Television
“They’ll watch TV on anything”: Children’s ‘messy’ media use and blurring boundaries between media devices and practices
This blog post is part of my PhD research into parents and children’s media use in the home. In this research, I was primarily interested in the experiences of contemporary parenting with regards to media and media technology. In the process, it uncovered various issues around children’s media use in the home and parents’ understanding […]
Ofcom Research On Children’s Media Habits and the Dangers of Calling TV, TV.
November saw the launch of Ofcom’s annual report on Children’s and Parent’s Media Use and Attitudes – a statistical snap shot of who is watching what, when they are watching, and for how long. The report offers more than just viewing statistics however and paints a detailed picture of families’ media habits and attitudes. Ashley […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Young children’s engagement with television: asking better questions
Having worked in a wide range of research contexts, I’ve been lucky enough to see a real spectrum of approaches to answering research questions. It’s become increasingly important to me that, as researchers, we are asking the right questions. One of my favourite research anecdotes concerns the market research team of an instant noodle snack-food brand […]
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 […]
