| Abstract: |
Cartoons are the first and most common among the types of
broadcasts that children watch on television. Primary school
children watch cartoons the most with a rate of 72.1%. Children are
usually attracted and influenced by what they see or watch on
television and cartoons are being presented to them on many
channels without recognition of their useful or harmful aspects.
Thus, this study attempts to find out the behaviour of children after
watching cartoon programme described as children's friendly and
companion. Do children watch cartoons just for pleasure or watch
sake? Do they imitate and try replicating their favourite cartoon
characters? Through three selected cartoons namely; Sofia the First,
Henry Danger; Princess Charm School and PJ Masks, the study
tries to ascertain the frequency of children's exposure to the selected
cartons, the gratification derived from such exposure and ways such
exposure influences them as perceived by the respondents,
especially how they engage the major characters in the movies. The
work is anchored on Social learning theory. Survey method was used
for data generation; 109 pupils from four primary schools in Awka
were selected and issued with questionnaire as the sample size
drawn from the population of the study. The work found that primary
school children within the age bracket of 6 - 12 are frequently
exposed to cartoons and such cartoon exposure influences
engagement behaviour of children. Some of the ways children
engage the characters they see in cartoon include dressing like their
favourite cartoon characters, speaking like them, walking and acting
like them, seeking for magical powers to combat evil, seeking for
popularity, clamour for cartoon materials bearing the pictures of
their choice cartoon characters among others. The study then
recommends more measures to ensure use of more positive and
educative cartoons on children since such exposure aids their
socialization development. |
