Onderzoeksartikel

In hoeverre herkennen jonge kinderen de etniciteit van personages op televisie?: een interviewonderzoek over personages uit Sesamstraat

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Abstract

It is often argued that television can have a positive effect on the attitudes that children have towards ethnic minority groups on the one hand and on minority children’s self-esteem on the other hand. However, the research that has been done on this subject does not provide strong support for these arguments. A possible reason for the ambiguous results is that previous research simply assumed that children would (a) recognise ethnicity and (b) base their appreciation for television characters on their ethnicity. These two assumptions are investigated in the present study. Seventy five children (4 to 7 years) from various ethnic groups were interviewed about three pairs of characters from the Dutch version of Sesame Street. Children’s recognition of the characters’ ethnicity seemed to depend on two characteristics: skin colour and ethnic context of their appearance in the programme. A darker skin and a more ethnic context concurred with more recognition of ethnicity. However, the great majority of the children did not base their appreciation for the characters on their ethnicity, but on clothes or behaviour.

How to Cite:

Smit, M. & Beentjes, H., (2003) “In hoeverre herkennen jonge kinderen de etniciteit van personages op televisie?: een interviewonderzoek over personages uit Sesamstraat”, Tijdschrift voor Communicatiewetenschap 31(2), 99–114.