Media Macaroni

I recently attended a panel presented by Women in Children’s Media, The Youngest Viewers: Infants and Television. The panel consisted of TV creators and researchers:

• Christine M. Ferraro, writer of Sesame Street Beginnings
• Stephen Gass, president of every baby company, which produces eebee’s adventures
• Deborah L. Linebarger, Ph.D., director of the Children and Media Lab at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania
• Sarah Roseberry, working on dissertation in developmental psychology at Temple University and researching issues of early language acquisition with Dr. Kathy Hirsh-Pasek.

This panel wasn’t really set up to be a debate on babies and television, as there wasn’t any strong anti-TV voice. Obviously, the two creators of baby TV are for it. More interestingly, the two researchers were looking at media usage more from the angle of how it can help, not hurt, baby development. Sarah’s research is about using media for language learning, particularly verbs. I had no idea that verbs were so difficult for kids to learn, but it makes sense. We do so much labeling of things for babies, that we leave out the actions. And yes, I’m now verb-obsessed with Ozzie. Deborah also looks at the use of high-quality media as a learning tool starting at 6 months of age, with positive results.

When Olive was born, Baby Einstein and its knock-offs had fully saturated the marketplace. Toy Fair was all Baby! Baby! Baby! that year, and parents on my listserv were making constant exchanges of second-hand make-your-baby-smarter DVDs. I watched a Baby Einstein DVD before Olive was born to see what all the fuss was about. I wanted to rip my eyes out of my head. The production value was poor, and the images brain-numbing. There clearly wasn’t anything more to it than “Look, baby! Shiny!” much like jangling a set of keys. (Of course, we now know that Disney was forced to pay up for this parent hoax.)

The researchers pointed out that many different things can be put on TV and hold a baby’s interest, but all engagement is not equal. As Deborah put it, “Babies will attend to pretty images, but they won’t be learning from it.” The problem with Baby Einstein is that all of the images are out of human context and it’s chocked-full of cuts. Babies respond most positively to human images, and they don’t understand cuts. On eebee’s adventures, they’re always conscious to show the full puppet or person – you can’t cut to a close up of hands and have a baby understand it.

Both eebee’s and Sesame Beginnings also show parent interactions with babies, relying on a co-viewing audience. The thought is that parents should be watching with their babies, and that they parents can learn how to interact with their babies from the modeling happening in the show. Stephen said that parents reported changing their behavior after watching eebee’s, something that wouldn’t likely happen from watching Baby Einstein.

It seems important to continue to demonize Baby Einstein to contrast it against “higher quality” media being made for babies. I’ll admit that when I saw clips of eebee’s and Sesame Beginnings, both looked very cute. I even cooed over baby Elmo, and I’m far from being an Elmo fan despite his crack-like effect on children. I’m still not in a rush to park Ozzie in front of the TV (though clearly the iPad is not an issue for me…) With Olive, I tried to follow the American Academy of Pediatrics’ guideline suggesting no TV until age 2. I caved at around 18 months, though, when a pilot of a little show called Yo Gabba Gabba was circulating around town. I believed in co-viewing with my kid, and here was a show I wanted to co-view.

The panel said that only 6% of parents know about the AAP guidelines on television use, and those parents that do are often frustrated by them. They’re damned if they let their kids watch TV, and damned (by marketing messages) if they don’t. And what about those who just want to grab a shower and could care less about co-viewing? A fabulous books that probes the AAP guideline as well as some of the research around the affects of screen time on children is Lisa Guernsey’s Into the Minds of Babes.

A huge problem with the research done on television and young children is that most of it is hugely flawed, yet all of it has the ability to produce attention-grabbing headlines. Very often, the research merely shows correlation without proving causation. Other factors are not taken into account. Deborah gave the example with studies “showing” that TV causes ADHD, when there is a correlation of high TV usage in kids with ADHD. Does it really cause ADHD, or do these kids watch more TV because when doing so they will sit still and give their parents a break? Just this week a study from Iowa State University is getting headlines showing that video games decrease attention spans, but it didn’t rule out other factors in the home. (This article pokes some good holes.)

Now that I’ve totally digressed, I’d say the bottom line is always to do what feels right to you and your kids. If you read all research with a careful eye, and listen to marketing messages with healthy does of skepticism, you’ll be just fine. And, by all means, grab a shower without beating yourself up about it. And Ozzie can watch TV when he’s ready for Yo Gabba Gabba.

Today my sweet little girl turns 5, marking the year she’ll be off to Kindergarten. Last year I started a new tradition, interviewing her about her favorite things on her birthday. Though she still likes some of last year’s favorites, it’s interesting to see what’s changed.

Favorite TV Show?

“Superfriends because it’s funny and all the monsters look weird.”

I created a monster when I introduced her to Superfriends. I don’t know if I can watch the Hydronoids episode one more time. This year also marked the obsession with Dinosaur Train and a love of Phineas and Ferb.

Favorite Website?

“Dinosaur Train because there’s a new game and that game is really fun. The one where you get to learn about dinosaurs, it doesn’t only have dinosaurs. It has frogs, turtles, and birds (because birds ARE dinosaurs). One of them has a dinosaur footprint pattern and I like making patterns.”

I just saw that the Dinosaur Train website won a nice award this week at Prix Jeunesse, a children’s TV festival in Germany. It’s good times from DT fans.

Favorite Toy?

“Bat girl because she is the toy I like to play with and the games I play with her are really funny.”

Hmm. Your guess is as good as mine on this one. 5-year-olds are weird.

Favorite Movie?

“Shrek because it’s funny and Shrek makes candles out of ear wax. I like all the Shreks, but I like Shrek 4 the best. My other favorite is Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs because of the spaghetti tornado and the talking monkey.”

OK, I may have prompted her here after she answered Shrek, which is our most recent movie adventure. But it’s Cloudy that’s been watched no fewer than 50 times this year, with no end in sight.

Favorite Book?

“Shrek because the princess is so ugly!”

I can’t argue with this one.

Favorite Music?

“Recess Monkey because I like the space elevator one because it has a little talky part at the beginning and it’s funny.”

The Final Funktier is played every night before going to bed. Funny, they were her favorite band last year, too.

Favorite App?

“The dinosaur game because I like making puzzles and it’s match-up puzzle dinosaurs.”

She’d talking about a great little sliding puzzle called DinoMixer.

Favorite Museum?

“The helicopter museum because I like the color green and the helicopter in it is big and green. And it has a carousel with funny creatures in it, and I like watching the creatures go around.”

MOMA takes this category the second year in a row (named the “Helicopter Museum” for the helicopter hanging in the lobby). The carousel Olive’s talking about was part of this year’s mega show, the Tim Burton exhibit.

Favorite video game?

“Mario. I like the racing one because I sometimes win.”

She’s slowly entering into the world of Mario, with Mario Kart and Super Mario. Hooray!

I can’t wait to see what the next year brings! Happy Birthday, Olive!

I only watch TV nowadays through my DVR, so I tend to miss major TV events, like the recent BBC/Discovery Channel airing of Life, the new nature documentary from the creators of Planet Earth. Fortunately, I was recently provided a copy of Life, now on DVD.

When I think about watching a nature documentary, I think about walking into 7th Grade science class and groaning to see the projector set up, ready to be bored for the next hour. Or I think about nature clips showing in the electronics store, doing little more than showing off the picture quality of the new HD TVs. Life, however, is riveting television, bringing you up close and personal with some of the most fascinating and oddest living things on earth. Now, it’s easy to make primates interesting. You can pretty much turn the camera on a group of chimps and have interesting television. But Life makes everything from insects to plants interesting, telling stories of their life and survival.

The Life website has some of our favorite animals from the series online, including these Japanese Mud Skippers from the Fish episode. This clip doesn’t show the coolest part of the way they dig their holes, coming up to the surface and coughing up mud pellets, but here you can see their bizarro mating ritual. Jumping fish gave Olive the giggles.

Ask Olive her favorite part of the series, and she’ll tell you all about the Bombadier beetle, with the power to spray ants. I have to admit, it is pretty cool.

Oh, yeah, that’s Oprah narrating. I didn’t love her narration (wait, am I going to get struck by lightning or something for saying that?). The UK version is narrated by Sir David Attenborough, and I’m wondering if I’d like that better. There’s also a music only viewing option. When I suggest that to Olive she said, “but then how will we learn?!” Good point, kid.

I’m ready to embed all of the clips here because they’re just so cool. While watching, I was marveling not just at the animals and their behaviors, but also the ability for the filmmakers to capture such amazing things on camera. With 3,000 days of filming and a mix of new technology, including the Heli-Gimbal aerial zoom, extreme high-speed photography, low light photography and underwater time-lapse sequences, Life is as much about filmmaking as it is about animals. I watched some sequences with my mouth hanging open in amazement and disbelief. There’s a great documentary on the DVD about the making of Life. I would have loved to watch a making-of video as long as the documentary itself, because there was no footage where I didn’t wonder about how they were able to get it. With the Inside Look clips on the website, you can get a taste of this. In the Creatures of the Deep episode, they drilled through 8 feet of Antarctic ice to film the underwater creatures.

Life is one of those rare good-for-the-whole-family shows, which Olive and I enjoyed equally well. Life comes out today on DVD and Blu-ray and it’s definitely worth owning.

Today I’m happy to welcome Melissa Sarno of the blog This Too… to Media Macaroni. Melissa is a fiction writer who is also a colleague in children’s media. This post brings to light all of the things I’ve been thinking about of late as a mom to a brand new baby boy.

I must admit that, as a woman, I am partial to stories with strong female characters. When it’s time for me to pick up a book or watch a film, I will almost always choose something with a female lead, and I crave media that features a woman’s story; anything that shatters gender stereotypes, that shows a woman’s struggle, or that screams what it means to be a woman yesterday, today, and tomorrow. Since my job also involves writing and producing content for young girls, this is also top priority as I create content. I try to make sure that girl characters are well-rounded, that they don’t fit neatly into stereotypes, or that they don’t shout and drone on about being pretty princesses too much. I have commiserated with Media Macaroni, wondering why there are not enough female characters in Pixar films. And I shake my head when I hear things like: J.K. Rowling had to use her initials as an author or that she had to write about a Harry instead of a Harriet because she was afraid of losing the boy market if she didn’t.

So when I read this article in the Los Angeles Times about the tween market blatantly targeting girls, I was thrown for a loop. The article points out that with Hannah Montana, iCarly, the Jonas Brothers, and High School Musical taking over the airwaves, the boys are feeling a bit left out. And while many of these shows do have equal viewership amongst tween girls and boys, there’s a concern that these shows, so obviously skewed towards girls, only “show boys the way that girls want to see them.”

I also started to think about the stacks in the bookstore, full of young adult literature for and about young girls. But of course, the publishing houses would all argue, girls are the ones reading. They are the ones buying books. I have to tell you, trends like these are scary. If boys are not buying books, they’re less likely to see male characters on the shelves which perpetuates the cycle. And if they’re not seeing realistic role models on television, where to turn? I will admit, as I study media, I very rarely think about how its affecting young boys. I’ve been thinking that girls are somehow mis-represented in the media. Or that they simply aren’t represented enough. And I’ve been so worried whether or not every young girl is going to turn to anorexia by playing with fashion dolls or struggle with self esteem while looking at magazine covers, that I’ve neglected 50% of the population. It’s something I am going to pay a lot more attention to now.

It’s hard to describe why I feel so proud of this, but Olive is totally hooked on old episodes of Superfriends that we’ve been renting from Netflix. She, of course, knew about Batman and Superman from her friends at school, but now she’s coming around to my favorites, Wonder Woman and Aquaman.

She keeps asking me about the origin stories of these superheroes, making me realize that she might be ready to dive into the world of comic books. She and I can discover them together. I mean, does anyone out there know how the Wonder Twins got their powers? And why such a lame power as turning into a water-based item? And why a space monkey?

Anyway, it’s a delight to watch these shows with Olive. They’re such a good primer into the world of superheroes, just right for her age. These are wonderfully non-violent, and the dialog over-explains everything that happens. Inexplicably, the action will break and Superman will show a craft project, or Wonder Woman will demonstrate a magic trick. Hilarious. These seem just right for her before entering the world of Ben 10, Teen Titans or Clone Wars.

Oh, and speaking of super powers, I’m off to have a baby. (Yes, I did just equate my reproductive capabilities with the ability to fly or talk to fish. So there.) Have no fear, though, I’ve got some great guest bloggers lined up for your enjoyment.

Today I attended the Nickelodeon upfront, and let me tell you, they put on quite a show for nine in the morning. I was hoping to get some D.J. Lance action, but no, Nickelodeon’s already captured the hearts and minds of preschoolers. Now they’re after your tweens in a big way.

One of the big plugs was for their new show, Big Time Rush, and we were treated to a live performance of this boy-band in the making (look out, Jonas). The premise of the show is an awful lot like Entourage for kids. Four friends from Minnesota follow the big rising star among them to California where they get to live the big life of recording stars.

The most engaging pitch was from M. Night Shyamalan, who’s never been one of my favorite directors (I mean, did you see The Village?) But his enthusiasm for the upcoming The Last AirBender was infectious. He told the story of how his family has become disgusted with him for turning down films in franchises like Harry Potter and Spiderman. Then his daughter introduced him to the Nickelodeon show Avatar (no affiliation to the James Cameron blockbuster), and he pitched it as a movie to Paramount, thrilling his family.

I haven’t seen Avatar, but now I’m curious to check it out. The movie certainly looks entertaining, and they’re not messing around with the production values on this movie. The movie will be released on July 4th weekend, and here’s the latest trailer.

The rest of the performer parade continue the tween push, with Miranda Cosgrove from iCarly, and Victoria Justice, formerly of Zoey 101, starring in a show called Victorious set in a performing arts high school. Other potentially interesting new shows were but a blip in the presentation, but I’ll have my eye out for these:

• House of Anubis – a live-action mystery series set in an English boarding school.
• Kung Fu Panda – it was a genius move to take the gorgeous animation of Madagascar and make it into a very funny TV series. Nickelodeon is hoping to repeat that magic with Kung Fu Panda.
• Planet Sheen – in case you’ve been waiting for a Jimmy Neutron spin-off.
• T.U.F.F. Puppy – a dog named Dudley Puppy joins the Turbo Undercover Fighting Force (T.U.F.F.) to protect the town from D.O.O.M. (Diabolical Order of Mayhem).
• Bubble Guppies – this is being billed as “a new interactive, animated variety show for preschoolers”, and I’m guessing that the inclusion of the word ‘interactive’ means it will follow suit with recent shows like Team Umizoomi, continuing to bank on the Blues Clues model of television.
• Dino Dan – sounds like Nick Jr. wants to give Dinosaur Train a run for its money with this dinosaur show, mixing live action with CGI to create a modern world filled with dinosaurs.

I’m happy to be raising a little science girl, and I’ve previously talked about PBS playing a large role in that development. Now, PBS has a show for older science girls, aptly named SciGirls. Geared for ages 8-12, each show features the scientific discoveries of real life girls in the topics of science, technology, engineering and math. (If you’ve ever heard the term STEM, this is it.)

What’s remarkable about the show is that these aren’t just girls doing a project at school. The experiments are tied to the day-to-day need for science, and the girls are given access to experts, materials, and wildlife that make science seem extraordinary.

One of the most interesting episodes so far as been about the self-awareness of animals, using dolphins as a test subject. The goal was to see if dolphins could recognize themselves in a mirror. Apparently elephants can, as shown in footage on the show. Two girls recorded dolphin behavior in an ethogram, setting up different experiments and a control test. They even got to swim with the dolphins. I asked Olive if she could ever imagine swimming with dolphins and her reply was, “Phineas and Ferb swim with dolphins.” I said, “Yes, but they’re cartoons, and these are real girls. This is something you could actually do.” And I think that’s the magic in the show. Girls: this is all possible.

Some of the episodes have the girls working in groups of four, like an episode where girls work with mechanical engineers to build an animatronic May Day parade float. This is when you get into the interesting dynamics of what a group of four 8-12-year-old girls is like. The conflict and resolution is almost a science unto itself.

Each show is bookended with two characters, Izzie and Jack. Izzie asks Jack for help with a problem, and when he can’t help her she turns to the SciGirls for help. I understand the need for the bookends to unify the episodes, but honestly, this is my least favorite part of the show. Izzie always seems helpless, and Jack is a bit of a doofus. He also highlights how boys are left out of the equation completely, which, while the point of the show, is starting to get under my skin now that I’m going to be mom to a little boy. It’s a conundrum.

There’s also a great website that promotes some pretty cool science projects, and allows all the SciGirls out there to upload their own. As a kid, I remember not having any interesting ideas come science fair time (my lab partner gets all the credit for our hydroponics entry). It was always like, “Hmmm, I wonder what will happen to this plant if I pour Coke on it.” This site is a great resource for ideas that are both interesting and accessible.

SciGirls is great for science girls, both in the 8-12 range and for the younger ones alike. Because of their interesting topics, Olive stays focused through each episode. Go SciGirls!

I was surprised not to see more at Toy Fair surrounding cooking with kids. There were just a small handful of products, and most of what I saw was for making sweets like cupcakes and cookies. I’ve mentioned here before how much I enjoy cooking with Olive, for it’s in those moments she’ll try just about anything. She even ate kale while making soup with me.

Teaching our kids about food is the subject of Jamie Oliver’s TED talk, winner of the $100,000 TED Prize. If you haven’t seen this video, it’s seriously worth watching.

I love Jamie Oliver, and not just because of his accent and delicious recipes. He’s truly dedicated his work to making kids (and adults) healthier. His new show, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, will debut March 26 on ABC where he will challenge the way America eats. I’m looking forward to it.

My husband just sent me this clip from the Japanese kids’ show Pitagora Suicchi. I’m in love with this and now want to watch this show all the time. Where else can you get a combination of Rube Goldberg devices, experiments in static electricity, and fighting stick figures?

Algorithm Exercise practice is finished!

[via Stork Bites Man]

Ever sit and watch Super Why! and think, “This is nice, but why can’t it be about math instead of reading?” Never fear, Team Umizoomi is here! Premiering tomorrow on Nickelodeon, this animated show aims to get preschoolers excited about the math that’s all around them.

Like Super Why!, Team Umizoomi is made by Blues Clues alum, and has the trademark talk-to-the-viewer approach (though, I confess, I’ve yet to see this work as well as it did in Blues Clues). Like Super Why!, each of the characters represents a different skill. Milli is the pattern and measurement girl. Her brother Geo builds things with shapes. Bot, the robot, has a bellyscreen that can show math information and happenings around the city.

Team Umizoomi mixes live action in with the animation. In the premiere episode, a live girl appears on the Bot’s bellyscreen to say she’s lost her dragon kite for the kite festival. The team finds the lost kite shapes around the city to rebuild the her kite. I like that the show incorporates the math-is-all-around-us approach, making math more accessible. Like Super Why!, though, the show is so beholden to its curriculum that it keeps the characters from having genuine interactions with one another and the viewer. But hey, if your kids like Blue, Dora, Wonder Pets, and/or Super Why! (and I’m guessing they do), they’re very likely to like Team Umizoomi, too, and they’ll learn some math along the way.

A new web-only premiere on PBS Kids Go! is Wilson & Ditch: Digging America, the latest effort by the Henson Company. Given that Henson has totally captured my daughter’s attention with Sid the Science Kid and especially with Dinosaur Train, when they’ve got something new in the works, I take note. I met with PBS Kids back in November, and they told me that Wilson & Ditch is a pet project for Brian Henson, who does puppeteering and voice work in the series.

Wilson & Ditch are gophers and brothers, traveling all across the country. Videos show them visiting and talking about major landmarks, as though you’re on vacation right along with them. Wilson has a blog about their travels, and Ditch writes comic strips. This is a fun way, short of making the travels themselves, for kids to learn geography, social studies, and American history.

As a parent, as the site becomes more populated with travel videos, I can see using this site to get Olive excited about visiting new places. If we were traveling to Philadelphia, for example, I’d show her Wilson & Ditch visiting the landmarks to fuel interest for the trip. I also appreciate such a large internet-only effort, where too-small-for-TV topics get their day in the spotlight.

Related Posts:

• Ready to Learn? Turn on the TV
• The Tall Order of Super Why!
• Dinosaur Poop
• PBS Kids Premieres: Sid the Science Kid and Martha Speaks