The Communication Initiative - Events Calendar - Earshot Media Production Course (Jul 30 - Sep 5 2003) - July 30, 2003:
"Earshot Media Production Course (Jul 30 - Sep 5 2003)
Start Date: July 30, 2003
Location: Sussex, England
Event Details: Earshot, a media training organisation, offers free training for unemployed people aged 16-26. During the 3-day course trainees will learn how to make and present professional radio programmes and gain general media skills. The aim is to raise the employment prospects of those who attend by improving their ICT, team-working, time and project-management, research, marketing and general workplace skills.
The Course aims are:
To equip participants with key IT and production skills
To encourage the development of feasible ideas and stories for audiences
Teaching and assignments take into account national industry standards and course units include:
Media Market Place
Developing Content for Audiences
Legal and other constraints
Identifying stories
Programme Research
Developing Contacts
Questioning
Digital Production and Broadcast Systems
Contact Information:
Kathy White
Earshot
Phone: 01273 323 040
info@earshot.org.uk
July 30, 2003
UNICEF - Press centre - UNICEF Report Finds ‘Child Survival Crisis’ in Caucasus and Central Asia
UNICEF report finds ‘Child Survival Crisis’ in Caucasus and Central Asia
EMBARGOED UNTIL TUESDAY, 22 JULY 2003 until 05:00 GMT
ROME, 22 July 2003 – Infant mortality rates in nine countries of Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States are much higher than official figures have long claimed, according to a new report by UNICEF released today. UNICEF found that in some countries deaths among children less than one year old were four times higher than the official counts.
According to UNICEF’s Social Monitor 2003, the infant death rate in the Caucasus and Central Asia is five times greater than in the rest of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, and 12 times greater than in western industrialised countries.
“Our research shows that infant mortality is a far greater problem in these countries than suggested in the official data,” said UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy. “We have looked beyond the official statistics and talked to mothers in their own homes. And their stories reveal a child survival crisis.”
Most of the infant deaths are preventable, according to the report, which was produced by UNICEF’s Innocenti Research Centre in Florence. UNICEF said a mix of factors such as poverty, poor maternal health and nutrition; infection and poor medical care were to blame for most of the deaths.
“What we have is two distinct problems,” Bellamy said. “We have tens of thousands of infant deaths that should be prevented. And we have a systemic failure to properly count the lives being lost. Misunderstanding the scope of what’s happening prevents effective action to fix it, so getting the numbers right is a major issue. It’s a crucial first step to saving young lives.”
The report focuses on infant mortality trends in the eight countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia, plus Romania and Ukraine. It compares the official infant mortality rate in these countries against data gathered in face-to-face interviews with women. In all eight countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia, the estimated infant mortality rate from the surveys is far higher than the official rate. In Azerbaijan, for example, the survey estimate is four times greater – 74 infant deaths for every 1,000 live births, compared to an official rate of 17 per 1,000. Romania also appears to be affected by under-reporting, although on a smaller scale.
“These kinds of inaccurate and misleading statistics can breed complacency,” Bellamy said. “They keep governments and health workers unaware of the risks of child death and the need for action, and they keep parents and community leaders in the dark.”
What’s Going Wrong
Examining the reasons for the gap, the Social Monitor highlights three problems: failure to define ‘live birth’ according to accepted international standards, misreporting of infant deaths at the local level, and barriers to birth registration.
The report finds that the death of a baby may go unrecorded because, officially, the baby was never ‘alive’. According to the definition established by the World Health Organization, an infant is alive at birth if breathing or showing any other signs of life, such as muscle movement or heartbeat. Under the Soviet era definition, however, breathing is the only criterion for life. In addition, infants who are born at less than 28 weeks, weighing less than 1,000 grams, or less than 35 centimetres in length are not counted as live births if they die within seven days. This Soviet definition still predominates in many countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Misreporting pushes the official figures down further. The communist system stressed the need to keep infant mortality low, and hospitals and medical staff faced penalties if they reported increases in infant deaths. As a result, they sometimes reported the deaths of babies in their care as miscarriages or stillbirths. With deteriorating conditions in health services and little focus on health care reform, this has proved a hard legacy to overcome and misreporting continues in some countries.
Difficulties in measuring infant mortality are exacerbated by barriers to birth registration. A recent study estimated that about 10 per cent of births in poorer parts of the region each year go unregistered – most of them in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Parents face obstacles to registration such as the costs or difficulty of travel to the nearest civil registration centre, heavy bureaucracy, and the lack of incentives to register births promptly. If a birth is not registered, it is unlikely that a death will be registered.
Why So Many Lives Lost?
By global standards, new surveys show high infant mortality rates in the Caucasus and Central Asia, ranging from 36 per 1,000 live births in Armenia to 89 per 1,000 in Tajikistan.
Many of these deaths are rooted in poverty, linked to malnutrition and health problems among women and resulting complications in pregnancy and childbirth. Poverty restricts access to health care and drug treatment, as one mother in Tajikistan told researchers, when describing the death of her son: “I went to a paediatrician who prescribed drugs, but I did not have any money to purchase drugs. I went to a healer. But the child’s condition became worse. On the seventh day he died.”
Poor medical care is also an issue. Problems cited in the report include a lack of preventive health care, and failure to carry out basic, non-technological tests at birth, such as weighing the baby or assessing his or her activity, pulse, grimace, appearance and respiration (the APGAR test).
The Report Calls For:
• Adoption and implementation of the WHO definition of live birth in every country
• Improved training of medical staff and better management of health care
• Incentives for parents to promptly register the births of their children
Resumed economic growth in the region presents an opportunity to reduce poverty, improve the well-being of mothers and children, increase investment in basic and preventive health care, and, with international help, upgrade the skills of medical staff and administrators in order to provide effective health care services. Good statistics have a crucial role to play in alerting governments and the public to the magnitude of the problem, in supporting reform and in mobilizing resources and action.
“States have an obligation to give every child the best possible start in life,” said Bellamy. “States in this region have all ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. They have all signed up to the Millennium Development Goals and to the goals of a World Fit for Children – goals that can only be reached by tackling the issue of preventable infant death and its causes. It is time to give infant mortality the attention it deserves as a sign of national well-being – a sign that is every bit as important as economic growth and poverty reduction.”
The Social Monitor Covers 27 Countries
The Social Monitor is an annual regional report examining the well-being of children in the transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
And while it finds the risk of infant death is low in some of the 27 countries in the region, such as the Czech Republic, official figures suggest that in the region as a whole, at least 60,000 babies died before their first birthday in 2001. This is three times greater than the number of infant deaths in the European Union, which has only slightly fewer births each year.
In addition, Social Monitor 2003 looks at other trends affecting children in the region.
• It finds economic growth but continuing poverty, with almost 11 million children in poverty in Russia alone.
• It highlights the debt crisis, with Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and Tajikistan spending at least one-third of government expenditure on debt servicing.
• It reports three million refugees, asylum seekers, and displaced people in the region at the end of 2001, with numbers falling in the countries of the former Yugoslavia but rising in Russia and Uzbekistan.
• It finds that there have been at least 100,000 adoptions since 1989 from the region, which now accounts for one-third of the world total and for most of the increase in intercountry adoption to industrialized countries in recent years.
• And an examination of latest trends in HIV/AIDS reveals that only 1 in every 25 people registered with HIV in the region receives antiretroviral therapy.
The report includes a statistical annex covering a broad range of indicators for the years 1989 to 2002, and statistical profiles on each country in the region.
________________________________
[1]Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
[1]The 27 countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Baltics are: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.
* * *
Note to Editors
The Social Monitor is produced by the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre in Florence. Embargoed media materials, including information on UNICEF activities on infant mortality and downloadable copies of the report in English and Russian, are available from the IRC Newsroom: http://www.unicef-icdc.org/presscentre/indexNewsroom.html
Early childhood care – to give every child the best start in life – is a major UNICEF priority, along with immunization, education for all boys and girls, preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS among young people, and protection of children from violence, abuse, and exploitation.
For further information, please contact:
Angela Hawke, UNICEF Regional Office for CEE/CIS and Baltics, Geneva (+41 22) 909-5607
Patrizia Faustini, UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, Florence (+39 055) 203-3253
Donata Lodi, Italian National Committee for UNICEF, Rome (+3906) 478 09287
Kate Donovan, UNICEF New York, Media Section, (212) 326 7456
UNICEF report finds ‘Child Survival Crisis’ in Caucasus and Central Asia
EMBARGOED UNTIL TUESDAY, 22 JULY 2003 until 05:00 GMT
ROME, 22 July 2003 – Infant mortality rates in nine countries of Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States are much higher than official figures have long claimed, according to a new report by UNICEF released today. UNICEF found that in some countries deaths among children less than one year old were four times higher than the official counts.
According to UNICEF’s Social Monitor 2003, the infant death rate in the Caucasus and Central Asia is five times greater than in the rest of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States, and 12 times greater than in western industrialised countries.
“Our research shows that infant mortality is a far greater problem in these countries than suggested in the official data,” said UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy. “We have looked beyond the official statistics and talked to mothers in their own homes. And their stories reveal a child survival crisis.”
Most of the infant deaths are preventable, according to the report, which was produced by UNICEF’s Innocenti Research Centre in Florence. UNICEF said a mix of factors such as poverty, poor maternal health and nutrition; infection and poor medical care were to blame for most of the deaths.
“What we have is two distinct problems,” Bellamy said. “We have tens of thousands of infant deaths that should be prevented. And we have a systemic failure to properly count the lives being lost. Misunderstanding the scope of what’s happening prevents effective action to fix it, so getting the numbers right is a major issue. It’s a crucial first step to saving young lives.”
The report focuses on infant mortality trends in the eight countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia, plus Romania and Ukraine. It compares the official infant mortality rate in these countries against data gathered in face-to-face interviews with women. In all eight countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia, the estimated infant mortality rate from the surveys is far higher than the official rate. In Azerbaijan, for example, the survey estimate is four times greater – 74 infant deaths for every 1,000 live births, compared to an official rate of 17 per 1,000. Romania also appears to be affected by under-reporting, although on a smaller scale.
“These kinds of inaccurate and misleading statistics can breed complacency,” Bellamy said. “They keep governments and health workers unaware of the risks of child death and the need for action, and they keep parents and community leaders in the dark.”
What’s Going Wrong
Examining the reasons for the gap, the Social Monitor highlights three problems: failure to define ‘live birth’ according to accepted international standards, misreporting of infant deaths at the local level, and barriers to birth registration.
The report finds that the death of a baby may go unrecorded because, officially, the baby was never ‘alive’. According to the definition established by the World Health Organization, an infant is alive at birth if breathing or showing any other signs of life, such as muscle movement or heartbeat. Under the Soviet era definition, however, breathing is the only criterion for life. In addition, infants who are born at less than 28 weeks, weighing less than 1,000 grams, or less than 35 centimetres in length are not counted as live births if they die within seven days. This Soviet definition still predominates in many countries of the Commonwealth of Independent States.
Misreporting pushes the official figures down further. The communist system stressed the need to keep infant mortality low, and hospitals and medical staff faced penalties if they reported increases in infant deaths. As a result, they sometimes reported the deaths of babies in their care as miscarriages or stillbirths. With deteriorating conditions in health services and little focus on health care reform, this has proved a hard legacy to overcome and misreporting continues in some countries.
Difficulties in measuring infant mortality are exacerbated by barriers to birth registration. A recent study estimated that about 10 per cent of births in poorer parts of the region each year go unregistered – most of them in the Caucasus and Central Asia. Parents face obstacles to registration such as the costs or difficulty of travel to the nearest civil registration centre, heavy bureaucracy, and the lack of incentives to register births promptly. If a birth is not registered, it is unlikely that a death will be registered.
Why So Many Lives Lost?
By global standards, new surveys show high infant mortality rates in the Caucasus and Central Asia, ranging from 36 per 1,000 live births in Armenia to 89 per 1,000 in Tajikistan.
Many of these deaths are rooted in poverty, linked to malnutrition and health problems among women and resulting complications in pregnancy and childbirth. Poverty restricts access to health care and drug treatment, as one mother in Tajikistan told researchers, when describing the death of her son: “I went to a paediatrician who prescribed drugs, but I did not have any money to purchase drugs. I went to a healer. But the child’s condition became worse. On the seventh day he died.”
Poor medical care is also an issue. Problems cited in the report include a lack of preventive health care, and failure to carry out basic, non-technological tests at birth, such as weighing the baby or assessing his or her activity, pulse, grimace, appearance and respiration (the APGAR test).
The Report Calls For:
• Adoption and implementation of the WHO definition of live birth in every country
• Improved training of medical staff and better management of health care
• Incentives for parents to promptly register the births of their children
Resumed economic growth in the region presents an opportunity to reduce poverty, improve the well-being of mothers and children, increase investment in basic and preventive health care, and, with international help, upgrade the skills of medical staff and administrators in order to provide effective health care services. Good statistics have a crucial role to play in alerting governments and the public to the magnitude of the problem, in supporting reform and in mobilizing resources and action.
“States have an obligation to give every child the best possible start in life,” said Bellamy. “States in this region have all ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. They have all signed up to the Millennium Development Goals and to the goals of a World Fit for Children – goals that can only be reached by tackling the issue of preventable infant death and its causes. It is time to give infant mortality the attention it deserves as a sign of national well-being – a sign that is every bit as important as economic growth and poverty reduction.”
The Social Monitor Covers 27 Countries
The Social Monitor is an annual regional report examining the well-being of children in the transition countries of Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States.
And while it finds the risk of infant death is low in some of the 27 countries in the region, such as the Czech Republic, official figures suggest that in the region as a whole, at least 60,000 babies died before their first birthday in 2001. This is three times greater than the number of infant deaths in the European Union, which has only slightly fewer births each year.
In addition, Social Monitor 2003 looks at other trends affecting children in the region.
• It finds economic growth but continuing poverty, with almost 11 million children in poverty in Russia alone.
• It highlights the debt crisis, with Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova and Tajikistan spending at least one-third of government expenditure on debt servicing.
• It reports three million refugees, asylum seekers, and displaced people in the region at the end of 2001, with numbers falling in the countries of the former Yugoslavia but rising in Russia and Uzbekistan.
• It finds that there have been at least 100,000 adoptions since 1989 from the region, which now accounts for one-third of the world total and for most of the increase in intercountry adoption to industrialized countries in recent years.
• And an examination of latest trends in HIV/AIDS reveals that only 1 in every 25 people registered with HIV in the region receives antiretroviral therapy.
The report includes a statistical annex covering a broad range of indicators for the years 1989 to 2002, and statistical profiles on each country in the region.
________________________________
[1]Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan
[1]The 27 countries of Central and Eastern Europe, the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Baltics are: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan.
* * *
Note to Editors
The Social Monitor is produced by the UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre in Florence. Embargoed media materials, including information on UNICEF activities on infant mortality and downloadable copies of the report in English and Russian, are available from the IRC Newsroom: http://www.unicef-icdc.org/presscentre/indexNewsroom.html
Early childhood care – to give every child the best start in life – is a major UNICEF priority, along with immunization, education for all boys and girls, preventing the spread of HIV/AIDS among young people, and protection of children from violence, abuse, and exploitation.
For further information, please contact:
Angela Hawke, UNICEF Regional Office for CEE/CIS and Baltics, Geneva (+41 22) 909-5607
Patrizia Faustini, UNICEF Innocenti Research Centre, Florence (+39 055) 203-3253
Donata Lodi, Italian National Committee for UNICEF, Rome (+3906) 478 09287
Kate Donovan, UNICEF New York, Media Section, (212) 326 7456
July 23, 2003
Contest of videos about children announced in Kyrgyzstan
Jul 18, 2003
Producers of videos about or for children, including professionals, students, school television stations, and amateur film-makers in Kyrgyzstan, are eligible to participate in the contest, “Best Videos about or for Children.”
The contest, organized by Kyrgyz National TV/Radio Corp., UNICEF and Internews Network office in Kyrgyzstan, is aimed at finding new ideas and approaches for TV programs for children.
The criteria of evaluation for the contest panel are participation of children, innovation, interesting idea, gender aspect, technical and aesthetic quality. The best works will receive cash
Videos should be submitted before November 30 in VHS or mini DV format to the UNICEF office at 720040 Bishkek Prospect Chui 160. For more information, visit internews.kg.
Jul 18, 2003
Producers of videos about or for children, including professionals, students, school television stations, and amateur film-makers in Kyrgyzstan, are eligible to participate in the contest, “Best Videos about or for Children.”
The contest, organized by Kyrgyz National TV/Radio Corp., UNICEF and Internews Network office in Kyrgyzstan, is aimed at finding new ideas and approaches for TV programs for children.
The criteria of evaluation for the contest panel are participation of children, innovation, interesting idea, gender aspect, technical and aesthetic quality. The best works will receive cash
Videos should be submitted before November 30 in VHS or mini DV format to the UNICEF office at 720040 Bishkek Prospect Chui 160. For more information, visit internews.kg.
July 22, 2003
Programming reflects the changing faces of young fans
Programming reflects the changing faces of young fans
Quynh Tran
The Arizona Republic
Jul. 22, 2003 12:00 AM
A Latino couple, Luis and Maria, and their African-American neighbor Gordon hung out with Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. That was diversity on children's television 30 years ago.
Today, Sesame Street is only one player on the television playground of cultural, gender and racial diversity. Flip through children's programming and see cartoons featuring Hispanic kids on Dragon Tales, a cat that speaks Chinese on Sagwa, female construction workers on Bob the Builder and Jewish celebrations on Arthur.
While adult prime-time shows struggle with diversity - some Hispanics and African-Americans have boycotted prime-time TV for lack of representation - children's shows quietly have grown more diverse over the past generation, mirroring the children who watch the shows.
Preschoolers start their mornings trekking with their favorite explorer, Dora, and her red-clad monkey, Boots, through jungles, oceans and Spanish phrases. "Cuidado (watch out)," Dora said as she glided past giant clams on a recent episode of Dora the Explorer. A live version of the top-rated show for kids ages 2 to 5 stops in Phoenix this week.
In the afternoon, older children chart the progress of revolutionary America on PBS' Liberty's Kids, where a freed slave named Moses runs Benjamin Franklin's print shop and oversees three young children.
Children's programs reflect their changing faces. Among children younger than 15, 40 percent are Hispanic or another minority. Almost 20 percent of Hispanics and other minorities are younger than 15, compared with 13 percent of Whites, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey 2002.
The growing minority-youth population demands more characters on television who look like them, says Patti Miller, director of children's media at the Oakland, Calif., child-advocacy group Children Now. Given that a typical child lives in a house with three televisions and watches two to three hours of TV a day, child experts say diversity on TV is becoming more important.
James Lee, 7, hair still wet from his afternoon swimming class, eagerly waits for Liberty's Kids to come on TV while sipping Capri Sun in his Phoenix home. His father, Mike Lee, a Malaysian-born auditor, works nearby.
The character James is the boy's favorite. "He gets to see the action and tells everybody what happens," says James, flicking his fingers to the upbeat theme song as the show begins.
At his age, James doesn't care about Asian-Americans other than Jackie Chan on TV, but his father does.
"I want to expose James to as many different cultures as possible," Lee says. "The kinds of shows on TV are really limited in cultural diversity."
So Lee and his wife check out videos from the library, including programs highlighting Chinese culture.
Although children's programming has changed, this kind of diversity rarely is paralleled on prime-time shows, especially sitcoms, which commonly depict racially segregated settings. The National Hispanic Media Coalition urged Latinos to boycott prime-time TV in 1999 for lack of representation. The NAACP made similar appeals.
Little has changed. Children Now reported that more than half of the programs from the 2001-02 prime-time season featured primary characters in all-White or all-Black casts. Only a fourth of programs had racially mixed primary characters. A UCLA study reported that Hispanics account for only 3 percent of characters in prime time. NBC's Friends, for example, a top show among children and adults, rarely features a minority character, even in a minor role.
But children's TV is improving. Virtually none of the children's shows produced from the 1950s through the 1980s was deemed high quality (that is, contained educational content, gender and racial diversity, and no violence, sexual innuendo or inappropriate language), according to an Annenberg Public Policy Center study at the University of Pennsylvania. The surge in quality programming didn't hit the airwaves until the 1990s with Nick News and now-defunct shows such as Nickelodeon's Journey of Allen Strange.
Changes mostly take place at the youngest level. The Annenberg study reported that three-fourths of preschoolers' programs were considered high quality, compared to less than 30 percent of programs for older children.
Even though diversity is more prevalent, not all parents screen for it.
"I focus on things not so violent," says Christina Rodriguez, a cake decorator from Phoenix. Her daughters Savannah, 9, and Carly, 5, mostly prefer the PAX channel's shows even though the family also gets the Nickelodeon and Disney channels.
Rodriguez credits Dora with helping teach the children Spanish.
"Carly has great interest in Spanish. Dora was her first opportunity doing Spanish without my involvement," she says.
Spanish-language references or use in television is particularly important for Hispanics because the language is a source of pride and binds Hispanics like no other cultural reference, says Tina Pieraccini, professor of communications at the State University of New York-Oswego.
While racial and ethnic diversity are popping into many shows (Disney's Out of the Box features no White main characters), cultural and religious diversity also are becoming more popular.
Linda Schnitzer, of Phoenix, closely monitors what her three daughters watch, saying no to Nickelodeon but yes to Disney.
In one episode of Disney's Lizzie McGuire, Lizzie's friend Gordo debates whether he should have a bar mitzvah, a Jewish religious ceremony marking a 13-year-old's passage into adulthood. "I like when shows add cultural traditions," says Schnitzer, who is raising her children in the Jewish faith.
Whether the diversity in children's programming will push the same trend in adult shows may depend on economic considerations, says Amy Jordan, director of children's television research at the Annenberg Public Policy Center.
Changes are being seen at the older-child level, with Brothers Garcia on Nickelodeon and Even Stevens on Disney, which features a character with Down syndrome.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private non-profit known for funding public television, is not missing a beat in the diversity trend, either. It recently gave its largest single grant - $9 million - to Scholastic Entertainment to produce The Misadventures of Maya and Miguel, an animated comedy chronicling the adventures of 10-year-old Latino twins. The show will debut in the fall of 2004 and broadcast in English and Spanish.
The real money in the children's television industry is in product tie-ins, licensing agreements and international sales of the shows, Jordan says.
"Programmers and advertisers are interested in the broadest reach in the youth audience," she says, "but when it comes to adult programs, they want niche programs to reach selected audiences."
Programming reflects the changing faces of young fans
Quynh Tran
The Arizona Republic
Jul. 22, 2003 12:00 AM
A Latino couple, Luis and Maria, and their African-American neighbor Gordon hung out with Big Bird and Oscar the Grouch. That was diversity on children's television 30 years ago.
Today, Sesame Street is only one player on the television playground of cultural, gender and racial diversity. Flip through children's programming and see cartoons featuring Hispanic kids on Dragon Tales, a cat that speaks Chinese on Sagwa, female construction workers on Bob the Builder and Jewish celebrations on Arthur.
While adult prime-time shows struggle with diversity - some Hispanics and African-Americans have boycotted prime-time TV for lack of representation - children's shows quietly have grown more diverse over the past generation, mirroring the children who watch the shows.
Preschoolers start their mornings trekking with their favorite explorer, Dora, and her red-clad monkey, Boots, through jungles, oceans and Spanish phrases. "Cuidado (watch out)," Dora said as she glided past giant clams on a recent episode of Dora the Explorer. A live version of the top-rated show for kids ages 2 to 5 stops in Phoenix this week.
In the afternoon, older children chart the progress of revolutionary America on PBS' Liberty's Kids, where a freed slave named Moses runs Benjamin Franklin's print shop and oversees three young children.
Children's programs reflect their changing faces. Among children younger than 15, 40 percent are Hispanic or another minority. Almost 20 percent of Hispanics and other minorities are younger than 15, compared with 13 percent of Whites, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey 2002.
The growing minority-youth population demands more characters on television who look like them, says Patti Miller, director of children's media at the Oakland, Calif., child-advocacy group Children Now. Given that a typical child lives in a house with three televisions and watches two to three hours of TV a day, child experts say diversity on TV is becoming more important.
James Lee, 7, hair still wet from his afternoon swimming class, eagerly waits for Liberty's Kids to come on TV while sipping Capri Sun in his Phoenix home. His father, Mike Lee, a Malaysian-born auditor, works nearby.
The character James is the boy's favorite. "He gets to see the action and tells everybody what happens," says James, flicking his fingers to the upbeat theme song as the show begins.
At his age, James doesn't care about Asian-Americans other than Jackie Chan on TV, but his father does.
"I want to expose James to as many different cultures as possible," Lee says. "The kinds of shows on TV are really limited in cultural diversity."
So Lee and his wife check out videos from the library, including programs highlighting Chinese culture.
Although children's programming has changed, this kind of diversity rarely is paralleled on prime-time shows, especially sitcoms, which commonly depict racially segregated settings. The National Hispanic Media Coalition urged Latinos to boycott prime-time TV in 1999 for lack of representation. The NAACP made similar appeals.
Little has changed. Children Now reported that more than half of the programs from the 2001-02 prime-time season featured primary characters in all-White or all-Black casts. Only a fourth of programs had racially mixed primary characters. A UCLA study reported that Hispanics account for only 3 percent of characters in prime time. NBC's Friends, for example, a top show among children and adults, rarely features a minority character, even in a minor role.
But children's TV is improving. Virtually none of the children's shows produced from the 1950s through the 1980s was deemed high quality (that is, contained educational content, gender and racial diversity, and no violence, sexual innuendo or inappropriate language), according to an Annenberg Public Policy Center study at the University of Pennsylvania. The surge in quality programming didn't hit the airwaves until the 1990s with Nick News and now-defunct shows such as Nickelodeon's Journey of Allen Strange.
Changes mostly take place at the youngest level. The Annenberg study reported that three-fourths of preschoolers' programs were considered high quality, compared to less than 30 percent of programs for older children.
Even though diversity is more prevalent, not all parents screen for it.
"I focus on things not so violent," says Christina Rodriguez, a cake decorator from Phoenix. Her daughters Savannah, 9, and Carly, 5, mostly prefer the PAX channel's shows even though the family also gets the Nickelodeon and Disney channels.
Rodriguez credits Dora with helping teach the children Spanish.
"Carly has great interest in Spanish. Dora was her first opportunity doing Spanish without my involvement," she says.
Spanish-language references or use in television is particularly important for Hispanics because the language is a source of pride and binds Hispanics like no other cultural reference, says Tina Pieraccini, professor of communications at the State University of New York-Oswego.
While racial and ethnic diversity are popping into many shows (Disney's Out of the Box features no White main characters), cultural and religious diversity also are becoming more popular.
Linda Schnitzer, of Phoenix, closely monitors what her three daughters watch, saying no to Nickelodeon but yes to Disney.
In one episode of Disney's Lizzie McGuire, Lizzie's friend Gordo debates whether he should have a bar mitzvah, a Jewish religious ceremony marking a 13-year-old's passage into adulthood. "I like when shows add cultural traditions," says Schnitzer, who is raising her children in the Jewish faith.
Whether the diversity in children's programming will push the same trend in adult shows may depend on economic considerations, says Amy Jordan, director of children's television research at the Annenberg Public Policy Center.
Changes are being seen at the older-child level, with Brothers Garcia on Nickelodeon and Even Stevens on Disney, which features a character with Down syndrome.
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private non-profit known for funding public television, is not missing a beat in the diversity trend, either. It recently gave its largest single grant - $9 million - to Scholastic Entertainment to produce The Misadventures of Maya and Miguel, an animated comedy chronicling the adventures of 10-year-old Latino twins. The show will debut in the fall of 2004 and broadcast in English and Spanish.
The real money in the children's television industry is in product tie-ins, licensing agreements and international sales of the shows, Jordan says.
"Programmers and advertisers are interested in the broadest reach in the youth audience," she says, "but when it comes to adult programs, they want niche programs to reach selected audiences."
July 21, 2003
Inner-city youths get own voice
Empowerment-zone kids get paid to work on free magazine
By GABRIELLE FINLEY
gfinley@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
Carl Brazely, CEO of Mo' Better Marketing, knew that inner-city youths were cut by a double-edged sword: Few employment opportunities existed in urban Louisville and their voices were seldom heard among mainstream media.
That lack of attention makes it easier for stereotypes to exist in the media. "The age we live in is so media-intensive and there's a glut of messages coming out (about urban youth ) — most of them are crap," Brazely said.
To address both problems he came up with Yo! Corporate Marketing in 2001. The company employs Louisville youths ages 14 to 21 who live in economically depressed areas called empowerment zones.
The marketing company has worked with Fifth Third Bank, Greater Louisville Inc. — the Metro Chamber of Commerce and Louisville Slugger Museum. Last year, it created Yo! Louisville, a free magazine for youths.
Yo! is sponsored by Kentuckiana Works, using a $100,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Labor that requires the company to hire from empowerment zones. Mo' Better chips in another $100,000 to run the company. Brazely said employing youth from empowerment zones is important because it could help the zones' economy.
"We're looking at young people who haven't had the benefit of having access to business in the corporate world. Now you have some enlightened people who can go back and enlighten other people."
Yo! employees work at least four hours a week during the summer and school year to produce the bimonthly magazine and on marketing projects, such as presentations, proposals and focus groups.
But Tytianna Wells, 16, said it's not about the pay; it's about learning. She said being a part of the company has taught her professionalism and time-management skills.
In addition, youth who work with Yo! learn basic and specialized marketing skills that range from media and public relations to ethnic and Internet marketing.
Bill Williams, former executive director for the Louisville Slugger Museum, said Yo! made an impressive presentation for advertising support.
"They sold me," he said. "I tried to challenge them with questions to see how they knew their product and they came through with flying colors."
The Louisville Youth Opportunity Network (LYON) sponsors Yo! and all employees go through its youth employment program. The program helps pair youths with jobs and companies that match their career interests. In addition to Wells, Yo! has four other employees this summer: Darrell Boaz, 19; Jacquiece Toomer, 18; Nyvelle Washington, 20; and John Wright Jr., 19.
As Yo! expands, Mo' Better Marketing may hire non-LYON participants. The average employee stays with Yo! for two years, and most employees still participate while in college. Anyone who is interested and involved with LYON can apply.
In 2002, Yo! decided to provide a platform for urban youth.
That led to Yo! Louisville, distributed free to all Louisville Education and Employment Partnership schools, the LYON Center and various businesses and churches in the empowerment zones. It costs $6,000 to produce 3,000 copies of each issue.
Wells, Yo! Louisville staff writer and health topics editor, said the magazine strikes a balance between entertainment and news.
"We touch on controversial topics and politics because we know there are more important things out there than just fashion and entertainment," she said.
The magazine features seven sections: Cre8tive Corner, poetry; Who Asked Us?, commentary from Louisville youth on local, national and international topics; Urban Gear, trends and fashions; TechNewlogy, information on the latest gadgets; On thaDL (down low), entertainment; Breakin', a question and answer format focused on community figures; and It's What's Crackin', statistics concerning African Americans in Louisville.
Wells said the magazine has purpose because mainstream newspapers and magazines don't provide news and entertainment that appeals to youth.
She also said that being a member of the magazine's target audience gives her an advantage. "We are the voice of the urban youth in our community. We communicate with them. Why wouldn't they listen to us? We're from the same area."
Staff writer Wright said the publication has the potential to grow.
"From all the talent that we bring to the table Yo! Louisville has the possibility to be self-sustaining — if we can get a great community following and we can expand to other cities in the area, in turn bringing more business to YCM" (Yo! Corporate Marketing).
Brazely said positive attitudes make a difference at the company. "I look at their interest to learn and their willingness to take advantage of the opportunities to be great."
A case in point is Tre Baker, who joined Yo! during his freshman year at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
Baker, 19, combined his love for design with the marketing skills he learned at Yo! to start an apparel company this summer with Sunni Brazely, Carl Brazely's daughter.
"YCM was an inspiration for the business" called LLC, Limited Liability Co., Baker said. "It helped me figure out what to do with my talent to make money."
Baker designs logos and T-shirts for fraternities, sororities and other student organizations at his school and hopes the business will expand into his own fashion label.
Brazely said Yo! Corporate Marketing teaches young people that effort and desire go hand in hand in the business world.
"If you have great expectations, you have to put forth a great effort."
Empowerment-zone kids get paid to work on free magazine
By GABRIELLE FINLEY
gfinley@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
Carl Brazely, CEO of Mo' Better Marketing, knew that inner-city youths were cut by a double-edged sword: Few employment opportunities existed in urban Louisville and their voices were seldom heard among mainstream media.
That lack of attention makes it easier for stereotypes to exist in the media. "The age we live in is so media-intensive and there's a glut of messages coming out (about urban youth ) — most of them are crap," Brazely said.
To address both problems he came up with Yo! Corporate Marketing in 2001. The company employs Louisville youths ages 14 to 21 who live in economically depressed areas called empowerment zones.
The marketing company has worked with Fifth Third Bank, Greater Louisville Inc. — the Metro Chamber of Commerce and Louisville Slugger Museum. Last year, it created Yo! Louisville, a free magazine for youths.
Yo! is sponsored by Kentuckiana Works, using a $100,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Labor that requires the company to hire from empowerment zones. Mo' Better chips in another $100,000 to run the company. Brazely said employing youth from empowerment zones is important because it could help the zones' economy.
"We're looking at young people who haven't had the benefit of having access to business in the corporate world. Now you have some enlightened people who can go back and enlighten other people."
Yo! employees work at least four hours a week during the summer and school year to produce the bimonthly magazine and on marketing projects, such as presentations, proposals and focus groups.
But Tytianna Wells, 16, said it's not about the pay; it's about learning. She said being a part of the company has taught her professionalism and time-management skills.
In addition, youth who work with Yo! learn basic and specialized marketing skills that range from media and public relations to ethnic and Internet marketing.
Bill Williams, former executive director for the Louisville Slugger Museum, said Yo! made an impressive presentation for advertising support.
"They sold me," he said. "I tried to challenge them with questions to see how they knew their product and they came through with flying colors."
The Louisville Youth Opportunity Network (LYON) sponsors Yo! and all employees go through its youth employment program. The program helps pair youths with jobs and companies that match their career interests. In addition to Wells, Yo! has four other employees this summer: Darrell Boaz, 19; Jacquiece Toomer, 18; Nyvelle Washington, 20; and John Wright Jr., 19.
As Yo! expands, Mo' Better Marketing may hire non-LYON participants. The average employee stays with Yo! for two years, and most employees still participate while in college. Anyone who is interested and involved with LYON can apply.
In 2002, Yo! decided to provide a platform for urban youth.
That led to Yo! Louisville, distributed free to all Louisville Education and Employment Partnership schools, the LYON Center and various businesses and churches in the empowerment zones. It costs $6,000 to produce 3,000 copies of each issue.
Wells, Yo! Louisville staff writer and health topics editor, said the magazine strikes a balance between entertainment and news.
"We touch on controversial topics and politics because we know there are more important things out there than just fashion and entertainment," she said.
The magazine features seven sections: Cre8tive Corner, poetry; Who Asked Us?, commentary from Louisville youth on local, national and international topics; Urban Gear, trends and fashions; TechNewlogy, information on the latest gadgets; On thaDL (down low), entertainment; Breakin', a question and answer format focused on community figures; and It's What's Crackin', statistics concerning African Americans in Louisville.
Wells said the magazine has purpose because mainstream newspapers and magazines don't provide news and entertainment that appeals to youth.
She also said that being a member of the magazine's target audience gives her an advantage. "We are the voice of the urban youth in our community. We communicate with them. Why wouldn't they listen to us? We're from the same area."
Staff writer Wright said the publication has the potential to grow.
"From all the talent that we bring to the table Yo! Louisville has the possibility to be self-sustaining — if we can get a great community following and we can expand to other cities in the area, in turn bringing more business to YCM" (Yo! Corporate Marketing).
Brazely said positive attitudes make a difference at the company. "I look at their interest to learn and their willingness to take advantage of the opportunities to be great."
A case in point is Tre Baker, who joined Yo! during his freshman year at Vanderbilt University in Nashville.
Baker, 19, combined his love for design with the marketing skills he learned at Yo! to start an apparel company this summer with Sunni Brazely, Carl Brazely's daughter.
"YCM was an inspiration for the business" called LLC, Limited Liability Co., Baker said. "It helped me figure out what to do with my talent to make money."
Baker designs logos and T-shirts for fraternities, sororities and other student organizations at his school and hopes the business will expand into his own fashion label.
Brazely said Yo! Corporate Marketing teaches young people that effort and desire go hand in hand in the business world.
"If you have great expectations, you have to put forth a great effort."
July 18, 2003
Dragon Ball Z - the fascination of violence
Dragon Ball Z - between strong self-images and heightened readiness to
resort to aggression
At the end of 1998, RTL2 launched an animation called Dragon Ball based on
the successful manga. In addition, since August 2001 Dragon Ball Z is
broadcast as part of a pre-primetime programme.
The narrative begins with the arrival on earth - from his mother planet
Vegeta - of the main character, the boy Goku, who is sent to conquer the
earth and sell it to the highest bidder. However, due to a head-injury he
forgets his original assignment, takes a turn for the better and from then
on saves the Earth from numerous alien invaders.
While in Dragon Ball the heroes are children, Dragon Ball Z is situated in a
later timeframe.
Goku is married and the father of two children: Goten and Gohan, who both
play a prominent part in Dragon Ball Z. Both formats are obviously
fight-oriented.
While Dragon Ball partly centres around the quest for 7 magical balls
(Dragon Balls) Dragon Ball Z is almost exclusively concerned with aggressive
conflict. In long-drawn-out scenes brutal attacks between ludicrous heroes
are presented, not excluding the depiction of hacked-off body parts and even
death.
The programmes are a real success in ratings for children. Even if Dragon
Ball Z is not officially broadcast for children, during the first 6 months
of 2002 an average of 570.000 3-13 years olds watched the series every
night, three quarters of them being boys.
The IZI conducted qualitative interviews with 70 frequent viewers of Dragon
Ball Z aged between 6 and 15 years old , about what is so fascinating in the
series, what kind of fantasies the children have during their media
reception, how these fantasies are connected to personality changes and how
they fit into the everyday life of children and pre-teens. The evaluation of
our data shows that the fighters and violent quarrels are a central
attraction for Dragon Ball Z viewers. These are the reasons why they like
the series, why they talk about it, copy the heroes in role-play and what
they dream about. In particular, the younger viewers cannot in any way, or
only partly, understand the complex narrative structures and mystical
elements, as contextualisation into Japanese culture hardly takes place.
From a media educational point of view we have to make sure not to
romanticise, but to take boys and girls seriously and deal with their
fascination.
Dragon Ball Z is 'hip' in the peer-group, as a 9-year-old girls tells us.
Sometimes she is frightened by the brutality, but she is somewhat proud that
it no longer bothers her. For two other girls, the series opens scope for
being influential and tough. For most of the interviewed boys enthusiasm for
Dragon Ball (+Z) is connected to fantasies about the heroes. The boys
envision themselves in the position of Goku i.e. Gohan and save the earth
from a threat. They do not always have super-natural powers like the heroes,
but they always have strong willpower and friendship for the other boys. The
series therefore opens up scope for fantasy and a feeling of personal
strength. For the appropriation of fights does not necessarily entail
violent quarrels. Many school children talk enthusiastically about imitating
the fights in the schoolyard: "We make our hair stand up with water and then
fight for fun, without hitting each other properly!" (boy, 10 years old). In
ritualised role-play, boys experience themselves being a boy in physical
contact with others.
In response to the questions what can be learnt from the series, and if they
recognise changes in themselves since they watch the series, a feeling of
strength is reflected: "Yes, I feel stronger somehow. When someone hits me
for example at school, then I really scream and hit back hard, like in
Dragon Ball. Before, I never defended myself." Strength and the feeling of a
new ability to put up with a fight are flanked by the potential readiness to
fight back more easily and more successfully. It is well-known from research
about boys' masculinity that boys feel threatened by other boys. With the
inner images they gain from Dragon Ball Z they feel prepared against this
threat. The feeling of strength is based on readiness for aggression; the
means of settling a dispute is always a physical fight. They do not realise
that in doing so they become a threat to others. To put this series in such
a limited context does not reflect the whole diversity of its appropriation.
So fandom is always partly putting oneself in the scene, e.g. as a tougher
guy or a more influential girl. The self-image gained here can also have a
different meaning. A 10-year-old boy for example explains: Dragon Ball Z is
like a cushion - when I fall it doesn't hurt, because I imagine that I'm a
fighter." His impression of the image of a Dragon Ball Z fighter suggests
'control of pain'. As in many cases, it is a complex interaction, on the one
hand helping with accomplishment in life and fostering empathy, on the other
hand problematic in its interpretation patterns and their significance for
dealing with actual conflicts.
Further information: Internationales Zentralinstitut für das Jugend- und
Bildungsfernsehen IZI
Dr. Maya Götz
Tel.: 089 - 59 00 29 91
Fax.: 089 - 59 00 23 79
eMail: izi@brnet.de
COPYRIGHT © Internationales Zentralinstitut für das Jugend- und
Bildungsfernsehen (IZI) 2001
Dragon Ball Z - between strong self-images and heightened readiness to
resort to aggression
At the end of 1998, RTL2 launched an animation called Dragon Ball based on
the successful manga. In addition, since August 2001 Dragon Ball Z is
broadcast as part of a pre-primetime programme.
The narrative begins with the arrival on earth - from his mother planet
Vegeta - of the main character, the boy Goku, who is sent to conquer the
earth and sell it to the highest bidder. However, due to a head-injury he
forgets his original assignment, takes a turn for the better and from then
on saves the Earth from numerous alien invaders.
While in Dragon Ball the heroes are children, Dragon Ball Z is situated in a
later timeframe.
Goku is married and the father of two children: Goten and Gohan, who both
play a prominent part in Dragon Ball Z. Both formats are obviously
fight-oriented.
While Dragon Ball partly centres around the quest for 7 magical balls
(Dragon Balls) Dragon Ball Z is almost exclusively concerned with aggressive
conflict. In long-drawn-out scenes brutal attacks between ludicrous heroes
are presented, not excluding the depiction of hacked-off body parts and even
death.
The programmes are a real success in ratings for children. Even if Dragon
Ball Z is not officially broadcast for children, during the first 6 months
of 2002 an average of 570.000 3-13 years olds watched the series every
night, three quarters of them being boys.
The IZI conducted qualitative interviews with 70 frequent viewers of Dragon
Ball Z aged between 6 and 15 years old , about what is so fascinating in the
series, what kind of fantasies the children have during their media
reception, how these fantasies are connected to personality changes and how
they fit into the everyday life of children and pre-teens. The evaluation of
our data shows that the fighters and violent quarrels are a central
attraction for Dragon Ball Z viewers. These are the reasons why they like
the series, why they talk about it, copy the heroes in role-play and what
they dream about. In particular, the younger viewers cannot in any way, or
only partly, understand the complex narrative structures and mystical
elements, as contextualisation into Japanese culture hardly takes place.
From a media educational point of view we have to make sure not to
romanticise, but to take boys and girls seriously and deal with their
fascination.
Dragon Ball Z is 'hip' in the peer-group, as a 9-year-old girls tells us.
Sometimes she is frightened by the brutality, but she is somewhat proud that
it no longer bothers her. For two other girls, the series opens scope for
being influential and tough. For most of the interviewed boys enthusiasm for
Dragon Ball (+Z) is connected to fantasies about the heroes. The boys
envision themselves in the position of Goku i.e. Gohan and save the earth
from a threat. They do not always have super-natural powers like the heroes,
but they always have strong willpower and friendship for the other boys. The
series therefore opens up scope for fantasy and a feeling of personal
strength. For the appropriation of fights does not necessarily entail
violent quarrels. Many school children talk enthusiastically about imitating
the fights in the schoolyard: "We make our hair stand up with water and then
fight for fun, without hitting each other properly!" (boy, 10 years old). In
ritualised role-play, boys experience themselves being a boy in physical
contact with others.
In response to the questions what can be learnt from the series, and if they
recognise changes in themselves since they watch the series, a feeling of
strength is reflected: "Yes, I feel stronger somehow. When someone hits me
for example at school, then I really scream and hit back hard, like in
Dragon Ball. Before, I never defended myself." Strength and the feeling of a
new ability to put up with a fight are flanked by the potential readiness to
fight back more easily and more successfully. It is well-known from research
about boys' masculinity that boys feel threatened by other boys. With the
inner images they gain from Dragon Ball Z they feel prepared against this
threat. The feeling of strength is based on readiness for aggression; the
means of settling a dispute is always a physical fight. They do not realise
that in doing so they become a threat to others. To put this series in such
a limited context does not reflect the whole diversity of its appropriation.
So fandom is always partly putting oneself in the scene, e.g. as a tougher
guy or a more influential girl. The self-image gained here can also have a
different meaning. A 10-year-old boy for example explains: Dragon Ball Z is
like a cushion - when I fall it doesn't hurt, because I imagine that I'm a
fighter." His impression of the image of a Dragon Ball Z fighter suggests
'control of pain'. As in many cases, it is a complex interaction, on the one
hand helping with accomplishment in life and fostering empathy, on the other
hand problematic in its interpretation patterns and their significance for
dealing with actual conflicts.
Further information: Internationales Zentralinstitut für das Jugend- und
Bildungsfernsehen IZI
Dr. Maya Götz
Tel.: 089 - 59 00 29 91
Fax.: 089 - 59 00 23 79
eMail: izi@brnet.de
COPYRIGHT © Internationales Zentralinstitut für das Jugend- und
Bildungsfernsehen (IZI) 2001
Tower of Youth Film Festival
Tower of Youth Film Fest, Due Aug 1st
To all independent Youth filmmakers 13 - 21 years old: 7th Annual All Youth and Education Day, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2003 (Deadline for entries: August 1, 2003). towerofyouth.org/callforentries.htm
The Tower of Youth, an all teenage youth membership organization and media corporation, is inviting you to submit your film or video for jury selection and showcase in the biggest youth Film Festival in the area! If you meet the following simple criteria then send your film to us: 1. All films must be youth produced (13-21 y/o); 2. Length of Film must be under 45 minutes total running time; 3. Films should not contain gratuitous violence, smoking, substance abuse or profanity; 4. Your film should contain an important message and creative imagery; something of value for youth that you feel must be shared!
Tower of Youth Film Fest, Due Aug 1st
To all independent Youth filmmakers 13 - 21 years old: 7th Annual All Youth and Education Day, FRIDAY, OCTOBER 3, 2003 (Deadline for entries: August 1, 2003). towerofyouth.org/callforentries.htm
The Tower of Youth, an all teenage youth membership organization and media corporation, is inviting you to submit your film or video for jury selection and showcase in the biggest youth Film Festival in the area! If you meet the following simple criteria then send your film to us: 1. All films must be youth produced (13-21 y/o); 2. Length of Film must be under 45 minutes total running time; 3. Films should not contain gratuitous violence, smoking, substance abuse or profanity; 4. Your film should contain an important message and creative imagery; something of value for youth that you feel must be shared!
July 15, 2003
TAJIKISTAN: Interview with head of UNICEF
DUSHANBE, 9 Jul 2003 (IRIN) - Nearly 70 percent of Tajikistan's population of 6.2 million are under 30 years of age. This young nation faces high child mortality, disease, violence and discrimination. Moreover, it is one of the 20 poorest countries in the world. With more than 80 percent of its population living on less than US $10 per person per month. Women and children are most vulnerable.
In an interview with IRIN, the head of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) for Tajikistan, Yukie Mokuo, said the country had a long way to go, and needed continued reforms to enhance social protection for its children and reverse declining education standards.
QUESTION: How would you describe the state of children in Tajikistan today?
ANSWER: I must say that the situation is still alarming because the mortality and morbidity rates in young children are very high. Although officially the mortality rate was 27.9 per 1,000 live births in 2001, the country uses a Soviet era definition, which means that the reported levels are much lower. If we apply the international standards it would naturally give a 25 to 30 percent increase. In addition, Tajikistan has a problem of low birth registration rates, coupled with higher numbers of home deliveries. The Tajik government has now agreed to implement the new definition.
Among school children the number of dropouts and lower attendance levels are increasing, especially in secondary grades from fifth to nine. This is particularly high among girls. This means that more children are not completing the compulsory nine years of education, which was not the situation in Tajikistan many years ago.
There is also a need for increased social protection for children. There are many children who go into [special] institutions. These are children coming from poor families, children with disabilities and children in conflict with the law. The problem here is that in Tajikistan social protection care is institutionalisation, and we estimate that nearly 85 percent of children in these institutions have either single parents or [have lost] both parents.
We are working with the government to reform the social protection system so that children are not deprived of family care, but still there can be different means of social protection care. It is easy to say, and difficult to do, in a country where more than 80 percent of the population lives in
poverty. So there has to be years of reforms in the area of social protection.
Q: How bad is child malnutrition in this country and what is UNICEF doing to improve that?
A: A group of NGOs do an anthropometric study every year and according to this study the rate of chronic malnutrition, meaning stunting, is nearly 30 to 35 percent, with a seasonal difference. Acute malnutrition, meaning wasting, is eight to 10 percent; in the season after summer it gets higher. These are
alarming figures.
Our understanding is that it’s the problem of feeding practices or dietary behaviours, but acute malnutrition is also associated with morbidity. When children get sick they tend to get malnourished.
Another contributing factor to child malnutrition here is lack of micronutrients such as iron, iodine and vitamin A. Especially, the iron and vitamin A deficiencies contribute to mortality and morbidity. The vitamin A deficiency in [the southern province of] Khatlon is over 27 percent, which
has to be considered a public health problem.
Q: What is the status of immunisation in the country and which major diseases threaten children's health?
A: Tajikistan used to maintain pretty good immunisation coverage and one major achievement is that now the country is certified as polio free, because no cases have been reported since 1997. We did a study in Khatlon and [the northern] Soughd provinces. The result was okay, but measles outbreaks occur every three years because the surveillance system is not very effectively functioning. There is no strong prevention in terms of immunisation of measles. So this is the most significant problem.
The positive thing that we found about immunization is that health institutions cover 100 percent of the newborn because of their home visiting services.
Q: How big a problem is illiteracy in Tajikistan given the fact that education standards in the country have fallen considerably since the disintegration of the former Soviet Union and the subsequent five-year civil war?
A: There are no national figures to confirm the reality of the country now. But on the positive side the literacy levels remain high among the adult population. During the past decade there has been an increase in the dropout rate, meaning that unless major steps are undertaken now, these rates can easily drop. We can say that 15 to 20 percent of children do not complete compulsory education.
This generation will soon become adults and, unless something is done now, in ten years time the literacy levels of this country will decrease.
Q: What are you major concerns about education in the country?
A: Access is a major problem and on the quality side, although assistance is coming; teachers are paid low wages and they need training; the curriculum is obsolete; so the education sector as a whole needs major reforms.
I must say that there is a lot of commitment from the government with national plans, programmes and new legislation. These are positive but it’s not easy to automatically bring these into implementation. The infrastructure is also in seriously bad condition with roofs leaking, no windows and no heating during winter.
Q: There are a lot of street children in Tajikistan. What are you doing to improve their conditions?
A: Some of the figures show that some of the street children are not living in the street. They are with families, but because of poverty they are often sent to the streets to either work or beg. Parents might also have a problem in looking after their children and they are left on the streets. So the street children are not abandoned as such and are supporting their families.
The problem is that children in the streets are more vulnerable and at risk of being abused and exploited. Especially, they are at more risk of being in conflict with the law, starting with petty crimes, drug abuse and trafficking. We think that the practices of law enforcement officials are not child friendly. We have witnessed that children can be taken to the so-called isolation units even if they do not commit crimes.
Q: In Tajikistan’s neighbourhood, in countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan and even India, child labour is a big issue. Do you address this issue here and if so how?
A: I can give you two things. One is in urban areas, in terms of street children, instead of going to schools poor families are sending children to the street. Although, relatively, the number may not be that significant, we may count a few thousand children.
Another totally different question of child labour is cotton picking. This is very strong, I think that it's a tradition of Tajikistan, even during the Soviet time when the education system was so established - still children were mobilised to pick cotton. The question here is do children contribute to
such national industries or not? I think that children could contribute, but the problem is when exploitation starts. It means that these children are deprived of educational opportunities.
Very little has been done so far to respond to this problem. Now, we’re in discussions with the World Bank. They are conducting a poverty assessment and Tajikistan's living standard survey this year. We are now discussing that. Based on the study, we will do an in-depth analysis of this and other child labour issues so that we can have more strategic interventions. Child labour is a very sensitive issue. It’s not simple to say children should not work. In many countries there is an environment where children can work under proper protection.
In the case of Tajikistan, we have no basis of judgment of this cotton picking, which is a very strong tradition in this country, we have no base line data to say this is abusive or exploitative. There are many anecdotal stories where schools are closed, children aren’t going to school and indulge in picking cotton, but we need to understand more systematically
what is happening with children and their rights. So, we’ll try to do a bit more analysis with the World Bank.
Q: What kind of future do you see for children in this country?
A: It’s really conventional to say that I would like to see less children die, more children go to school, etc. In spite of the poverty when I see the children, many children look happy. Why? I think that that really comes to the question of protection. Even when a family is poor, there is a way children can smile which means that they really have to be protected in the family environment. To move that way we need to work with the government, we need to work on social protection so children do not get deprived of their integrity.
DUSHANBE, 9 Jul 2003 (IRIN) - Nearly 70 percent of Tajikistan's population of 6.2 million are under 30 years of age. This young nation faces high child mortality, disease, violence and discrimination. Moreover, it is one of the 20 poorest countries in the world. With more than 80 percent of its population living on less than US $10 per person per month. Women and children are most vulnerable.
In an interview with IRIN, the head of the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) for Tajikistan, Yukie Mokuo, said the country had a long way to go, and needed continued reforms to enhance social protection for its children and reverse declining education standards.
QUESTION: How would you describe the state of children in Tajikistan today?
ANSWER: I must say that the situation is still alarming because the mortality and morbidity rates in young children are very high. Although officially the mortality rate was 27.9 per 1,000 live births in 2001, the country uses a Soviet era definition, which means that the reported levels are much lower. If we apply the international standards it would naturally give a 25 to 30 percent increase. In addition, Tajikistan has a problem of low birth registration rates, coupled with higher numbers of home deliveries. The Tajik government has now agreed to implement the new definition.
Among school children the number of dropouts and lower attendance levels are increasing, especially in secondary grades from fifth to nine. This is particularly high among girls. This means that more children are not completing the compulsory nine years of education, which was not the situation in Tajikistan many years ago.
There is also a need for increased social protection for children. There are many children who go into [special] institutions. These are children coming from poor families, children with disabilities and children in conflict with the law. The problem here is that in Tajikistan social protection care is institutionalisation, and we estimate that nearly 85 percent of children in these institutions have either single parents or [have lost] both parents.
We are working with the government to reform the social protection system so that children are not deprived of family care, but still there can be different means of social protection care. It is easy to say, and difficult to do, in a country where more than 80 percent of the population lives in
poverty. So there has to be years of reforms in the area of social protection.
Q: How bad is child malnutrition in this country and what is UNICEF doing to improve that?
A: A group of NGOs do an anthropometric study every year and according to this study the rate of chronic malnutrition, meaning stunting, is nearly 30 to 35 percent, with a seasonal difference. Acute malnutrition, meaning wasting, is eight to 10 percent; in the season after summer it gets higher. These are
alarming figures.
Our understanding is that it’s the problem of feeding practices or dietary behaviours, but acute malnutrition is also associated with morbidity. When children get sick they tend to get malnourished.
Another contributing factor to child malnutrition here is lack of micronutrients such as iron, iodine and vitamin A. Especially, the iron and vitamin A deficiencies contribute to mortality and morbidity. The vitamin A deficiency in [the southern province of] Khatlon is over 27 percent, which
has to be considered a public health problem.
Q: What is the status of immunisation in the country and which major diseases threaten children's health?
A: Tajikistan used to maintain pretty good immunisation coverage and one major achievement is that now the country is certified as polio free, because no cases have been reported since 1997. We did a study in Khatlon and [the northern] Soughd provinces. The result was okay, but measles outbreaks occur every three years because the surveillance system is not very effectively functioning. There is no strong prevention in terms of immunisation of measles. So this is the most significant problem.
The positive thing that we found about immunization is that health institutions cover 100 percent of the newborn because of their home visiting services.
Q: How big a problem is illiteracy in Tajikistan given the fact that education standards in the country have fallen considerably since the disintegration of the former Soviet Union and the subsequent five-year civil war?
A: There are no national figures to confirm the reality of the country now. But on the positive side the literacy levels remain high among the adult population. During the past decade there has been an increase in the dropout rate, meaning that unless major steps are undertaken now, these rates can easily drop. We can say that 15 to 20 percent of children do not complete compulsory education.
This generation will soon become adults and, unless something is done now, in ten years time the literacy levels of this country will decrease.
Q: What are you major concerns about education in the country?
A: Access is a major problem and on the quality side, although assistance is coming; teachers are paid low wages and they need training; the curriculum is obsolete; so the education sector as a whole needs major reforms.
I must say that there is a lot of commitment from the government with national plans, programmes and new legislation. These are positive but it’s not easy to automatically bring these into implementation. The infrastructure is also in seriously bad condition with roofs leaking, no windows and no heating during winter.
Q: There are a lot of street children in Tajikistan. What are you doing to improve their conditions?
A: Some of the figures show that some of the street children are not living in the street. They are with families, but because of poverty they are often sent to the streets to either work or beg. Parents might also have a problem in looking after their children and they are left on the streets. So the street children are not abandoned as such and are supporting their families.
The problem is that children in the streets are more vulnerable and at risk of being abused and exploited. Especially, they are at more risk of being in conflict with the law, starting with petty crimes, drug abuse and trafficking. We think that the practices of law enforcement officials are not child friendly. We have witnessed that children can be taken to the so-called isolation units even if they do not commit crimes.
Q: In Tajikistan’s neighbourhood, in countries like Afghanistan and Pakistan and even India, child labour is a big issue. Do you address this issue here and if so how?
A: I can give you two things. One is in urban areas, in terms of street children, instead of going to schools poor families are sending children to the street. Although, relatively, the number may not be that significant, we may count a few thousand children.
Another totally different question of child labour is cotton picking. This is very strong, I think that it's a tradition of Tajikistan, even during the Soviet time when the education system was so established - still children were mobilised to pick cotton. The question here is do children contribute to
such national industries or not? I think that children could contribute, but the problem is when exploitation starts. It means that these children are deprived of educational opportunities.
Very little has been done so far to respond to this problem. Now, we’re in discussions with the World Bank. They are conducting a poverty assessment and Tajikistan's living standard survey this year. We are now discussing that. Based on the study, we will do an in-depth analysis of this and other child labour issues so that we can have more strategic interventions. Child labour is a very sensitive issue. It’s not simple to say children should not work. In many countries there is an environment where children can work under proper protection.
In the case of Tajikistan, we have no basis of judgment of this cotton picking, which is a very strong tradition in this country, we have no base line data to say this is abusive or exploitative. There are many anecdotal stories where schools are closed, children aren’t going to school and indulge in picking cotton, but we need to understand more systematically
what is happening with children and their rights. So, we’ll try to do a bit more analysis with the World Bank.
Q: What kind of future do you see for children in this country?
A: It’s really conventional to say that I would like to see less children die, more children go to school, etc. In spite of the poverty when I see the children, many children look happy. Why? I think that that really comes to the question of protection. Even when a family is poor, there is a way children can smile which means that they really have to be protected in the family environment. To move that way we need to work with the government, we need to work on social protection so children do not get deprived of their integrity.
Council of Europe Committee of Ministers adopts a declaration and a recommendation on the media and criminal proceedings
Council of Europe Committee of Ministers adopts a declaration and a recommendation on the media and criminal proceedings
Strasbourg, 11.07.2003 – The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has adopted a declaration on the provision of information relating to criminal proceedings by the media, in which it states its concern at the growing commercialisation of information in this field, as well as its desire to support the right to freedom of expression and information.
In the declaration, the Ministers underline first and foremost the fundamental rights to freedom of expression, the presumption of innocence, a fair trial and the respect for private and family life as guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Ministers invite media organisations to use suitably trained journalists when covering criminal proceedings, so as not to prejudice criminal inquiries or judicial proceedings. They also call on the press to treat suspects and the accused as being innocent for as long as their guilt has not been legally proven. Furthermore, the declaration underlines the need to respect the dignity, security and – except where information is in the public interest – the right to privacy of victims, applicants, witnesses, suspects and the accused, as well as their families.
The Ministers ask the media to be sensitive to the interests of minors and other vulnerable groups involved in criminal proceedings, and to avoid prejudicial or pejorative references likely to incite xenophobia, discrimination or violence.
The Ministers also adopted a recommendation calling on member states to implement the principles guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights in this area. They stipulate, in particular, that although the public must be able to receive information on the activities of judicial authorities and police services through the media, those authorities should only provide verified information that bears no risk of being prejudicial to the fairness of the proceedings. Any information relating to legal reporting should be made available to the media without discrimination, and should never be exploited for commercial purposes by the competent authorities.
According to the recommendation, reporting carried out by the media from within court rooms should only be done with the express permission of the judicial authorities and only if there is no serious risk of undue influence on victims, witnesses, parties to criminal proceedings, juries or judges.
The full text of the declaration and the recommendation can be found at: www.coe.int
Council of Europe Committee of Ministers adopts a declaration and a recommendation on the media and criminal proceedings
Strasbourg, 11.07.2003 – The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe has adopted a declaration on the provision of information relating to criminal proceedings by the media, in which it states its concern at the growing commercialisation of information in this field, as well as its desire to support the right to freedom of expression and information.
In the declaration, the Ministers underline first and foremost the fundamental rights to freedom of expression, the presumption of innocence, a fair trial and the respect for private and family life as guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights.
The Ministers invite media organisations to use suitably trained journalists when covering criminal proceedings, so as not to prejudice criminal inquiries or judicial proceedings. They also call on the press to treat suspects and the accused as being innocent for as long as their guilt has not been legally proven. Furthermore, the declaration underlines the need to respect the dignity, security and – except where information is in the public interest – the right to privacy of victims, applicants, witnesses, suspects and the accused, as well as their families.
The Ministers ask the media to be sensitive to the interests of minors and other vulnerable groups involved in criminal proceedings, and to avoid prejudicial or pejorative references likely to incite xenophobia, discrimination or violence.
The Ministers also adopted a recommendation calling on member states to implement the principles guaranteed by the European Convention on Human Rights in this area. They stipulate, in particular, that although the public must be able to receive information on the activities of judicial authorities and police services through the media, those authorities should only provide verified information that bears no risk of being prejudicial to the fairness of the proceedings. Any information relating to legal reporting should be made available to the media without discrimination, and should never be exploited for commercial purposes by the competent authorities.
According to the recommendation, reporting carried out by the media from within court rooms should only be done with the express permission of the judicial authorities and only if there is no serious risk of undue influence on victims, witnesses, parties to criminal proceedings, juries or judges.
The full text of the declaration and the recommendation can be found at: www.coe.int
Family matters: Lighting the way
Family matters: Lighting the way
Sunday, July 13, 2003
Last spring, Stanford University professor James Steyer took on the media industry in a name-the-bad-guys book and vowed that he would start a new organization to help parents concerned about the quality of media for children.
True to his work, he's launched Common Sense Media, a grass-roots group dedicated to making producers of kids' media accountable in creating high quality children's entertainment.
A main feature of Common Sense Media is its online rating system for movies, video games, television shows and books. It's in an easy-to-understand format that rates sexual content, violence and language with green, yellow and red lights, with recommended ages and reviews from kids and adults. It's a great way to determine if you should take the kids to the multiplex to see that new PG-13-rated summer blockbuster or not.
The group plans to go further by starting a campaign to raise awareness of the current rating systems and their weaknesses and seek reforms.
To learn more, log onto www.commonsensemedia.org.
-- Peggy O'Crowley
Family matters: Lighting the way
Sunday, July 13, 2003
Last spring, Stanford University professor James Steyer took on the media industry in a name-the-bad-guys book and vowed that he would start a new organization to help parents concerned about the quality of media for children.
True to his work, he's launched Common Sense Media, a grass-roots group dedicated to making producers of kids' media accountable in creating high quality children's entertainment.
A main feature of Common Sense Media is its online rating system for movies, video games, television shows and books. It's in an easy-to-understand format that rates sexual content, violence and language with green, yellow and red lights, with recommended ages and reviews from kids and adults. It's a great way to determine if you should take the kids to the multiplex to see that new PG-13-rated summer blockbuster or not.
The group plans to go further by starting a campaign to raise awareness of the current rating systems and their weaknesses and seek reforms.
To learn more, log onto www.commonsensemedia.org.
-- Peggy O'Crowley
July 2, 2003
Major South European conference on media for children
AGORA 2003
by Spiros Tzelepis, Greece
Following the tradition of many successful years, this year's version of AGORA was launched from the 20th to the 24th of June. Probably most will remember this highly acclaimed Mediterranean conference, the previous version of which had already attracted the attention of various well-known media professionals and organizations, putting Southern Europe in the mainstream of the worldwide media industry.
After the successful organization of the previous AGORAs in Greece, AGORA 2003 took place in Bologna, Italy again organized by the European Children Television Center with the cooperation of RaiSat Ragazzi. The main theme of the organization was "Convergence Trends in Media for Children"; exploring new opportunities and ideas related to media targeted for children, the quality of the media for children, various projects concerning this topic as well as the overall development of the media market were all in the agenda of the event. In short, it is the well-known recipe of the past AGORAs: professionals and even youth come together, explore possibilities of cooperation, share experience and learn from each other while all latest developments in the challenging and much promising field of children's media industry are presented. AGORA serves as a vehicle for the promotion and the diffusion of projects, ideas and products, helps people from different areas to come together and explore new exciting solutions for the common problems all media professionals face. This brings us in mind the concept of ancient "agora" which in general was a place for the citizens to meet and exchange ideas. Thus, AGORA is a "tool" for every media professional and in my opinion it is a major event both for the Mediterranean and Europe as a whole.
Most importantly, AGORA's 2003 presentation in Bologna marked a very important landmark in the history of the conference. As stated by the ECTC, it is aimed to make AGORA a traveling event which will take place in countries that undertake the responsibility to host the event. Personally, I think that this opens a great potential for AGORA, since it is gradually disconnected from the concept of a purely Greek event and is transformed in a conference with European character and recognition. This way, national barriers are eliminated and the conference serves the needs of all southern European countries and the needs of Europe in general. AGORA now is more extroverted and thus new paths of international collaborations and partnerships are explored. Of course, it is needless to say that the soul of AGORA remains Greek, in the sense that it was produced in Greece and the valuable experience of the Greeks involved in the event can prove extremely useful for other countries collaborating in the organization.
Continuing our presentation of AGORA 2003, it is very crucial to focus on two events that took place within it in Bologna. The first one is the Roaming Reporters workshop and the second one is the Kids for Kids Festival. The Kids for Kids festival is an initiative aiming to present a selection of children's films. The films are judged by a professional jury of distinguished adults and a youth jury which was coordinated by Gert Hermans from the European Children's Film Association. Best films are awarded by the jury and various prizes were given in a splendid ceremony in Palazzo Re Enzo, Bologna, in which many well-known adults were present including Mrs Athina Rikaki, president of the ECTC and "mother" of the event as she is called by almost everyone. As far as I am concerned, the festival is very important in terms that it is a proof of the creativity of children creators and helps us realize the great potential of the filming industry. Moreover, it is a motive for young creators to improve their production and a very effective way to promote children's films to the world of the professional filming industry; they can present their work to a vast audience of media professionals from all over the globe.
The importance of the event in my opinion is even more visible when one looks at the award winners and the participants; there were films with creators coming from as far as South America. Consequently, the presence of many young directors among the members of the jury made it possible for them to come together and interact in an international environment, share ideas and experience which may prove very useful in improving their films in this competitive market. As a member of the jury myself, I have to say it was a pleasure to work with many of them and hear their concerns and ideas.
Apart from the Kids for Kids festival, AGORA 2003 had to show another youth event which is the newest version of the Roaming Reporters workshop. This workshop is a form of live journalistic coverage of the event by young people. I believe this is an eye-opening experience for the participants since it integrates them in the world of journalism and offers them the opportunity to work in a real environment covering a major international event. Even if professional accuracy is missing in some cases, it is always made up by the freshness and originality the youth. Furthermore, the Roaming Reporters can serve as a school of journalism since it helps young people acquire many abilities in editing, writing, using cameras and other equipment. Having participated three times in this event, I really feel it is a worthwhile experience which gives much knowledge and experience.
In a nutshell, attending AGORA 2003 was a great experience and I hope that the next AGORA will continue the tradition, creating even more chances to interact, collaborate, learn and promote new ideas making it an indispensable event both for media professionals and for young film makers and participants.
AGORA 2003
by Spiros Tzelepis, Greece
Following the tradition of many successful years, this year's version of AGORA was launched from the 20th to the 24th of June. Probably most will remember this highly acclaimed Mediterranean conference, the previous version of which had already attracted the attention of various well-known media professionals and organizations, putting Southern Europe in the mainstream of the worldwide media industry.
After the successful organization of the previous AGORAs in Greece, AGORA 2003 took place in Bologna, Italy again organized by the European Children Television Center with the cooperation of RaiSat Ragazzi. The main theme of the organization was "Convergence Trends in Media for Children"; exploring new opportunities and ideas related to media targeted for children, the quality of the media for children, various projects concerning this topic as well as the overall development of the media market were all in the agenda of the event. In short, it is the well-known recipe of the past AGORAs: professionals and even youth come together, explore possibilities of cooperation, share experience and learn from each other while all latest developments in the challenging and much promising field of children's media industry are presented. AGORA serves as a vehicle for the promotion and the diffusion of projects, ideas and products, helps people from different areas to come together and explore new exciting solutions for the common problems all media professionals face. This brings us in mind the concept of ancient "agora" which in general was a place for the citizens to meet and exchange ideas. Thus, AGORA is a "tool" for every media professional and in my opinion it is a major event both for the Mediterranean and Europe as a whole.
Most importantly, AGORA's 2003 presentation in Bologna marked a very important landmark in the history of the conference. As stated by the ECTC, it is aimed to make AGORA a traveling event which will take place in countries that undertake the responsibility to host the event. Personally, I think that this opens a great potential for AGORA, since it is gradually disconnected from the concept of a purely Greek event and is transformed in a conference with European character and recognition. This way, national barriers are eliminated and the conference serves the needs of all southern European countries and the needs of Europe in general. AGORA now is more extroverted and thus new paths of international collaborations and partnerships are explored. Of course, it is needless to say that the soul of AGORA remains Greek, in the sense that it was produced in Greece and the valuable experience of the Greeks involved in the event can prove extremely useful for other countries collaborating in the organization.
Continuing our presentation of AGORA 2003, it is very crucial to focus on two events that took place within it in Bologna. The first one is the Roaming Reporters workshop and the second one is the Kids for Kids Festival. The Kids for Kids festival is an initiative aiming to present a selection of children's films. The films are judged by a professional jury of distinguished adults and a youth jury which was coordinated by Gert Hermans from the European Children's Film Association. Best films are awarded by the jury and various prizes were given in a splendid ceremony in Palazzo Re Enzo, Bologna, in which many well-known adults were present including Mrs Athina Rikaki, president of the ECTC and "mother" of the event as she is called by almost everyone. As far as I am concerned, the festival is very important in terms that it is a proof of the creativity of children creators and helps us realize the great potential of the filming industry. Moreover, it is a motive for young creators to improve their production and a very effective way to promote children's films to the world of the professional filming industry; they can present their work to a vast audience of media professionals from all over the globe.
The importance of the event in my opinion is even more visible when one looks at the award winners and the participants; there were films with creators coming from as far as South America. Consequently, the presence of many young directors among the members of the jury made it possible for them to come together and interact in an international environment, share ideas and experience which may prove very useful in improving their films in this competitive market. As a member of the jury myself, I have to say it was a pleasure to work with many of them and hear their concerns and ideas.
Apart from the Kids for Kids festival, AGORA 2003 had to show another youth event which is the newest version of the Roaming Reporters workshop. This workshop is a form of live journalistic coverage of the event by young people. I believe this is an eye-opening experience for the participants since it integrates them in the world of journalism and offers them the opportunity to work in a real environment covering a major international event. Even if professional accuracy is missing in some cases, it is always made up by the freshness and originality the youth. Furthermore, the Roaming Reporters can serve as a school of journalism since it helps young people acquire many abilities in editing, writing, using cameras and other equipment. Having participated three times in this event, I really feel it is a worthwhile experience which gives much knowledge and experience.
In a nutshell, attending AGORA 2003 was a great experience and I hope that the next AGORA will continue the tradition, creating even more chances to interact, collaborate, learn and promote new ideas making it an indispensable event both for media professionals and for young film makers and participants.
Harry Potter is an island in a swamp of silly children's media
June 29, 2003
By Bloomberg
By my calculation - or rather, by the calculation of my 12-year-old son - roughly 10 800 metric tons of freshly minted Harry Potter books were dropped on the US last Saturday: a first print run of 8.5 million books, with each copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix weighing 1.27kg.
Add to this a marketing budget of $3 million, 3 million Harry Potter bumper stickers, 400 000 buttons, 24 000 life-sized cutouts and countless other items of Potter paraphernalia, and you've got the biggest phenomenon in the history of children's book publishing.
Most remarkable of all is the critical unanimity. The Potter books and their British author, JK Rowling, have charmed everyone, apparently, by reviving the most ancient medium, words-on-paper, with the most basic technique: excellent stories, told with intelligence and taste.
So why, with all its success, hasn't the Potter series been more influential among those who produce entertainment for young people? Why is children's media - from the cartoon violence of the X-Men to the mindless potty-mouthing of Eminem - still a swamp of silliness and worse? Why aren't there more Harry Potters?
It's hard to find a parent who doesn't complain about the dreck of children's entertainment. An entire industry of sociologists, pedagogues and other professional busybodies has been thrown up to measure and channel every quiver of parental discontent.
Most of the anger is directed at electronic media - not surprisingly, since not much reading is going on: even in the post-Potter era, only 20 percent of eighth graders read an hour a day for pleasure, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. And the media American kids consume are saturated with sex and violence, as such organisations as the Henry Kaiser Family Foundation document with grim regularity.
For example, according to Kaiser, 84 percent of prime-time situation comedies "drew on sexual content" for plots and jokes in 2001 - up from 56 percent in 1998. The foundation estimates that pre-teen viewers see more than 14 000 sexual references on television a year.
Sociologist Sylvia Ann Hewett estimates children will watch over 8 000 television murders during their elementary school years.
With the same grim regularity, the parental grievance industry notes that parents worry endlessly about this
.
According to an American Viewpoint poll in April, 64 percent of parents "consider the content in today's [children's] media inappropriate for [their] children". Nine out of 10 believe media make kids "too materialistic" and encourage them to be prematurely "sexually active".
Many activist groups have established ratings systems to guide parents in choosing entertainment for their kids. Politicians have pitched in too. In 1996 President Bill Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act requiring all new TVs to have V-chips enabling parents to screen out offensive content.
All such efforts have stumbled over an inconvenient fact: parents don't do much to monitor what their kids watch and read. According to Kaiser, 61 percent of kids eight and older say there aren't any rules about TV watching in their homes: 95 percent of the time they spend watching television is done without parents.
And how about the federally mandated V-chip? A 2001 Kaiser study showed the chip was used by 7 percent of American parents.
Like any good business, the parental grievance industry follows the iron rule: never blame the customer. Rather than suggest parental fault, it blames corporate villains like NewsCorp's Rupert Murdoch or the laissez-faire Federal Trade Commission.
But this misdirection of blame may be changing. A new book, Kid Stuff: Marketing Sex and Violence to America's Children, compiles essays by writers, liberal and conservative, who dare to ask the question the grievance industry will not.
"Are parents reluctant to exercise their responsibilities as adults?" the editors write. "Many seem to be fearful of being considered prudes by their peers."
The result of this abdication of authority, writes researcher Kay Hymowitz, is a "race to the bottom" by entertainment producers. In kids' media, only kids are setting the standards.
Yet Harry Potter's success proves two things: the market in child entertainment is capable of producing excellence, and children respond to excellence when offered. However, parents have to assert their authority and impose their standards. Maybe then there will be more Harry Potters - and fewer Eminems. - Bloomberg
June 29, 2003
By Bloomberg
By my calculation - or rather, by the calculation of my 12-year-old son - roughly 10 800 metric tons of freshly minted Harry Potter books were dropped on the US last Saturday: a first print run of 8.5 million books, with each copy of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix weighing 1.27kg.
Add to this a marketing budget of $3 million, 3 million Harry Potter bumper stickers, 400 000 buttons, 24 000 life-sized cutouts and countless other items of Potter paraphernalia, and you've got the biggest phenomenon in the history of children's book publishing.
Most remarkable of all is the critical unanimity. The Potter books and their British author, JK Rowling, have charmed everyone, apparently, by reviving the most ancient medium, words-on-paper, with the most basic technique: excellent stories, told with intelligence and taste.
So why, with all its success, hasn't the Potter series been more influential among those who produce entertainment for young people? Why is children's media - from the cartoon violence of the X-Men to the mindless potty-mouthing of Eminem - still a swamp of silliness and worse? Why aren't there more Harry Potters?
It's hard to find a parent who doesn't complain about the dreck of children's entertainment. An entire industry of sociologists, pedagogues and other professional busybodies has been thrown up to measure and channel every quiver of parental discontent.
Most of the anger is directed at electronic media - not surprisingly, since not much reading is going on: even in the post-Potter era, only 20 percent of eighth graders read an hour a day for pleasure, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. And the media American kids consume are saturated with sex and violence, as such organisations as the Henry Kaiser Family Foundation document with grim regularity.
For example, according to Kaiser, 84 percent of prime-time situation comedies "drew on sexual content" for plots and jokes in 2001 - up from 56 percent in 1998. The foundation estimates that pre-teen viewers see more than 14 000 sexual references on television a year.
Sociologist Sylvia Ann Hewett estimates children will watch over 8 000 television murders during their elementary school years.
With the same grim regularity, the parental grievance industry notes that parents worry endlessly about this
.
According to an American Viewpoint poll in April, 64 percent of parents "consider the content in today's [children's] media inappropriate for [their] children". Nine out of 10 believe media make kids "too materialistic" and encourage them to be prematurely "sexually active".
Many activist groups have established ratings systems to guide parents in choosing entertainment for their kids. Politicians have pitched in too. In 1996 President Bill Clinton signed the Telecommunications Act requiring all new TVs to have V-chips enabling parents to screen out offensive content.
All such efforts have stumbled over an inconvenient fact: parents don't do much to monitor what their kids watch and read. According to Kaiser, 61 percent of kids eight and older say there aren't any rules about TV watching in their homes: 95 percent of the time they spend watching television is done without parents.
And how about the federally mandated V-chip? A 2001 Kaiser study showed the chip was used by 7 percent of American parents.
Like any good business, the parental grievance industry follows the iron rule: never blame the customer. Rather than suggest parental fault, it blames corporate villains like NewsCorp's Rupert Murdoch or the laissez-faire Federal Trade Commission.
But this misdirection of blame may be changing. A new book, Kid Stuff: Marketing Sex and Violence to America's Children, compiles essays by writers, liberal and conservative, who dare to ask the question the grievance industry will not.
"Are parents reluctant to exercise their responsibilities as adults?" the editors write. "Many seem to be fearful of being considered prudes by their peers."
The result of this abdication of authority, writes researcher Kay Hymowitz, is a "race to the bottom" by entertainment producers. In kids' media, only kids are setting the standards.
Yet Harry Potter's success proves two things: the market in child entertainment is capable of producing excellence, and children respond to excellence when offered. However, parents have to assert their authority and impose their standards. Maybe then there will be more Harry Potters - and fewer Eminems. - Bloomberg
July 1, 2003
South Caucasus High-School Students Direct Crossroads Show
Internews Azerbaijan
High school students from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia work together to produce an episode of Crossroads.
(June 4, 2003) In an unusual cross-border experiment, high school students in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia together produced and directed the June 3rd episode of Internews Azerbaijan's weekly Crossroads (Perekrestok) television show. The episode was dedicated to International Children's Day.
The production was the final assignment for the students who were trained in the basics of broadcast journalism by Crossroads production teams in all three South Caucasus states. During the two-month course, the students learned about effective reporting, shooting and editing techniques, and were exposed to a full spectrum of professional television programming activities.
Internews' trainers found the high-school students who participated in the project to be assertive, hard working, inquisitive and committed to peaceful coexistence with the neighboring countries.
Crossroads is a weekly international program aired on more than 50 independent TV channels in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia since March 1998. It is the only regularly aired source of cross-border information in the Southern Caucasus, promoting understanding and tolerance among the regions' countries through objective, unbiased reporting of information. Three producers work on the program: Kenan Guluzadeh in Azerbaijan, Naira Martikian in Armenia and Irakli Berulava in Georgia.
The television program was originally launched with funding from TACIS. Since 1998, the program has been funded by the United States Agency for International Development.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Namik Heydarov, Public Relations & Advertising Manager
Internews Azerbaijan
Internews Azerbaijan
High school students from Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia work together to produce an episode of Crossroads.
(June 4, 2003) In an unusual cross-border experiment, high school students in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia together produced and directed the June 3rd episode of Internews Azerbaijan's weekly Crossroads (Perekrestok) television show. The episode was dedicated to International Children's Day.
The production was the final assignment for the students who were trained in the basics of broadcast journalism by Crossroads production teams in all three South Caucasus states. During the two-month course, the students learned about effective reporting, shooting and editing techniques, and were exposed to a full spectrum of professional television programming activities.
Internews' trainers found the high-school students who participated in the project to be assertive, hard working, inquisitive and committed to peaceful coexistence with the neighboring countries.
Crossroads is a weekly international program aired on more than 50 independent TV channels in Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia since March 1998. It is the only regularly aired source of cross-border information in the Southern Caucasus, promoting understanding and tolerance among the regions' countries through objective, unbiased reporting of information. Three producers work on the program: Kenan Guluzadeh in Azerbaijan, Naira Martikian in Armenia and Irakli Berulava in Georgia.
The television program was originally launched with funding from TACIS. Since 1998, the program has been funded by the United States Agency for International Development.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Namik Heydarov, Public Relations & Advertising Manager
Internews Azerbaijan
EUROPEAN JOURNALISM FELLOWSHIPS in BERLIN
Journalists from across Europe and the United States are now invited to apply for the European Journalism Fellowships of the Journalisten-Kolleg at the Freie Universitaet Berlin, which are being offered this year for the sixth time.
Participants are given the opportunity to take a two-semester leave from their professional positions to spend a sabbatical year at the Freie Universitaet Berlin in order to widen their knowledge and to pursue a major research project. At the same time, the programme enables participants to engage in intensive networking with professional colleagues from Eastern and Western Europe and the United States.
The most important element of application is an exposé for the scientific-journalistic project, to be pursued in Berlin. Written proof certifying good knowledge of German is required for participation. The programme starts in October 2004 and ends in July 2005. Highly qualified journalists, in both full and freelance employment, with several years of professional experience are entitled to apply. We offer the following fellowships:
Junior-Fellowships for journalists from Central and Eastern Europe with about five years of professional practice. The stipends are endowed with a monthly payment of 800 Euros up to
1,250 Euros for the duration of ten months.
Standard-Fellowships, which are - depending on the level of professional experience - endowed with a monthly payment of 1,500 Euros up to 2,050 Euros for the duration of ten months. Some of the stipends are specifically dedicated to journalists from Central and Eastern Europe with their focus on either economy or culture, to young female business journalists from Central and Eastern Europe, and to journalists from Berlin's twin cities of Central and Eastern Europe.
Renowned media companies, firms and foundations fund the programme in cooperation with the Freie Universitaet Berlin - currently the Deutsches Programm fuer transatlantische Begegnung, the FAZIT-Foundation (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung), the Haniel-Foundation, the Karl-Gerold-Foundation (Frankfurter Rundschau), the RIAS Berlin Kommission, the Foundation "Brandenburger Tor", the Foundation Presse-Haus NRZ, the Foundation "Preussische Seehandlung" and the Volkswagen AG. Also, three political foundations, the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation, the Hanns-Seidel-Foundation and the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation, support the programme.
The closing date for applications is October 31, 2003. Applications of journalists from the United States need to be submitted by December 15, 2003.
Journalists from across Europe and the United States are now invited to apply for the European Journalism Fellowships of the Journalisten-Kolleg at the Freie Universitaet Berlin, which are being offered this year for the sixth time.
Participants are given the opportunity to take a two-semester leave from their professional positions to spend a sabbatical year at the Freie Universitaet Berlin in order to widen their knowledge and to pursue a major research project. At the same time, the programme enables participants to engage in intensive networking with professional colleagues from Eastern and Western Europe and the United States.
The most important element of application is an exposé for the scientific-journalistic project, to be pursued in Berlin. Written proof certifying good knowledge of German is required for participation. The programme starts in October 2004 and ends in July 2005. Highly qualified journalists, in both full and freelance employment, with several years of professional experience are entitled to apply. We offer the following fellowships:
Junior-Fellowships for journalists from Central and Eastern Europe with about five years of professional practice. The stipends are endowed with a monthly payment of 800 Euros up to
1,250 Euros for the duration of ten months.
Standard-Fellowships, which are - depending on the level of professional experience - endowed with a monthly payment of 1,500 Euros up to 2,050 Euros for the duration of ten months. Some of the stipends are specifically dedicated to journalists from Central and Eastern Europe with their focus on either economy or culture, to young female business journalists from Central and Eastern Europe, and to journalists from Berlin's twin cities of Central and Eastern Europe.
Renowned media companies, firms and foundations fund the programme in cooperation with the Freie Universitaet Berlin - currently the Deutsches Programm fuer transatlantische Begegnung, the FAZIT-Foundation (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung), the Haniel-Foundation, the Karl-Gerold-Foundation (Frankfurter Rundschau), the RIAS Berlin Kommission, the Foundation "Brandenburger Tor", the Foundation Presse-Haus NRZ, the Foundation "Preussische Seehandlung" and the Volkswagen AG. Also, three political foundations, the Friedrich-Ebert-Foundation, the Hanns-Seidel-Foundation and the Konrad-Adenauer-Foundation, support the programme.
The closing date for applications is October 31, 2003. Applications of journalists from the United States need to be submitted by December 15, 2003.
SOURCE: http://www.iicd.org/stories/
ICT Stories Competition 2003 - Tony Zeitoun Award: Now open to enter you
story!
Have you been working on a project that uses Information and Communication
Technologies (ICTs) as a tool for achieving development? Then this is an
opportunity for you to share your experiences with the world!
In almost all projects up-to-date knowledge about Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs) is crucial, but resources and access to
this knowledge are often limited. Moreover, in most projects there is
neither time nor money to carefully compare the various options available.
In such situations, the experiences of others facing the same problems
become invaluable.
Opportunities to learn from one's own experiences and to share the
experiences with others are an important means to strengthen respective
knowledge bases. Others find inspiration and can learn from those successes
and mistakes, without having to start a new project from scratch, not
knowing what others already know about the inherent risks and costs, as
well as about possible approaches to manage them.
Knowledge is generated throughout the entire course of a project. The ICT
Stories objective is to capture the learning process that accompanies the
introduction and implementation of ICTs in a project in exemplary stories.
Most Stories applicants have had to struggle to go through hurdles and a
lot of ups and downs for their projects to happen, and their stories become
vehicles to share such knowledge. These stories describe good practices and
lessons learned from contributors' experiences.
Enter the competition to win.
Based on a set of criteria three winning stories will be selected by a
renowned jury. The writers of these stories will be given the opportunity
to travel to Switzerland to present their findings at the ICT4D platform at
the WSIS!
Please visit our website for more information and the submission form.
The deadline to submit your story is September 26, 2003.
Good luck in the competition!
ICT Stories
More information: http://www.iicd.org/stories/
Email: stories@iicd.org
ICT Stories Competition 2003 - Tony Zeitoun Award: Now open to enter you
story!
Have you been working on a project that uses Information and Communication
Technologies (ICTs) as a tool for achieving development? Then this is an
opportunity for you to share your experiences with the world!
In almost all projects up-to-date knowledge about Information and
Communication Technologies (ICTs) is crucial, but resources and access to
this knowledge are often limited. Moreover, in most projects there is
neither time nor money to carefully compare the various options available.
In such situations, the experiences of others facing the same problems
become invaluable.
Opportunities to learn from one's own experiences and to share the
experiences with others are an important means to strengthen respective
knowledge bases. Others find inspiration and can learn from those successes
and mistakes, without having to start a new project from scratch, not
knowing what others already know about the inherent risks and costs, as
well as about possible approaches to manage them.
Knowledge is generated throughout the entire course of a project. The ICT
Stories objective is to capture the learning process that accompanies the
introduction and implementation of ICTs in a project in exemplary stories.
Most Stories applicants have had to struggle to go through hurdles and a
lot of ups and downs for their projects to happen, and their stories become
vehicles to share such knowledge. These stories describe good practices and
lessons learned from contributors' experiences.
Enter the competition to win.
Based on a set of criteria three winning stories will be selected by a
renowned jury. The writers of these stories will be given the opportunity
to travel to Switzerland to present their findings at the ICT4D platform at
the WSIS!
Please visit our website for more information and the submission form.
The deadline to submit your story is September 26, 2003.
Good luck in the competition!
ICT Stories
More information: http://www.iicd.org/stories/
Email: stories@iicd.org
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