Rachel's Media Criticism Blog Posts

  Inspired by his nephew scrolling through pointless videos on YouTube, Stevin John had created an internet personality for his nephew to watch online. This of which has transformed into one of the most well known YouTube vlogs for kids, named Blippi. On this channel, Blippi goes on adventures and does activities that young children can follow through his videos and learn from experience.  The parasocial relationship between Blippi and viewers are not much different from Dora , or Blues Clues And You . Blippi is oftentimes asking children to do the activity he is doing with him, act like the animal he is learning about, or even asking them how to spell out his name. All of which he waits for them to answer the question or do the action before he himself does it. Blippi is also known for his positive attitude, his acts of kindness by sharing, recognizing how he feels and how his actions sometimes make people feel, and how to cope with situations as such. He also creates a po...

  Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhoo d is a television show on PBS, based off of Mister Rogers Neighborhood. The show utilizes observational viewing, in which Daniel Tiger provides children ages 2-6 an example of how to deal with day-to-day situations that help them develop their social and emotional skills. With the show’s popularity, one would think that reviews on Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood would be all the rage from parents and children. But to my surprise, I have found otherwise. In reviews on commonsensemedia.org , many parents and children have a bone to pick with popular Daniel Tiger.  In many of the parents reviews, it mentions that Daniel Tiger “never wears pants,” is a “spoiled brat”, or “too whiny.” While reviews written by children, mostly older siblings the age of 13, write that although the show is amusing and has some positive effects of teaching children how to deal with certain emotions in certain situations, it is absolutely nothing like Mister Rogers Neighborh...

  The series, Daniel Tiger’s Neighborhood, is a series based off Mister Rogers Neighborhood, where young Daniel Tiger invites young preschoolers ages 2-6 to go about their day with him helping them develop social and emotional skills. Through observational viewing, young viewers and their parents get invited to the neighborhood of Make Believe, where they get to go on Adventures with Daniel, experiencing day to day situations and encounters much like how they do everyday as well. These day-to-day experiences include conflict with friends, experiencing something new, or learning how to cope with certain emotions. By watching Daniel and friends lead by example, the show’s success is mainly based off of viewers following after his example after watching the show.  In a quantitative research done by Texas Tech University , it is said that “127 preschoolers and one of each of their parents in our study. Over a two-week period, we had some of the kids watch Daniel Tiger’s Neighbor...

Sesame Street is a timeless classic children’s television series which debuted in 1969.It is a show that has been watched by generations of children, whom of which are now mostly parents and maybe even grandparents. After 50 years, it seems as if the popular children’s television show has done nothing but evolve, much like the world around us.  When thinking about the first episode, we think about how characters were first introduced, the curriculum behind it, and how differently presented the show was. Not much like other shows during this time, Sesame Street opened the show up with Gordon showing his niece or daughter around Sesame Street and introducing her to those who lived on Sesame Street . It is known that the show is known for its hidden curriculums. The show provides different commercial-like segments to indicate certain moral concerns made by parents that educate children about things such as numbers, letters, different animals, how things such as liquids move up and...

  Roblox is a free online gaming platform open to all ages . Being prominent with younger grade school aged children, Roblox is much like everything one would have wanted during the Club Penguin era and more. Users have the choice of joining an unlimited number of free games, realms, and “obbys” to interact and play with other users on one simple platform. With Roblox being a growing gaming platform for a whole new generation and industry, it must be regulated as carefully as possible. Although this popular gaming site and app has many benefits for users, the growing popularity has only raised concern for parents, especially with how open the platform is. With users as young as the age of 4 utilizing this platform, without the proper supervision, there is a risk of many things a child could run into. These problems include the access to inappropriate games for preschoolers that include violence, guns, and killing. There is also a risk for a child to be in contact with someone that ...