Abstract

Children’s television culture is quite different from the shared values of adult television culture. As Buckingham points out, children’s television is “not produced by children, but for them” and as such children’s television is often more a “reflection” of adult “interests or fantasies or desires” (1995, p. 47) and their view of childhood, rather than what children would choose themselves. This is a television culture where one group (adults) create content for another group (children), who have little or no say about what is produced for their benefit. Indeed children’s television culture invariably mirrors the commercial motivations and/or concerns and beliefs held by adults, and the key players in defining this culture are those who work in the children’s television industry.