Children, Young People Media Globalisation
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Yearbook 2002 Children, Young People and Media Globalisation Editors: Cecilia von Feilitzen and Ulla Carlsson The UNESCO International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media NORDICOM GÖTEBORG UNIVERSITY The UNESCO The UNESCO International Clearinghouse International on Children, Youth and Media Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and In 1997, The Nordic Information Centre for Media and Media, at Communication Research (Nordicom), Göteborg Nordicom University Sweden, began establishment of The Göteborg University UNESCO International Clearinghouse on Children, Box 713 SE 405 30 GÖTEBORG, Sweden Youth and Media (formerly The UNESCO International Web site: Clearinghouse on Children and Violence on the http://www.nordicom.gu.se Screen), financed by the Swedish government and UNESCO. The overall point of departure for the DIRECTOR: Ulla Carlsson Clearinghouses efforts with respect to children, youth SCIENTIFIC CO-ORDINATOR: and media is the UN Convention on the Rights of the Cecilia von Feilitzen Tel:+46 8 608 48 58 Child. Fax:+46 8 608 41 00 The aim of the Clearinghouse is to increase E-mail: [email protected] awareness and knowledge about children, youth and INFORMATION CO-ORDINATOR: media, thereby providing a basis for relevant policy- Pia Hepsever making, contributing to a constructive public debate, Tel: +46 31 773 49 53 and enhancing childrens and young peoples media Fax: +46 31 773 46 55 literacy and media competence. Moreover, it is hoped E-mail: [email protected] that the Clearinghouses work will stimulate further THE CLEARINGHOUSE research on children, youth and media. IS LOCATED AT NORDICOM The International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth Nordicom is an organ of and Media informs various groups of users co-operation between the Nordic countries Denmark, Finland, Ice- researchers, policy-makers, media professionals, land, Norway and Sweden. The over- voluntary organisations, teachers, students and riding goal and purpose is to make interested individuals about the media and communication efforts undertaken in the Nordic countries known, both throughout and far research on children, young people and beyond our part of the world. media, with special attention to media Nordicom uses a variety of chan- violence nels newsletters, journals, books, databases to reach researchers, research and practices regarding media students, decision-makers, media practitioners, journalists, teachers education and childrens/young peoples and interested members of the ge- participation in the media neral public. Nordicom works to establish measures, activities and research and strengthen links between the Nordic research community and concerning childrens and young peoples colleagues in all parts of the world, media environment. both by means of unilateral flows and by linking individual Fundamental to the work of the Clearinghouse is the researchers, research groups and institutions. creation of a global network. The Clearinghouse Nordicom also documents publishes a yearbook and a newsletter. Several media trends in the Nordic bibliographies and a worldwide register of countries. The joint Nordic organisations concerned with children and media have information addresses users in been compiled. This and other information is available Europe and further afield. The produc-tion of comparative media on the Clearinghouses web site: www.nordicom.gu.se/ statistics forms the core of this unesco.html service. Nordicom is funded by the Nordic Council of Ministers. Children, Young People and Media Globalisation Yearbook 2002 Children, Young People and Media Globalisation Editors: Cecilia von Feilitzen and Ulla Carlsson The UNESCO International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media NORDICOM GÖTEBORG UNIVERSITY Published by The UNESCO International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media Nordicom Göteborg University Box 713 SE 405 30 GÖTEBORG Sweden Editors Cecilia von Feilitzen and Ulla Carlsson Statistics compiled by Catharina Bucht © Editorial matters and selections, the editors; articles, individual contributors (with one exception, see page 208) Cover by Roger Palmqvist Printed by Grafikerna Livréna i Kungälv AB, Sweden, 2002 ISSN 1403-4700 ISBN 91-89471-15-6 Contents Foreword Ulla Carlsson 7 Children, Young People and Media Globalisation: Introduction Cecilia von Feilitzen 13 Children, Globalization, and Media Policy Robert W. McChesney 23 Media Globalisation: Consequences for the Rights of Children Cees J. Hamelink 33 Children, Media and Globalisation: A Research Agenda for Africa Francis B. Nyamnjoh 43 Pikachu’s Global Adventure Joseph Tobin 53 Globalisation of Children’s TV and Strategies of the “Big Three” Tim Westcott 69 Tracking the Global in the Local: On Children’s Culture in a Small National Media Market Ruth Zanker 77 “More Than Just TV”: Educational Broadcasting and Popular Culture in South Africa Clive Barnett 95 Domesticating Disney: On Danish Children’s Reception of a Global Media Giant Kirsten Drotner 111 Between Here and There: Israeli Children Living Cultural Globalization Dafna Lemish 125 The Meanings of Television for Underprivileged Children in Argentina Roxana Morduchowicz 135 Remembering Violence: Media Events, Childhood and the Global Keval J. Kumar 149 Globalisation and Children’s Media Use in Sierra Leone Mohamed Zubairu Wai 171 Digital Kids: The New On-Line Children’s Consumer Culture Kathryn C. Montgomery 189 Statistics 209 Children in the World 211 Demographic Indicators 213 Education 222 Child Labour and Economy 231 Media in the World 245 Authors 261 Foreword The last two decades of the twentieth century saw the emergence of a new world order. The highly polarized first and second worlds and the third world are no longer the pillars of the world order. A thoroughgoing restructuring of markets and marketplaces – ongoing processes of commercialization, deregulation and privati- zation – characterized the period. Globalization is the watchword of the day, the theme social scientists and cultural historians use when they seek to define the constitutive elements of the new order that has emerged after the cold war. The processes summarized in the word ’globalization’ can – given the will to do it – help realize hopes and ambitions to bring justice, peace and security to all the peoples of the world. Globalization can open new avenues for solving the problems of injustice and poverty through trade, technology transfer, knowledge, and a keener awareness regarding shared values like democracy and human rights. But, the globalization we see today is not always truly global. The world today is more fragmented than perhaps ever before – between rich and poor, between the powerful and the powerless. Billions of people are excluded from the interaction made possible by globalization. Exclusion is not only a condition experienced in the poorest countries of the South; it is equally a problem among groups in the wealthier countries of the world. Problems and conflicts of a similar nature cut through just about every nation of the world: widening income gaps, poverty, environmental degradation, contagion and ill health, ethnic conflict, racism, inequality of men and women, discrimination and intolerance. Exclusion is more than a matter of material possessions. It is also a question of access to knowledge and cultural resources, vital to social development. Unless the cultural diversity that is present in a society is respected, the outlook for political, economic and social development remains bleak. For many people globalization has meant that the world has shrunk. We have gained access to cultures and knowledge that were once beyond reach. Cultural boundaries are being transcended, and many people from many walks of life take part in global public fora. But there is also a risk that globalization has a homogenizing effect, that totally foreign cultures may soon be a thing of 7 Ulla Carlsson the past as dominant cultural patterns set global ’standards’. Clearly, the institu- tions and enterprises that control globalized mass culture do have such a stand- ardizing effect. Commercial interests – in many cases patterns of market demand in wealthy countries – rule. At the same time, in some respects the world seems more distant, as peoples of different cultures struggle to preserve their cultural identities. Thus, tran- scendence of boundaries and defense of boundaries seem to be two aspects of globalization. As a consequence, new ’front lines’ have emerged – on both inter- national and local levels. Media play a central role in the processes we call globalization. Indeed, without mass media and modern information technology, globalization as we know it would not be possible. Access to media, telephones, and digital services of various kinds are increasingly held forth as being decisive factors for political, economic and cultural development. A large share of the world’s population lack electricity; those who are excluded from electricity nets are doomed to be marginalized. The so-called ’digital divide’ runs a jagged course between countries, but also within countries, often coinciding with other ’divides’: income, ethnic, age and gender. Globalization of the media has progressed at a rapid pace due to the rapid pace of innovation within information technologies, coupled with ongoing de- regulation of the media and communications sectors and concentration of owner- ship. Of particular interest are communications satellites, digitalization and advan- ces in computer technology. Together, these