1. Follow That Bird!
A Rhetorical Analysis of Sesame Street

2. Why was Sesame Street
Created?
Created by Children’s
Television Workshop
(CTW) in 1969
Preschool Audience
Low-Income Families
Focus on Curriculum
Based Skills
Taught Social Skills and
Displayed Interactions
!Cultural Education
!Multiculturalism

3. Kairos Then:
Education & Television in the 1960’s
Cognitive Revolution
Active Participants
vs. Slaves to Stimuli
President Johnson’s
“War on Poverty”
Project Head Start
Government funding

4. Kairos Today:
Globalization & Multiculturalism
No Eurocentric Majority
Clips set in other cultures
Bilingual Puppets
20 Countries Produce the show
locally
Live casts, Reflection
of Culture
Needs Sensitive Muppets
Takalani Sesame
Empowerment of
Female Muppets
Cultural Understanding
Disabilities
1 2 3

5. Audience:
Youth According to Aristotle
Passionate Injure Through
Insolence
Quick to Anger
Fond of Friends
Highly Resentful
Believe in Human
Goodness
Trusting/Easily
Deceived
Impulsive/No
Calculation

6. Logos:
Cognitive & Montessori
Cognitive Development
vs. Social or Emotional
Focus on Mental Skills
Montessori Method
Sensory and Motor
Development
“Hands-On” Experience
Video

7. Ethos:
Invented vs. Situated
Invented: Situated:
Characters 40 Years
Innovative (1969-2008)
Television Broadcasted on
Educational PBS (Public
Intentions Television)
Time Slot

8. Commonplaces
Teaches Children how to
Deal with Change
Depicts Everyday
Activities
Different Cultural Styles
of Music
Video

9. Pathos
The Emotional Nature of the Audience
Excites: Through:
Passions Music
Feelings Audience
Sympathies Involvement
Honorific &
Pejorative
Language

10. Visual Rhetoric
Big Bird
Tallest Character on
the show
Yellow Body, Orange
Legs, Red Mouth
Slow, Gentle
Movements

11. Visual Rhetoric
Cookie Monster
Widest Character
Googly Eyes
Deep, Growly Voice
Simplistic Diction

12. Visual Rhetoric
Elmo
3 1/2 Years Old
Smallest Character on
Show
Hyperactive Movements

13. Visual Rhetoric
Oscar the Grouch
Lives in a Garbage
Can
Dirty Green Fur
Rough Singing
Voice

15. Works Cited
Shalom M. Fisch, Lewis Bernstein, "Formative Research Revealed: Methodological and Process Issues in Formative Research". In Shalom M.
Fisch, Rosemarie T. Truglio (eds.), "G" is for "Growing": Thirty Years of Research on Children and Sesame Street. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates, 2000. ISBN 0805833943. Pp 39–40.
Fisch, Shalom M., Rosemarie T. Truglio, and Charlotte F. Cole. "The Impact of Sesame Street on Preschool Children: A Review and Synthesis of 30
Years' Research." Media Psychology 1999: 165-90.
Hendershot, Heather, “Sesame Street: Cognition and Communications Imperialism.” Kid’s Media Culture. Ed. Marsha Kinder. Duke University Press,
1999. 139-176.
Hey, Damian Ward. “Sesame Workshop’s Fight Against AIDs in South Africa.” Television Quarterly. 33:4 (Spr 2003): 54-61. 16 Oct. 2008 <http://
www.emmyonline.org/national/default.asp>
Kraidy, Ute Sartorius, “Sunny Days on Sesame Street? Multiculturalism and Postmodernism.” Journal of Communication Inquiry. 26:1 (Jan 2002):
9-25. SAGE. Elmhurst College Lib., Elmhurst. 16 Oct. 2008 <http://jci.sagepub.com/>
Shyles, Leonard. The Art of Video Production. Los Angeles: Sage Publications. 2007.