Television As a "Safe Space" for Children: The Views of Producers Around the World (Report‪)‬

The study of children, young people, and the media can be viewed as a microcosm of our entire field of media studies, as it is occupied with concerns for the three main realms of research: audiences, texts, and institutions. Childhood is understood to be socially constructed and culturally and historically situated, and children are perceived as a special, evolving, and dynamic group of people--characterized by unique developmental stages, who are gradually accumulating life experiences and developing knowledge as well as critical skills. All these processes characterize children and young people as different from adult audiences and more vulnerable to the influences of media. Hence the concern that some form of protection and supervision be required in guarding young people's most basic of human rights--for healthy social, physical, and mental development and well being. For two decades now, I have been researching the ideology embedded in media texts (most specifically gender stereotyping), teaching critical analysis skills, and working at consciousness-raising in students, media producers, and the public at large. I have learned that much of what children are watching on television around the world does not necessarily have their best interest in mind: A lot of it is violent; unbalanced in terms of gender and human diversity (class, religion, ethnicity, race, disability); commercialized; hyper-sexualized; and just plain uninspiring. At the same time, I found out that some television fare does offer better alternatives for children and is sensitive to their needs and well being. It has been my experience that such content is mostly produced in educational, public, and small specializing organizations around the world, but also occasionally, in some of the big commercial corporations (Lemish, 2007)