Assignment: Protectionist in Nature
Assignment: Protectionist in Nature
Assignment: Protectionist in Nature
Assignment: Protectionist in Nature
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A contrasting view is that children are increasingly sophisticated, mature, and media savvy (Livingstone, 2002). According to this position, efforts to shield youth from media are too protectionist in nature, smack of paternalism, and construe children as acted upon instead of actors. Instead, children should be empowered to take control of their own media experiences, negotiating and learning along the way. Buckingham (2000) noted that this position is widely shared among those who see children as independent consumers who should be able to spend their own money and buy what they want.
These very different perspectives illustrate that notions of childhood are constantly being defined, debated, and renegotiated over the course of history (James, Allison, Jenks, & Prout, 1998). In truth, neither of these extreme positions seems very satisfying. Children are not entirely passive in the face of the media, nor are they extremely worldly and discriminating. The reality is probably somewhere in between. Nevertheless, most parents, developmental psychologists, policymakers, and educators would agree that children are not the same as adults (see Figure 1.11).
Several features of childhood support this distinction. First, children
bring less real-world knowledge and experience to the media environment (Dorr, 1986). Every aspect of the physical and social world is relatively new to a young child, who is busy discovering what people are like, how plants grow, what animals eat, and where one neighborhood is located relative to another. As they get older, children explore increasingly abstract concepts and ideas such as the social norms of their culture, what prejudice is, and how life begins. In almost every arena, though, children possess a more limited knowledge base compared to adults.
One implication of this is that children can fail to understand a media message if they lack the background knowledge needed to make sense of the information. As an illustration, in 1996, researchers at the Children’s Television Workshop (now called Sesame Workshop) wanted to produce a Sesame Street segment about visiting the doctor. On the basis of preliminary interviews, the researchers discovered that preschoolers mostly associated doctor visits with getting shots and that they had little knowledge of the importance of such vaccinations (“Feeling Good,” 1996). Had the producers not discovered this, they might have created a script that focused too much on getting shots, inadvertently reinforcing children’s negative and limited impressions of the purpose of going to a physician.
Figure
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