engleski

Children’s media identities

The paper presents a detailed review of images of children that can be found in the contemporary media landscape which have largely contributed to the construction of a series of very different children's identities. Despite the fact that children's emancipation through the rights of the child largely contributed to their active participation as social subjects and building of their identities, children are still very rarely portrayed in the media as persons and citizens who have their own rights. On the contrary, researchers, in the series of different media studies, detected that they are commonly invisible, presented in a negative context (as helpless, vulnerable, troubled), sensationalized, used to attract attention to certain topics, stereotyped, shown as passive or as objects. In view of this, the authors investigate the extent to which generalized media images or reports of children directly or indirectly affect the actual construction of their identities that ultimately should be presented through their social position. Is, therefore, the modern child aware of its identity, is it determined in relation to its personal interests or is the identity of the modern child a space of open action of various factors where we particularly emphasize the very important influence of the media. The authors, as pedagogues, rightfully search for the justification of pedagogical aspirations that are directed solely to the employment of every child’s full potential that is the multiplicity of its individual features that relate to its acting and thinking independently about generalized or mechanistic media qualifications, pictures or images. Determined terminology glossary often predisposes a child as a consumer or superconsumer, commodifies it or hipercommodifies it, sexualizes it etc. Pedagogy as a science with its activities wants to achieve complete dismissal of these media- determined statements as they take away every trace of variability, arbitrariness or a free act of the child who, and it is decided in advance, becomes a consumer deprived from any other virtue of character. Assuredly, responsibility is not only on the media and it is not questionable that they should report about various phenomena related to children and childhood. Namely, children are a distinct social group and they should be visible in the media but their representations should not be generalized as it can foster public perception and contribute to the maintenance of social status and hierarchy of social groups. It is especially problematic when various media representations of children are used by researchers in order to construct the image of the child in the society. Analysis of the presence of children in the media content intended for adults provides insight into the mechanism of creation of public opinion on children. These phenomena in children’s environment which are directly reflected in childhood have to be observed and their essential elements have to be analysed. Pedagogy, therefore, should rightfully give guidance through empirical findings in specific socio-economic conditions which will indicate that child and childhood can not be unified.

images of children ; children ; media ; identities ; pedagogy

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