Top Source of Information Or Disaster-Free Zone?

research 54 24/2011/2

Kirsten Schneid Top source of information or disaster-free zone?

The disasters in Japan on international children’s TV

The article presents the results of were asked to make their programmes Children’s news programmes a study of 32 broadcasters from available (see box). We received re- Karrewiet (VRT/Belgium) 32 countries, asking whether they sponses from 32 broadcasters from Newsround (CBBC/Great Britain) covered the incidents in Japan in 32 countries. It became clear that a News2Day (RTE/Ireland) March 2011 in their children’s pro catastrophe such as that in Japan is Supernytt (NRK/Norway) gramming, and if so, how. a major challenge for producers of Lilla Aktuellt (SVT/Sweden) children’s TV, and is dealt with in Minisguard (RTR/Switzerland) HaMahadura (IBA/Israel) very different ways. The most striking Pocket News (CCTV/China hildren’s television world- result is that, in many countries, there Behind the News (ABC/Australia) wide dealt with the natural has been no attempt at all to respond Other programme formats (maga Cand nuclear disaster in Japan to such events, although editors and zines, live studio programmes etc.) in 3 different ways: producers do see the importance of Live Tok! Tok! Bony Hany (EBS/South •• Some TV networks reported on the offering children age-appropriate in- Korea) Japanese disaster intensively and formation about such serious topics. Balbatika (Image Channel/Nepal) in detail; mainly in children’s news Ala Al Hawa (Al Jazeera Children’s formats produced by public service Channel/Qatar) Japan in children’s news World? Why? Wit and Kra-r-sa broadcasters. (Thai PBS/Thailand) •• Some makers of children’s TV Intensive coverage of the Japanese My World (BBS/Bhutan) avoided mention of the topic in disaster was mainly offered by broad- Big Pocket (MNB/Mongolia) their children’s programming. casters with a regular children’s news •• Many broadcasters had no oppor- programme, for example many Eu- tunity to provide coverage because ropean public service broadcasters. here. The images so often seen in their children’s programming of- The approach to coverage is relatively the adult news, of walls shaking and fers no scope for responding to similar here, the design elements are people panicking, are also present current events. much the same, and in some cases in children’s news. The tsunami is To get an impression of how the the same film material is used. One shown in all its destructive force, events in Japan were dealt with on reason for this is the “Youth News Ex- e.g. with pictures of houses, cars, children’s TV worldwide, questions change” run by the European Broad- and ships being swept forward by were sent to public service broad- casting Union (EBU), which almost the massive tide of water. The re- casters and commercial networks on all the European broadcasters in the ports in children’s news also include every continent using the contacts study participate in. harrowing interviews with victims, from the PRIX JEUNESSE network. or images of children still under the The broadcasters were asked, in writ- Images similar to adult TV influence of the events. ing, whether and in what form they The choice of images in children’s The nuclear disaster is also shown in had offered their young viewers in- news programmes is very similar to explicit pictures, e.g. of the explosion formation on the topic, or why no those in the news programmes for of the Fukushima reactor. The danger coverage had been provided. Broad- adults. There are no hesitations about which the escaping radiation poses casters who had covered the events using shocking pictures and scenes to humans is also depicted: people – research 24/2011/2 55 © VRT © Karrewiet © CCTV © News Pocket Screenshot from from Screenshot Screenshot from Screenshot Ill. 1: Pocket News (CCTV/China) shows a young Chinese inventor Ill. 2: A child reporter carries out research in a nuclear power plant for with an emergency box for earthquake disasters the children’s news programme Karrewiet (VRT/Belgium)

including children – are shown be- Focusing on children’s In rare cases adult experts report on ing scanned for exposure to radiation. point of view the situation of children in the dis- The pictures are sometimes used with In the items in children’s news pro- aster area, e.g. in the Norwegian the original sound, while some scenes grammes, the child’s perspective is programme Supernytt. Here, a Nor- are accompanied by emotive music. very clearly in the foreground. The wegian expert from “Save the Chil- The only children’s news programme Australian programme Behind the dren” talks about how the children are that did not broadcast these images News, for example, gives a short intro- getting on and how they receive help. is Pocket News from China. The pre- duction before beginning its coverage The Chinese children’s news pro- senter announces this decision in the with the question: “How are the chil- gramme concentrates less on describ- programme: “There are many pictures dren in Japan getting on now?” The re- ing the situation of affected children, from Japan which make us sad, but ports then deal with stories of children but rather deliberately reports on the there are also pictures showing new affected by the disaster. Children talk strength of the Japanese people and strength.” The programme then fo- about their experiences of the earth- their ability to cope with life in times cuses on images showing the staying quake, or how they are coping with the of crisis. A report from Pocket News power of the Japanese people. situation. The children portrayed are describes Japanese children who – often children from the same country although some of them have lost their Explaining the context as the viewers, who lived in Japan parents – bravely go through with In all the news programmes, the pro- with their parents. They talk about their school graduation ceremony. ducers aim at helping children contex- how they got away, and what they are tualise the disaster, e.g. with animated missing. Having children from their Responding to the questions and maps of the world showing where own country reporting in their own fears of children in the audience Japan is. In the case of the European language offers young viewers a good Almost every news programme from countries, the great distance between opportunity for identification. Europe gives children space to ask Europe and Japan is demonstrated – a Japanese children are also portrayed. questions and to express their fears reassuring fact in the light of the nu- Items of coverage show how they and feelings. In most countries, the clear threat. Various typical features manage their everyday life during the reporters go into schools and give the of Japan are also mentioned, such as crisis. In the Australian programme children there a chance to speak. the names of well-known high-tech Behind the News, a Japanese boy In almost every Western children’s firms or Mount Fuji. To make the na- describes his family’s daily life, for news programme the children in the ture and scale of the disaster clearer, example how to get hold of food home country are explicitly reas- references are often made to natural when everything in the supermar- sured: the programmes stress that disasters, e.g. the earthquake in Haiti. kets has been sold out. The Swedish this form of disaster is very unlikely Animation is very frequently used to programme Lilla Aktuellt presents a to happen in their country. give clear explanations of processes Japanese girl who used to live very The children’s news programme from or facts, for example to show how a close to the Fukushima power plant China is different: the reports only of- tsunami comes about or how a nuclear and is now staying in emergency ac- fer tips about what to do in a disaster. power plant works. commodation with her family. A report is shown about an earthquake research 56 24/2011/2 drill in a Chinese kindergarten, and The Arabian Al Jazeera Children’s their feelings and questions. There was about young Chinese inventors and Channel from Qatar invited its young also a short explanatory item about why their devices for mitigating the ef- viewers to take part in a campaign the earth frequently moves in Japan. fects of disasters (see ill. 1). “Little of solidarity for Japan. The children Our study gave the Nepalese com- children must know how to protect were encouraged to write letters to mercial broadcaster Image Channel themselves in an earthquake. Older Japanese children, draw pictures, or the idea of offering information to children should begin to develop ideas donate money (see ill. 3). An edition its young viewers. In the magazine about how to prevent such disasters.” of the weekly live broadcast Ala Al programme Balbatika, children dis- Hawa invited the Japanese ambassa cussed their knowledge about the di Letting experts explain facts dor in Qatar, who took questions saster, and experts also had their say. Experts are often called on to explain over the phone, and was handed the letters and pictures for the Japanese facts. They are either invited to the “Disaster-free” children’s children. This campaign of solidarity studio, or child reporters interview programming them in their work place. In the Bel- also included the online arena, where gian children’s news programme Kar- children were given the opportunity Some broadcasters deliberately de- rewiet, for example, a child reporter to post messages to Japanese children. cided not to report on the incidents interviews a nuclear scientist in a nu- The weekly children’s news pro- for their young audience. First and clear plant (see ill. 2). In the Israeli gramme of the Australian public ser foremost Japan itself. The editors of news programme HaMahadura child vice broadcaster ABC also encour- the public service broadcaster NHK reporters visit a seismological insti- aged children to get involved. They decided to make their children’s pro- tute to gather first-hand information were invited to get in touch with a gramming a disaster-free zone. The about the causes of earthquakes. Japanese boy portrayed in a short situation in Japan was, of course, report, and to send him messages special. The educational channel of Responding to children’s of support. Furthermore, they were NHK, on which most of the children’s willingness to help asked to vote on the issue “Nuclear programming is shown, had initially Nearly all children’s programmes re- energy in Australia: yes or no?”. filled all the children’s programming spond to their viewer’s desire to help slots with coverage of current events for adults. Immediately after the di the Japanese people, or to see how they Other platforms receive help. Many news programmes saster, however, the children’s editors include short reports on campaigns, Especially countries without a regular of NHK consulted with child psychol- such as Norwegian winter sports children’s news programme used other ogy organisations within Japan and de- athletes donating their prize money. formats to deal with the topic. Thai cided to resume their regular children’s Several broadcasters report on school PBS, for example, devoted an classes writing letters to Japan or mak- episode of its regular children’s ing little presents, e.g. in Big Pocket, educational programme World? the magazine programme on Mon- Why? Wit to the topic of earth- golian National Television. The Thai quakes and offered children a © Al Jazeera public service broadcaster PBS used whole range of information, its weekly children’s magazine pro- with studio experiments, inter- gramme Kra-r-sa for a special edition views with experts, and tips on Ala Al Hawa and reported on the broadcaster’s relief what to do in an earthquake. campaign, “Socks Seed for Japan”. Although geographically and The children’s magazine programme culturally close to Japan, the Screenshot from My World, produced by the recently Korean public service broad- Channel Children’s established Bhutan broadcaster BBS, caster EBS was rather reticent Ill. 3: Al Jazeera Children’s Channel invites children showed a news-style report on various about dealing with the topic. In to draw pictures for Japan relief efforts in Bhutan, including a a daily live show for children the message of support from the King of presenters only mentioned the disaster programming, with no discussion of Bhutan to the people in Japan. verbally. They briefly discussed how the crisis, a week after it had been one should react if an earthquake oc- suspended. There was some criticism Calls to action curs, and voiced their hope that Japan of the broadcaster regarding this deci- There were only a few cases where would soon recover. In one report seg- sion, but overall much more approval. broadcasters called on their young ment of the show, presenters visited Another country which deliberately viewers to carry out specific actions. a school and talked to children about avoids coverage of difficult subjects research 24/2011/2 57 is Turkey. The explanation of the edi- German children’s news tor of the public service broadcaster TRT: “Whenever we ask our young German TV offers 2 major children’s news programmes which both dealt viewers what kind of information with the disasters in Japan: the daily news programme logo! (ZDF) and the they want, they reply, very clearly: weekly information programme neuneinhalb (WDR). no bad news!” TRT therefore made only brief mention of the disasters in Images and context its children’s programming. Both programmes showed some of the images of adult news yet in a mod- A similar response came from Ni- erated form: they avoided close-up shots and fully omitted scenes showing geria. The public service broadcaster e.g. injured or death people. Ac- NTA does have a magazine for chil- cording to Markus Mörchen dren, with a wide range of themes, (senior editor of logo!), the rea- but the editor in charge deliberately son to show those images at all, avoided the issue of Japan – and also is that “children will encounter logo! © ZDF intends to be cautious in the future. them in other media anyway. We do not want them to feel as if we were trying to shield them from TV: “no”,

Screenshot from terrible incidents. Our task is to other platforms: “yes” Ill. 4: Animations help children understand take up these images and put the There are currently no TV news shows complex topics (here: nuclear radiation) events into context.” for children in the USA, and the pub- Contextualisation was especially lic service broadcaster PBS, which important in view of the nuclear threat emanating from the nuclear power structures its children’s program- plant Fukushima 1 which soon became the main issue of German news ming closely to the curriculum, has coverage. By means of explanatory items and animations, logo! and neun no ambitions at present to offer such einhalb tried to help children understand the complex topic of nuclear a programme. Nor did the commercial radiation (see e.g. ill. 4). US children’s network Nickelodeon respond to the disaster in its current Fears and hope TV programming. In the context of In response to the growing number of questions, logo! developed a new the Big Help website, however, a sup- interactive studio format called logo! extra: Japan – Eure Fragen (“Your port forum was established where chil- questions”). There, the studio children were allowed to ask questions and dren could express their sympathy and express their perceptions of the disasters as well as their worries and fears. make donations. In Canada, the events The editors of neuneinhalb, Matthias Körnich and Maike Pies, emphasise were only dealt with on the radio. the importance of a positive conclusion for news programmes for children – especially when confronted with catastrophes. Hence, their coverage of the disasters ends with “rays of hope”, showing relief programmes for the people Lack of current in Japan and allaying the children’s fears that they were in danger, too. programming platforms compiled by Birgit Kinateder (IZI)

The most common reason for showing REFERENCES no coverage of Japan or other current Mörchen, Markus (2011). logo!: fundiert, nachhaltig, interaktiv. In: TelevIZIon, no. 24, vol. 2, pp. 6-7. events in children’s programming is Pies, Maike; Körnich, Matthias (2011). neuneinhalb: aktuell, informativ, angstfrei. In: TelevIZIon, the absence of programming platforms. no. 4, vol. 2, pp. 12-13. This is the case in many countries in Schatz, Eva (2011). “Killerwelle” und “Horror-AKW“. In: TelevIZIon, no. 24, vol. 2, pp. 8-11. Latin America, for example in Argen- tina, Chile, or Colombia. The answer received from Cuba was that information editors from these regions explicitly tHE aUTHOR programmes there concentrate on na- expressed regret about this situation tional themes and those close to home. in response to our questions. There is Kirsten Schneid, Programming platforms are also lack- definitely an awareness that children BA, is the Festival ing in children’s programming in oth- have to deal with the questions and and Project Co- er regions of the world, e.g. in many fears arising from such events on their ordinator of the Asian countries such as the Philip- own, and are being left to search for PRIX JEUNESSE pines or Malaysia, but also in coun- information using sources which are Foundation, Mu- nich, Germany. tries like New Zealand. Many of the intended for an adult audience.