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At the 5. World Summit of Media for Children media experts from 88 countries all over the world met in Johannesburg for five days. The conference takes place every three years and has recently been hosted by Australia, Greece and Brazil. This year it was the turn of South Africa to be the host for 1000 adults – and 300 children. Beside the summit of the adults which focused on the advancement in quality of media for children and teenagers, there has been a parallel summit of the participating teenagers. The 13 to 18-year-old participants could see how it is to be actively involved in developing radio or television productions and could further claim their voice. On behalf of the International Film Festival Berlin and supported by the Goethe-Institute, the journalist and media trainer Julia Kaiser attended the World Summit in Johannesburg.
How often do children laugh during watching the television programme “Willi will’s wissen?” produced by the Bavarian Broadcasting Company? Which role do media play considering HIV/Aids-education? Can children act as reporter out of a war zone? These are only few of the questions producers of media for children discussed about during the conference. In addition to these official panels, there has been a second, younger level of discussion. Children and teenagers put their claims up for discussion and told the experts for example which media contents make children laugh or which scientific questions are relevant for children.
During the morning plenum together there occurred interesting sceneries: the CEO of the Walt Disney Corporate Group sits right next to a 15-year-old girl from Haiti who has lost her whole family during the civil war, next to a former child soldier and next to a 18-year-old Swede who postulates that teenagers in media not only respond to stereotyped questions, but also actively join the process of creating new media contents.
300 children and teenagers from 88 countries compared the media contents of their home. Some of them have already been well experienced in actively participating in the process of producing local news for children. Others though haven’t had yet done anything different with media than just turning-on a commercial pop radio.
The 5. World Summit on Media for Children also enabled children and teenagers to take a look behind the scenes. The production of media contents generally varies from technically challenging to really simple. During an animation workshop Antonio Ringbom for example demonstrated how children can easily compose new faces or animals together out of several cut pieces. On a more technical level a team of the SABC explained how a computer generates a 3D-animation. The differences in interest are hardly surprising: the hand-made cartoons had totally drawn the attention of the children.
Already in the run-up to the World Summit, media trainers from different countries have worked together with children coming from rural areas of South Africa and from townships around Johannesburg. Their skills in creativity, comprehension and desire to learn are nothing short of other children ones. However they have no chance of benefiting of their talents without any help. The 13-year-old Koketso from South Africa concludes his own insight after the World Summit: „When a journalist asks, where you live, you can answer him. Because he doesn’t want to break into your home or murder you. He is just interested.” This self-awareness and confidence in believing that they can change something by participation shall contribute to stronger and more reasonable media cooperation with children and teenagers. Not just only in developing countries.
Report: Julia Kaiser
