FORMAL PACE OF TELEVISION OVER THE DECADES AND EFFECTS ON CHILDREN\u27S ATTENTION

Abstract

Television has a significant influence in people’s lives today as it is used for entertainment and educational purposes. Since television programming began being streamed, hundreds of networks have been forced to compete for viewer’s attention with the use of rapid pacing. Rapid pacing has proven to be effective in getting viewer’s attention. I conducted a comparison study showing mainstream sitcoms from the 1950s up to the present because I am interested in how the pace (i.e., fades, cuts, zooms) has changed. I hypothesized an upward trend of faster pace across the decades. I compared family situation comedies aired in prime time that were readily available to children when viewing with their families. The sitcoms included: I Love Lucy from the 1950s, The Dick Van Dyke Show from the 1960s, Soap from the 1970s, The Cosby Show from the 1980s, Friends from the 1990s and The Office for the most recent decade. I looked at one-minute-intervals, which included minutes 2-3, 8-9, 16-17, and 21-22, to observe data samples on the formal pacing in four episodes from each television series. The results of this study will be a contribution to the literature in the way that formal pace can interfere with attention in very young children. I have defined what attention entails for comprehension while viewing television and show how the pace of images in television may impact children’s learning