Animated cartoon: A pedagogy for the reinforcement of a particular world view in child viewers

The purpose of the study is to examine the ramifications of television programming as it applies to animated cartoon heroes as a vehicle in the perpetuation of a particular world view. Specifically, the study examines the degree of significance in the relationship between African American child viewers and an African American hero, and the relationship between African American child viewers and a European American hero as it relates to literature on children and television. The study includes African American children from two Western Massachusetts school systems. The participants were selected on the basis of: (1) being African American; (2) interest in the study; and (3) being between the ages of 8 and 13 years. The method used for collecting the data was a Likert Attitude Scale designed specifically for the study. Participants were shown two posters and were asked to make selections on the Likert Scale based on their observations. Frequency distributions were used to analyze the findings. Conclusions drawn from the study were (1) rejection of the null hypothesis in the area of a significant relationship between African American child viewers and a European American hero; and (2) acceptance of the null hypothesis in the area of a significant relationship between African American child viewers and an African American hero