Children's Media: An Unfinished Theme

In this study from Spain, researchers sought to fill a gap in the literature on initiatives of child and youth participation in the production of media content at the municipal level in Spain. This recommendation of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (Comité de los Derechos del Niño - CDN) of the United Nations, follows the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) (1996). 

The Child Friendly Cities (CAI Programme - El Programa Ciudades Amigas de la Infancia), an international initiative of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF,) advocates fostering and promoting the implementation of the CRC, including its recommendations on children’s media participation. UNICEF Spain works towards its implementation through advocacy with Spanish local authorities. Children's participation in media creation and consumption is, as the researchers describe it, of particular concern because: media is a powerful socialising agent; children may take models from media (including fashion trends, idols, forms of behaviour, expressions, current trends, and opinions); and various media may function as a window with which to forge a conception of the world. In addition, the creation of and response to media requires the exercise of freedom of expression and the right to citizen participation.

As stated here, studies on the effects of media are more numerous than studies on the role of children as producers and broadcasters of messages through public channels of communication. Therefore, CAI proposed measuring participation of children in media at the local level. In order to do so, cities selected as child-friendly through UNICEF's programme of recognition, between 2004 and 2011, were selected for study. 

The quantitative research phase was done through a questionnaire to 54 municipalities on initiatives for children's participation in communication and the municipal resources responsible for the initiatives. Of the 54 municipalities approached, 31.48% had media in which children participate: 1.67% in periodicals, 11.11% in radio, 20.37% in information and communication technology (ICT or TIC), and 5.556% in television. The age range of participants was 2 months - 15 years of age. The study details the ages of participation and the frequency - daily, weekly, monthly - of participation. Results suggest that TICs and periodicals have the most participants. Financing is mostly through the public: periodicals - 76% public; radio - 50% public and 50% mixed public and private; TV, unlike the others - 67% mixed, and TICs - 100% public. A qualitative phase, including telephone interviews, was then added, based upon responses to the questionnaire.

Researchers concluded that participation of Spanish municipalities in the CRC recommendations on children's participation in media have not been sufficiently developed (68.52% of respondents from the CAIs did not have child participation). The discussion suggests the TIC participation is mostly youth-based, from 13 years old with a scarcity of child participation, but TV, the favoured media of the public, includes children and adolescent participation. However, the qualitative study included observations of excessive direction by adults, when children should be able to propose and develop themes of their own interests. The researchers recommend more financing, especially of private funding, in order to increase the frequency of projects so that the social function of child involvement will be more widespread. Establishing monitoring mechanisms and the mapping of "children in the media" initiatives through observatories of childhood and adolescence is a recommended strategy. This could produce a body of literature on guidance for these projects for technicians and others interested in developing this kind of work with children.