“Nickelodeon said that we’re going to research what kids what to see,” he says.
Dunn says he believes Nickelodeon also helped improve the quality of television available.
“There is more high-quality TV today for kids than at any point in our history,” he says. “We’ve actually done studies that show kids learn by watching some of the shows; they approve their cognitive abilities.”
Television, he says, is “so much broader in its impact and more immediate in its feedback” than print media. He points to the daily ratings that cable executives receive.
“Television has the opportunity to be emotional in a way that is quite extraordinary,” Dunn says. “More than anything else I think television sets the culture of the country—everybody sees the same thing at the same time.”
And Sept. 11, he says, has cemented the role of television in daily life.
“Sept. 11 was in a horrific way almost made for TV,” he says. “Our collective unconscious will forever be seared because we saw it on TV… It became a national event because of television.”
—Staff writer J. Hale Russell can be reached at jrussell@fas.harvard.edu.