PBS KIDS has commissioned a collection of themed content touching on civics and media literacy in order to address a learning gap that isn’t being well-served by the US school system.  

On the greenlit list is Sesame Workshop’s new series of 20 Together We Can music videos for four- to eight-year-olds, exploring topics such as rights, voting and what it means to be part of a community. The first 10 vids will premiere on July 3, with the rest dropping on August 7.

PBS KIDS is also reupping its civics-focused City Island series of three-minute shorts for a second season, plus working on a City Island Sings spinoff (10 music videos). Premiering on July 5, the next batch of 20 City Island episodes will tackle media literacy topics like news, advertising and fact-based reporting for six to 10s in an expanded 2D-animated story world. The series was originally commissioned in 2022, based on a concept created by Aaron Augenblick (The Jellies!) and Future Brain Media.

In the same vein, the US pubcaster is developing a new package of live-action shorts focused on media literacy with TIME Studios. 

American schools have cut back on these important topics in their curriculum planning, creating a knowledge gap that needs to be filled, says PBS KIDS SVP and GM Sara DeWitt.