Conference organised by the Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI), University of Westminster, with support from the Arts & Humanities Research Council.
Date: Friday 4 September 2015
Venue: University of Westminster, 35 Marylebone Road, London NW1 5LS
Preceded on Thursday 3 September by:
- Full-day workshop (9.30am–5pm) on ‘Accessing, Capturing and Interpreting Young People’s Voices’ in association with the European Communication Research and Education Association (ECREA) Temporary Working Group on Children, Youth and Media
- Evening event on children’s media policy in association with the Children’s Media Foundation and Voice of the Listener & Viewer
Conference themes and questions
Where in the world are children best served by media available to them, and who judges the meaning of ‘best’? It is now 20 years since advocates from around the world agreed the first Children’s Television Charter calling for adequately funded, well produced content that both affirms children’s sense of self, community and place and promotes their appreciation of other cultures. In today’s multiplatform environment, where children’s use of individualised social media challenges the status of professional players, and the expansion of US and other transnational networks fuels concerns about the viability of domestic production, the same calls for quality, representation and diversity persist. That much was clear at the 7th World Summit on Media for Children in Malaysia in 2014.
Yet opinions divide over the levels of regulation and intervention required to improve media provision for children, and over the most urgently needed improvements, such as reducing access to harmful content or ensuring that public policy and discourse are informed by ample and rigorous research.
Meanwhile, researching children’s media use remains challenging and, like local media production for children, costs more than some industry players are ready to afford. Children often know how to navigate into unregulated transnational media arenas, accessing horror movies and graphic reporting of wars and catastrophes, with or without dubbing or subtitling. Can analysts hope to conduct a child-informed and child-centred analysis that grasps the multiplicity of children’s everyday media practices?
This one-day conference seeks to take a fully international approach to all forms of children’s media irrespective of delivery platform. It includes a keynote address by Professor David Buckingham as well as the first results from an AHRC-funded project on ‘Orientations in the Development of Pan-Arab television for Children’.
Panel themes Include:
- Policy and regulation of children’s media
- Socialisation through social and mobile media
- Generations and memories
- Researching child audiences
- Public service and educational media for children
- Media and children’s rights
- Children as producers and performers
- Children’s engagements with digital spaces and platforms
- Local television, local adaptations and quality
- Branding, marketing and advertising to children
- Representation and media literacy
- Young children and digital media
- The Prix Jeunesse Suitcase
Programme and registration
This is a one-day conference, taking place on Friday, 4 September 2015. It will include a keynote address, plenary sessions and parallel workshops. The fee for registration for all participants, including presenters, is £50, to cover conference documentation, refreshments and administration costs. Participants fund their own travel and accommodation expenses.
There is a separate registration fee of £25 to attend the ECREA TWG Children, Youth and Media workshop on Accessing, Capturing and Interpreting Young People’s Voices on 3 September.
The evening event “Staring into the abyss: Where will children’s TV be in 10 years’ time?” being held in association with the Children’s Media Foundation and Voice of the Listener & Viewer on 3 September is free but you must indicate your attendance on the registration form.
Registration closes Wednesday 26 August 2015