Romper Room: an Analysis. INSTITUTION Boston Univ., Mass
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DOCUMENT RESUME J 5 186 ED 056 777 PS AUTHOR Barcus, r. Earle TITLE Romper Room: An Analysis. INSTITUTION Boston Univ., Mass. Schoolof Public Communication. PUB DATE Sep 71 NOTE 38p.; Prepared for Actionfor Childrenvs Television MF-$0.65 HC-5B3.29 EDRS PRICE *Commercial Television; Games: DESCRIPTORS *Activities; Cartoon3; rastruction; *PreschoolChildren; *Programing (Broadcast4; *Publicize; Tables(Data); Toys TDENTIFIERS *Romper Room ABSTRACT Video-tape recordings of theRomper Room program in an attempt carricad by TV station WEMT,Bangor, Maine were examined various program elements. Tapes were to classify and describe and to focus monitored to obtain descriptionsof program activities commercial announcements. Forthe total week studied, on some of the spent in "toy play" more than one-third(36%)of all program time was which involved playing with,demonstrating, or exhibitingvarious brand-name manufactured toysin other than identifiablecommercial announcements. Lessons werethe second most frequentactivity, followed by cartoons, gamesplayed without the aid of toys,reading aloud to children andmiscellaneous talk by the hostess. Approximately 81 per cent ofall time was "live" fromthe studio, with the remaining 19 percent aevoted to recordedmaterial, comprised of film, cartoons,filmed commercials andcredits. Formal and program promotionranged from 7 commercial Product announcement.s averaged to 9 to 11 pes: cent of totaltime on various days and percent for the week. However,if one includes toy play,in which toy products were prominentlydisplayed and demonstrated, a.- commercial credits, plus allformal commercial announ- -len 47 per cent of thetime for the week was devotedto commercial content. All of the toys whichcould be identified bymanufacturer were This pattern seems toooutstanding to be Hasbrow or Romper Room toys. of the data of mere coincidence. Theauthor concludes on the basis this study, that a major purposeof the program is to promoteits toy products. A related study is EM009 321 announced inRIEFEB72. (Author/MK) _ S. DE° EN- OF EDUT ILI, .VEI OFFI( EDUCA DOCUN HAS BEEN DUCED EXAC I LY AS RECEIVED THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION INATING IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPIN IONS STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDIJ CATION POSITION OR POLICY ROMPER ROOM: AN ANALYSIS PrepareE, for Action for Childrc-i'sTelevision by F. Earle Barcus Professor of CommunicationResearch Boston University September, 1971 CONTENTS Page Introduction 1 Purposes and Procedures 1 An Overall View of the Elements of theRomper Room Program Commercial Aspects of Romper Room 6 Commercial Announc..2ments 7 Integration of .ommercial and Program Material 8 Toy Play. 9 Hostess Tie-ins to Commercial Announcements 1C Hostess-Given Commercials 10 Plugs or Mentions of Names and Products 11 Summary and Conclusions 13 Appendix A: Romper Room Segment Codes and Defriitions . 15 Appendix B: Romper Room: Abbreviated Log 17 Appendix C: Complete Romper Room Log 18 TABLES Table 1: Summary Table: Minutes of TimeDevoted to Various Activities, byDay of the Week 4 Table 2: Summary Table: Percent of TimeDevoted to Various Activities, byDay of the Week 5 Table 3: Number of, andTime Devoted toCommercial Announcements,by Type 7 Table 4: List of Commercial Announcements, by Product or Company, Source, Times Aired, and TotalTime . 11 Introduction One of the popular TV programsdesigned for children is Romper Room, a programfor the pre-school child. The format is designed so that female hostessesin various communities accrossthe country may present alocal, live program in thecommunity. The children invited program generallyincludes a half-dozen pre-school into a studio which resembles aclassroom, with desks, a reading area, and a play area. The hostess takes the role ofteacher, re- ferring to the studio setting asthe "Romper Room School." It is one of these local programswith which this study is con- cerned.* It is not known howrepresentative this program is of the many "Romper Rooms" onthe air, and any conclusionsin the following report are not meant to begeneranzed to all such similar programs. Purposes and Procedures The major purpose of theanalysis was to classify anddescribe elementFs which make in a systematic andstatistical manner the various up the program. More specifically, the study was'sicTner9 the following questions: 1. How much of the programtime is spent in playing with, displaying, ordemonstrating brand-name tovs? other activities such as 2. How much time is devoted to LESSONS, READING, PRAYER,PLAYING GAMES, and soforth? much 3. How much of the programtime is "live" and how is "recorded?" Action for * The research was supportedby a small grant from Children's Television, whosehelp is gratefullyacknowledged. 1.3 announcements is devoted tocommercial 4. How much time products andpromotional on behalfof sponsors or announcementsfor the program? exceed thecuE:,.tc:,- the commercialannolIncements 5. Do any of for announcements? ary60-seconds length does the hostessof the programa) 6. To what extent herself, or b)lend her commercial announcementscompanies byintroducing or support toproducts or concludAngcommercialannouncements? is also used as name"Romper Room" is als( 7. Since the program toys, andsince there a brand-namefor Romper Room Romper Roomand Hasbro connection between mentioned a corporate extent are suchnames orproducts toys, to what a) regularcommercial advertised on theprogram in the course or b) plugs ormentions during announcements, showing orplaying withthem durincl of the program,or c) the courseof the program? carried bv recordings of theRomper Roomprogram Video-tape Action forChildren's Maine werefurnished by TV stationWEMT, Bangor, week of programsfrom The tapescovered one Television (AaT). this March 12,1971. In total, Monday, March8, 1971through Friday, The present minutes ofprogramming. represented 225scheduled ordin9-, ippi analysis, donefrom 220minutes.* _nvolved fairly simple. The first st- The p::oceduresused were and -running all programming,first running two monitc-swho viewed descriptions of programelemeat-includin: obtain accurate the tapes tc the hostet accuratequotations _Dy. activities, brandnames, and types of material step involvedre-mon_toring -LIE of the plper-am. The second The cypening 4 5 e-:pla_71ation shouldbe provided. recoaed on * A brief Wednesday programswere not minutes ofthe nonday and tapes ranabout c7-e minute On the otherthree days, the of deter- the tapes. ninutes per day. There is no way over thescheduled 45 ran theschedrJed the originallyaired program between the mining whether In any event,the discrepancy 45 minutes,of course. tape tngsis mix Anal and and the video the c2.t.a. originally-aired programthe majorfindings based on should notaffect any of 4 3. time, at the sametime editinq to timeeach segmentand total program All material wastimed to the the originalmonitoringdescriptions. Segments of asweep-second-handclock. neares fiveseconds by use for program of activity(see Appendix A were thenclassified by type analysis was com- Finally,tabulation and segmentclassifications). records.* pleted from theoriginal monitoring Elements of An OverallView of the The Romper program should refer toAppendix B, a For detailedstudy, the reader of the program onaminute-by-minute chart of thebasic activities description of theseactiv- The completelog and and day-by-daybasis. Summa:y Tables1 and 2,which follow ities are givenin Appendix C. of time.t statistical form--inboth minutes present theactivities in and ,._rcentageterms. one-third (36%)of all program For the totalweek, more than is, in playingwith, demonstrating, time was spentin TOY PLAY--that in other than bran&-namemanufactured tol,s orexhibiting various Second mostfrequent activity commercial announcements. identifiable aid of GAMES playedwithout the was LESSONS,followed by CARTOONS, by the children, andMISCELLANEOUS TALK toys, READINGaloud to about one-half activities combinedaccounted for hostess. These five (49%) of all programtime. both graduatestudents Springer andGloria Chapman, monitoring forthe * Mss. Carol Research did thebulk of the in Communication them here. study. I wish toformally thank 5 4. Table 1 Minutes of TimeDevoted Summary Table: of the Week To VariousActivities, by Day (in minutes) (a) Total ThursdayFriday Week Segment Codes (b) Monda.y TuesdayWednesday Program Activities: 26.09 12.08 79.42 5.50 25.91 9.84 20.51 TOY PLAY 5.33 -- -- GAMES 12.34 2.84 14.08 31.50 1.33 1.17 14.92 17.33 LESSONS 4.58 -- 7.08 READING 5.67 .50 .84 2.67 (c) 1.33 (c) PLEDGE .75 .92 .75 3.83 PRAYER .91 .50 7.67 13.67 .58 1.00 1.58 MISC. TALK 2.84 -- -- 2.84 2.84 -- 22.84 FILM 4.50 4.42 4.58 4.50 4.84 1.08 4.65 CARTOONS 1.16 .58 .92 -REDITS .91 41.51 41.0a 199.26 Totals 36784 42.91 36.92 2.00 10.24 Commercial Material: 2.08 2.08 2.00 CA-FILM 2.08 1.42 2.33 6.00 1.25 -- 1.00 .92 CA-HOST .08 .25 .17 CA TIE-INS .08 .34 1.00 . 42 3.34 .50 .75 .67 20.50 PROGRAM PROMOS 3.85 4-.67 4.92 Totals -3-791 -57377 40.75 46.18 46.00 219.76 TOT,AL TIME (MIN.) 40.75 46.08 timeS were measuredin minutes and For computationalpurposes all scoonds = .17min- (a) Thus, 5 seconds =.08 minutes: 10 decimals. forth. utes; 30 seconds =.50 minutes, and so of segmentcodes. (b) See Appendix Afor explanation in the first "Pledge of Allegiance"segment appears (c) The brief not available onthe tapes few minutes ofthe program and was for Monday andWednesday. 5. Table 2 Percent of TimeDevoted Summary Table: Week To Vaiious ActivIties,by Day of the (in percent) Total Thursday Erj. Week Segment Codes(a) Monday TuesdayWednesday Program Activities: 26% 36% 14% 56% 24% 57% TOY PLAY 13 10 GAMES 30 6 14 3 37 30 LESSONS 3 8 14 10 - 15 READING 1 2 (b) 3 (b) PLEDGE 2 2 1 2 2 2 6 PRAYER 3 3 17 MISC. TALK 7 1 1 FILM 7 11 11 11 10 10 CARTOONS 11 2 2 2 1 2 CREDITS 2 90% 89% 91% Totals 90% 91% ::ommercial Material: 4 4 CA-FILM 5 4 5 - 2 3 5 CA-HOST 3 1 (c) 1 (c) CA TIE-INS (c) 1 1 2 2 2 PROGRAM PROMOS 10% 11% Totals TATT 7% 9% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% TOTAL TIME (%) (40.75) (46.18)(46.00) (219.76) BASE (minutes) (40.75)(46.08) codes.