CMNS: 320 Children, Media and Culture

1. CMNS: 320 Children, Media and Culture • Lectures: Thurs 12:30 - 3:20 WMC • Steve Klinekline@sfu.ca • TA: Masa miwase@sfu.ca • Course list: cmns320-d1@sfu.ca http://www.sfu.ca/cmns/faculty/kline_s/320/08-Fall/

2. Today’s Line Up • Review Objectives • Defining the Field • Introduce Course Pedagogy? • Topics • Assignments • Grading • Why Study Children’s Media/ Culture? • Over view of course perspective (my biases and interests) • Cultural-historical Approach to Children’s Socialization • Critical Focus on Commercialization of Media Culture - formation of children’s cultural industries • Critical Reflection on Media Discourses • For the child - toys, books, films, TV shows, music, clothes • About the child/ family in films and TV

3. Objectives The course adopts a cultural-historical perspective on the development of children's media industries with an eye to contextualizing the critical debates about “media-saturated” childhood. The course will direct itself to the following four objectives: • To provide a historical perspective on modern childhood tracing the emergence of the children's cultural industries (publishing, movies, radio, tv, toys, video games and the internet) and their practices; • To introduce students to academic writing on children's media culture including policy issues and critiques of commercialized cultural production; • To overview and evaluate research into children's media use and its impact on children's lives; • To explore the key debates about media saturated childhood with an emphasis on consumerism and children's healthy lifestyles.

4. This course text provides a historical perspective on the following key debates about the role that communication media play in children’s lives: • The debates surrounding the development of children’s cultural industries and marketing (publishing, movies, radio, tv, toys, video games and the internet) • A variety of critical writing evaluating the quality of children’s media products and their aesthetics focusing on play and stories as the twin pillors of children’s culture; • The research literatures on children’s audiences, tastes, competences and the consequences of their media use (violence, gender identity, addiction, learning) • The policy issues, debates and regulation emerging about children’s special status in the mediated marketplace (rights and restrictions)

5. Lecture Schedule

6. Texts OTG = Out of the Garden

7. Exercises: Methods for study of children's media cultures

9. Parsing the Course children Children’s Use of Media culture media

10. Children • The Child: an rhetorical and legal abstraction pertaining to young peoples’ status in life < 18 (family, rights, education,”for the sake of the children”etc.) • Gender, ethnicity, maturation • Childhood: a cultural-historical construct which is ideological (ie childhood of the 1950’s) • Children: an abstraction about the experiences, competences and expressions of specific individuals (children who play violent video games)

11. Media • Channels of Mediated Communication • Genres, Aesthetics and Culture Forms • Cultural Industries • Audiences and Market Segments

12. Culture • Discursive practices, institutions and social relations - context of socialization (sociology) • The creative products of the imagination - great works (literature and art criticism) • The daily experiences and behaviours of children (social psychology) • The myths, routines, roles and meanings that inform the performance of daily life (anthropology) • The ability of children to construct their own identity (cultural studies)

13. Pedagogy and Approach • Pedagogy: • self reflection on own experience • critical analysis of examples and cases • learning by writing and doing research • option for video • Viewings: to provoke the critical analysis of important cultural texts • Lectures: to overview key debates, to analyze case examples and key research projects, and to provide a theoretical framework • Readings: to be familiar with key writers and research traditions • Tutorials: • encourage debate about ideas in the readings, films and lectures • To link readings with experience and observations • To help explain options for the practice of children’s cultural research

14. Reading Logs: Critical Reflections on Readings, Lectures, Films • The log is submitted in lieu of an exam to show us that you have become acquainted with the field. Your log will be reviewed and evaluated at least twice during the term by the TA so it is important to keep up with the readings. The purpose of the reading log is to provide us with evidence of your active intellectual engagement with the course texts (which include readings, lectures, films and weekly exercises). In this regard, the films you see as well as the ideas presented in lectures and seminars are as much a part of the course ‘texts’ as the readings. • A good reading log is not simply a set of notes showing us that you have read the material. It should also provide evidence of the mental work you do while reading, listening and watching, including your interpretations, critical reflections (evaluations) and ideational associations you make as you assimilate the theories, cases and evidence encountered on this course – as you read, watch, listen to and discuss the course materials. We expect you to demonstrate that you understand and can define and paraphrase ideas/ arguments from these texts. We also expect you to provide a thoughtful commentary including situating these concepts in their cultural-historical context, explaining why you think they are relevant, providing other complex examples of these abstract concepts, as well as analyzing and evaluating arguments and assumptions. The application of a concept to a new example, or a refutation of it based on evidence or experience are strong evidence of ‘active’ engagement. Remember your written comments and responses to these texts are intended to provide us with evidence of your critical reflections – including your own understanding and analysis of these concepts/ theories.

15. Participation in Seminars • You will be evaluated both for your attendance and contribution to seminars. To this end the seminars on this course have two purposes. The first is to encourage you to discuss the ideas presented in the lectures, films and readings with the TA and fellow students. You are expected to have read all the core readings specified for the prior week and can bring examples or questions to the discussion. Each week students will be required to be the seminar leaders overviewing the additional reading material found in the folder. Students will be evaluated for their presentation and discussion of the reading in the seminar. • The other purpose of the seminars is to explore/ apply in greater depth the key concepts, research approaches and arguments that are examined to this course. In order to focus these discussion we expect you to complete all the exercises listed below and be prepared to discuss your experiences and findings in the weekly seminars which follow the lecture. The exercise assigned for week 2 will be discussed in the seminar held in week 2. Each exercise should also be entered in the weekly log in note form for that week. • We very much advise you to keep up with the readings and exercises in your course logs.

16. What we expect You will engage with children’s culture by reading, watching cartoons, playing with children, talking to children; You will draw upon your own childhood experiences; You will read and take an active part in seminar discussions. You will clarify your own perspectives and values; You will learn to defend your own ideas and judgements about children’s media culture, its qualities and its effects on/ appeal to kids

17. Why study Children’s Media Culture? • For those who want to work in Children’s Cultural Industries Practical: not only media education but children’s cultural industries/ marketing are expanding rapidly • J.J. Rowlings is richer than the Queen • Research into children’s taste, preferences and audiences

18. Jobs that require you to know about children’s culture • Journalism: Writing and Reviewing • Education: teaching, libraries, policing • Marketing and retailing: research, advertising, merchandising • Clinical psychology, advocacy and social work • Leisure industries, travel, sports • Media

19. Researching the Children’s Cultural Industries Political economy: production and consumption of children’s culture Genre and Cultural Form: Historical and comparative critical analysis of children’s media products Understanding Authorship: biography and inspiration of creatives Policy and Impact: regulation and research in mediated marketplace

20. Animation is big business =$2.6 billion • Lion King 504 mill • Incredibles=$70 million in one weekend • Polar Express=$23 M in opening weekend • Finding Nemo: • Boxoffice=865/ DVD=324 • Shrek 2 =$880 mill box + ancillaries • Hasbro’s licensing of Marvel Characters=205 million

21. For those who want to understand why Winnie the Pooh is superior to Teletubbies? • Practical: Parents and Teachers and the need for critical judgements on children’s culture products • Some of the great works of cinema and literature are made for children • Critical writing and teaching about the children’s cultural products

22. Wonderland! Children’s creatives as pioneers of the imagination Production Stream -meeting after the Class! J.M. Barry and Peter Pan Alice Liddel and Charles Dodson

23. Some questions we will debate • What makes a story good to read? • What kinds of marketing is acceptable? • What do children learn in play? • What did children do before TV? • Haven’t boys always played war games? • Do Spice Girls empower tweens through fashion and music?

24. And write about Thomas?

25. For those in search of identity and self-understanding. • Personal Growth: Children’s culture as a point of departure for self reflection on ones own history, cultural identity and taste • Maturation through reflection • The love of play and stories (resisting maturation)

26. The Child Within? • Liberating the Child Within? • Or knowing where your own tastes and values come from

27. MEGHAN PLAYS BARBIE

28. For those who wish to study power and ideology in contemporary culture • Theoretical: Childhood is a site of ideological struggle: family values and consumer socialization • Political:Children and democratization movements/ canaries in the coalmines

29. Biases of this course: • Historical Perspective: focus on change and continuity in the matrix of socialization ( the rise of the marketplace as an agency of socialization) • Social-Psychological - belief in the importance of play, stories and imagination in the child’s healthy maturation and learning. • Consumer Culture - focus on consumer socialization and policy debates associated with the commericalization of media and the commodification of children’s culture • Critical - examine issues of morality, policy and politics associated with children’s rights and well being in a media saturated world

30. A Child’s Festival of Greed or a chance to research children’s consumerism in the mediated marketplace?

31. Pilot Research Project This pilot research project requires you to work in groups on some primary research– either qualitative or quantitative – using discourse analysis, surveys, interviews, focus groups, or ethnographic approaches. The main purpose of this pilot research project is undertake an empirical pilot investigation of one key issue/ debate that has been identified in the course. A project requires you to 1) review what is known about the topic; 2) to gather and analyse some evidence that relates to that topic; 3) to explain the relevance of your finding to ongoing debates about children's cultural industries. • You are welcome to propose your own pilot research project or you can elect to work on one of the five theme questions outlined for this years’ class TBA.

32. (10%) On-line Review of a children’s cultural product (1000 words or less) • Although children’s books, toys and the latest blockbuster films are sometimes reviewed in the press, these are frequently part of the promotional spin. For this reason, this part of the assignment asks you to write an independent critical evaluation of a cultural product -- a toy, movie, video game, book etc.-- which might be useful to parents looking to make informed decisions about the merits, subject matter and appropriateness of the product. The assignment is first and foremost intended to get you reflecting on your evaluation of child appropriate judgements. Critical evaluation involves more than justifying your own taste by stating what you like and why you like it. It is also about you articulating your criteria for evaluating the qualities, experiences and values embedded in these cultural products for children by the children’s cultural industries that make them – whether it be toys, TV shows, films or comics. In this sense the evaluation of a cultural product involves commentary on their design as objects for a purpose for communicating ideas and values, for educating and entertaining, or for supporting children’s maturation and adjustment. These reviews are intended to be read in the ‘public domain’ as a resource which can be posted on the media lab website as an advisory to parents. The reviews should be submited as PDF’s • Townsend, J. (1980). Standards of Criticism for Children's Literature. In Nancy Chambers (Ed.), The signal approach to children's books (pp. 192-207). London: Kestrel Books/Penguin. • Henri Giroux –Are Disney Movies Good for Your kids? in S. Steinberg and J. Kincheloe (Eds.). Kinderculture; The Corporate Construction of Childhood. (pp. 85-101). Boulder: Westview Press.

33. Assignment # 1 Managing Freedom • Children’s leisure and cultural consumption stimulated a lively debate about growing up in the mediated marketplace. Analyze the system of family regulation you grew up with identifying the rules, rituals, and restrictions on your freedom, your leisure and your cultural consumption. What kinds of cultural activities were you required to undertake and what kinds were you restricted from. • Method: involves reflection on your own family patterns of socialization (try looking at old photos… what are you doing in them?) • Think about rules and expectations related to: • media use (books, toys, music, TV, video games, comics …) • allowances and spending • leisure time and activities • snacking and food consumption • How did these change with age? • Were they uniformly applied to siblings (gender, father mother)? • How were conflicts of taste and preference dealt with? How did you respond?

34. Assignment # 2: Family Oral History Is there a widening generation gap? Are there any major differences in children’s experiences today from yours? How do we understand changes in children’s culture? Method: Oral history Interview Interview your parents (or better grandparents) about their own childhood experiences and culture – what it was like when they were children. Ask them about the things they most liked to do, to play with, read watch and listen too etc in their leisure time. In what ways were their experiences similar to or different from yours. Are these just differences in general taste? Ask them about games and/ or leisure activities that they loved most -- and perhaps teach you about something that might otherwise be lost from their children’s culture -- a game, a joke, a trick, riddle or song etc.

35. Additional Refs. • Cross, G. (2004) Wondrous Innocence; Print Advertising and the Origins of Permissive Childrearing in the US. Journal of Consumer Culture. 4(2) 183-202. • Zipes, J. (2001). Wanda Gag’s Americanization of the Grimms’ Fairy Tales. In J. Zipes, (Ed.). Sticks and stones : the troublesome success of children's literature from Slovenly Peter to Harry Potter. (81-97).New York : Routledge. • Jenkins, H.(1999). "No Matter How Small": The Democratic Imagination of Dr. Seuss. In M. Kinder. Kids' media culture (pp. 251-276). Durham: Duke University Press. • Tolkein, J.R. (1964). Children and fairy stories. Tree and leaf (pp. 112-120). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. Recommended: • Valkenburg, P. and Cantor, J. (2000). Children's Likes and Dislikes of Entertainment Programs. In D. Zillman and P. Vorderer (Eds.). Media Entertainment: The Psychology of Its Appeal. (pp. 135-152). Mahwah: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. • Jordan, A. Schmitt, K, Woodard, E. Developmental Implications of Commercial Broadcasters Educational Offerings. In Calvert et al. (Ed.). Children in the Digital Age Praeger. Westport. pp • Mergen, B. (1995). Children’s Lore in School and Playgrounds. In B. Sutton-Smith et al. (Eds.). Children’s Folklore; A Source Book. (pp. 229-249). New York: Garland Publishing Inc. • Media Awareness Network (2005), Canadian Children Go Online II. (on-line) • Cook and Kaiser; Betwixt and Between: Age Ambiguity and the sexualization of the female consuming subject. Journal of Consumer Culture. pp.203-228 • Beresin, A. (1995). Double Dutch and Double Cameras; Studying the Transmission of Culture in An Urban School Yard. In B. Sutton-Smith et al. Children’s Folklore; A Source Book. (Eds.). (pp. 75-91). New York: Garland Publishing Inc. • Curry, D. (1999). Doing and Undoing: The Everyday Experience of Subject-ivity. In D. Curry (Ed.). Girl Talk: Adolescent Magazines and Their Readers. (pp. 207-246). Toronto: University of Toronto Press. • Lemish et. al (2003) The Role of Media in Children’s Make Believe Worlds. Televizion No 16 2003. (on-line) • Hobbs, R. 1999. The Seven Great Debates in the Media Literacy Movement EDRS. (on-line). • Kline, S. 2005 Countering Children‚s Sedentary Lifestyles: An Evaluative Study of a Media-Risk Education Childhood Vol. 12, No. 2 . (on-line)