Kids becoming fast food TV nation
Table: top-spending advertisers
Staff and agencies
Thursday September 25, 2003
The Guardian
Junk food does have an effect on children's behaviour and advertising strongly influences what youngsters want to eat, a new report has found.
The study, the most comprehensive of its kind conducted on the subject, found most food adverts aimed at children appeared on TV. They are dominated by what it calls the "Big Four" - breakfast cereals containing sugar, soft drinks, sweets, and other snacks.
The past decade has also seen a rapid rise in advertising by fast food chains, which often use the offer of free gifts to tempt youngsters, it says.
McDonald's is the UK's biggest food advertiser, spending a colossal £42m a year to publicise its Big Mac burgers, chips and McFlurry drinks - nearly three times more than the second biggest advertiser, Coca-Cola, which spends £15.5m a year.
"This is a comprehensive and extremely thorough review of the evidence on this important and complex issue," said Professor Gerard Hastings, who led the review.
"It reaches a number of significant conclusions about the link between promotional activities and children's eating behaviour.
"In particular, it concludes that advertising to children does have an effect on their preferences, purchase behaviour and consumption, and these effects are apparent not just for different brands but also for different types of food."
Prof Hastings and his team at the Centre for Social Marketing at the University of Strathclyde considered almost 30,000 pieces of research before deciding on the most relevant 101 studies on which to base their report.
The Food Standards Agency, which commissioned the research, announced today it would be promoting a public debate to discuss the findings.
Prof Hastings told a press conference it would be wrong to speculate on what action could be taken to allay concerns about the link between advertising and children's diet.
However, issues likely to come up for discussion at a forthcoming debate on the subject include some form of advertising ban, warnings on food packaging, and promoting media literacy in children.
"I think there needs to be a considered and careful debate because it is a complex subject," Prof Hastings told the briefing.
Kath Dalmeny, policy officer at healthy eating campaign group The Food Commission, described the report as a "call to action".
She said: "Children are already eating too much fat, sugar and salt, yet we allow them to be systematically targeted with advertising for unhealthy foods.
"The Food Standards Agency's review provides the evidence of what parents have known all along - advertising encourages children to choose unhealthy foods and to pester their parents for them."
Paul Lincoln, chief executive of the National Heart Forum, said: "For too long, the food industry and advertisers have freely engaged in ever more intensive and sophisticated marketing to younger and younger children while shouldering responsibility for children's poor eating habits on to parents and attributing weight gain to sedentary lifestyles instead of diet."
One supermarket chain in the UK has already taken action - the Co-op voluntarily stopped advertising any salty, fatty or sugary foods it sells during children's TV three years ago.
"The FSA findings come as no surprise to us. Our own research demonstrated the extent of food and drink advertising targeted at children and how this advertising exploits children's vulnerabilities and runs counter to the government's healthy eating guidelines," said Christine Clarke, head of Co-op brands.
"Our customers - parents in particular - are crying out for action to be taken against the mass advertising of these products, which is why we're campaigning for an all-out ban."
Almost £452m was spent on all types of food advertising last year - up from £359.6m in 1994, according to figures from market analysts ACNielsen and quoted in the FSA report.
MediaGuardian.co.uk © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003
September 30, 2003
Would you want your teenage daughter to read this? No way, says outraged Geldof
By Vincent Graff, Media Editor
30 September 2003
It would be unfair to say the editors of teenage girls' magazines have a one-track mind; after all, they also like J Lo, shift dresses from Top Shop, and perfect nails. But they do seem particularly keen on sex.
"Your guide to after-school snogs," screams the cover of this month's Sugar. "Sex survey results: the shocking truth you couldn't tell your parents," yells J-17. "You and guys and sex," shrieks Cosmo Girl!.
Yesterday, one parent, a father of three teenage children, hit back. And he is not just any parent. Bob Geldof, the rock star and charity hero, compared the publications to grown men who get sexual thrills from underage girls.
On a BBC2 programme, Grumpy Old Men, to be shown next week, Sir Bob asks: "Are they any less offensive than a 22-year-old man going to an 11- or 12-year-old girl and saying, 'I am going to talk to you about sex and how girls can give blow jobs to men?' If such a conversation happened, you would view it as odd, probably illegal and certainly predatory."
Sir Bob, father of Pixie, 13, Peaches, 15, and Fifi Trixibelle, 19, adds: "There is something predatory because they are made by adult men and women. Is it because of my age that makes me feel they are wrong? I don't think so. I would have objected to them when I was 20."
Sir Bob's anger centres on several magazines. Mizz, Bliss, J-17, Sugar and CosmoGirl! carry sex advice and sexually themed features for a readership with an average age of 15 or below. His criticisms are supported by Robert Whelan, director of the pressure group, Family and Youth Concern.
Mr Whelan said Sir Bob "is quite right. These magazines are objectionable. What disgusts me is the overall attitude which pervades these publications that the only thing a girl ought to be interested in is sex, and that girls need to be told how to do it".
These magazines were not "seedy back-street publications", he added, but produced by large, mainstream companies "with in-house lawyers who know how far they can go without risking prosecution".
The current issue of Cosmo Girl! discusses mutual masturbation, bisexuality and oral sex. Alongside a piece on "What your favourite colour says about you" and "How to become a millionaire" is an advice feature in which a reader asks: "My boyfriend recently tried to finger me and, although I was comfortable with him doing it, it really hurt. Will it get any better?" The reader is told: "Put sex on hold, try to relax and have fun getting to know each others' bodies."
Official trade figures show the average age of the magazine's readers is 14 and a half.
Celia Duncan, editor of CosmoGirl!, a youth offshoot of Cosmopolitan, denied her magazine sexualises girls before they are ready. "The people reading our magazine are 14 to 15 years old. We get some 13-year-olds, yes. But we get 500 letters a week to our problem page and I cannot remember a 12-year-old writing to us."
She said her agony aunts are professionally qualified. "Many of our features on sexual health are approved by the Department of Health," she said. "We don't print just anything. Everything in this area goes though several checks, and we abide by guidelines." Sexual slang is banned, apart from exceptional occasions.
"All the research we have done shows sex education in this country is haphazard and piecemeal," she added. "Most of our readers say they get their information in this area from teenage magazines. We go out of our way to answer questions they ask us in a responsible way."
Rival magazine Sugar, cover line, "Why some lads are addicted to lust", is gentler than its rival, concentrating more on "gorge guys" than what those guys might do after dark. The average age of a Sugar reader is just more than 14. Editor Claire Irvin justified her decision to run items such as a problem page letter on the subject of a boyfriend's "stiffy".
She said: "Our philosophy is that information is power. When we give information on sex, we always say it should be in the context of a loving trusting relationship, and readers should be over 16. We never talk about how to enjoy sex, and we make it clear not everyone is having sex."
In 1996, Peter Luff, the Conservative MP for Worcester, attempted to clamp down on such advice. Mr Luff's Periodical (Protection of Children) Bill would have required magazines to carry warnings on their covers about articles that parents might consider unsuitable. At the time, he said teenage magazines often degenerated into "squalid titillation, salaciousness and smut".
The debate was kick-started by an issue of TV Hits magazine - average readership age 12 and a half - in which an agony aunt offered a plain-spoken description of oral sex. She concluded the reservation that, providing the 16-year-old who asked for advice and her partner were free from infection, they should "lie back and enjoy it".
Mr Luff's Bill did not make it to the statute book, but the industry created its own regulator, the teenage magazine arbitration panel (Tmap), which issues guidelines, and deals with parents' complain about inappropriate sexual references.
The Tmap guidelines require that readers must "be encouraged to take a responsible attitude to sex and contraception". It adds, "safer sex" must be "encouraged where relevant"; "Where under-age sex or sexual abuse is discussed it will be stated clearly as illegal. Under-age sex will be discouraged and the age of consent clearly stated"; and "the emotional consequences of sexual activity will be highlighted where relevant".
Critics claim the organisation is a fig-leaf, saying few parents know of Tmap. The organisation's latest annual report shows that in the 12 months from November 2001 there were two complaints, neither upheld. The report called this "a productive year".
Sir Bob's intervention is timely. A recent last-minute amendment to the the Sexual Offences Bill, now going through Parliament, prevented the banning of such advice.
The Bill, aimed at preventing the "grooming" of vulnerable children by paedophiles, would have made it an offence to "arrange or facilitate the commission of a child sex offence". This would have included providing information that could be considered to "incite" an under-age child to have sex. After a lobbying campaign from the magazine industry, the ban has been lifted, where the purpose of such communication is "promoting the child's emotional well-being by the giving of advice".
Virginia Ironside, agony aunt at The Independent, was unconvinced of the threat posed by the magazines Sir Bob attacked. "I can't see there is a lot wrong with it," she said. She said girls can read magazines and newspapers with fewer safeguards and are not aimed at them. "Such as the Daily Mail."
The Mail yesterday ran a piece headlined "Learn to be a skillful lover" which recommended its male readers amuse lovers by "incorporating food into foreplay, drizzling cream over sensual areas such as her breasts and licking it off".
Between the covers
SUGAR
Circulation: 326,185
Average age of reader: 14.3
Cover lines: "Serial snoggers, why some guys are addicted to lust"; "Boys in their boxers (ooh!)"
Inside: The other day, my boyfriend told me that whenever we snog I give him a 'stiffy'."
COSMO GIRL!
Circulation: 188,249
Average age of reader: 14.5
Cover lines: "You and guys and sex: the questions you can't ask anyone - answered", "Why don't you have a boyfriend?"
Inside: "He wants sex 24/7... I love him and don't want to lose him."
J-17
Circulation: 134,433
Average age of reader: 15
Cover lines: "Sex survey results! The shocking truth you couldn't tell your parents", "Kiss with confidence - 7 ways to make him come back for more"
Inside: "Secret lesbians ... we went upstairs and kissed."
By Vincent Graff, Media Editor
30 September 2003
It would be unfair to say the editors of teenage girls' magazines have a one-track mind; after all, they also like J Lo, shift dresses from Top Shop, and perfect nails. But they do seem particularly keen on sex.
"Your guide to after-school snogs," screams the cover of this month's Sugar. "Sex survey results: the shocking truth you couldn't tell your parents," yells J-17. "You and guys and sex," shrieks Cosmo Girl!.
Yesterday, one parent, a father of three teenage children, hit back. And he is not just any parent. Bob Geldof, the rock star and charity hero, compared the publications to grown men who get sexual thrills from underage girls.
On a BBC2 programme, Grumpy Old Men, to be shown next week, Sir Bob asks: "Are they any less offensive than a 22-year-old man going to an 11- or 12-year-old girl and saying, 'I am going to talk to you about sex and how girls can give blow jobs to men?' If such a conversation happened, you would view it as odd, probably illegal and certainly predatory."
Sir Bob, father of Pixie, 13, Peaches, 15, and Fifi Trixibelle, 19, adds: "There is something predatory because they are made by adult men and women. Is it because of my age that makes me feel they are wrong? I don't think so. I would have objected to them when I was 20."
Sir Bob's anger centres on several magazines. Mizz, Bliss, J-17, Sugar and CosmoGirl! carry sex advice and sexually themed features for a readership with an average age of 15 or below. His criticisms are supported by Robert Whelan, director of the pressure group, Family and Youth Concern.
Mr Whelan said Sir Bob "is quite right. These magazines are objectionable. What disgusts me is the overall attitude which pervades these publications that the only thing a girl ought to be interested in is sex, and that girls need to be told how to do it".
These magazines were not "seedy back-street publications", he added, but produced by large, mainstream companies "with in-house lawyers who know how far they can go without risking prosecution".
The current issue of Cosmo Girl! discusses mutual masturbation, bisexuality and oral sex. Alongside a piece on "What your favourite colour says about you" and "How to become a millionaire" is an advice feature in which a reader asks: "My boyfriend recently tried to finger me and, although I was comfortable with him doing it, it really hurt. Will it get any better?" The reader is told: "Put sex on hold, try to relax and have fun getting to know each others' bodies."
Official trade figures show the average age of the magazine's readers is 14 and a half.
Celia Duncan, editor of CosmoGirl!, a youth offshoot of Cosmopolitan, denied her magazine sexualises girls before they are ready. "The people reading our magazine are 14 to 15 years old. We get some 13-year-olds, yes. But we get 500 letters a week to our problem page and I cannot remember a 12-year-old writing to us."
She said her agony aunts are professionally qualified. "Many of our features on sexual health are approved by the Department of Health," she said. "We don't print just anything. Everything in this area goes though several checks, and we abide by guidelines." Sexual slang is banned, apart from exceptional occasions.
"All the research we have done shows sex education in this country is haphazard and piecemeal," she added. "Most of our readers say they get their information in this area from teenage magazines. We go out of our way to answer questions they ask us in a responsible way."
Rival magazine Sugar, cover line, "Why some lads are addicted to lust", is gentler than its rival, concentrating more on "gorge guys" than what those guys might do after dark. The average age of a Sugar reader is just more than 14. Editor Claire Irvin justified her decision to run items such as a problem page letter on the subject of a boyfriend's "stiffy".
She said: "Our philosophy is that information is power. When we give information on sex, we always say it should be in the context of a loving trusting relationship, and readers should be over 16. We never talk about how to enjoy sex, and we make it clear not everyone is having sex."
In 1996, Peter Luff, the Conservative MP for Worcester, attempted to clamp down on such advice. Mr Luff's Periodical (Protection of Children) Bill would have required magazines to carry warnings on their covers about articles that parents might consider unsuitable. At the time, he said teenage magazines often degenerated into "squalid titillation, salaciousness and smut".
The debate was kick-started by an issue of TV Hits magazine - average readership age 12 and a half - in which an agony aunt offered a plain-spoken description of oral sex. She concluded the reservation that, providing the 16-year-old who asked for advice and her partner were free from infection, they should "lie back and enjoy it".
Mr Luff's Bill did not make it to the statute book, but the industry created its own regulator, the teenage magazine arbitration panel (Tmap), which issues guidelines, and deals with parents' complain about inappropriate sexual references.
The Tmap guidelines require that readers must "be encouraged to take a responsible attitude to sex and contraception". It adds, "safer sex" must be "encouraged where relevant"; "Where under-age sex or sexual abuse is discussed it will be stated clearly as illegal. Under-age sex will be discouraged and the age of consent clearly stated"; and "the emotional consequences of sexual activity will be highlighted where relevant".
Critics claim the organisation is a fig-leaf, saying few parents know of Tmap. The organisation's latest annual report shows that in the 12 months from November 2001 there were two complaints, neither upheld. The report called this "a productive year".
Sir Bob's intervention is timely. A recent last-minute amendment to the the Sexual Offences Bill, now going through Parliament, prevented the banning of such advice.
The Bill, aimed at preventing the "grooming" of vulnerable children by paedophiles, would have made it an offence to "arrange or facilitate the commission of a child sex offence". This would have included providing information that could be considered to "incite" an under-age child to have sex. After a lobbying campaign from the magazine industry, the ban has been lifted, where the purpose of such communication is "promoting the child's emotional well-being by the giving of advice".
Virginia Ironside, agony aunt at The Independent, was unconvinced of the threat posed by the magazines Sir Bob attacked. "I can't see there is a lot wrong with it," she said. She said girls can read magazines and newspapers with fewer safeguards and are not aimed at them. "Such as the Daily Mail."
The Mail yesterday ran a piece headlined "Learn to be a skillful lover" which recommended its male readers amuse lovers by "incorporating food into foreplay, drizzling cream over sensual areas such as her breasts and licking it off".
Between the covers
SUGAR
Circulation: 326,185
Average age of reader: 14.3
Cover lines: "Serial snoggers, why some guys are addicted to lust"; "Boys in their boxers (ooh!)"
Inside: The other day, my boyfriend told me that whenever we snog I give him a 'stiffy'."
COSMO GIRL!
Circulation: 188,249
Average age of reader: 14.5
Cover lines: "You and guys and sex: the questions you can't ask anyone - answered", "Why don't you have a boyfriend?"
Inside: "He wants sex 24/7... I love him and don't want to lose him."
J-17
Circulation: 134,433
Average age of reader: 15
Cover lines: "Sex survey results! The shocking truth you couldn't tell your parents", "Kiss with confidence - 7 ways to make him come back for more"
Inside: "Secret lesbians ... we went upstairs and kissed."
September 29, 2003
Media Guardian - The chat trap
Microsoft's decision to close its free chatrooms has been hailed by children's charities as a crucial blow in the battle against paedophiles. But will evicting over a million young chatters expose them to greater risks, asks Ben Carter
Monday September 29, 2003
The Guardian
For months children's charities, the government and much of the tabloid press have been pressurising the internet industry to take decisive action to clamp down on the increasing amount of paedophile activity on the web.
Last week the first indication that the message is finally getting through came with the news that Microsoft is closing down all of its free chatrooms globally - in the UK, it will completely shut down its chat-service on October 14.
This decision has been hailed by children's charities as crucial to cutting paedophile activity but MSN's industry peers are not so complimentary about the radical move, particularly as it's effectively pulling the plug on over one million chatters.
Matt Whittingham is head of customer satisfaction for MSN UK and was involved in the decision to end its chat services. "We've been looking at our chatrooms for quite a while now and have become increasingly concerned about the level of inappropriate communication going on in them."
Whittingham says that the decision to pull the plug on its chat user-base was made primarily because of concern over paedophile activity but also because spammers were deliberately targeting MSN's users through its chat services.
"We've been very careful to give out the right educative messages but for the sake of our customers we are not going to tolerate this any longer," he adds. It's not just the UK which is going to be affected by this decision. Globally, MSN will stop offering free web-based chat but in America, it will continue to offer subscription-based chat services where it says it will be able to monitor who is chatting, through its billing relationship with the customer.
Whittingham says that MSN did consider going down the subscription route in the UK but because of "the level of inappropriate communication" it decided to shut the chat service down.
Most children's charities are delighted with MSN's decision and hope that other internet companies will follow suit. "If Microsoft don't feel that they can provide a safe service then they're morally obliged to take it down, so this is a serious message from Microsoft about the lack of safe chat on the internet," says John Carr, internet adviser to National Children's Home. NSPCC internet expert Chris Atkinson agrees, claiming that for too long the internet industry has claimed that this is a problem which cannot be solved.
"MSN is showing us that this is not the case and we now hope that other ISPs and chatroom providers take similar action," she says. However many within the industry are not convinced that this will happen. The majority of big internet companies insist that they will continue to run chat services for their customers, although some are, and will continue to be, moderated.
AOL UK is one such case. It has special chatrooms for both kids and teenagers which are open for a specific number of hours each day and which, according to AOL, are very popular. Camille De Stempel, AOL's director of policy, says that it makes sense for it to carry on running chatrooms as long as they continue to be safe for their members to go to. "Our chatrooms are only for our members and we know everybody who is online. We've continued to offer chat which is safe and moderated and if there are problems within the chatroom, the moderator can help out."
De Stempel says she can understand why MSN has decided to shut its chat service as it had no way of controlling who was visiting its chatrooms, but she claims that this shouldn't lead to chat being outlawed online. "We have been working closely both with the government and the industry on running a responsible chat service. We want it to be 100% safe but you can never guarantee it."
One of MSN's rivals, Freeserve, is adopting a similar stance to chat. It says that it will continue to run a moderated service because it claims chat is an essential part of its customer offer. Its spokeswoman Nadia Schofield says that she is "disappointed and surprised" by MSN's decision, particularly as "chat is one of the most popular tools on the internet and it's not going to go away".
However the fact that many ISPs claim that their chat is safe because it's moderated is also a thorn in the industry's side. The likes of AOL, Freeserve and Lycos continue to offer what they say are moderated and safe chat services, yet children's charities and pressure groups are not so convinced.
"There has been no agreed definition on moderation. Some within the industry are running a bit of software which screens out swear words, while others are employing police-trained specialists to monitor chatrooms," says Carr.
One factor which has received little publicity since Microsoft's decision is what will happen to its one million-plus chat users. There are concerns both from the industry and the charities that children could end up giving out personal contact details such as phone numbers or, worse, addresses because their chat service will no longer be available.
MSN admits that there will be "some displacement" because of its decision, but Whittingham claims it will encourage children to stay within the realms of MSN through its MSN Messenger service.
Rachel O'Connell, a web safety expert from the University of Central Lancashire, is not so convinced. She warns that if MSN's decision to shut down its chatrooms leads to a domino effect from other ISPs then children could be at greater risk online than before, when the chatrooms were open.
Peter Robbins is chief executive of the Internet Watch Foundation, the industry-funded body responsible for monitoring and reporting paedophile activity on the internet. He agrees with O'Connell that there's a risk associated with forcing children out of chatrooms. He stresses that there's now a responsibility on the parents to ensure that their children are surfing the net safely, and that the onus for their protection doesn't just lie with the industry.
"Parents have to ensure that their children are chatting in a safe environment and, just as in relation to the outside world, they have to set parameters depending on their age; this is the only way to protect them."
Microsoft's decision to close the doors on free chatrooms shows the immense pressure on the internet industry to take action. However, rather worryingly for both parents and the government, new risks are starting to emerge.
Next generation mobile phones, instant messaging and even chatrooms on digital TV will, according to Robbins, pose an even bigger risk than the internet to children because of their ever-present nature and because of the quality of images that it will be possible to send to children via the mobile networks.
The IWF is now working with all of the UK's mobile networks to address this problem but Robbins warns that there remain many lessons to be learned from the ordeal the internet industry is still going through.
"The operators have learned from the internet so they're not going to hand over this problem to the man on the street and say you stop your children being at risk from paedophiles."
However, while the charities and the industry may be at odds over how best to protect children online, there is one innovation which they all feel can't come soon enough - the creation of a piece of technology that whether on a phone, the web or the TV will block out unwanted individuals and material they may be trying to send.
"We can see what could happen in the future and we're now responding accordingly. Children will want to chat to people somewhere so we have to all work together to ensure that the right safeguards are in place," says Robbins.
Microsoft's decision to close its free chatrooms has been hailed by children's charities as a crucial blow in the battle against paedophiles. But will evicting over a million young chatters expose them to greater risks, asks Ben Carter
Monday September 29, 2003
The Guardian
For months children's charities, the government and much of the tabloid press have been pressurising the internet industry to take decisive action to clamp down on the increasing amount of paedophile activity on the web.
Last week the first indication that the message is finally getting through came with the news that Microsoft is closing down all of its free chatrooms globally - in the UK, it will completely shut down its chat-service on October 14.
This decision has been hailed by children's charities as crucial to cutting paedophile activity but MSN's industry peers are not so complimentary about the radical move, particularly as it's effectively pulling the plug on over one million chatters.
Matt Whittingham is head of customer satisfaction for MSN UK and was involved in the decision to end its chat services. "We've been looking at our chatrooms for quite a while now and have become increasingly concerned about the level of inappropriate communication going on in them."
Whittingham says that the decision to pull the plug on its chat user-base was made primarily because of concern over paedophile activity but also because spammers were deliberately targeting MSN's users through its chat services.
"We've been very careful to give out the right educative messages but for the sake of our customers we are not going to tolerate this any longer," he adds. It's not just the UK which is going to be affected by this decision. Globally, MSN will stop offering free web-based chat but in America, it will continue to offer subscription-based chat services where it says it will be able to monitor who is chatting, through its billing relationship with the customer.
Whittingham says that MSN did consider going down the subscription route in the UK but because of "the level of inappropriate communication" it decided to shut the chat service down.
Most children's charities are delighted with MSN's decision and hope that other internet companies will follow suit. "If Microsoft don't feel that they can provide a safe service then they're morally obliged to take it down, so this is a serious message from Microsoft about the lack of safe chat on the internet," says John Carr, internet adviser to National Children's Home. NSPCC internet expert Chris Atkinson agrees, claiming that for too long the internet industry has claimed that this is a problem which cannot be solved.
"MSN is showing us that this is not the case and we now hope that other ISPs and chatroom providers take similar action," she says. However many within the industry are not convinced that this will happen. The majority of big internet companies insist that they will continue to run chat services for their customers, although some are, and will continue to be, moderated.
AOL UK is one such case. It has special chatrooms for both kids and teenagers which are open for a specific number of hours each day and which, according to AOL, are very popular. Camille De Stempel, AOL's director of policy, says that it makes sense for it to carry on running chatrooms as long as they continue to be safe for their members to go to. "Our chatrooms are only for our members and we know everybody who is online. We've continued to offer chat which is safe and moderated and if there are problems within the chatroom, the moderator can help out."
De Stempel says she can understand why MSN has decided to shut its chat service as it had no way of controlling who was visiting its chatrooms, but she claims that this shouldn't lead to chat being outlawed online. "We have been working closely both with the government and the industry on running a responsible chat service. We want it to be 100% safe but you can never guarantee it."
One of MSN's rivals, Freeserve, is adopting a similar stance to chat. It says that it will continue to run a moderated service because it claims chat is an essential part of its customer offer. Its spokeswoman Nadia Schofield says that she is "disappointed and surprised" by MSN's decision, particularly as "chat is one of the most popular tools on the internet and it's not going to go away".
However the fact that many ISPs claim that their chat is safe because it's moderated is also a thorn in the industry's side. The likes of AOL, Freeserve and Lycos continue to offer what they say are moderated and safe chat services, yet children's charities and pressure groups are not so convinced.
"There has been no agreed definition on moderation. Some within the industry are running a bit of software which screens out swear words, while others are employing police-trained specialists to monitor chatrooms," says Carr.
One factor which has received little publicity since Microsoft's decision is what will happen to its one million-plus chat users. There are concerns both from the industry and the charities that children could end up giving out personal contact details such as phone numbers or, worse, addresses because their chat service will no longer be available.
MSN admits that there will be "some displacement" because of its decision, but Whittingham claims it will encourage children to stay within the realms of MSN through its MSN Messenger service.
Rachel O'Connell, a web safety expert from the University of Central Lancashire, is not so convinced. She warns that if MSN's decision to shut down its chatrooms leads to a domino effect from other ISPs then children could be at greater risk online than before, when the chatrooms were open.
Peter Robbins is chief executive of the Internet Watch Foundation, the industry-funded body responsible for monitoring and reporting paedophile activity on the internet. He agrees with O'Connell that there's a risk associated with forcing children out of chatrooms. He stresses that there's now a responsibility on the parents to ensure that their children are surfing the net safely, and that the onus for their protection doesn't just lie with the industry.
"Parents have to ensure that their children are chatting in a safe environment and, just as in relation to the outside world, they have to set parameters depending on their age; this is the only way to protect them."
Microsoft's decision to close the doors on free chatrooms shows the immense pressure on the internet industry to take action. However, rather worryingly for both parents and the government, new risks are starting to emerge.
Next generation mobile phones, instant messaging and even chatrooms on digital TV will, according to Robbins, pose an even bigger risk than the internet to children because of their ever-present nature and because of the quality of images that it will be possible to send to children via the mobile networks.
The IWF is now working with all of the UK's mobile networks to address this problem but Robbins warns that there remain many lessons to be learned from the ordeal the internet industry is still going through.
"The operators have learned from the internet so they're not going to hand over this problem to the man on the street and say you stop your children being at risk from paedophiles."
However, while the charities and the industry may be at odds over how best to protect children online, there is one innovation which they all feel can't come soon enough - the creation of a piece of technology that whether on a phone, the web or the TV will block out unwanted individuals and material they may be trying to send.
"We can see what could happen in the future and we're now responding accordingly. Children will want to chat to people somewhere so we have to all work together to ensure that the right safeguards are in place," says Robbins.
September 22, 2003
Rock video to help rural stress
A rock video promoting a rural stress helpine is being produced by youngsters from mid and west Wales.
Media studies students at Ysgol Gyfun Aberaeron are helping to make the short film which features a specially-commissioned track by the Pembrokeshire band Clarity.
It will be played at youth and young farmers' clubs in the region to promote the Welsh assembly funded Wales Rural Stress Helpline.
Those behind the project say youngsters in rural areas often face worries and difficulties not experienced by their urban counterparts.
The projected started because of the foot-and-mouth crisis and its impact on youngsters in rural areas
Project worker Dolan Davies
Problems in farming, a lack of jobs and the fact some live in isolated areas are some of the issues.
Plant Dewi, a Church in Wales run charity working with youngsters in the diocese of St David's, has been awarded nearly £30,000 from the assembly for the project.
Filming is expected to wrap on Tuesday and the media studies students will then edit the footage.
Project worker Dolan Davies said: "The video is highlighting the problems young people face in rural Wales.
"We are hoping to take it around all the youth and young farmers' clubs in Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire to promote the helpine to people between the age of 14 and 24.
"It's basically just to get young people talking and opening up about their problems."
Clarity were chosen to perform the video after winning a battle of the bands competition held in Aberaeron.
The band then wrote a song called Alone specifically for the project and had it professionally recorded at the Dreamworld Studios near Haverfordwest.
"The winning band was chosen by the audience at the competition," added Ms Davies.
"They then had to write a song for the video.
"In the video there will be clips showing the problems faced by young people in rural areas.
"The projected started because of the foot-and-mouth crisis and its impact on youngsters in rural areas."
Plant Dewi has also got a grant of £6,000 from the Nationwide Foundation for further projects to promote the helpine.
"We are hoping to develop radio dramas, phone-ins and move onto the internet as well," said Ms Davies.
The free phone helpline number is 0800 0858119. It is open 1000BST - 1400 and 1900 - 2300 on Mondays to Fridays and 1200 - 2400 Saturdays and Sundays.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/wales/mid_/3125506.stm
Published: 2003/09/20 15:44:50 GMT
A rock video promoting a rural stress helpine is being produced by youngsters from mid and west Wales.
Media studies students at Ysgol Gyfun Aberaeron are helping to make the short film which features a specially-commissioned track by the Pembrokeshire band Clarity.
It will be played at youth and young farmers' clubs in the region to promote the Welsh assembly funded Wales Rural Stress Helpline.
Those behind the project say youngsters in rural areas often face worries and difficulties not experienced by their urban counterparts.
The projected started because of the foot-and-mouth crisis and its impact on youngsters in rural areas
Project worker Dolan Davies
Problems in farming, a lack of jobs and the fact some live in isolated areas are some of the issues.
Plant Dewi, a Church in Wales run charity working with youngsters in the diocese of St David's, has been awarded nearly £30,000 from the assembly for the project.
Filming is expected to wrap on Tuesday and the media studies students will then edit the footage.
Project worker Dolan Davies said: "The video is highlighting the problems young people face in rural Wales.
"We are hoping to take it around all the youth and young farmers' clubs in Ceredigion, Carmarthenshire and Pembrokeshire to promote the helpine to people between the age of 14 and 24.
"It's basically just to get young people talking and opening up about their problems."
Clarity were chosen to perform the video after winning a battle of the bands competition held in Aberaeron.
The band then wrote a song called Alone specifically for the project and had it professionally recorded at the Dreamworld Studios near Haverfordwest.
"The winning band was chosen by the audience at the competition," added Ms Davies.
"They then had to write a song for the video.
"In the video there will be clips showing the problems faced by young people in rural areas.
"The projected started because of the foot-and-mouth crisis and its impact on youngsters in rural areas."
Plant Dewi has also got a grant of £6,000 from the Nationwide Foundation for further projects to promote the helpine.
"We are hoping to develop radio dramas, phone-ins and move onto the internet as well," said Ms Davies.
The free phone helpline number is 0800 0858119. It is open 1000BST - 1400 and 1900 - 2300 on Mondays to Fridays and 1200 - 2400 Saturdays and Sundays.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/wales/mid_/3125506.stm
Published: 2003/09/20 15:44:50 GMT
September 11, 2003
Youth Market Needs to Grow Up
Moneyweb (Johannesburg)
NEWS
August 19, 2003
Posted to the web August 20, 2003
By Kim Penstone
Johannesburg
If there's one thing the latest ABCs reveal, it's that there is an enormous gap in the publishing market. A gap filled with South Africa's teenagers, desperate to find a magazine that meets their very specific needs. A gap that magazines like Blunt, Saltwater Girl, TeenZone and Y Mag are starting to fill but, by all accounts, have just scratched the surface.
According to Census 2001, there are 44.8 million people in South Africa, 21.4% of whom are between the ages of 14 and 24. That's 9.6 million people who fit into the official age gap that marketers refer to as 'youth'.
The fact that this market is crying out for media to call its own, has been amply proven by the likes of Yfm, which has a past seven day listenership of 1.7 million, and DStv, a recent entrant into the market with Go, a channel aimed exclusively at teenagers.
It's also borne out by the latest ABCs (January to June 2003), which see TeenZone sitting at the top of the pile with a first time figure of 22 999, followed by Blunt with sales of 17 151 (a slight decrease, due to the increase in frequency from eight to 10 issues a year), and Y Mag with 17 047 (a six-monthly growth of 36.6%).
"Generally speaking, the market is on an upwards curve," says Craig Sims, managing director of Atoll Media, which publishes Blunt, ZigZag and Saltwater Girl.
To give you a general idea, the top five magazines in this category (excluding TeenZone, as this was the first time it posted an ABC) have increased sales in the youth category by an average of 17% (over July to December 2002). It's a trend that's expected to continue.
But the question facing publishers in this category is not whether or not there's a market out there - they know that there is, and they know equally well that this market consumes media almost insatiably. The question they face is whether or not there's a market in the gap.
"I'm not going to lie to you, it's tough out there," says Yfm's Dirk Hartford.
"We all struggle to get our piece of the pie".
Sims agrees wholeheartedly, commenting that the category probably can't support another title. "There are literally millions of potential readers out there," he says, "but there's simply not enough advertising to justify another title".
This doesn't bode well for Media24, which enters the fray with the local launch of Seventeen in November.
"The real problem is that marketers and strat planners just don't get the market," says Sims. "They aren't educated enough on the power of the youth in terms of their spending power, and their ability to influence consumer spend."
Hartford has a slightly different take. "They know the facts, and there's definitely a bigger buzz around the youth market in South Africa than there ever has been before. The difficulty lies in understanding how to use this knowledge. A lot of people are still circling the youth market warily."
This is a view shared by TeenZone's Angela Summers. "The market is definitely picking up," she says. "When we first started, marketers simply ignored us.
Then Absa released the 1999 Report on Youth, and Unilever released its Trend Youth study, and marketers slowly started taking note. Now we're starting to get the likes of Nivea and Clean and Clear in the magazine "
That said, she adds that the entrance of another magazine, especially a strong international brand like Seventeen, spells trouble for the existing titles, especially those still struggling to make it into the top five in the category.
"There will be fallout," concludes Sims. "Yes, the readers are there, but that means nothing until the marketers realise their power".
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 2003 Moneyweb. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
Moneyweb (Johannesburg)
NEWS
August 19, 2003
Posted to the web August 20, 2003
By Kim Penstone
Johannesburg
If there's one thing the latest ABCs reveal, it's that there is an enormous gap in the publishing market. A gap filled with South Africa's teenagers, desperate to find a magazine that meets their very specific needs. A gap that magazines like Blunt, Saltwater Girl, TeenZone and Y Mag are starting to fill but, by all accounts, have just scratched the surface.
According to Census 2001, there are 44.8 million people in South Africa, 21.4% of whom are between the ages of 14 and 24. That's 9.6 million people who fit into the official age gap that marketers refer to as 'youth'.
The fact that this market is crying out for media to call its own, has been amply proven by the likes of Yfm, which has a past seven day listenership of 1.7 million, and DStv, a recent entrant into the market with Go, a channel aimed exclusively at teenagers.
It's also borne out by the latest ABCs (January to June 2003), which see TeenZone sitting at the top of the pile with a first time figure of 22 999, followed by Blunt with sales of 17 151 (a slight decrease, due to the increase in frequency from eight to 10 issues a year), and Y Mag with 17 047 (a six-monthly growth of 36.6%).
"Generally speaking, the market is on an upwards curve," says Craig Sims, managing director of Atoll Media, which publishes Blunt, ZigZag and Saltwater Girl.
To give you a general idea, the top five magazines in this category (excluding TeenZone, as this was the first time it posted an ABC) have increased sales in the youth category by an average of 17% (over July to December 2002). It's a trend that's expected to continue.
But the question facing publishers in this category is not whether or not there's a market out there - they know that there is, and they know equally well that this market consumes media almost insatiably. The question they face is whether or not there's a market in the gap.
"I'm not going to lie to you, it's tough out there," says Yfm's Dirk Hartford.
"We all struggle to get our piece of the pie".
Sims agrees wholeheartedly, commenting that the category probably can't support another title. "There are literally millions of potential readers out there," he says, "but there's simply not enough advertising to justify another title".
This doesn't bode well for Media24, which enters the fray with the local launch of Seventeen in November.
"The real problem is that marketers and strat planners just don't get the market," says Sims. "They aren't educated enough on the power of the youth in terms of their spending power, and their ability to influence consumer spend."
Hartford has a slightly different take. "They know the facts, and there's definitely a bigger buzz around the youth market in South Africa than there ever has been before. The difficulty lies in understanding how to use this knowledge. A lot of people are still circling the youth market warily."
This is a view shared by TeenZone's Angela Summers. "The market is definitely picking up," she says. "When we first started, marketers simply ignored us.
Then Absa released the 1999 Report on Youth, and Unilever released its Trend Youth study, and marketers slowly started taking note. Now we're starting to get the likes of Nivea and Clean and Clear in the magazine "
That said, she adds that the entrance of another magazine, especially a strong international brand like Seventeen, spells trouble for the existing titles, especially those still struggling to make it into the top five in the category.
"There will be fallout," concludes Sims. "Yes, the readers are there, but that means nothing until the marketers realise their power".
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Copyright © 2003 Moneyweb. All rights reserved. Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media (allAfrica.com).
September 10, 2003
Five warned over TV sponsorship
Claire Cozens
Monday September 8, 2003
Channel Five came close to breaking the rules on programme sponsorship when it broadcast a controversial cookery show funded entirely by the food giant Heinz, the television watchdog said today.
The independent television commission launched an investigation into Dinner Doctors after it emerged that the show, which featured recipes using tinned products such as baked beans and macaroni cheese, was paid for by Heinz.
The ITC said Dinner Doctors, which is hosted by Anneka Rice and features quick recipes for children, did not break its codes because the Heinz brand was not shown.
But it warned that references in the show to products made by the sponsor "came very close to having an overall promotional effect for Heinz, contrary to the code of programme sponsorship".
"While staff were reassured on this occasion, the ITC would be concerned should this type of relationship be taken any further," the watchdog added.
Defending the show, Five said Heinz had no involvement in choosing the families that appeared in the programmes, the recipes featured or in any part of the production process.
Five argued that the premise of the programme was to show viewers better uses for the food already in their kitchen, and it was therefore to be expected that some tinned products would be used.
The broadcaster said it had taken care to ensure that the recipes used in the programme were healthy dishes and did not include food parents would be reluctant to give their children.
The ITC said it "would not wish to discourage broadcasters from seeking alternative sources of programme funding, such as advertiser funded programmes".
But there are concerns that so-called advertiser funded programming, whereby companies finance programmes related to their products, is helping to blur the line between editorial and advertising on TV.
Although Dinner Doctors, part of a £2m campaign to promote Heinz beans and pasta meals, does not feature any branded products the link with Heinz is clear.
The company has created specially branded tins carrying recipes linked to Dinner Doctors, and promotional messages appear before and after the show.
· To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857
Claire Cozens
Monday September 8, 2003
Channel Five came close to breaking the rules on programme sponsorship when it broadcast a controversial cookery show funded entirely by the food giant Heinz, the television watchdog said today.
The independent television commission launched an investigation into Dinner Doctors after it emerged that the show, which featured recipes using tinned products such as baked beans and macaroni cheese, was paid for by Heinz.
The ITC said Dinner Doctors, which is hosted by Anneka Rice and features quick recipes for children, did not break its codes because the Heinz brand was not shown.
But it warned that references in the show to products made by the sponsor "came very close to having an overall promotional effect for Heinz, contrary to the code of programme sponsorship".
"While staff were reassured on this occasion, the ITC would be concerned should this type of relationship be taken any further," the watchdog added.
Defending the show, Five said Heinz had no involvement in choosing the families that appeared in the programmes, the recipes featured or in any part of the production process.
Five argued that the premise of the programme was to show viewers better uses for the food already in their kitchen, and it was therefore to be expected that some tinned products would be used.
The broadcaster said it had taken care to ensure that the recipes used in the programme were healthy dishes and did not include food parents would be reluctant to give their children.
The ITC said it "would not wish to discourage broadcasters from seeking alternative sources of programme funding, such as advertiser funded programmes".
But there are concerns that so-called advertiser funded programming, whereby companies finance programmes related to their products, is helping to blur the line between editorial and advertising on TV.
Although Dinner Doctors, part of a £2m campaign to promote Heinz beans and pasta meals, does not feature any branded products the link with Heinz is clear.
The company has created specially branded tins carrying recipes linked to Dinner Doctors, and promotional messages appear before and after the show.
· To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857
Alagiah: children 'worried sick' by news
Ciar Byrne
Wednesday September 10, 2003
Alagiah: 'news diet of bomb blasts, forest fires, child abuse'
BBC Six O'Clock News presenter George Alagiah today spoke of the difficulties facing parents worried their children were seeing too much "misery" on television news.
He said children were just as likely to be upset by a relentless diet of bombs, forest fires and paedophilia as they are by the types of programmes traditionally seen as too adult for youngsters - such as post-watershed drama.
Writing in a BBC magazine, Alagiah said the decisions facing parents were as tough as they were on September 11 2001, when he, like millions of parents, decided his children should not watch events unfold on television unsupervised.
As Alagiah drove to the airport that day for one of the toughest assignments he has ever faced, his first thought as a parent was that his two sons Adam, 14, and Matt, 11, should not watch.
"On the phone my wife, Frances, and I agreed that our younger son in particular, would need help in understanding what was happening," wrote Alagiah in the first issue of BBC Parenting magazine, launched today.
"We had never felt the need to protect either of them from the images I had beamed back over a decade of war reporting. There is a gross, tangible reality about conventional warfare. Pain and suffering, death and bodies, even the young can cope with that.
"But that Tuesday, September 11, with its clean, efficient exercise of malice, was outside any accepted notion of conflict. Aircraft and skyscrapers, commonplace icons of our modern world, of our version of civilisation, were transmuted into symbols of death and destruction. The ordinary had become dangerous, that was the subliminal caption those TV pictures conveyed."
The relentlessly negative tone of many news bulletins has since led Alagiah to wonder whether he should monitor his children's viewing of factual programming, in the same way they are restricted from watching other programmes he and his wife consider unsuitable.
"Like many parents we already have some ground rules about how much TV they watch and what sort of programmes are suitable. And like most parents we have discovered just how adept they are at pushing those boundaries! Curiously, we have never extended our duty of care to factual programming.
"It's curious because I suspect children are just as likely to be worried sick by a news diet of bomb blasts, forest fires, child abuse, questions over the trustworthiness of our leaders and the reliability of our journalists and that's just the last month or so!"
Alagiah, who is a patron of the Parenting Education and Support Forum, revealed that one of his sons recently walked away from a news bulletin they were watching together, because it was too "miserable".
He was forced to agree that his son had a point and said: "There is much more about underachievement on the news than there is about success".
"Is it right that it is only in works of fiction - be it Pirates of the Caribbean or Matrix Reloaded - that children see the great triumph of good over evil, while on the news, in real life, they see what appears to be the reverse?" he asked.
· To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857
Ciar Byrne
Wednesday September 10, 2003
Alagiah: 'news diet of bomb blasts, forest fires, child abuse'
BBC Six O'Clock News presenter George Alagiah today spoke of the difficulties facing parents worried their children were seeing too much "misery" on television news.
He said children were just as likely to be upset by a relentless diet of bombs, forest fires and paedophilia as they are by the types of programmes traditionally seen as too adult for youngsters - such as post-watershed drama.
Writing in a BBC magazine, Alagiah said the decisions facing parents were as tough as they were on September 11 2001, when he, like millions of parents, decided his children should not watch events unfold on television unsupervised.
As Alagiah drove to the airport that day for one of the toughest assignments he has ever faced, his first thought as a parent was that his two sons Adam, 14, and Matt, 11, should not watch.
"On the phone my wife, Frances, and I agreed that our younger son in particular, would need help in understanding what was happening," wrote Alagiah in the first issue of BBC Parenting magazine, launched today.
"We had never felt the need to protect either of them from the images I had beamed back over a decade of war reporting. There is a gross, tangible reality about conventional warfare. Pain and suffering, death and bodies, even the young can cope with that.
"But that Tuesday, September 11, with its clean, efficient exercise of malice, was outside any accepted notion of conflict. Aircraft and skyscrapers, commonplace icons of our modern world, of our version of civilisation, were transmuted into symbols of death and destruction. The ordinary had become dangerous, that was the subliminal caption those TV pictures conveyed."
The relentlessly negative tone of many news bulletins has since led Alagiah to wonder whether he should monitor his children's viewing of factual programming, in the same way they are restricted from watching other programmes he and his wife consider unsuitable.
"Like many parents we already have some ground rules about how much TV they watch and what sort of programmes are suitable. And like most parents we have discovered just how adept they are at pushing those boundaries! Curiously, we have never extended our duty of care to factual programming.
"It's curious because I suspect children are just as likely to be worried sick by a news diet of bomb blasts, forest fires, child abuse, questions over the trustworthiness of our leaders and the reliability of our journalists and that's just the last month or so!"
Alagiah, who is a patron of the Parenting Education and Support Forum, revealed that one of his sons recently walked away from a news bulletin they were watching together, because it was too "miserable".
He was forced to agree that his son had a point and said: "There is much more about underachievement on the news than there is about success".
"Is it right that it is only in works of fiction - be it Pirates of the Caribbean or Matrix Reloaded - that children see the great triumph of good over evil, while on the news, in real life, they see what appears to be the reverse?" he asked.
· To contact the MediaGuardian newsdesk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 7239 9857
Student Media Awards shortlist is revealed - shortlist
By Holdthefrontpage staff
The Guardian has announced its shortlist for the 2003 Student Media Awards:
Student Newspaper of the Year
York Vision, University of York;
Concrete, University of East Anglia;
Leeds Student, University of Leeds and Leeds Metropolitan University;
The University Observer, University College Dublin;
Warwick Boar, University of Warwick/
Student Magazine of the Year
Grip, UMIST;
Student BMJ;
Pugwash, University of Portsmouth;
Nerve, Bournemouth University;
Degrees North, University of Sunderland;
The Pulse, University of Sussex.
Student Reporter of the Year
Steve Bloomfield, Liverpool Student, University of Liverpool;
Torsten Henricson-Bell, Cherwell, University of Oxford;
Robert Harris, York Vision, University of York;
Catherine Long, Varsity, University of Cambridge;
Oliver Brown, Palatinate, University Durham.
Student Feature Writer of the Year
Eleanor Tennant, Palatinate, University of Durham;
Thomas Whipple, The Cambridge Student, University of Cambridge;
Nathan Dixon, Concrete, University of East Anglia;
Clare Bevis, The Oxford Student/Isis, University of Oxford;
Tom Phillips, Leeds Student, University of Leeds and Leeds Metropolitan University.
Student Photographer of the Year
Fiona Campbell, London College of Printing;
Kristina Hruska, Nottingham Trent University;
Helen Murphy, Nottingham Trent University;
Ryan Li, Cherwell, University of Oxford;
Kenneth Kajoranta, Falmouth College of Arts;
Charlotte Player, Nottingham Trent University.
Student Publication Design of the Year
The winner will be announced on the night.
Student Website of the Year
Bath Impact, University of Bath;
Blunt, Cardiff University;
Durham 21, University of Durham;
Wessex Scene, University of Southampton.
Student Critic of the Year
The winner will be announced on the night.
Small Budget Publication of Year
The Pulse, University of Sussex;
The Best Years of Your Life, The Latymer School;
York Vision, University of York;
Hardcore is More Than Music, Chelsea College of Art & Design;
Degrees North, University of Sunderland.
Student Sports Writer of the Year
Mark Douglas, Warwick Boar, University of Warwick;
Will White, Student, University of Edinburgh;
Richard Kimber, The Cambridge Student, University of Cambridge.
Student Diversity Writer of the Year
Peter Lahiff, The College Tribune, University College Dublin;
Heather Browne, Leeds Student, University of Leeds and Leeds Metropolitan University;
Nosheen Asghar, Impact, University of Nottingham.
Student Travel Writer of the Year
Liz Jones, Redbrick, University of Birmingham;
Jon Bentham, York Vision, University of York;
Robert Harris, York Vision, University of York;
Jeremy Lemer, The Cambridge Student, University of Cambridge;
Sophie Morris, Varsity, University of Cambridge.
Student Columnist of the Year
Murray Garrard, Epigram, Bristol University;
Ravi Somaiya, Student Direct, University of Manchester;
Catherine Nixey, The Cambridge Student, University of Cambridge;
Iain Hollingshead, Varsity, University of Cambridge;
Shiv Malik, Leeds Student, University of Leeds;
Ivo Wengraf, Liverpool Student, University of Liverpool.
Winners will be announced on November 12.
By Holdthefrontpage staff
The Guardian has announced its shortlist for the 2003 Student Media Awards:
Student Newspaper of the Year
York Vision, University of York;
Concrete, University of East Anglia;
Leeds Student, University of Leeds and Leeds Metropolitan University;
The University Observer, University College Dublin;
Warwick Boar, University of Warwick/
Student Magazine of the Year
Grip, UMIST;
Student BMJ;
Pugwash, University of Portsmouth;
Nerve, Bournemouth University;
Degrees North, University of Sunderland;
The Pulse, University of Sussex.
Student Reporter of the Year
Steve Bloomfield, Liverpool Student, University of Liverpool;
Torsten Henricson-Bell, Cherwell, University of Oxford;
Robert Harris, York Vision, University of York;
Catherine Long, Varsity, University of Cambridge;
Oliver Brown, Palatinate, University Durham.
Student Feature Writer of the Year
Eleanor Tennant, Palatinate, University of Durham;
Thomas Whipple, The Cambridge Student, University of Cambridge;
Nathan Dixon, Concrete, University of East Anglia;
Clare Bevis, The Oxford Student/Isis, University of Oxford;
Tom Phillips, Leeds Student, University of Leeds and Leeds Metropolitan University.
Student Photographer of the Year
Fiona Campbell, London College of Printing;
Kristina Hruska, Nottingham Trent University;
Helen Murphy, Nottingham Trent University;
Ryan Li, Cherwell, University of Oxford;
Kenneth Kajoranta, Falmouth College of Arts;
Charlotte Player, Nottingham Trent University.
Student Publication Design of the Year
The winner will be announced on the night.
Student Website of the Year
Bath Impact, University of Bath;
Blunt, Cardiff University;
Durham 21, University of Durham;
Wessex Scene, University of Southampton.
Student Critic of the Year
The winner will be announced on the night.
Small Budget Publication of Year
The Pulse, University of Sussex;
The Best Years of Your Life, The Latymer School;
York Vision, University of York;
Hardcore is More Than Music, Chelsea College of Art & Design;
Degrees North, University of Sunderland.
Student Sports Writer of the Year
Mark Douglas, Warwick Boar, University of Warwick;
Will White, Student, University of Edinburgh;
Richard Kimber, The Cambridge Student, University of Cambridge.
Student Diversity Writer of the Year
Peter Lahiff, The College Tribune, University College Dublin;
Heather Browne, Leeds Student, University of Leeds and Leeds Metropolitan University;
Nosheen Asghar, Impact, University of Nottingham.
Student Travel Writer of the Year
Liz Jones, Redbrick, University of Birmingham;
Jon Bentham, York Vision, University of York;
Robert Harris, York Vision, University of York;
Jeremy Lemer, The Cambridge Student, University of Cambridge;
Sophie Morris, Varsity, University of Cambridge.
Student Columnist of the Year
Murray Garrard, Epigram, Bristol University;
Ravi Somaiya, Student Direct, University of Manchester;
Catherine Nixey, The Cambridge Student, University of Cambridge;
Iain Hollingshead, Varsity, University of Cambridge;
Shiv Malik, Leeds Student, University of Leeds;
Ivo Wengraf, Liverpool Student, University of Liverpool.
Winners will be announced on November 12.
Student Media Awards shortlist is revealed
By Holdthefrontpage staff
The shortlist for this year's Guardian Student Media Awards has been announced.
The competition attracted a record number of entries this year, and will reward the best student journalists, editors and photographers, with prizes being awarded in 13 categories.
Winners will be announced on Wednesday, November 12, during The Guardian Student Media Conference which is being held at the Lewis Media Centre in Millbank, London.
As well as choosing individual category winners, the judging panel will also select an overall winner who will have an extended six-week work placement at the Guardian and Guardian Unlimited.
They will also receive a subsistence allowance of £1,000 for the duration of their placement and a pair of round Europe flights, courtesy of easyJet.
By Holdthefrontpage staff
The shortlist for this year's Guardian Student Media Awards has been announced.
The competition attracted a record number of entries this year, and will reward the best student journalists, editors and photographers, with prizes being awarded in 13 categories.
Winners will be announced on Wednesday, November 12, during The Guardian Student Media Conference which is being held at the Lewis Media Centre in Millbank, London.
As well as choosing individual category winners, the judging panel will also select an overall winner who will have an extended six-week work placement at the Guardian and Guardian Unlimited.
They will also receive a subsistence allowance of £1,000 for the duration of their placement and a pair of round Europe flights, courtesy of easyJet.
September 3, 2003
Young film students seek their 'Citizen Kane'
By David Bernstein
NEW YORK TIMES
CHICAGO - Like any good filmmaker, Savannah Keller can succinctly pitch her animated short film "The Dino Fight": "There is a herbivore minding his own business, and a T-Rex comes by and tries to annoy it. Then they get in a big fight, and the herbivore beats up the T-Rex, and the T-Rex loses and the herbivore wins."
Although she is just 10 years old and lives 2,000 miles from Hollywood, in Livonia, Mich., a Detroit suburb, Savannah has all the right tinsel for a future in the business. In April, she won the top prize at her first film festival, an online contest for children ages 8 to 14.
But before Savannah joins the Martin Scorseses and Penny Marshalls of the world, she has to finish sixth grade. Toward that end, she also uses digital video technology for book reports and other assignments.
With relatively inexpensive digital video cameras, more powerful personal computers and sophisticated video-editing software, more and more young students are making movies. A growing number of elementary, middle and high schools are offering digital video instruction, and various private trade programs, workshops and film festivals have been created specifically for this younger generation of auteurs.
In Chicago, Carlo Trovato, an English teacher and film instructor at Von Steuben High School on the city's North Side, said that interest in filmmaking swelled after the school added digital media production to its curriculum about four years ago.
Last year, with much-needed grant money, the school purchased five Apple e-Mac desktop computers and Final Cut Pro editing software for its media lab. The lab also includes six Sony High-8 digital video cameras, two Casablanca video-editing systems and one digital projector.
Student demand for the course has surprised even Trovato; he said 200 students now typically sign up for 30 spots per class. Two years ago, the school added a second film class. And a film festival, now in its fourth year, attracts more entries each year. Trovato said that only seven students submitted work in the festival's first year; last year, there were more than 60, spanning genres from science fiction, documentaries and comedies to music and poetry videos, and even psychological thrillers.
"The kids go crazy for this stuff," said Trovato, 32, who helps students through all aspects of digital filmmaking, from developing ideas and writing scripts to shooting, directing and editing. "We've had a number of students who didn't know too much about video, and after this class, they just can't stop doing it."
One of those students, Martha Jardine, 20, is now entering her second year in film school at Columbia College in Chicago. But film school was not even on her radar when she signed up for Trovato's class, she said.
"I didn't know I had a passion for making films," Jardine said. "I had no idea I was into it until I took that class. I wouldn't have even thought about it. Once I found out, though, it was like a dream."
During her senior year at Von Steuben, Jardine won the prize for best short picture at the film festival. Her five-minute horror film, "Bittersweet," also brought her a $2,000 college scholarship from a local arts organization.
Supporters of digital video in the classroom contend that in addition to spawning new talent, the technology opens more avenues for learning beyond traditional textbook-based instruction.
"The best schools are transforming themselves into 'digital age' schools,"' said Milton Chen, executive director of the George Lucas Educational Foundation (www.glef.org), which was founded by Lucas, the creator of the "Star Wars" films. "Kids these days are born digital, and school systems have to keep pace with them."
Besides mastering new technologies, Chen said, digital media training helps students improve their basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills, encourages peers to work collaboratively, and engages students who have lost interest in traditional schooling. Interactive technology can help focus students on science, math and language concepts that are abstract and sometimes difficult to grasp by helping them internalize the concepts, he said, rather than just memorizing them at exam time.
Another incentive for schools to go digital is to keep down the expense; the latest digital filmmaking technology costs just a fraction of traditional filmmaking equipment.
While it takes more than a few school bake sales to afford multimedia gear, all that is really needed is a digital camcorder, now widely available for less than $1,000, and a PC with digital video capabilities. Basic click-and-drag video-editing software is now standard on most new computers (iMovie, preinstalled on Macintosh computers, or Microsoft's Movie Maker for Windows computers). Other editing applications, such as Apple's Final Cut Pro 4, Avid Xpress DV and Pinnacle Edition Pro, are far more advanced and more powerful. But they are also more expensive, typically costing up to $1,000, and more cumbersome for novices.
One new product designed with young moviemakers, especially preteenagers, and their teachers in mind is the Digital Blue Digital Movie Creator from Prime Entertainment (www.playdigitalblue.com). The camera (priced around $100) records on memory chips, not tape, and has enough capacity for about four minutes of recording away from a PC. For longer results, users can hook up the camera to a computer with a USB cable and capture as much video as their hard drives can store.
Savannah used the Digital Movie Creator's stop-motion animation feature, included with Digital Blue's editing software, to make her dinosaurs come to life. She added other special effects and included subtitles and voiceovers. She said it took her nearly four hours to shoot, edit and animate her two-minute movie.
This fall Prime Entertainment plans to release Tableaux, a line of multimedia products intended for the educational market. In addition to the digital camera and software, Tableaux will offer educators access to an online database with more than 500 digital camera presentation projects that meet state educational standards in language arts, reading and math.
But while school districts have rushed to mine new digital technology in recent years, some educators interviewed worry that technology spending is slowing as states and local school districts face budget shortfalls.
"Momentum has been decreasing," said Steven Kozlowski, 36, an education consultant in Chicago. "Technology is one of the first things to be reduced in bad budget times."
Not all educators are enthusiastic about multimedia technology, noted Steven Goodman, author of the book "Teaching Youth Media" (Teachers College Press, 2003) and director of the Educational Video Center, a nonprofit media arts group in New York. "There are principals and superintendents who don't want it because they see video as frivolous and nonintellectual," Goodman said. With a growing emphasis on student testing, he said, incorporating digital learning into school curriculums can be a tough sell.
"If there isn't a standardized test asking kids to show how well they edit a documentary or analyze a commercial, then it's hard for them to justify it," he said.
But advocates say that a digital video revolution takes time.
"George saw these trends in DV 30 years ago," said Chen, referring to Lucas' long quest for digital sound, special effects and editing technologies in filmmaking. "It has taken at least a generation for these changes to become accepted in the entertainment industry. The generational time frame is the same for these changes to happen in education as well."
Outside the classroom, young moviemakers are flocking to private trade schools, workshops and entering film festivals. Cable television has jumped on the bandwagon; the HBO Family channel's "30 by 30: Kid Flicks," a daily half-hour series featuring movies made by children, is in its fourth season and going strong, said Dolores Morris, a vice president at the channel. She said the program received more than 200 submissions per season, and had even received an animated movie from a 5-year-old.
Nicole Dreiske, director of children's programs at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival, the oldest and largest for children, estimated that 20 percent more digital films were submitted this year in the "child produced" category (ages 6 to 13) of the festival, to be held in late October.
But Dreiske cautioned that quantity should not be confused with quality. "We still receive way too many films of someone's slumber party," she said.
By David Bernstein
NEW YORK TIMES
CHICAGO - Like any good filmmaker, Savannah Keller can succinctly pitch her animated short film "The Dino Fight": "There is a herbivore minding his own business, and a T-Rex comes by and tries to annoy it. Then they get in a big fight, and the herbivore beats up the T-Rex, and the T-Rex loses and the herbivore wins."
Although she is just 10 years old and lives 2,000 miles from Hollywood, in Livonia, Mich., a Detroit suburb, Savannah has all the right tinsel for a future in the business. In April, she won the top prize at her first film festival, an online contest for children ages 8 to 14.
But before Savannah joins the Martin Scorseses and Penny Marshalls of the world, she has to finish sixth grade. Toward that end, she also uses digital video technology for book reports and other assignments.
With relatively inexpensive digital video cameras, more powerful personal computers and sophisticated video-editing software, more and more young students are making movies. A growing number of elementary, middle and high schools are offering digital video instruction, and various private trade programs, workshops and film festivals have been created specifically for this younger generation of auteurs.
In Chicago, Carlo Trovato, an English teacher and film instructor at Von Steuben High School on the city's North Side, said that interest in filmmaking swelled after the school added digital media production to its curriculum about four years ago.
Last year, with much-needed grant money, the school purchased five Apple e-Mac desktop computers and Final Cut Pro editing software for its media lab. The lab also includes six Sony High-8 digital video cameras, two Casablanca video-editing systems and one digital projector.
Student demand for the course has surprised even Trovato; he said 200 students now typically sign up for 30 spots per class. Two years ago, the school added a second film class. And a film festival, now in its fourth year, attracts more entries each year. Trovato said that only seven students submitted work in the festival's first year; last year, there were more than 60, spanning genres from science fiction, documentaries and comedies to music and poetry videos, and even psychological thrillers.
"The kids go crazy for this stuff," said Trovato, 32, who helps students through all aspects of digital filmmaking, from developing ideas and writing scripts to shooting, directing and editing. "We've had a number of students who didn't know too much about video, and after this class, they just can't stop doing it."
One of those students, Martha Jardine, 20, is now entering her second year in film school at Columbia College in Chicago. But film school was not even on her radar when she signed up for Trovato's class, she said.
"I didn't know I had a passion for making films," Jardine said. "I had no idea I was into it until I took that class. I wouldn't have even thought about it. Once I found out, though, it was like a dream."
During her senior year at Von Steuben, Jardine won the prize for best short picture at the film festival. Her five-minute horror film, "Bittersweet," also brought her a $2,000 college scholarship from a local arts organization.
Supporters of digital video in the classroom contend that in addition to spawning new talent, the technology opens more avenues for learning beyond traditional textbook-based instruction.
"The best schools are transforming themselves into 'digital age' schools,"' said Milton Chen, executive director of the George Lucas Educational Foundation (www.glef.org), which was founded by Lucas, the creator of the "Star Wars" films. "Kids these days are born digital, and school systems have to keep pace with them."
Besides mastering new technologies, Chen said, digital media training helps students improve their basic reading, writing and arithmetic skills, encourages peers to work collaboratively, and engages students who have lost interest in traditional schooling. Interactive technology can help focus students on science, math and language concepts that are abstract and sometimes difficult to grasp by helping them internalize the concepts, he said, rather than just memorizing them at exam time.
Another incentive for schools to go digital is to keep down the expense; the latest digital filmmaking technology costs just a fraction of traditional filmmaking equipment.
While it takes more than a few school bake sales to afford multimedia gear, all that is really needed is a digital camcorder, now widely available for less than $1,000, and a PC with digital video capabilities. Basic click-and-drag video-editing software is now standard on most new computers (iMovie, preinstalled on Macintosh computers, or Microsoft's Movie Maker for Windows computers). Other editing applications, such as Apple's Final Cut Pro 4, Avid Xpress DV and Pinnacle Edition Pro, are far more advanced and more powerful. But they are also more expensive, typically costing up to $1,000, and more cumbersome for novices.
One new product designed with young moviemakers, especially preteenagers, and their teachers in mind is the Digital Blue Digital Movie Creator from Prime Entertainment (www.playdigitalblue.com). The camera (priced around $100) records on memory chips, not tape, and has enough capacity for about four minutes of recording away from a PC. For longer results, users can hook up the camera to a computer with a USB cable and capture as much video as their hard drives can store.
Savannah used the Digital Movie Creator's stop-motion animation feature, included with Digital Blue's editing software, to make her dinosaurs come to life. She added other special effects and included subtitles and voiceovers. She said it took her nearly four hours to shoot, edit and animate her two-minute movie.
This fall Prime Entertainment plans to release Tableaux, a line of multimedia products intended for the educational market. In addition to the digital camera and software, Tableaux will offer educators access to an online database with more than 500 digital camera presentation projects that meet state educational standards in language arts, reading and math.
But while school districts have rushed to mine new digital technology in recent years, some educators interviewed worry that technology spending is slowing as states and local school districts face budget shortfalls.
"Momentum has been decreasing," said Steven Kozlowski, 36, an education consultant in Chicago. "Technology is one of the first things to be reduced in bad budget times."
Not all educators are enthusiastic about multimedia technology, noted Steven Goodman, author of the book "Teaching Youth Media" (Teachers College Press, 2003) and director of the Educational Video Center, a nonprofit media arts group in New York. "There are principals and superintendents who don't want it because they see video as frivolous and nonintellectual," Goodman said. With a growing emphasis on student testing, he said, incorporating digital learning into school curriculums can be a tough sell.
"If there isn't a standardized test asking kids to show how well they edit a documentary or analyze a commercial, then it's hard for them to justify it," he said.
But advocates say that a digital video revolution takes time.
"George saw these trends in DV 30 years ago," said Chen, referring to Lucas' long quest for digital sound, special effects and editing technologies in filmmaking. "It has taken at least a generation for these changes to become accepted in the entertainment industry. The generational time frame is the same for these changes to happen in education as well."
Outside the classroom, young moviemakers are flocking to private trade schools, workshops and entering film festivals. Cable television has jumped on the bandwagon; the HBO Family channel's "30 by 30: Kid Flicks," a daily half-hour series featuring movies made by children, is in its fourth season and going strong, said Dolores Morris, a vice president at the channel. She said the program received more than 200 submissions per season, and had even received an animated movie from a 5-year-old.
Nicole Dreiske, director of children's programs at the Chicago International Children's Film Festival, the oldest and largest for children, estimated that 20 percent more digital films were submitted this year in the "child produced" category (ages 6 to 13) of the festival, to be held in late October.
But Dreiske cautioned that quantity should not be confused with quality. "We still receive way too many films of someone's slumber party," she said.
Under-6s watch up to six hours of TV daily
Colin Blackstock
Wednesday September 3, 2003
The Guardian
Children aged six and under are watching up to six hours of television a day even though their parents believe they should be outside playing, according to a survey published today.
The study also found that a third of all five- to six-year-olds regularly play video games.
The research showed that 86% of children in the six and under age bracket are watching up to six hours of television every day.
The parents of those interviewed by NOP acknowledged their children watched a lot of television and 69% believed their offspring spent more time in front of TV than they did at a similar age.
NOP interviewed 750 parents with children aged up to six for the toy retailer, the Early Learning Centre.
It also found that 81% of working parents wished they had more time to spend with their offspring.
But parents encouraged their children to play outside, with youngsters averaging 3.6 hours a day during the summer months.
Almost all of those questioned believed play helped to develop their children's social and motor skills.
Child psychologist Richard Woolfson said: "Parents today are much more aware of the benefits of play than in previous generations.
"There is a clearer understanding that play contributes to child development in a variety of ways - that it is not 'just for fun' - and that play and learning are connected."
Brian Young, a child psychologist at Exeter University, said the research suggested that parents still used television as a means to entertain their children.
But he said that if parents watch television with their children it could benefit them emotionally and mentally.
"It can be positive, constructive and enjoyable as long as parents explain the meaning of what they are watching," he told the Times.
The research comes just days after David Bell, the chief inspector of schools, complained that communication and behavioural skills among five-year-olds were at an all-time low.
Parents failed to impose proper discipline in the home and simply put children in front of the television rather than talk and play with them, he said.
He also warned that it led to poor behaviour in class and the picture in primary schools around the country was that children were less well prepared than ever.
MediaGuardian.co.uk © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003
Colin Blackstock
Wednesday September 3, 2003
The Guardian
Children aged six and under are watching up to six hours of television a day even though their parents believe they should be outside playing, according to a survey published today.
The study also found that a third of all five- to six-year-olds regularly play video games.
The research showed that 86% of children in the six and under age bracket are watching up to six hours of television every day.
The parents of those interviewed by NOP acknowledged their children watched a lot of television and 69% believed their offspring spent more time in front of TV than they did at a similar age.
NOP interviewed 750 parents with children aged up to six for the toy retailer, the Early Learning Centre.
It also found that 81% of working parents wished they had more time to spend with their offspring.
But parents encouraged their children to play outside, with youngsters averaging 3.6 hours a day during the summer months.
Almost all of those questioned believed play helped to develop their children's social and motor skills.
Child psychologist Richard Woolfson said: "Parents today are much more aware of the benefits of play than in previous generations.
"There is a clearer understanding that play contributes to child development in a variety of ways - that it is not 'just for fun' - and that play and learning are connected."
Brian Young, a child psychologist at Exeter University, said the research suggested that parents still used television as a means to entertain their children.
But he said that if parents watch television with their children it could benefit them emotionally and mentally.
"It can be positive, constructive and enjoyable as long as parents explain the meaning of what they are watching," he told the Times.
The research comes just days after David Bell, the chief inspector of schools, complained that communication and behavioural skills among five-year-olds were at an all-time low.
Parents failed to impose proper discipline in the home and simply put children in front of the television rather than talk and play with them, he said.
He also warned that it led to poor behaviour in class and the picture in primary schools around the country was that children were less well prepared than ever.
MediaGuardian.co.uk © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2003
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