Media, Children and Young People
Code
722011099
Academic unit
Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas
Department
Ciências da Comunicação
Credits
10
Teacher in charge
Cristina Ponte
Weekly hours
3 letivas + 1 tutorial
Teaching language
Portuguese
Objectives
Media influence on children and young people (0-18) is a recurrent topic which is frequently associated to the direct effects that are difficult to be confirmed. Children and young people have a raising presence in the news while being leaders in using new media, in countries such as Portugal. Cultural industries directly addressed to them are also increasing.
Within an historical framework, from the 19th century to nowadays, this Seminar faces these issues, exploring questions related to children and young peoples representation in the media and their experience as media users.
Students that finish this Seminar should be able to:
a) Identify the social construction of notions such as childhood or youth, placing them historically and culturally;
b) Critically analyze the media representation of children and young people, namely in the news and in contents specially targeted at them;
c) Evaluate research on children and media, identifying its historical context and related knowledge paradigms
d) Identify and explore these topics within the context of the Portuguese society, characterizing similarities and differences in relation to international contexts.
e) Research, collect and critically analyze different kind of documents (oral testimonies, news, literary and visual texts, Laws, and so forth), related to the topics of the Seminar.
f) Produce a good final work based on one of the topics.
Prerequisites
None.
Subject matter
I Part: The media in the modern construction of childhood in Western societies. The Portuguese context.
1. From the emergence of the modern childhood concept to its consolidation in the European industrialized societies within the 1950s;
2. Media contributions to a modern childhood construction. Discourses and representations
3. Surrounding media impacts: media panic waves in the pre-television era
4. Childhood conditions in Portugal from the 19th through the 1960s
5. Children and media in Portugal. Good manners in a written format: Books and magazines target at children up to the 1930s. Censorship in childrens entertainment in the pre-television era.
II Part: Media and childhood in contemporary societies
6. Children and globalization. The UN Convention on the Right of the Child: from the consensus to the realities, 20 years later.
7. Media representations of children: euphoria and anxiety. The consumerism in childhood cultures and in gender representations. Patterns of news on children and related issues.
8. Children and television, from the beginning of TV until the global television in the digital era. European regulations.
9. Contemporary research on children and media: new paradigms and critical perspectives. Research on children and media in Portugal.
10. Children and media in a generational approach.
Bibliography
DORTNER, K., Livingstone, S. (2008). International Handbook of Children, Media and Culture. London: Sage
PEREIRA, S. (2007). Por detrás do ecrã. Televisão para crianças em Portugal. Porto: Porto Editora
BUCKINGHAM, D. e WILLET, R. (2006). Digital Generations. Children, Young People and New Media. London: LEA
PONTE, C. (2005). Crianças em Notícia. A construção da infância pelo discurso jornalístico. Lisboa, Instituto de Ciências Sociais
LIVINGSTONE, S. (2002). Young People and New Media. London: Sage
Teaching method
Discussion of theoretical texts and results from empirical research; debates with experts and media professionals; content analyses.
Evaluation method
Active participation in the sessions, including critical presentation of readings and requested tasks (30%);
Supervised research aimed at producing a written final report (5000 words) focused on an issue explored in the contents and including data analysis (70%).