Libro

MEDIA LITERACY AND INTERCULTURAL DIALOGUE
Strategies, Debates and Good Practices
Overall, the news are considered repetitive and unattractive, although for some
of these young people attend them is a sign of maturity. This position was more
evident in older students, though not always explicitly. And while the boys
showed greater interest political issues, the girls were concerned primarily with
environmental and climate issues.
In turn, the news continues to be connoted as something that has credibility,
young people continue to trust them to get information about the world.
Although Buckingham consider, in the case of television news, that they create
the illusion of being informed, the studies suggest that these lead to a sense of
belonging and stability.
In conclusion, Buckingham says that the common idea that children are cynical
and apathetic in the face of news is a symptom denoting the need for more
innovation in content, in order to capture the interest of youngsters. With regard
to television and the content it produces, the author believes it is important to
look at how producers position their audiences, because, in relation to the
children, they should look at them as citizens and potential participants of the
public sphere.
4. Methodology
This work is the result of a qualitative research framework, with a class of 15
children (8 girls, 7 boys), aged 9 and 10 years old, from a public school located
in Oporto disctrit.
The main objective was to see, from the look of the children themselves, what
kind of understanding they creat around news, putting them in a perspective of
receptors, producers and evaluators of news discourse. We assume that
children are active right subjects, with power to engage in the affairs of
everyday life, creating views expressed freely and in conjunction with their
maturity.
Methodologically, we used a registration tool. So we asked the group to develop
a short text for each of three specific issues: What is information? If you were a
journalist, what choises would you do? How do you assess the information?
The choice of these issues stemmed from the need for children to talk about the
news, showing the role and place of information in their daily lives. It was a
reflection free, so from the outset, we clarify that there would be no right or
wrong answers.
Contrary to what is usual, the answers were developed in children’s homes,
although we have made contact with the class and presented the aim of the
research in the classroom environment. This is because, during the weekend,
we wanted to give children freedom to write the texts and arouse curiosity for
news, so they were more attentive to the current affairs.
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