Film
Scary children’s media: what are we so afraid of?
Channel 5 caused a stir last month when they aired the classic 1978 animated film Watership Down on the afternoon of Easter Sunday. Aside from Art Garfunkel’s tear-jerking song ‘Bright Eyes’, the film is infamous for the gore and violence inflicted upon, and by, rabbits that we would prefer to think of as cuddly and […]
Launch of a Framework for Film Education in Europe in Paris 19th June 2015
On 19th June 2015, 50 delegates from all over Europe gathered at the Cinémathèque française in Paris to discuss the future of film education in Europe. The event marked the launch of A Framework for Film Education in Europe, which establishes a set of ambitions and outcomes for people learning about film that all educators […]
Conference : Comparing Children’s Media Around the World
CALL FOR PAPERS AND PANELS Comparing Children’s Media Around the World: Policies, Texts and Audiences Conference organised by the Communication and Media Research Institute (CAMRI)University of Westminster, with support from the Arts & Humanities Research CouncilDate: Friday 4 September, 2015 Venue: University of Westminster, Marylebone Campus, 35 Marylebone Road London NW1 5LS Preceded on Thursday 3 […]
Into the Woods: Being Brave with Storytelling
Fairy tales have happy endings. They may be dark and scary but the prince always finds Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood susses out the big bad wolf. Right? All too often many assume that fairy stories are, have always been and should be all about the happily ever after. The release of Into the […]
Media Education Summit: Intergenerational Digital Storytelling
At the recent and excellent Media Education Summit held in Prague I presented some research on the ways in which young children read adverts. I argued that the data I was sharing demonstrated that children were able to express some very complex ideas if given the appropriate conceptual tools and opportunities for reflection. This led […]
Children’s Film or rather ‘Paddington’ hits the Headlines
https://theconversation.com/paddington-sex-scandal-the-bear-would-bore-if-he-didnt-break-some-rules-34779 In response to some of the rather disparaging and hypocritical discussions of ‘Paddington’ and children’s media more broadly I created this response for The Conversation. It would be interesting to know what others think. I did break my golden rule of commenting about a film before I had seen it but I was provoked […]
Film Studies Year 3
My doctoral research is focused on children between 17 and 42 months of age, for which I undertook a longitudinal, ethnographically styled study of my twin grandchildren, “Dora” and “Sam”, gathering data in the home on their TV- and film-viewing practices. That stage is long over, and after a year’s interruption I am resuming work […]
Film in Education: More than motivating?
All too often it is claimed that film and media are useful educational tools to motivate children to learn. I think this is a rather limited understanding of the role of media in children’s lives, literacies and learning. I have recently written an article which shares an account of a teacher valuing children’s experiences of […]
Evaluating Educational Value of Children’s Television and Media
‘Grandpa in my Pocket’ is a live action drama for young children aged 4 – 6 yrs. First produced in 2008 with subsequent series in 2009, 2010 and 2013 the programme was created by Adastra Creative for CBeebies, and also has a website, several games and a theatre production. Screened in over 104 countries, winning […]
Children and Film
On Tuesday I am heading to the European Conference on Children’s Film and then the KIDS Regio Forum 2014. I’m very keen to exchange ideas with other researchers, children’s content creators, funders and distributors from within the European film industry. The aim of the forum is to raise the profile and increase access to children’s […]
