Children and Media

Karol Jakubowicz

How relevant is Public Service Broadcasting (PBS) to nations and peoples at the end of the 20th century? The author of the following article reviews current understandings of PBS and the problems it faces, with particular reference to Europe. The debate will continue in the next issue of Media Development, when the role of PBS in the Information Society will be explored.

Valerio Fuenzalida

Three basic conditions underlie any project to reform Public TV in Latin America: a State national policy for public television; planned television programming based on the needs and expectations of Latin American audiences; and a concrete plan for managing and administrating the concern. So argues the author of the following article calling for a working group to draft a law that would create an ethical and cultural policy for Public TV.

Kwasi Ansu-Kyeremeh

In many nations, broadcasting policy is confronted by the dilemma of balancing the right to broadcast religion and the need to ensure religious tolerance and avoid conflict that is rooted in religion. In Ghana, religious organizations continue to protest against decisions not to grant them frequencies for radio and television broadcasts in the current liberalized and pluralistic media climate. With reference to policies toward religious broadcasting in other parts of the world, the following article examines the Ghanaian situation, including the rationale behind not granting frequency facilities for broadcasting by religious groups.

Geraldhino Vieira

There is more tragedy on Brazilian television than in the soap operas enjoyed in many parts of the world. From all indications, society, the church, business people, educators and above all the parents of children are fed up and at the same time don’t know what to do about it.

In 1989 the 44th session of the United Nations General Assembly adopted a 'Convention on the Rights of the Child'. It reflects the needs of children as a group, and as individuals at different stages of development and maturity. In a single document, the Convention drew together the key provisions of existing human rights law affecting children. But it also broke new ground in important areas such as adoption, survival and development, protection of the child's identity, sexual exploitation, neglect and drug abuse.

'Children and young people make up a great part of the population in most parts of the world. Whereas the number of young people in the wealthy countries of the world today will decline in the coming decade, the number of young people in developing countries is steadily increasing. In these countries young people will make up half the population in the year 2000'.1 This fact alone makes it all the more important for governments and NGOs to take seriously the influence exerted by media content- especially violence and pornography, but also intolerance and xenophobia - on young minds. During the past two years, concerned people at all levels in African and Asian countries have urged measures to 'encourage the development of appropriate guidelines for the protection of the child from information and material injurious to his or her well-being' (Article 17 of the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child).

The SADC Children's Broadcasting Charter (1996)

Dora Sipowicz y Adriana Falchini

En 1989, un grupo de educadores en Argentina se acercó al MEDH (Movimiento Ecuménico por los Derechos Humanos) para participar en un proyecto: incorporar la temática de los derechos humanos en la enseñanza primaria y secundaria, en la práctica cotidiana en el aula y en la vida. La tarea se diversificó: planear y diseñar el trabajo con los chicos en escuelas, hogares, talleres, grupos de apoyo, proponer y organizar el trabajo con los adultos (educadores, padres, coordinadores), diseñar actividades con los gremios, radios comunitarias y producir material pedagógico (videos, cartillas, publicaciones, obras de teatro).

Mohammad A. Siddiqi

This article presents a summary of existing codes of media ethics and analyzes their impact on mass media practices. It then attempts to develop an Islamic perspective of mass media ethics by focusing on the moral guidelines provided by Quran and the tradition of Prophet Muhammad (the Sunnah). The paper also examines the issues, problems, and challenges in operationalizing these guidelines into a workable code of ethics. At the end specific guidelines have been presented to make Muslim media practitioners aware and interested in these media ethics. Some discussion has also been made about the ways of enforcing these code of ethics.

Jeanette Gosling and Mike Richards

Young children can become informed consumers of television and this understanding can contribute to the development of their language and literacy skills. So argues the following article based on primary evidence from a three-year project working in a large urban school with five year olds, initially in small groups and then with whole classes. In the project as a whole the evidence is expressed in the form of children’s talk and their visual representations of their viewing. However, in this short article, the authors concentrate only on the significance of children’s talk about television advertising.

Noemí Baeza Henríquez

El programa radial ‘Los Derechos del Niño: Sueños y Realidades’ es transmitido domingo a domingo por Radio ‘Nuevo Mundo de amplitud modulada, en el horario de 13:30 a 14 hrs., que corresponde en Chile a la hora de almuerzo dominical. El objetivo fundamental es tocar la sensibilidad del mundo adulto en general y de los padres de familia en particular, en torno a la importancia que tiene para la sociedad el conocer, difundir, respetar y defender los derechos y deberes de los niños y niñas, de acuerdo a lo estipulado en la Convención Internacional sobre los Derechos del niño, ratificada por nuestro país el 26 de enero de 1990. Como dijo . San Juan Bosco, ‘Inclínate para escuchar y ver a ese niño; él no puede elevarse hacia ti’.