Landscape of Children’s Television in the US and Canada. Los Angeles: Center for Scholars and Storytellers, UCLA.

    Google Scholar 

  • Lotz, Amanda D., and Jonathan Gray. 2012. Television Studies. Cambridge, UK and Malden, USA: Polity.

    Google Scholar 

  • Louv, Richard. 2010. Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder. London: Atlantic Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • McAllister, Matthew P., and J. Matt Giglio. 2005. The Commodity Flow of US Children’s Television. Critical Studies in Media Communication 22 (1): 26–44.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McQuillen, Cate, and Hewey Eustace. 2010. Mememe Productions. Accessed July 26, 2019. https://www.mememe.com.au.

  • Mittell, Jason. 2015. Complex TV: The Poetics of Contemporary Television Storytelling. New York and London: New York University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Moyer, Melinda Wenner. 2017. ‘Kids’ TV is Ignoring Climate Change. Slate, February 6. Accessed October 15, 2021. https://slate.com/technology/2017/02/science-tv-shows-for-kids-on-nickelodeon-disney-and-pbs-ignore-climate-change.html.

  • Ofcom. 2021. Children and Parents: Media Use and Attitudes Report 2020/21. London: Office of Communications London.

    Google Scholar 

  • Parham, John. 2016. Green Media and Popular Culture. London and New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • PBS. n.d. About Wild Kratts. Accessed October 23, 2021. https://www.pbs.org/parents/shows/wild-kratts/about/.

  • Plevin, Arlene. 2004. Still Putting Out “fires”: Ranger Rick and Animal/Human Stewardship. In Wild Things: Children’s Culture and Ecocriticism, ed. Sidney I. Dobrin and Kenneth B. Kidd, 168–182. Detroit: Wayne State University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Potter, Anna. 2015. Creativity, Culture and Commerce: Producing Australian Children’s Television with Public Value. Bristol and Chicago: Intellect Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Richert, Rebekah A., Michael B. Robb, and Erin I. Smith. 2011. Media as Social Partners: The Social Nature of Young Children’s Learning from Screen Media. Child Development 82 (1): 82–95.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rose, Jacqueline. 1984. The Case of Peter Pan: The Impossibility of Children’s Fiction. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Samuelsson, Ingrid Pramling, and Yoshie Kaga. 2008. Introduction. In The Contribution of Early Childhood Education to a Sustainable Society, ed. Ingrid Pramling Samuelsson and Yoshie Kaga, 9–17. Paris: United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

    Google Scholar 

  • Sandler, Ronald L. 2013. Environmental Virtue Ethics. In The International Encyclopedia of Ethics, ed. Hugh LaFollette. Hoboken: Wiley–Blackwell. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444367072.wbiee090.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Sesame Workshop. 2009. My World is Green and Growing: Nature Explorer’s Journal. New York: Sesame Workshop and PNC Grow Up Great.

    Google Scholar 

  • ———. 2021a. Celebrate Earth Day with Sesame Street Books, Videos, and More. Sesame Workshop, April 13. Accessed October 19, 2021. https://www.sesameworkshop.org/press-room/press-releases/celebrate-earth-day-sesame-street-books-videos-and-more.

  • ———. 2021b. Sesame Workshop and SC Johnson Launch New Resources that Foster Children’s Curiosity and a Love of Science. Sesame Workshop, May 24. Accessed October 3, 2021. https://www.sesameworkshop.org/press-room/press-releases/sesame-workshop-and-sc-johnson-launch-new-resources-foster-childrens.

  • Shanahan, James, Michael Morgan, and Mads Stenbjerre. 1997. Green or brown? Television and the Cultivation of Environmental Concern. Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media 41 (3): 305–323.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Simis, Molly J., Haley Madden, Michael A. Cacciatore, and Sara K. Yeo. 2016. The Lure of Rationality: Why Does the Deficit Model Persist in Science Communication? Public Understanding of Science 25 (4): 400–414.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Whyte, Alexandra. 2017. Is TV Really Sheltering Kids from Climate Change? Kidscreen, March 13. Accessed January 8, 2022. https://kidscreen.com/2017/03/13/is-tv-really-sheltering-kids-from-climate-change/.

  • Wild Kratts. n.d. The Kratt Brothers Creature Hero Foundation. Accessed December 23, 2021. https://www.wildkratts.com/creature-hero-foundation/.

  • Winograd, Ken. 2016. Teaching in Times of Environmental Crises: What on Earth are Elementary Teachers To Do? In Education in Times of Environmental Crises: Teaching Children to Be Agents of Change, ed. Ken Winograd, 3–13. London: Routledge.

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Deakin University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Erin Hawley

Authors
  1. Erin Hawley
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Erin Hawley .

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG

About this chapter

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this chapter

Hawley, E. (2022). From Knowledge to Efficacy: The Greening of Children’s Television. In: Environmental Communication for Children. Palgrave Studies in Media and Environmental Communication. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-04691-9_4

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation