MEDIA AND CHILDREN

Media and children

Introduction
Television and recently video constitute the most popular massive media offered to children of all ages. They risk to turn to a global phenomenon. Children in the era of massive society risk much more than the average adult to receive massive messages while staying isolated in their rooms without even being able to decode their meanings. The pictoral bombardment that produces alienative sindroms to adults, influences also children who have not formulated their identities and their values system is flexible getting influences from many directions.
Yet, there are quite a lot of supporters of the idea that Television could be the most useful tool of future education under the term that its programs would become serious and interesting in the same time. The everyday reality of children is a topic that does not enter in the interest even of their parents. And still this reality is much dependent from the Media simulative technics in such a degree that it substitutes the "other" reality of the physical contact and interaction communication that past generations of children enjoyed through societal games and various forms of competitions.

TEN THESES ON CHILDREN AND TELEVISION
1st THEOREM
Children and young adolescents have the capacity of being active and powerful decoders of television and video. Though not all programmes and ways of viewing are equal benefit for all children, some of them remain quite rich in meaning and cultural values.
DISCUSSION
This optimist thesis expressed some ten years ago in England, needs still to be proved. It is true that programmes for children are given the smallest budgets and least attention. It is proved that a good programme, even if made exclusively for adults and watched also by children, is more useful for them than cheap and insubstantial programmes whose main claim to be tailored to children`s needs appears to be the fact that adults would not watch them with enjoyment. These programmes turn to be disasters.
2nd THEOREM
Children`s cognitive and semiotic systems develop at least up till the age of 12, so that they do not only prefer different kinds of programmes from adults, they also respond and interpret differently these programmes.

DISCUSSION
The age of 12 is really a limit not only between the elementary and the secondary education, but also in matters concerning children`s cognitive and mental system. This fact obliged us to distinguish two different groups pf children for interviews, the difference of which we shall analyse further on. However, the semiological analysis of the fact of children`s preferences is not so rich in conclusions and the reasons of this lay in the social practice that proves to be much different from theoretical approaches.
Theorists insist that the most popular adult programmes can be perceived and understood by an alternative way from children. The argument here is that children, being exposed to adults` messages, react with a much peculiar way that we consider usually as "childish", but there are some benefits in this viewing that we underestimate. Our conclusion from our study on this crucial point is simply that children are alienated by meanings incomprehensible to them supposed to mean something but having never time to analyse, they remain at the level of spectacular and the sum of information transmitted by the means of images and speech cannot transform into meanings. Alienated can be defined a child that does not control his proper interests and preferences resting passive spectator of whatever passes on the screen. This leads to the third theorem.
3rd THEOREM
Passive viewing creates secondary effects of oisivity, addiction and inutile loss of time. Children who are watching any programme decided by others, will not develop further preferences or special interests in their school and social life.
DISCUSSION
That seems to be almost a canon. The simulative character of modern media based on their visual performances, does not enable to persons who have not crystalized yet their identity, to distinguish reality from virtual reality and the illusion of eventual participation in the deeds of the spectacle as represented on the screen, diminish real participation in the actual life, does not help the development of interests except those to some models - usually stereotyped - and leads to the formation of a lazy personality never posing questions and trying to escape from real practical problems - school obligations - by the principle of "the lowest of efforts". This principle as a social phenomenon, has influenced in a most negative way the educational phenomenon, has infected also teachers who give a lot of excuses to pupils never consequent to their roles.
4th THEOREM
The values introduced by media are considered as natural under the faith that the fictive reality of the television is even stronger than the actual everyday reality of our social encounters. This is true especially mostly referring to children.


DISCUSSION
The vast sum of information introduced does not allow the formation of a cognitive approach to the knowledge. Children try to decode hidden meanings as mediated through mainly visual messages but this effort is the most often unsuccessful due to children`s inability to connect different meanings and to form proper analogies between these meanings.
5th THEOREM
Childrern`s television typically carries dominant ideological forms, but also a range of oppositional meanings.
DISCUSSION
Traditionally the images of childhood and youth as projected through the media are typical of "good boys and girls" who obey parents` advices and respect societal values. However we need to realize that nowadays, the so-called "dominant ideology" is not solid and constant as it used to be 10 years ago. In the postmodern era, one of the most intense characteristics is the fluidity of values and the eternal fragmentation of meanings. Dominant ideology or the solid values of a certain type of society needs sufficient amount of time to form itself and to obtain a certain social shape. Today the values are changing rapidly under the pressure of technological innovations that modify our everyday life-styles and the variety of cultural forms is more important than the variety of social forms - speaking for the same society. Media producers who are preocupied mainly by the financial future of their productions are aware that an excessive overbalance of the old fashioned dominant ideology makes for dull and unprofitable children`s and youth`s television, They try thus to "throw to the market" new forms of programs that claim to bring new ideas running usually in front of our time. The reason is that producers sell usually programs to advertise and various networks of commercial interests and not to... pedagogues or instructors or directly to children. The high modernity of ideas or ideological forms presented in the programs are not due to social problematization of their producers, but rather to their anxiousness to sell products in a high competitive market where the prices go up and down after the laws of visibility. We will give more precise examples on this topic from Greek television programs further on.

6th THEOREM
It is absurd and even naive to imagine that an effective legislation or a type of smart censors adapted to our post-modernity could ever in the future succeed to control the production and projection of programs described above.


DISCUSSION
Effective legislation has been used in the past by the political forces in order to control masses` oppinions and attitudes regarding great ideas as marxist or anti-marxist ideology, nationalistic ideas, religious model of life (piety) that leads to traditionality, et.al.
Today these efforts are futile and tight legislative control of television contents is proved to be ineffective at least in the so-called democratic states of the West. The multiplication of private commercial interests in the media business, the retreat of the state`s activities in this domain and the increase of consumption needs as a result of excessive advertisement, have changes radically the old scenery. Today the most of the entertainment and stimulus value of CT (children`s TV) that "sells" to the relative market, have contradictional attitude towards the dominant ideology (if we can speak of such a notion). Different programs give different amounts of space to oppositional readings and recuperate the
dominant ideology with different degrees of effectiveness. As a result there are mixed ideological contents in CT today. If parents and educators really want to help children and young people to clarify some fundamental social issues, they have first to admit that the old mode of censoring some programs and suggesting others is futile. Instead in the age of pluralism and fragmentation of meanings in every aspect of everyday life they rather have to use the CONTRADICTIONS of specific programs to that aim. It is said that TV aids to the overall confusion that characterizes our urban lives. We insist that TV has nowadays a too contradictory content to have a single effect one way or another on its own. Certainly, TV has a certain social role as a result of its programs` producers` interests as mentioned above. But we must realize that every estimation of TV influence is vague if we don`t consider its conjunction with other forces and structures.
7th THEOREM
Violence and risk,... risk to become the most usual phenomena of post modern era. Violence as emitted through media is almost a ... natural phenomenon for elder children, the risk of making psychological damages being restrained to younger ages.
DISCUSSION
It is as children having developed psychological antibodies to viruses that are produced for at least the past 30 years. The recent generation of children pays less attention to violence than to advertisments addressed to them. This argument however, does not eliminate the risk that younger children always have to develop a traumatic character after the shocks that they may suffer by watching violent scenes mostly from films. Neither enjoyment, nor learning can be the outcome of such programs` watchings. Furthermore the ideological meaning of some kinds of violence-racism, pornography - must be banned not for the violence as such that they represent, but for the world - view thay tend to proclaim and legitimate.


8th THEOREM
The reality/imagination factors are two apparently contradictory and in the depth complementary factors that operate simultaneously causing thus confusion to parents, educators and sociologists. In younger children the ability to make subtle and adequate reality judgements is limited due to their relative inexperience and they seem that they are sinking into a sea of illusion. It can be argued however that this phenomenon consists just a necessary developmental stage.
DISCUSSION
The reality factor that is TV`s perceived relation to the real world is variable, depending on age, experience and social conditions. Children`s overreactions and impressionability frighten parents who tend to protect them from overstimulation especially when young. From the age of 8, children formulate preferences for specific programs. "Modality mistakes" as considered and evaluated by parents may be signs of learning as children try to make things fit their schemes of the world by experimenting. By "protecting" children from improper watchings, parents simply postpone children`s need to experience under postmodern conditions a sufficiently rich modality environment that
would enable them to distinguish one kind of program from another. The pathological modality problems that do exist for some children should be seen as a part of a greater and general social problem that should be the focus of attention by educators and probably government agencies. Children will need to refine modality judgements when they will grow old, that will be a weapon for their life in the midst of media and communication systems. Education is not concerned today to this major point of how to install an elementary knowledge to young adolescents related to media modality system. The
sociology of informatics seem as too specialized a lesson to be taught under today`s conditions, all the focus being turned to the learning of the information`s production processes. However the ability of a young adolescent to SELECT after his/her criteria a program is a highly qualitative task useful not only for TV messages reception, but also for other systems` messages (Internet, virtual reality systems and who knows what new). Children of mass societies have to be accustomed rather early - at leats earlier than the previous generation - to the probability of living in a future mass communication society. The difference with the present society will be the one`s possibility to emit also messages instead of passing all life in front of a colored screen without other choice than pathetic watching of others` emissions of messages.

9th THEOREM
The role of postmodern family towards children watching TV is no more to permit or forbid programs after judgements related to parents` values, but rather to determine what the meanings coming from this watching could be.


DISCUSSION
The family remains even today in all its various forms, a major factor of socialization. the exercise of power by parents was an effective mean in traditional societies where the transmission of values was assured by powerful institutions and not by non institutional mediators as postmodern media of nowadays. In this way, parents feel often impotent to establish their personal values to their children, but their real mistake is that they never enter in the world-view of these children. To determinate a kind of program with all possible messages that it might bring means to try to decode it under children eyes in the company of children themselves. Qualitative evaluation of some programs such as films, serials, documentaries or world -news, makes their messages more clear and this collective effort to decode them may be proved useful to the parents, too. Children`s look as more fresh and sincere could help some parents to reformulate their values and opinions. After all, nobody is perfect and the saying of Solon, the legislator of Athens, that he was ageing all in learning is true, not for the typical school-class attainment certainly, but for generalized knowledge. It is difficult to establish knowledge by a spectacular - because visual -medium such as TV, but the possibility remains open to our choice.
10th THEOREM
The role of the educators is the most crucial and complicated one, especially in the er aof probable innovations of school curricula introducing computer technics and media supporting lessons.
DISCUSSION
There exist today certain barriers between official Educational systems and TV. However these barriers are no more so powerful after the introduction of informatics lesson as a basic in junior classes. Children of 12 and 13 years old are accustomed to consider a colored screen not as an entertainment or relaxation factor, but also as an educative tool that can add to their learning abilities and to be proved as a useful companion for resolving communication problems. It has been often mentioned by pessimist social analysers that modern combusting as a life-model will result social isolation and loneliness to adults. What will be the impact to young children and adolescents who need to increase their social encounters by the means of psychical and not electronic or virtual communication? The question remains open, and neither an empirical nor a theoretical research can answer it in a sufficient way so far. From the one hand, children are accustomed to be more critical and respectful in front of a screen that is no more a toy but could be also a useful tool, and from the other hand this serious occupation with it may isolate socially the young subject, alienate him and develop only certain parts of his intellect. This problem can be resolved only if postmodern educators elaborate new technics to explain and analyse to their students the inner role of simulation that may be proved useful in most of the cases, but includes also some important risks of alienation. This type of psychological technics will
help students to determine the limits of communication process. The formulation of new values after these determinations will consist the new type of human learning and knowledge production of next millenium.We cannot judge from now if these values will be more, the same or even less "moral" than our familiar values, for the simple reason that their criteria of evaluation will also change under the pressure of new life-styles formulated by the communication explosion. But we can surely say that the first signs of this explosion are already visible from our present sites.




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