Media Letter to the Disney Channel

This is the letter I wrote for class to the President of Disney Channel..

Dear Gary Marsh,

I am currently taking the class Media, Family, and Human Development at Brigham Young University. I have learned a great deal about how media impacts families and children’s development. I grew up watching That’s So Raven, Lizzie McGuire, and Even Stevens, and I absolutely loved these tv shows. These shows were usually set within the familial context of a mother and father, along with siblings living together under the same roof. These shows depicted everyday problems that teens face such as challenges with friends, feuds with annoying siblings, crushes on school boys, failures in academics, and the struggles of making the transition from childhood to adolescence. However, the Disney Channel shows today are not relevant to what the majority of children throughout the nation are going through.

Many of the Disney shows today focus on becoming famous, something that many teens today cannot relate to. According to Albert Bandura’s social learning theory, children are likely to imitate behaviors they view not only in person, but also in the media. Whether you like it or not, the characters in your shows are role models to children around the country. I believe that too many of the young actresses in your shows wear too much make up, their hair is perfect, and their clothes are top notch. Why exacerbate the problem of girls growing up too quickly, as well as girls feeling bad about what they cannot afford to buy?

The characters in tv shows help children know how to respond to certain situations. However, the tv shows you air today are not portraying situations that kids today find themselves in. How does a red carpet event or signing with a record company help children of our society today learn about their part in the world around them? Why this gradual shift from everyday family life to portraying the life of only a dozen young people today who do find themselves in Hollywood? I remember an episode of That’s So Raven when she saw her parents splitting up. It showed her trying to prevent her parents from separating and receiving comforting advice from her friends about the situation. With divorce rates at an all time high, where is that episode today in your tv shows?

Although parents should also hold the responsibility of teaching their children how to behave, many children today are born out of wedlock, or are children of divorced parents. Their working single mother or father may not have a lot of time to spend with them and teach them how to behave. When parents are out working, children are left to watch television. Boys and girls may turn to the television to know how they are supposed to be a ‘man’ or a ‘woman,’ respectively. You have enormous power. Why use it towards shows that children cannot relate to? My proposed goal is to initiate a shift out of the Disney Channel era of fame and wealth and reintroduce everyday familial, academic, and peer situations in a realistic context. If that is unreasonable, reruns of past Disney Channel shows (not at two in the morning) might be refreshing for children who are bombarded by media today that is soaked in fame, wealth, and sex.