"Time for Teletubbies": Childhood, Child Participation, and the Struggle for Meaning

• Main Author: Cowart, Agatha
• Other Authors: Sauls, Samuel J.
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: University of North Texas 2003
• Subjects: Teletubbies (Television program); Television and children.; Teletubbies; childhood; television
• Online Access: https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc4227/

The children's television program Teletubbies and its concomitant controversies are analyzed along with the media attention surrounding the program. A textual analysis is presented, including the methodologies of narrative theory, semiotics/structuralism, and poststructuralism. The context is also analyzed, using a cultural studies and historical reception approach, in order to chronicle and analyze the show's controversies and elucidate how these arguments have affected reception and interpretation of the show. Following textual and contextual analysis, a social science approach is utilized, reviewing literature and research that supports or refutes the arguments at hand. Finally, the results of a qualitative, ethnographical study are presented in order to include the child's perspectives on the show and inform the larger, cultural issues of childhood.