ACT Unveils Results of Canadian Kids’ Programming Study

TORONTO: The Alliance for Children and Television (ACT) has announced key findings from the first phase of a national study on Canadian children’s and youth programming, presented as a highlight of today’s Children, Youth & Media Conference.

The study surveyed more than 1,000 hours of children’s programming over a week-long period from a sample of 19 different broadcasters across Canada, among them Discovery Kids, Family Channel, Knowledge, TELETOON, YTV and TVO. A representative sample of nearly 200 hours were then analyzed.

Among key findings, the main characters’ emotional well-being was assessed for the first time. The main characters analyzed exhibited relatively strong positive feelings (the average was 5.71 on a 7-point scale), meaning they rated highly in terms of being good, pleasant, interested, happy, contented, loving and joyful.

The relationship between program theme and target audience was also found to be statistically significant. Within preschool programming, the most dominant themes were social relationships and learning, 43 percent and 31 percent, respectively. Within programs targeted at children 6 to 12, the most dominant program theme was social relationships (28 percent), followed by adventure (24 percent), learning (17 percent), fighting and violence (11 percent), play/games (9 percent) and environmentalism (2 percent).

Relating to the country of origin, Canadian productions scored the highest percentage of “understanding of Canada” (14 percent). Canadian productions were also highest in terms of “stimulating reflection, creativity, and interactivity with the viewer” (47 percent). Both Canadian co-productions and U.S.-Canadian co-ventures showed high percentages in terms of “encouraging positive social values” (85 percent and 78 percent, respectively).

Characters were also found to be regularly involved in ecological practices and cultural activities. For characters’ ecological practices (recycling, energy conservation), these examples were seen more in Canadian productions (11 percent) and U.S.-Canadian co-ventures (9 percent). Characters who engaged in cultural production activities were seen most in Canadian productions (30 percent) and U.S.-Canadian co-ventures (30 percent).

“To sum up these findings, our Canadian kids are exposed to emotionally healthy characters who learn, build social relationships, and experience adventures in a remarkably non-violent environment,” said ACT’s executive director, Caroline Fortier. “We are also very pleased to find that compared to programming from other countries, Canadian productions scored highest when it comes to stimulating reflection, creativity, and interactivity with the viewer.”

Dr. André H. Caron concluded: “In terms of gender representation in an international study (based on research coordinated by IZI), Canada ranked third out of 24 countries for highest percentage of female characters. It should be noted, however, that there’s still considerable room for improvement given the existing imbalance of approximately one-third female to two-thirds male characters in our children’s programs. In terms of ethnic representation in children’s programs, we found that distribution of whites and minority groups was quite similar to the one found in the Canadian census studies, although Asian characters appear to be underrepresented in programs. Overall our analysis to date shows that Canadian broadcasters appear not only to be providing Canadian children with high-quality content in national productions and co-productions (36.4 percent and 11.5 percent, respectively), but also in their acquisitions. However, in recent years we have witnessed a strong decline in the quantity of Canadian productions (on average 50 percent of broadcasted programs were Canadian in the late 1990s versus 36 percent today).”