ABSTRACT
Historically, the children's media industry and academic experts have had a relatively ambivalent relationship. One area where experts and producers have worked comfortably together is public broadcasting. However, there still have been challenges, particularly in terms of the added time, it takes to produce a series that is reviewed by experts. Experts have not been involved as much in commercial media, where producers don’t always find them crucial to the production process. Public media has found that the benefits outweigh the challenges, as experts can bring a great deal of knowledge about the series curricula and about children and learning to the series. Many grants and foundations require experts to be involved. The relationship between the industry and experts could benefit overall from shared goals and better communication.
