ABSTRACT
There is no doubt that children’s television in the United States and its political, social, and economic environments have changed dramatically since the advent of broadcasting. The previous chapter (Mitroff & Herr-Stephenson) gave a complete overview of how social change, changes in the entertainment industry, and changes in children’s television programming and policies have coevolved since the 1920s. The chapter at hand builds off of that detailed examination, using network theories and analysis to elucidate changes in the structure of the children’s television community over the past five decades in order to understand the impact of those changes. Unlike other analyses in this book, particular those written from industry insiders, this chapter takes a step back and tries to figure out, as a “outsider,” what has happened to the children’s television industry and why.
