Project Report to Stakeholders - Invisible Children: Children's Media, Diversity and Forced Migration: Facilitating Arab European Dialogue

King’s Research Portal Document Version Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to publication record in King's Research Portal Citation for published version (APA): Steemers, J. H., Sakr, N., & Singer, C. (2018). Project Report to Stakeholders - Invisible Children: Children's Media, Diversity and Forced Migration: Facilitating Arab European Dialogue. King's College London. Citing this paper Please note that where the full-text provided on King's Research Portal is the Author Accepted Manuscript or Post-Print version this may differ from the final Published version. If citing, it is advised that you check and use the publisher's definitive version for pagination, volume/issue, and date of publication details. And where the final published version is provided on the Research Portal, if citing you are again advised to check the publisher's website for any subsequent corrections. 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Sep. 2021 PROJECT REPORT TO STAKEHOLDERS Invisible Children: Children’s Media, Diversity 14 September and Forced Migration - 2018 Facilitating Arab-European Dialogue Symposium at Anatomy Museum, King’s College London, Strand Project Report to Stakeholders TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW ................................................................................... 2 1.1 Rationale for the project .............................................................................................................. 2 1.2 The three workshops...................................................................................................................... 3 1.3 Screen content about diversity and migration ....................................................................... 3 1.4 Purpose of the Project Report to Stakeholders ......................................................................... 3 2. APPROACHES TO COMMISSIONING AND DISTRIBUTION .............................................. 4 2.1 Public service mandates ............................................................................................................... 4 2.2 Commercial digital media ........................................................................................................... 4 2.3 The need for marketing and distribution strategies ............................................................... 5 2.4 Integrating online distribution and linear broadcasting ........................................................ 5 3. ETHICAL CONCERNS .................................................................................................... 6 3.1 Risks and benefits of revisiting trauma ..................................................................................... 6 3.2 Keeping an appropriate distance ............................................................................................. 7 4. CHILDREN’S PERSPECTIVES .......................................................................................... 7 4.1 Seeing oneself on screen .............................................................................................................. 7 4.2 A year is a long time for a child ................................................................................................ 8 4.3 Giving children a say ................................................................ .................................................... 8 5. SHOWING DIVERSITY WITHOUT NAMING IT ............................................................... 9 5.1 Adults’ and children’s different perceptions............................................................................. 9 5.2 Entertaining and educating at the same time .......................................................................... 9 5.3 Political and cultural education .................................................................................................10 5.4 Religion matters ...........................................................................................................................11 6. AVOIDING TOKENISM AND VICTIMHOOD ................................................................... 12 6.1 Issues in casting and scriptwriting .............................................................................................12 6.2 Representing integration ............................................................................................................12 6.3 Competent children facing challenges .....................................................................................13 7 MOVING FORWARD ..................................................................................................... 13 7.1 Opportunities for open discussion ............................................................................................13 7.2 Addressing the gender gap ......................................................................................................14 7.3 Forced migration in historical perspective ..............................................................................14 8. APPENDIX: SAMPLES OF CONTENT ........................................................................... 15 8.1 Animation .......................................................................................................................................15 8.2 Factual programming and documentaries ..............................................................................16 8.3 Drama ............................................................................................................................................20 8.4 Infotainment ..................................................................................................................................22 Page 1 Project Report to Stakeholders 1. INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW 1.1 Rationale for the project Children from Arab countries constitute a growing proportion of media audiences in Europe. Recent conflicts in the region have caused hundreds of thousands of families to flee their homes in the Arab world, especially Syria and Iraq, to find safety in Europe. In January 2017, there were 577,300 Syrians in Germany, 116,400 in Sweden, 51,400 in the Netherlands, 31,000 in Denmark and 11,500 in Bulgaria.1 The displaced populations in European countries include large numbers of children. The situation is often called Europe’s ‘migrant crisis’. From this perspective, refugee children tend to be viewed as a set of tragic statistics rather than individuals with unique histories and experiences. Yet fair and accurate representation of children with migration backgrounds constitutes a key step towards helping these children feel they have a stake in a new country. In turn, for European-born children, screen content is one of the most accessible ways to learn about forced migration and children of other cultures. European media consequently face an urgent task of creating content that engages with the experiences of diverse and displaced children in balanced and informative ways. In fact, thanks to public service media mandates that are built into Europe’s regulatory environment, the way is open for broadcasters to provide newly-arrived children with the benefits of a service they have not previously experienced, given the lack of Arab public service media.2 The one-year project ‘Collaborative Developments in Children’s Screen Content in an Era of Forced Migration: Facilitating Arab-European dialogue’ (2017-18, www.euroarabchildrensmedia.org), funded by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), explored screen content made for and about children from the Arab region who have recently arrived in Europe. Aimed at ‘Impact and Engagement’, the project was intended to share findings from a three-year AHRC-funded research project (2013- 2016)3 on screen content for children in the Arab world with stakeholders in Europe, including broadcasters, regulators, commissioning editors, producers, researchers and children’s media advocates. Institutions in these sectors who partnered us for the Engagement project are gratefully identified below. One of the current project’s major objectives was to explore representations of forced migration and diversity in European screen content for young children – those aged 12 and under. By integrating Arab experts into this process, we created opportunities for dialogue between European and Arab media practitioners, helping to alert European producers to the media needs, wants and experiences of Arabic- speaking children now living in Europe. Drawing on this dialogue, the project was designed to gather recommendations concerning the regulation, funding, and distribution of content for children that deals with diversity and forced migration. It also

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