Comunicar 39-ingles - Revista Comunicar

56Comunicar, 39, XX, 2012and the networks with their peer activities offer in aworld of the converging media (Jenkins, 2006;Jenkins & al., 2009).The children were simply asked to write down alltheir media uses on one day (April 20th, 2011) fromthe moment they woke up until they went to sleep.They were also especially encouraged to mention notonly the uses but also to write about the purposes oftheir media use, their thoughts and feelings connectedto these uses and the content. Overall, the writingswere short, as expected, a maximum of one and halfpages of hand-written text. In some schools the givenChildren use the new media regularly on a daily basis forspecific purposes, such as chatting, searching for informationand downloading material. Children have also become moreactive and interactive online. The new media have also ledto the creation of some common habits of usage amongyoung people regardless of their countries of origin. Theyeven use certain words and items for SMS and Facebookthat are known to them and, in most cases, unknown toolder generations.task varied from that intended, so some texts wereextremely short, consisting only of a few words and acouple of lines. However, the results proved an excellentwindow for the variations in different cultures,highlighting the modes of media use, the meaningmakingprocesses and even the differences in themodes of media participation.In the following pages, the findings of this analysisin different countries will be discussed in relation tothe given task, asking how these results should be readthrough the needs of the school curriculum and mediaeducation in general. The aim was to get a close pictureof how media uses are embedded in everydaylife –minute by minute– in the different cultures of childrenaround the age of 14.3. EgyptEgypt is the largest country in the Arab world interms of population with 85 million people, two thirdsof whom are under 25. Egypt has a wide range ofstate-run and private media. The Egyptian Radio andTelevision Union, which is a part of the Ministry ofInformation, supervises radio and television broadcasting.There are three national TV channels, six localchannels and some private TV channels.There are seven national radio networks. Threegovernment-run publishing houses publish dozens ofnewspapers and magazines in Arabic, English, Frenchand German. It is estimated that there are more than600 newspapers and magazines in Egypt (HigherPress Council, 2009).Egypt has a modern film industry which plays arole in the Arab world similarto that of Hollywood in theWest. Egyptian films and TVprograms are very popular inArabic countries. It is estimatedthat the mobile phone subscribersrepresents 101% of thepopulation. Some 65% ofhomes in Cairo and 40% ofhomes in rural areas have anInternet connection, and Webaccess is widely available atInternet cafes in the big cities.Diaries were written byschool children from preparatoryschools (12-14 years old)in Cairo (urban area) andFayoum (rural area). Theywere asked detail their mediause for April 20th, 2011.Analysis of the diaries suggests that there weresome differences among young people with respect totheir use of the media. Geographical location, age andgender emerged as important influencing factors.Younger children were interested in being seenonline, while the older ones were more interested indownloading material and films from the Internet.Also, the children from Cairo used Internet and mobilephones more often than those from Fayoum, the ruralarea in which the children used traditional media(radio, television and newspapers) more than those inCairo.It was also found that children use media mainlyafter returning home from school mostly between 8and 10 pm.Some quotes from the children’s diaries: «I usedthe Internet to chat with my friends and to spend timewith them. I also watched television for some time tosee serials (a girl from Cairo).• «I used the Internet to do some home-work for© ISSN: 1134-3478 • e-ISSN: 1988-3293 • Pages 53-62