Abstract:

This paper examines how WGBH and Applied Research and Consulting LLC conducted collaborative research that identified strategies for transforming ZOOM, a highly successful 1970s children's educational television show, into one of the most exciting 1990s children's educational destinations in the world. This paper illustrates how a variety of qualitative research methodologies (designed to uncover specific concerns, attitudes and preferences of the target audience and the ways these concerns, attitudes and preferences had changed since the 1970s) resulted in the merger of new and existing technologies into an integrated, interactive educational media platform that would provide additional learning opportunities through the initial integration and ongoing enhancement of the integrated media offering.