In Search of the Child1 本週起： Buckingham’s Book  The Disappearance of Childhood --- by Neil Postman (1994)  After the Death of Childhood - Growing up in the Age of Electronic Media --- David Buckingham (2000)  從實證研究觀點轉向批判研究觀點

In Search of the Child2 Meaning of Childhood  Childhood has been lost?  Children as threatened and endangered  Young prostitutes: TIMEaisa TIMEaisa  Young soldiers: BBC NEWSBBC NEWS  Children as a perceived threat to the rest of us  Anti-social, violent (Riots in France: Nov.2005)  Sexually precocious

In Search of the Child3 The Role of Media  Primarily delivering the debate about the change  Frequently blamed for the phenomena  Fascinated with the “idea” of childhood  Hollywood: Child-like adult, adult-like child  Entertainment business: Toy industries, Games…  Advertising: Nursing supplies…

In Search of the Child4 The “Children” Issue  Children’s Rights (to be protected)  Social Issues & Policies  Tight Censorship  Blocking hardware & Software (V-chip, Cyber Sitter)  Polarized Interpretation of Childhood  Childhood as disappearing or dying  Growing generation gap in media use  Technology Literacy vs. Parent Control

In Search of the Child5 Constructing Childhood  Childhood as a Social Construction  “The child” is not a natural or universal category  Meaning is subjected to constant negotiation  In public discourse and in the family, etc.  Law & Social Polices  Forms of child-like behaviors  Schooling as a formal social institution (regulation)  Contradiction in family and school  Exhort children to grow up  Deny certain privileges

In Search of the Child6 Representing Childhood  Primary Discourse  Produced by adults for adults  Produced by adults for children  Rarely by children  Systemic Segregation (since mid-19 th century)  Age of (parent) consent  Compulsory education  Eradication of child labor

In Search of the Child7 Representing Childhood (2)  Childhood as Distinct Stage of Life  Innate purity & natural goodness  Reflecting adults’ fascination of childhood (memory)  Exposing adult guilt & hypocrisy  Adult effort to control over children (argued by some)  Use the idea of “childhood” to secure the status of “adulthood”

In Search of the Child8 Childhood, Power, & Ideology  Social & cultural construction – what children should be.  Do children today live according to “our” (Western) conception?  Ideology & Social Movement  “politics of substitution”: fears about child → means for gaining public attention  Against homosexuality → Against pedophiles  Against pornography → Against child pornography  Environmentalism: “Children” & “The Future”

In Search of the Child9 Ideology of Childhood (p.12) … the production of of texts for children …to sustain particular ideologies of childhood. Such activities has traditionally been characterized by a complex balance between ‘negative’ and ‘positive’ motivations. On one hand, producers have been strongly informed by the need to protect children from ‘undesirable’ aspects of the adult world. …obviously in the form of sex and violence. On the other hand, there are also strong pedagogical motivations: such texts are frequently… attempt to educate, to provide moral lessons or ‘positive’ image’, and thereby to model forms behavior that are seen to be socially desirable.

In Search of the Child10 Childhood as Exclusion  Definition & Rights are made mostly by adults  Essentially a Matter of Exclusion !?  What they are not  What they cannot do  Lacking or Incomplete  If Growth as Logical Sequence of Ages & Stages  Childhood as a process of becoming  Adulthood as a finished state?

In Search of the Child11 Maturity vs. Immaturity  Adult Qualities  Rationality, Morality, Self-Control, ‘Good Manners’?  Childhood  Truth, Purity  Adults need to get in touch with their ‘inner child’?  Concerns about ‘Crossing the Line’  Adult Power  Access & Control  Maturity, a relative term?

In Search of the Child12 Closing words… (p. 16) The attempt to protect children by restricting their access to media is doomed to fail. On the contrary, we now need to pay much closer attention to how we prepare children to deal with these experiences; and in doing so, we need to stop defining them simply in terms of what they lack.