The "Feelings just are" children's television project

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Media Studies
• Child Psychology

Background:

• Public service announcements (PSAs) in mass media campaigns often face criticism for limited audience exposure due to infrequent prime-time broadcasts.
• Reaching specific demographics, like children, with PSAs can be challenging without consistent high-visibility airtime.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the audience exposure of the "Feelings Just Are" public service announcement (PSA) campaign targeting school-age children.
• To determine if PSAs can effectively reach a child audience outside of traditional prime-time television viewing hours.

Main Methods:

• The study analyzed broadcast data from 19 television stations in South Carolina airing the "Feelings Just Are" PSAs.
• One commercial station provided hourly audience ratings for children, alongside PSA broadcast logs for the first year.
• Audience exposure was calculated by comparing PSA air times with the station's child viewership data.

Main Results:

• 188 PSA broadcasts from a single station generated an estimated 7.4 million total audience exposures.
• Of the total exposures, 1.1 million were specifically among the target audience of school-age children.
• Approximately 80% of broadcasts occurred during children's peak viewing times, including daytime on weekdays and weekends.

Conclusions:

• Local television stations can provide valuable airtime for public service announcements to reach specific audiences like children.
• The "Feelings Just Are" campaign demonstrated successful audience engagement without relying on prime-time slots.
• Mass-media interventions utilizing local broadcast resources show potential for effective community health outreach.