Abstract
In the spring of 2001, the issue of children’s representation in the media and the role of adults in both promoting and safeguarding such representation made headlines in the British press. Tierney Gearon’s photographs of her naked children, on show at the Saatchi Gallery in London, resulted in a police raid on the Gallery. A number of published comments on this case raised concerns about censorship and artistic freedom, but the less high-profile topic of children’s consent was also raised in letters to a UK national daily newspaper, The Guardian: ‘Children are beautiful but their beauty should be guarded until they are legally old enough to give consent to being so used’, wrote one female correspondent (The Guardian, 12 March 2001).
The research described here was undertaken with the help of funding from the Broadcasting Standards Commission, UK, to whom grateful thanks are due. The full study is ‘Consenting Children? The use of children in non-fiction television programmes‘ (2001) by Mdire Messenger Davies and Nick Mosdell, published by the BSC, London. Grateful thanks are also due to Gareth Andrewartha, George Bailey, Sunita Bhabra, Keri Facer, Fern Faux and Sofia Amarall Leitao who helped with preparation of material, interviewing and video analysis.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Bandura, A., Ross, D. & Ross, S. (1963) ‘Imitation of film-mediated aggressive models’, Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology: 66, 3–11.
Barker, M. & Petley, J. (1997) (eds) III Effects: The Media/Violence Debate. London: Routledge.
Blumler, J. (1992) The Future of Children’s Television in Britain: An Enquiry for the Broadcasting Standards Council. London: Broadcasting Standards Commission.
Blum-Kulka, S. (1997) Dinner Talk: Cultural Patterns of Sociability and Socialisation in Family Discourse. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Buckingham, D. (2000a) The making of citizens: young people, news and politics, London: Routledge.
Buckingham, D. (2000b) After the Death of Childhood. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Davies, M. M. (in press) ‘Innocent victims/active agents: media coverage of children and war’ in Biressi, A. and Nunn, H. (eds) Media War London: Lawrence and Wishart.
Davies, M. M. (2001) ‘Dear BBC’: Children, Television Storytelling and the Public Sphere. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Davies, M. M. (1997) Fake, Fact and Fantasy: Children’s Interpretations of Television Reality. Mahwah NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Davies, M. M. (2001) Television is Good for Your Kids (2nd Edition), London: Hilary Shipman.
Davies, M. M. and Mosdell, N. (2001) Consenting Children? The Use of Children in Television Reality Programmes. London: Broadcasting Standards Commission.
Goodnow, J. J. & Collins, A. (1990) Development According to Parents, Hillsdale, NJ: Laurence Erlbaum Associates.
Habermas, J. (1989) The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Inquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Hayes, M. & Williams, C. (1995) Family Law: Principles, Policy and Practice. London: Butterworth.
Hodge, B. and Tripp, D. (1986) Children and Television. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Holland, P. (1992) What is a Child?: Popular Images of Childhood. London; Virago.
Holland, P. (2004) Picturing Childhood: the Myth of the Child in Popular Imagery. London; I. B. Tauris.
Home, A. (1993) Into the Box of Delights: A history of children’s television. London: BBC.
James, A., Jenks, C. & Prout, A. (1998) Theorizing Childhood. Cambridge: Polity Press.
Liebes, T. & Katz, E. (1990) The export of meaning: cross-cultural readings of Dallas. New York, Oxford: Oxford University Press.
McCrum, S. and Hughes, L. (1998) Interviewing Children: A Guide for Journalists and Others. London: Save the Children.
Meyrowitz, J. (1984) No Sense of Place: The Impact of Electronic Media on Social Behaviour. New York: Oxford University Press.
Morley, D. (1980) The Nationwide Audience. London: British Film Institute.
Palmer, E. (1988) Television and America’s Children: a Crisis of Neglect. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Postman, N. (1982) The Disappearance of Childhood. London: W. H. Allen.
Qvortrup, J. (1997) ‘A voice for children in statistical and social accounting: a plea for children’s right to be heard’, in James, A. and Prout, A. (eds) Constructing and Reconstructing Childhood: Contemporary Issues in the Sociological Study of Childhood. London: Falmer Press: 78–98.
Rodgers, B. and Pryor, J. (1998) Divorce and separation; the outcomes for children. London & York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation.
Scannell, P. (1996) Radio, television and modern life, a phenomenological approach. Oxford: Blackwell.
Singleton Turner, R. (1999) Children Acting on Television. London: A. & C. Black.
Twitchell, J. B. (1992) Carnival Culture. New York: Columbia University Press.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2005 Palgrave Macmillan
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Davies, M.M., Mosdell, N. (2005). The Representation of Children in the Media: Aspects of Agency and Literacy. In: Goddard, J., McNamee, S., James, A., James, A. (eds) The Politics of Childhood. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230523197_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230523197_12
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-51790-9
Online ISBN: 978-0-230-52319-7
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social & Cultural Studies CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)