Citation

Heasley VL, Li CF, Fatica JP, Magdeburger JA, Trinkkeller JM, King TS, Olympia RP. Clin. Pediatr. 2018; 57(5): 528-536.

Affiliation

Penn State Hershey Medical Center, Hershey, PA, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0009922817730347

PMID

28879776

Abstract

Films continue to be a popular form of entertainment among children. The objective of this study was to determine the most common themes found in the top-grossing films released from 2005 to 2015. Forty-five films were independently viewed and analyzed by 5 reviewers. The most common positive themes were "importance of helping others," "working as a team," and "standing up for what you believe in" (5.71, 4.08, and 3.78 mean events per hour, respectively). The most common negative themes were "use of guns/knives/lethal weapons," "acts of violence/fighting," and "demonstrating excessive anger" (5.78, 5.64, and 3.09 mean events per hour, respectively). In conclusion, the most common positive themes in our sample were associated with service, collaboration, and courage, and the most common negative themes were associated with violence. We encourage co-viewing and active mediation, focusing on the positive and negative themes found in film, as a method to guide children through their development process.

Language: en

Keywords

active mediation; co-viewing; films; media themes; violence