What Do Children Want from the BBC? Children's Content and Participatory Environments in an Age of Citizen Media

Since its inception, the BBC has maintained a commitment to offering a diverse range of educational-led programming for children. This provision, widely acknowledged for its quality, has served young audiences well. Today, however, the Corporation is coming under increasing economic pressures as it strives to fulfil its public service remit in a fast-changing multi-platform, multi-channel media environment. In the face of competing demands to entertain young audiences with 'what they want' while at the same time providing them with 'what they need' in educational terms, we ask: what is the future for this public service ethos where the BBC's content for children is concerned?

The project will examine the changing relationship between the BBC and its young audiences, with particular attention on Newsround, its flagship television news bulletin and website and children's citizenship education content. In looking beyond the usual sorts of rhetorical claims made about 'the iPod generation', the development of user generated content - often hailed as citizen media - clearly warrants close attention for its potential to re-invigorate the BBC's remit. The main opportunity presented here is one of offering these audiences innovative ways to participate as citizens in deliberative dialogue and debate. In recognising how 'technology-savvy' young people are becoming - especially as they actively question, probe and seek out information in diverse media contexts - it is equally apparent that familiar assumptions about how best to reach them need to be actively reconsidered.

The project partners share a commitment to coming to grips with the current challenges that face public service broadcasting in a digital age. They are of the view that one of the best ways to develop ideas for change is to hear the voices of young people, especially with regard to their thoughts on how Newsround and children's educational content might be made even more responsive to their needs and interests .

The academic team members have a well established track record of research in this area. They have worked together on a study concerning children's news in Scotland (Davies, Carter and Allan), and are currently located in England (Allan), Wales (Carter) and Northern Ireland (Davies). The BBC production partner (Milani) has over 25years of experience working in children's factual programming, including 5 years as Editor of Newsround. Wass has developed, delivered and commissioned children's interactive educational content for the BBC for more than a decade. The proposed project would include a wide range of research methods, including questionnaires, focus groups, creative brainstorming sessions, personal diaries and programme/web co-designing workshops. The sample group would be comprised of equal numbers of boys and girls, in two age ranges - 8-10 year olds and 13-15 year olds - from different socio-economic and cultural/ethnic backgrounds in four regional sites (Bristol, Cardiff, Coleraine, and Glasgow) across the UK.

This range of research methods will help to secure a rich, detailed picture of young people's opinions about Newsround (across broadcast and online environments) and citizenship content provided by the BBC, and also elicit ideas about possible improvements.