본 연구는 KBS-1TV, MBC, EBS, SBS의 4개 TV 채널에서 방송되는 유아교육프로그램의 문화적 특성을 문화기호론의 개념을 도입하여 질적 접근으로 분석하였다. 그 결과, 흥미위주의 인공적 보조물 사용으로 인하여 비실재적인 기호성, 아동 문화의 여러 장르간에 상징적 기호들이 서로 유통되는 상호텍스트성, 프로그램 전반의 텍스츄얼리티를 구성하는 기계공학적 신화 등의 성격이 노출되었다. 이같은 특성들은 TV유아교육 프로그램에서 전달하는 지식을 정보화 된 성격의 단순 차원으로 변모시키고 있음을 드러내는 까닭에 본 연구는 흥미와 효율성 위주의 제작 기법으로부터 탈피할 것을 제안하고 있다.

This study was an unalysis of children`s programs on KBS-1TV, MBC, EBS, SBS. This study attempts to interpret the dominant educational ideologies inherent in the production techniques of children`s educational programs. The methodological approach of the study is oriented by some basic concepts of semiology on mass culture, specifically the concepts of the closed nature of signification in current popular codes, the intertexuality of sign systems, the Baudrillard`s "simulacra" and the Bogmann`s "hyperreality" created by surreal signs. Through the thematic interpretation the characteristic nature of the televisions` production techniques are analyzed according to four major themes, i.e. 1) the irrepresentational nature of the artificial signs such as doll masks, marionettes, video animations, etc. abundantly found in the childrens` TV; 2) the intertextual circulation of children`s cultural signs originally from children`s literature and films; 3) the technological myths strengthened by the web of modern technological artifacts and the technological texture of the TV programs; and 4) the transformation of knowledge to bits of information and its authoritative educational ideologies. The discussion made on the world of signs in the children`s TV is filled with codes of public signifiers deprived of their original meaning and with the optimistic belief of technological utopia, whose entertaining elements are only celebrated by the multiple simulacra, and thereby the very nature of the teaching in the TV has been transformed into mere information-giving process. Such a transformation is criticized in terms of its underlying assumptions on child viewers as the passive receivers of predetermined information, that does not leave room for children to be involved in the active knowledge-constitution process.