CHILDREN AND THE MEDIA

CHILDREN AND THE MEDIA

How are children, and childhood generally, presented in the media? How do the adult producers and directors of films and programmes about children and childhood present them? What do children get from films and programmes which are made for them (or towards which they are directed?). These are the sort of wide (and very open-ended) questions which I'd like to raise in this session. Before doing so, however, I think it's useful to make a few distinctions within the area so that we can be clearer about what we are looking for, and why.

The representation of childhood. How is childhood portrayed? Is it shown to be a state of natural grace and innocence, a time of magic and wonder before "shades of the prison house begin to close about the dying boy?". Or is childhood shown to be a state of pre-adulthood, a time when the unruly and uncivilised child must or should be governed and led towards adult values and outlook? Is childhood a distinctive state in its own right?
The representation of children. This raises further relevant questions. Are children shown to be "natural angels" or are they the "devil's spawn"? How do films and programmes deal with various aspects of children's behaviour: innocence, naively, cruelty, bullying, psychological awareness and insight, selfishness, abandonment, dreaming, etc.
How do adults perceive and respond to childhood and children? And how do children perceive and respond to the adult world? Can you think of instances where a child's perspective is used to provide ironic or satirical commentary on the adult world and its values? Also, can you think of examples where adults have to come to terms with the fact that they once were children?
What do children "know", and do they know that they know what they know? This, I know, sounds daft, but here I'm thinking of that school of thought which suggests that ostensibly straightforward and unsophisticated "tales for children" actually embody profound and potentially disturbing psychological and social issues. Bruno Bettelheim, in The Uses of Enchantment provides a fascinating psychological reading of fairy stories, and suggests that, in reading them, children are learning to deal with complex psychological issues. I'd recommend his book as an extremely valuable starting point for these discussions.
The "right" and "appropriate" films and programmes for children? What issues does this raise? I'm thinking here of on-going arguments about the impact which certain films and programmes (or books, for that matter) have on children, whether in terms of morality and behaviour, social attitudes, "gender awareness", etc. Should certain films or programmes be regarded as insidious forms of propaganda, or do they seek to educate and raise awareness.

Some of these issues have been explored extremely well in Peter Coveney's Image of Childhood, a study of literary representation of childhood from 1750 to the present. Other studies have dealt with aspects of the above questions: see what you can find on the area!

For this session I want you consider some of these issues in relation to watching extracts from examples including Home Alone, The Snowman, Hook, Big, Snow White and The Innocents. Your task is to produce notes on where, and how, these examples (or other examples of your choice) provide answers to these questions. You might, finally, wish to consider the following perspectives:

(i)	Moral perspectives. What do the examples show about moral and ethical issues, and the difference between practical and theoretical morality? What moral perspective(s) does each example provide and how are they dealt with or resolved?
(ii)	Social perspectives. What do the examples show (or refrain from showing) about social issues - race, class, gender, age, poverty, social aspirations, authority and rebellion?
(iii)	Psychological perspectives. What psychological issues are raised by the examples (e.g. loss, abandonment, security, helplessness, marginality, dependence/independence, reason and emotion, anger, love, despair and hope, creativity, dreams and nightmares), and how are these resolved?

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