Masters Theses

Date of Award

3-1987

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Communication

Major Professor

Norman R. Swan Jr

Committee Members

Dhyana Ziegler, Ron Taylor

Abstract

One of America's most pressing issues has been the plight of homeless children. Historically, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C., has had the responsibility of caring for these children, but despite all efforts, one group of children has remained unadopted. They are called Special Needs Children. They are not typically being adopted because they are not white, healthy, middle-class infants and must grow up in foster care homes or other institutions. Special Needs Children are older, bi-racial or from a minority race, in sibling groups, and/or handicapped, sometimes emotionally and/or physically. A number of the children are also intellectually handicapped.

In the 1970s and 1980s some TV stations began efforts to bring the plight of Special Needs Children to the attention of the American public. Each week a child was interviewed and taped for airing. The TV stations included the Public Service Announcements (PSAs) in news casts; the goal was to prompt the American public to adopt Special Needs Children. The features were named after a day of the week, i.e., Monday's Child, Tuesday's Child, etc.

Because of the success of Monday's Child, the Department of Health and Human Services has lauded television's efforts in being able to assist in moving these children into permanent adoptive homes, but information about the success of Monday's Child has remained scarce. Everything that was written had been written from the viewpoint of the Department of Health and Human Services. No efforts have been made to determine television's role in the adoption of Special Needs Children nor what constitutes success for the stations that participated in the Monday's Child programming. This study is an attempt to determine television's role in Special Needs adoptions and to define the word success means to stations that have participated in this venture.

Major findings are:

1. Improved station image and the opportvinity to make the public aware of Special Needs Children constitutes success for the TV stations involved in Monday's Child.

2. Although an extremely important issue, success for TV stations does not depend on the number of children who appear on Monday's Child are later placed in permanent adoptive homes.

3. Rating points are not necessarily a factor in determining success for Monday's Child.

4. Television is a business, but the majority of anchors who are involved with Monday's Child are also involved for altruistic reasons.

5. Lack of communication between many TV stations and local Departments of Human Services has tended to hamper the success of Monday's Child.

Results of the study indicate Monday's Child has been successful for a large number of the television stations involved in this effort. Findings show that the American public has responded to a serious social problem presented to them via television. Implications suggest television has either developed a new role or has extended its earlier roles of being a medium for the presentation of information and entertainment. Television has "prompted people to act" in order to solve a social issue in American society.

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