Follow That Bird!A Rhetorical Analysis of Sesame Street

Created by Children’s Television Workshop (CTW) in 1969 Preschool Audience Low-Income Families Focus on Curriculum Based Skills Taught Social Skills and Displayed Interactions!Cultural Education!Multiculturalism

Why was Sesame Street Created?

Cognitive Revolution Active Participants vs. Slaves to Stimuli President Johnson’s “War on Poverty” Project Head Start Government funding

Kairos Then:Education & Television in the 1960’s

No Eurocentric Majority Clips set in other cultures Bilingual Puppets 20 Countries Produce the show locally

Live casts, Reflection of Culture

Needs Sensitive Muppets Takalani Sesame Empowerment of Female Muppets

Cultural Understanding Disabilities

Kairos Today:Globalization & Multiculturalism

1 2 3

Passionate

Quick to Anger

Highly Resentful

Believe in Human Goodness

Trusting/Easily Deceived

Impulsive/No Calculation

Injure Through Insolence

Fond of Friends

Audience:Youth According to Aristotle

Cognitive Development vs. Social or Emotional Focus on Mental Skills

Montessori Method Sensory and Motor Development

“Hands-On” Experience

Logos:Cognitive & Montessori

Video

Invented: Situated:40 Years

(1969-2008)Broadcasted on PBS (Public Television)Time Slot

Ethos:Invented vs. Situated

CharactersInnovative TelevisionEducational Intentions

Teaches Children how to Deal with Change

Depicts Everyday Activities

Different Cultural Styles of Music

Commonplaces

Video

Pathos

Excites: Passions Feelings Sympathies

Through:MusicAudience InvolvementHonorific & Pejorative Language

The Emotional Nature of the Audience

Tallest Character on the showYellow Body, Orange Legs, Red MouthSlow, Gentle Movements

Big Bird

Visual Rhetoric

Widest CharacterGoogly EyesDeep, Growly VoiceSimplistic Diction

Cookie Monster

Visual Rhetoric

3 1/2 Years OldSmallest Character on ShowHyperactive Movements

Elmo

Visual Rhetoric

Lives in a Garbage CanDirty Green FurRough Singing Voice

Oscar the Grouch

Visual Rhetoric

Works Cited

Shalom M. Fisch, Lewis Bernstein, "Formative Research Revealed: Methodological and Process Issues in Formative Research". In Shalom M. Fisch, Rosemarie T. Truglio (eds.), "G" is for "Growing": Thirty Years of Research on Children and Sesame Street. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2000. ISBN 0805833943. Pp 39–40.

Fisch, Shalom M., Rosemarie T. Truglio, and Charlotte F. Cole. "The Impact of Sesame Street on Preschool Children: A Review and Synthesis of 30 Years' Research." Media Psychology 1999: 165-90.

Hendershot, Heather, “Sesame Street: Cognition and Communications Imperialism.” Kid’s Media Culture. Ed. Marsha Kinder. Duke University Press, 1999. 139-176.

Hey, Damian Ward. “Sesame Workshop’s Fight Against AIDs in South Africa.” Television Quarterly. 33:4 (Spr 2003): 54-61. 16 Oct. 2008 <http://www.emmyonline.org/national/default.asp>

Kraidy, Ute Sartorius, “Sunny Days on Sesame Street? Multiculturalism and Postmodernism.” Journal of Communication Inquiry. 26:1 (Jan 2002): 9-25. SAGE. Elmhurst College Lib., Elmhurst. 16 Oct. 2008 <http://jci.sagepub.com/>

Shyles, Leonard. The Art of Video Production. Los Angeles: Sage Publications. 2007.