Welcome!
Biah S -
Hello everyone, and welcome to my senior project blog! My name is Biah, and I will be completing my project on stylization and character design in animated children’s media. More specifically, I’ll be looking at how these visual factors influence how effective pieces of media are on instilling prosocial messaging in young children. “Prosocial” may be an unfamiliar term, but all it means is doing something that helps someone other than yourself. Media geared towards children very often contain instances of prosocial messaging. My Little Pony shows the importance of caring about your friends, How to Train Your Dragon teaches compassion, Monster High encourages diversity and acceptance, and so on. What I want to find out is how these kinds of programs can be designed to optimize the retention of these lessons among young audiences.
Over the course of these next few months, I’ll be working as a research intern for a team at ASU in the process of developing a digital game with the aim of teaching children to cooperate with each other. My mentor is Dr. Richard Fabes, who is a professor of child development, but I’ll be working closely with the people involved in the design and visual aspect as well. The game is still in its early stages of development, but it is planned to center around a group of children who have been shipwrecked on a desert island. These children will have to learn to work together to get off the island and make their way home. I’m really excited to watch this story develop and see everything that goes into making media for children. If that sounds like something you’d be interested in, I hope you’ll keep up with this blog, and thank you so much for reading! 🙂