International Encyclopedia of Communication Online

Extract

Sesame Street is an educational children's television series for preschoolers that teaches a broad range of curricula, from letter and numbers to socio-emotional and coping skills (→  Educational Media ; Educational Media Content ). The series is the longest running US children's television show, having first aired in 1969, and has won over 100 Emmys, more than any other television program. It is often heralded as the hallmark of →  entertainment education programming because of its broad spectrum popularity, its stringent research process, and its international impact. Sesame Street was created by Joan Ganz Cooney and Lloyd Morrissett in response to a perceived need to improve basic cognitive, social, and emotional skills in preschool children, particularly minority and inner-city youth (→  Developmental Communication ). Through this television program, preschoolers could begin to learn the alphabet, numbers, and positive social skills in their homes. The show's early success paved the way for other educational programming, especially on the →  Public Broadcasting System, where it was aired (→  Public Broadcasting, History of ). A combination of live action, animation, and puppetry, the show is produced in magazine format, a series of short vignettes with a narrative storyline set on the Street with the live-action and puppet characters woven throughout. Although the format ... log in or subscribe to read full text