Big Bird. Big Impact. - How Sesame Street Changed the World.
As we’re all aware, whoever controls the media retains some degree of power in the influence of the public mind as a whole. So, it’s not exactly a foreign concept for us to imagine a television program having an impact in the way we see the world and interact with our surroundings. What is unique about this situation, however, is the fact that it is a children’s educational program, not the morning news broadcast.
There were several ways Sesame Street “changed the game” of the television industry, with this novelty came an enormous surge of public demand for entertainment. With how they paved the way, Big Bird and the gang are essentially one of the primary reasons The United States is still the leader in the entertainment industry worldwide.
How does this affect us as designers though? Well, the message of Sesame Street is simple. It’s a well-diversified community where everybody is welcome, everybody looks after each other, and collectively they look after their environment. Even if you strip the educational components, what remains is still a show where just about anything can happen with well-developed characters that just about anybody can relate to. This message of hope affected the hearts and minds of hundreds of millions of viewers, and where there is demand, a supply must ensue. It’s basic economics!
With this ability to instill such a strong sense of community in its viewers, Sesame Street remains one of the most popular television programs today. And thus, as designers we are ever charged with creating these interstitial environments within cities where this kind of community can occur.
Zach, I think it is very interesting that you use Sesame Street, a television show, as something we should try to achieve as designers. Not having grown up in the U.S. I have never seen this show but it sounds to me like they portray the idea of a utopian society with a very supportive community. I believe that even though architects and designers do have the power to organize spaces in a way that creates more interaction between its members, the nature of the community's interaction with each other stems more from its culture. Having lived in 5 different countries, it has become very apparent to me that culture is the main factor that affects how welcoming and supportive a community is and it makes me wonder in which ways us, as architects, can influence every culture to strive to support and protect each other and the environment instead of feeling like we're competing against each other?
ReplyDeleteZach, I think Sesame Street is such a fun and funny case study for the community that we all desire to see. There was always some kind of magical and utopian aspect of that street and cast of characters. It's the type of place we innocently believed as kids we would have one day. And I think we can, but it seems that this type of environment much be fought for. Hopefully, as architects, we can be a small part in the way that this type of living can be reimagined in our own projects and communities!
ReplyDeleteInclusivity is important for us all and understanding our community and the individualness of each person goes a long way in understanding what it means to be a part of our community. The difficulty in designing for other communities is because we don't know what that community really is. I could tell you about what the people are like from my high school, but to tell you what people are like from another high school is based purely on anecdotal (mis)information that I would hear in the hall ways or at a football game. If you approach someone about Sesame Street and tell them it's a place where puppets and people get along, you would get blank stares, but because we know the show and we have come to learn about the community and the characters in the show, we can identify with it and support it. This should be our goal whenever designing a public communal space for anywhere in the world, understand its people.
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