CHILDREN’S TELEVISION

SEMINAR: For many of us, television played a major role in our childhood. Doubtless children’s television featured in your autobiographies at the beginning of this course, and in this week’s seminar we will give time to this form of programming. This is perhaps particularly poignant given ITV’s decision in 2008 to stop producing their own children’s content. What does such disinvestment say about the ‘state’ of children’s television, the shifting landscape of programming and content delivery, the status and ‘value’ of children’s television and its (changing) role within the lives of young people. In this seminar we will revisit our own childhoods and also consider contemporary television output aimed at children and young people.

Key questions that we should address in discussion include: How does children’s programming differ from 'adult' TV in tone, colour, direct audience address, educational content? How do certain kid’s programmes incorporate elements of interactivity, education and entertainment? Is children’s television more educational in comparison to adult television? And (why) do we expect it to be more educational?  How does children’s television relate to traditional children's culture (books, toys, games). Can we see children’s TV as a reflection of contemporary ideas of childhood? How does children’s television get categorized / stratified according to age in the programme schedule? What is the relationship between children’s content and the cultural politics of class, race, gender and sexuality?

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