Study: TV shows teach children that fame is most important value

Researches took the most popular TV shows according to Nielsen demographic data for 9- to 11-year olds, and discovered that "Fame" is the most important value taught in those programs in 2007. The shows for that year included American Idol and Hannah Montana.

"Community Feeling" and "Benevolence" (Being Kind and Helping Others) which were the most important in 1997 fell to 11 and 12 in 2007.

We're teaching our children to be narcissists! Oh no! What about the children?

From UCLA:

Fame is the No. 1 value emphasized by television shows popular with 9- to 11-year-olds, a dramatic change over the past 10 years, UCLA psychologists report in a new study. On a list of 16 values, fame jumped from the 15th spot, where it was in both 1987 and 1997, to the first spot in 2007. From 1997 to 2007, benevolence (being kind and helping others) fell from second to 13th, and tradition dropped from fourth to 15th. The study assessed the values of characters in popular television shows in each decade from 1967 to 2007, with two shows per decade evaluated, including "Andy Griffith" and "The Lucy Show" in 1967, "Laverne & Shirley" and "Happy Days" in 1977, and "American Idol" and "Hannah Montana" in 2007.

Uhls and Greenfield analyzed Nielsen demographic data to determine the most popular shows with 9- to 11-year-olds and then conducted a survey of 60 participants, aged 18 to 59, to determine how important each value was in episodes of the various shows.