On Becoming Neighbors: The Communication Ethics of Fred Rogers

by Alexandra Klaren

Fred Rogers is an American cultural and media icon, whose children’s television program, Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood, ran for more than thirty years (1967-2001) on the Public Broadcasting System. In this highly original book, communication scholar Alexandra C. Klarén shows how Rogers captured the moral, social, and emotional imaginations of multiple generations of Americans. She explores the nuanced complexity of the thought behind the man and the program, the dialogical integration of his various influences, and the intentional ethic of care behind the creation of a program that spoke to the affective, cultural, and educational needs of children (and adults) during a period of cultural and political upheaval. Richly informed by newly available archival materials, On Becoming Neighbors chronicles the evolution of Rogers’ thought on television, children, pedagogy, and the family through a rhetorical, cultural, and ethical lens. Klarén probes how Rogers creates the conditions for dialogue in which participants explore possibilities and questions relating to the social and material world.  

Genres: Nonfiction

264 pages, Hardcover

Published October 29, 2019

Reviews

[Monica · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is such a smart, insightful book. As the author notes on the last page, she hopes to move the rhetoric around Fred Rogers from “one-dimensional rhetoric” such as “kind, saintly, and wise” “toward more substantive pieces that connect Rogers’s communication techniques with the new neurological research on attachment, social-emotional bonding, and the critical importance of fostering feelings of emotional safety” (280). I learned a lot from this nuanced, well-researched book.

[Lindsay Bragg]

This is an academic thesis that was "adapted" into a book with no regard for a non-academic reader.

Not fair to give this a star rating, because I didn't get very far.

[Jen · Rating 4 out of 5]

While I enjoyed the content, only four chapters in nearly 300 pages of content is not a good set up for a book. It makes the chapters feel really dense and readers could do with a visual break.