Media conference for youth

It is widely believed that the mass media have taken over the role of storytelling, something which traditionally was performed by grandmothers and grandfathers in most of Africa. If so, who today are storytellers in Africa? What stories do they tell, when, where and with what effect to children and young people? The answers to these questions are not clearly established because there is currently not much information about how children and young people in Africa are targeted by the mass media.

The organisers have called for papers to be submitted that deal with production and reception strategies for childrens and young peoples media in Africa. Papers are invited on media in the whole continent of Africa: north, south, east and west, whether individual countries, groups of countries or the regions of North Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa.

The conference will focus on how children and young people engage with the mass media on a continent where there is still a strong traditional culture and where media choices are often limited. Television, music, film, radio and newspapers, books and more recently, internet and mobile phones, have helped children and young people enjoy their right to entertainment. Every year many childrens media and related initiatives emerge but this also opens many social, cultural and economic questions about the production and distribution of the content. The mass media reflect and affect social change in and of the media for children and young people in Africa.

Across Africa, attempts to produce media more suitable for children and young people have not always succeeded. Equally important are the growing debates about how children and young people in Africa are influenced by what they receive. African mass media for children and young people are seen as necessary, but also as spheres of great concern. That media for children and young people use both local and foreign formats, languages and styles also raises many questions.

The conference will feature panel debates by invited industry practitioners, educationists and policy-makers. Some sessions will be devoted to presentation of academic research. The organisers also plan to include some screenings of prize-winning broadcast material. By bringing scholars together with executives and experts from all parts of the childrens media landscape, the conference aims to explore, among other things.

For more information on paper subjects contact Helen Cohen at: journalism@westminster.ac.uk