Libro

MEDIA LITERACY AND INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE
1. Radiography and television audiences: critical condition
Strategies, Debates and Good Practices
There are many interesting conclusions extracted from a sample equivalent to
6644 records of television programming for children and y 2478 records of
youth programming issued between January 1 and June 30, 2007 in the six
national generalists channels: TVE 1, Antena 3, Cuatro, Tele 5 and La Sexta
and the two Andalusian public generalistic channels: Canal Sur and Canal 2
Andalucía.
Spanish children spend almost as much time watching television than the
school (218 minutes/270 minutes). Children aged 4 to 12 spend more time
watching television (990 hours per year) than studying in the school (960
hours annually). And last but not least, many of the content broadcast in child
protection zone (from 6 to 22 hours) are clearly unsuitable for minors, who are
in danger of becoming "visual illiterates". The divorce between TV and the
school is a fact and urge solutions that protect children in a worrying situation.
In Andalusia, the 50 most watched programs in aged 4 to 12 years, only 26 of
them are classified as spaces specifically for children. Although the top of
hearing programs are taken by fiction and animation, also telenovelas and
series are particularly unsuitable for this audience. In addition, most programs
among young audiences are not between programming created specifically for
them, and are issued after hours child protection.
It is an indication that Andalusians young people are not seeing a general an
appropriate programming and also indicates that operators do not distinguish
between programming for youth and adults. It is simply the same. As the
General Report on Children and Television in Andalusia 2008 indicated,
approximately 40% of Andalusian households the parental control over what
their children see on television or does not exist or is very relaxed. In
households where some control is maintained, this exercise is practiced by
mothers in 71.3% of cases. It is clear that children, especially at certain times of
day, are the absolute owners and decide freely and unconsciously they want to
see.
José Manuel Pérez Tornero, Professor at the Autonomous University of
Barcelona, says that "what makes the school during the day, it undoes the
television at night." In many cases, the media have more influence on the boys
school. It is relatively easy to have access to unsuitable content via television or
the Internet, which can be combated by technical filters or by critical education.
It is also the problem of credibility: a recent European report highlights that over
40% of children are believed "most or all" what they find on the Internet. That is,
the media are doing some of the work that supposedly should develop school:
put in order the mind of children and young people, structure their systems of
symbols and values. Therefore it is considered so important that children and
adults are able to correctly decode the messages that the media transmitted.
In his research, Tornero has the conviction that to achieve a consequent visual
environment with educational and ethical values of an advanced society
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