Round table talk: ‘Child viewers being neglected by media’

‘There is content about kids, but never for them’.

LAHORE:

Speakers at a round table conference organised by The Little Art on Monday discussed shortage of content generated specifically for children.

Several students of mass communication from Beaconhouse National University (BNU) and University College Punjab (UCP) participated in the talk.

Speakers at the talk said while there were many news reports or entertainment programmes were about children but they were not made for them. They said research showed that most content was generated for adult audience.

Speakers said global franchises had been created to cater specifically to children. The discussion highlighted improvement of media content for children in India over the last few years. They said in India, religious stories had been animated for children to educate them about their religious background.

Speakers said a section of Pakistani audience was being neglected and the media had not taken steps to address the issue. They stressed on the need for creativity and originality in content being aired.

The idea of reinventing indigenous folktales and adapting them for children was also discussed at the talk. Speakers said most media organisations had not considered Pakistani demographics had changed over the last few years and development had affected the social landscape.

They said it was essential that the content produced should be well-researched and made suitable for various age groups. Speakers at several group discussions also discussed the concept of age-appropriate visualisation.

They said that despite legislation by PEMRA, most television channels did not understand their audience, including children. They said parents will have to take the lead in ensuring that their children were not exposed to inappropriate content.

Speakers said media organisations should rate their content according to age-appropriate guidelines for censorship used by other countries.

They stressed that producers should issue a warning before airing programs with content not suitable for children.

The second discussion focused on the question of dearth of content made for children.

Speakers said from an economic perspective, children represented a large market.

One of reasons highlighted was a lack of creativity.

“Creating content for children is tricky, since it requires adults to create something that children can enjoy, without making it seem overly simplified. Programmes with extremely immature content does not sit well with any audience,” they said.

Speakers said programmes made for children were often not marketed correctly.

They concluded that children were not seen as serious consumers by the media industry.

They said an awareness campaign should be launched to educate people on the need for children-friendly content.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 16^th, 2014.