Collaborative Development of Children's Screen Content in an Era of Forced Migration Flows: Facilitating Arab-European Dialogue
Lead Research Organisation:
King's College London
Department Name: Culture Media and Creative Industries
Abstract
This project aims to make European broadcasters, policy-makers, children's advocacy groups and content producers aware of the urgent, unprecedented, information and entertainment needs shared by hundreds of thousands of young children who have fled to Europe from Arab countries and European-born children who have watched them arrive. Thousands of Arabic-speaking families, most of them from Syria and Iraq, have taken up residence in Germany and Sweden in the last two years, while hundreds of unaccompanied refugee children have found homes in these countries and the UK. Although German public broadcasters ZDF and ARD have responded to the challenge by providing adult news services in Arabic and Arabic subtitles for other items, provision for children also needs attention. Our project will show how imaginatively produced screen content for young children could fill worrying gaps in what is currently available to children on all sides of forced migration flows at a time when they may struggle to make sense of the new environment in which they find themselves.
The project objectives are to use our research findings to:
1. Alert European screen content practitioners to the media needs, wants and experiences of young Arabic-speaking migrant children (under 12) and families.
2. Create spaces for critical reflection and dialogue between European cultural gatekeepers who regulate, commission, fund, produce or comment on children's content and practitioners with experience of children's media in Arab countries.
3. Help European stakeholders to think through policy, production initiatives, public discourse and professional practice as they seek to ensure that pluralistic and high quality content is available to an increasingly diverse young audience.
4. Identify effective elements of regulation, financing, production and advocacy practice applicable to screen content aimed at young migrant children in Europe.
5. Demonstrate to key European and Arab stakeholders how children's media rights, articulated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), are fundamental to children's future participation as citizens, and prompt further research into how screen media can help migrant children develop their identities in new environments.
6. Raise awareness of the communication needs of migrant children among a wider public.
European broadcasters, producers and NGOs in Europe will benefit from dialogue which generates better understanding of young Arabic-speaking audiences, allowing them to engage more effectively with young children whose lives and education have been seriously disrupted. They will benefit through the transfer of knowledge about Arabic-speaking children's media use and expectations, leading to better understanding of children's needs. The use of Arab practitioners as experts represents an innovative step towards creating new European conceptualisations of the Arab child audience, breaking with the tradition of research travelling in one direction only. The project will create increased opportunities for future collaborations and new spaces for exchanging research. Arab participants will benefit through engagement in an international conversation about children's screen media at a range of events, from the Children's Global Media Summit in Manchester in December 2017 to more intimate workshops in France and Germany.The most significant impacts of this project will be:
* Changed perspectives among new stakeholders, through further dissemination of our research findings
* Better understanding of the media and communications needs of child migrants by producers, policy-makers, broadcasters and advocacy groups
* Policy recommendations for engaging young Arab migrant audiences;
* Reports on knowledge exchange to stakeholders through presentations and reports in appropriate outlets.
* Raised visibility of Arabic-speaking children's media needs and active exchange of effective practice.
The project objectives are to use our research findings to:
1. Alert European screen content practitioners to the media needs, wants and experiences of young Arabic-speaking migrant children (under 12) and families.
2. Create spaces for critical reflection and dialogue between European cultural gatekeepers who regulate, commission, fund, produce or comment on children's content and practitioners with experience of children's media in Arab countries.
3. Help European stakeholders to think through policy, production initiatives, public discourse and professional practice as they seek to ensure that pluralistic and high quality content is available to an increasingly diverse young audience.
4. Identify effective elements of regulation, financing, production and advocacy practice applicable to screen content aimed at young migrant children in Europe.
5. Demonstrate to key European and Arab stakeholders how children's media rights, articulated in the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), are fundamental to children's future participation as citizens, and prompt further research into how screen media can help migrant children develop their identities in new environments.
6. Raise awareness of the communication needs of migrant children among a wider public.
European broadcasters, producers and NGOs in Europe will benefit from dialogue which generates better understanding of young Arabic-speaking audiences, allowing them to engage more effectively with young children whose lives and education have been seriously disrupted. They will benefit through the transfer of knowledge about Arabic-speaking children's media use and expectations, leading to better understanding of children's needs. The use of Arab practitioners as experts represents an innovative step towards creating new European conceptualisations of the Arab child audience, breaking with the tradition of research travelling in one direction only. The project will create increased opportunities for future collaborations and new spaces for exchanging research. Arab participants will benefit through engagement in an international conversation about children's screen media at a range of events, from the Children's Global Media Summit in Manchester in December 2017 to more intimate workshops in France and Germany.The most significant impacts of this project will be:
* Changed perspectives among new stakeholders, through further dissemination of our research findings
* Better understanding of the media and communications needs of child migrants by producers, policy-makers, broadcasters and advocacy groups
* Policy recommendations for engaging young Arab migrant audiences;
* Reports on knowledge exchange to stakeholders through presentations and reports in appropriate outlets.
* Raised visibility of Arabic-speaking children's media needs and active exchange of effective practice.
Planned Impact
This project will raise awareness of the communications needs of migrant children from the Arabic speaking world based on research that has explored policy, texts, audiences and children's media production across a highly differentiated Arabic-speaking region.
ARAB MEDIA PRACTITIONERS Arab practitioners consulted during our AHRC research frequently identified the one-way flow of information and media aid from the West to Arab countries even in circumstances that are supposed to involve co-production (e.g. Sesame Workshop) or NGO initiatives (Goethe Institut, Wadada News for Kids). Arab media practitioners who will attend and participate in three workshops and the end of project symposium are therefore beneficiaries themselves. They are keen to open up a dialogue with Western colleagues and share their expertise of making content for young Arab audiences - particularly in respect of developing ideas for a diverse Arab audience, where conceptualisations of childhood differ, as do media organisation responses to the challenges of children's media. Arab children's media practitioners will benefit from participation in the three workshops and end of project symposium because of the opportunity to engage in knowledge exchange. Participation in events located in Europe will provide a unique opportunity to engage in dialogue and access European networks and markets, allowing a two way learning process that could also benefit children's media produced in Arab countries.
EUROPEAN CULTURAL PRACTITIONERS Cultural gatekeepers include European broadcasters, content producers and children's media advocacy groups who will benefit from better understanding of the basic differences between European and Arab media ecologies and approaches to childhood as they seek to integrate the needs of Arab and other migrant children into their planning and commissioning for children. We will organise three separate workshops at the Children's Global Media Summit (CGMS) in the UK, the Global Kids Media Congress (GKMC) in France and at the International Central Institute for Youth and Educational Television (IZI) in Germany for European broadcasters, producers and other stakeholders to connect with professionals who commission, fund and make children's content in Arab countries. Participation in these events will allow commissioners and programme-makers to access research about Arab child audiences and Arab media cultures that will allow them to rethink how they might reach out to Arabic-speaking children and also reflect diversity in a European context. It will alert them to the media needs, wants and experiences of Arabic-speaking children, based on children's media experience from their home countries and allow them to question and interrogate how migrant children are represented and viewed.
EUROPEAN NGOs, POLICY MAKERS, ADVOCACY GROUPS, GOVERNMENT AGENCIES Policy briefing documents from the workshops and symposium will provide further guidance on the media and communications needs of Arabic-speaking migrant children. Highlighting the gap in what is available to migrant children in the West, workshops, briefings and a Stakeholder Resource Book will support international agencies, policy-makers, NGOs and regulatory bodies in adjusting existing practices taking account of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, regulation, funding, production and advocacy practice in order to ensure pluralistic, high quality content for increasingly diverse young audiences.
ACADEMIC BENEFICIARIES While non-academic beneficiaries are the primary audience for this research, academic beneficiaries of this project will be international researchers examining children's media, literature, film, and theatre within Arabic speaking cultures as well as academics working on responses to migration, and the politics of representation more widely.
ARAB MEDIA PRACTITIONERS Arab practitioners consulted during our AHRC research frequently identified the one-way flow of information and media aid from the West to Arab countries even in circumstances that are supposed to involve co-production (e.g. Sesame Workshop) or NGO initiatives (Goethe Institut, Wadada News for Kids). Arab media practitioners who will attend and participate in three workshops and the end of project symposium are therefore beneficiaries themselves. They are keen to open up a dialogue with Western colleagues and share their expertise of making content for young Arab audiences - particularly in respect of developing ideas for a diverse Arab audience, where conceptualisations of childhood differ, as do media organisation responses to the challenges of children's media. Arab children's media practitioners will benefit from participation in the three workshops and end of project symposium because of the opportunity to engage in knowledge exchange. Participation in events located in Europe will provide a unique opportunity to engage in dialogue and access European networks and markets, allowing a two way learning process that could also benefit children's media produced in Arab countries.
EUROPEAN CULTURAL PRACTITIONERS Cultural gatekeepers include European broadcasters, content producers and children's media advocacy groups who will benefit from better understanding of the basic differences between European and Arab media ecologies and approaches to childhood as they seek to integrate the needs of Arab and other migrant children into their planning and commissioning for children. We will organise three separate workshops at the Children's Global Media Summit (CGMS) in the UK, the Global Kids Media Congress (GKMC) in France and at the International Central Institute for Youth and Educational Television (IZI) in Germany for European broadcasters, producers and other stakeholders to connect with professionals who commission, fund and make children's content in Arab countries. Participation in these events will allow commissioners and programme-makers to access research about Arab child audiences and Arab media cultures that will allow them to rethink how they might reach out to Arabic-speaking children and also reflect diversity in a European context. It will alert them to the media needs, wants and experiences of Arabic-speaking children, based on children's media experience from their home countries and allow them to question and interrogate how migrant children are represented and viewed.
EUROPEAN NGOs, POLICY MAKERS, ADVOCACY GROUPS, GOVERNMENT AGENCIES Policy briefing documents from the workshops and symposium will provide further guidance on the media and communications needs of Arabic-speaking migrant children. Highlighting the gap in what is available to migrant children in the West, workshops, briefings and a Stakeholder Resource Book will support international agencies, policy-makers, NGOs and regulatory bodies in adjusting existing practices taking account of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, regulation, funding, production and advocacy practice in order to ensure pluralistic, high quality content for increasingly diverse young audiences.
ACADEMIC BENEFICIARIES While non-academic beneficiaries are the primary audience for this research, academic beneficiaries of this project will be international researchers examining children's media, literature, film, and theatre within Arabic speaking cultures as well as academics working on responses to migration, and the politics of representation more widely.
Organisations
- King's College London (Lead Research Organisation)
- British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) (Collaboration)
- Copenhagen International Documentary Festival (Collaboration)
- Danish Film Institute (Collaboration)
- Public Media Alliance (Project Partner)
- British Broadcasting Corporation (United Kingdom) (Project Partner)
- Pole Image Magelis Angouleme (Project Partner)
- Bavarian Broadcasting (Project Partner)
Publications
Sakr N
(2018)
Children's Media Yearbook 2018
Sakr N
(2021)
Children's documentaries: distance and ethics in European storytelling about the wider world
in Journal of Children and Media
Sakr N
(2021)
Curation as methodological enhancement in researching production cultures behind screen content about displaced children in Europe
in Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies
Singer C
(2019)
Representing Childhood and Forced Migration: Narratives of Borders and Belonging in European Screen Content for Children
in Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures
Singer, C
(2021)
Arab Worlds Beyond the Middle East and North Africa
Singer, C
(2021)
Arab Worlds Beyond the Middle East and North Africa
Singer, C.
(2019)
Representing Childhood and Forced Migration: Narratives of Borders and Belonging in European Screen Content for Children
in Jeunesse: Young People, Texts, Cultures
| Description | As an Impact and Engagement project, a key project objective was to alert European practitioners to the needs of Arabic-speaking children, building on the team's expertise from a three-year AHRC project (2013- 2016) on children's screen content in the Arab world. The aim was also to create a space for critical reflection and dialogue between European stakeholders and expert Arab practitioners. Dialogue occurred in three workshops documented in project reports. These combined recommendations that help European stakeholders to think through policy and practice. The Workshop model generated significant co-produced knowledge about European children's content dealing with migration and the representation of children of Arab heritage, expressed as recommendations designed to elicit impact and engagement, namely: 1) Avoid tokenism, labelling and victimization in storytelling. Representing diversity requires more than projecting different skin colours on screen. Narratives that focus on engaging characters and children's perspectives allow children to relate to, and empathise with, topics like forced migration on a personal level. Stories about multifaceted ordinary children overcoming challenges are likely to be more appealing than those which focus on child victims or depict children without weaknesses. 2) Entertain audiences when educating them about issues of integration and diversity. Programmes that do not make forced migration and diversity their main topic but experiment with unusual narratives, formats and soundscapes have proved more effective in appealing to diverse audiences than stories focused on refugee children only. 3) Pay more attention to distribution strategies. At a time when children are increasingly using multiple platforms and devices, producers need to have a comprehensive strategy to reach children. 4) Be prepared to talk about religion. While it is challenging to depict religion without stereotyping or judging, it is central in many children's lives. Children's content should create open discussion about religion, especially in a European political climate, where populist anti-immigration parties are using Islam to promote discriminatory objectives. 5) Respond to children's concerns and give them a say. Work with children, not for them. Children with and without forced migration backgrounds should have more say in content about their lives. This can be achieved by integrating more children into scripting and through testing pilots with them. 6) Make more local content in which children see others like themselves on screen. Children newly arrived in Europe from Arab countries would benefit from seeing others like them adapting to their new environment and learning their rights. 7) Know more about different notions of childhood across the world and about the previous media experiences of refugee children. The dominant approach to childhood and children in the Arab world is to see them as subordinate to adults and in need of protection. This contrasts with European conceptions, which place greater emphasis on children's agency. 8) Be mindful of ethics. Filmmakers should seek permission from children before filming them, and take time to get to know, and gain trust from, their subjects. Children should not be forced to speak about subjects they feel ashamed of in front of a camera. |
| Exploitation Route | It was apparent from workshop debates that more opportunities are needed for open and critical discussion about children's content, beyond industry events and markets where the emphasis is on competition and selling rather than talking openly and sharing information. This aspect of the workshops was highly valued by participants. While this project was focused on the representation of children of Arab heritage, there is clearly potential to look at diversity more broadly, including around issues of gender, disability and class. A major gap is the lack of research on what children and families from ethnic minorities think of screen content and what they might like, and we would envisage the outcomes of this project serving as a basis for research with children and families from minority backgrounds. More challenging is keeping the impetus for taking the outcomes forward across the network of European and Arab participants created by the project. Many new contacts have been forged, but a key non-academic route would be to embed a regular strand for dialogue around diversity with academic and practitioner perspectives in key events for children's media, notably the Children's Global Media Summit, which will be held in Dublin in 2021. |
| Sectors | Creative Economy,Digital/Communication/Information Technologies (including Software),Education,Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections,Security and Diplomacy |
| URL | https://euroarabchildrensmedia.org/ |
| Description | As a Follow-on Funding Project for Impact and Engagement a key objective has been to transfer knowledge gained through research into developments in screen content for Arabic-speaking children in ways that can assist European broadcasters, policy-makers, producers and children's advocacy groups to understand the information and entertainment needs of thousands of young Arabic-speaking children who have fled to Europe in recent years. The research team brought their expertise of Arab culture and policy relating to children and children's media as well as research with young Arab audiences from an earlier AHRC project on Orientations in the development of screen media for Arabic-speaking children. In fulfilling a project objective to create spaces for critical dialogue and reflection between European cultural gatekeepers and Arab experts, a number of reports have been created, which are freely available on the project website, https://euroarabchildrensmedia.org/ and in the research repositories of King's College London and the University of Westminster. As of 3rd March 2019, these had been downloaded 4,333 times. To bring together findings from three Workshop Briefings (Manchester, Copenhagen, Munich), the London Symposium Briefing and a Project Report To Stakeholders, the team have published an 88-page 44,000-word Consolidated Report in colour with an ISBN (978-1-908951-24-3) in hard copy and electronic copy. All copies of the event Briefings and the Consolidated Report have been distributed to the more than 150 people who attended the three project workshops in Manchester, Copenhagen and Munich and the London Symposium, as well as a larger database of contacts who expressed interest after mailings and notifications on academic lists and announcements in newsletters including those of the Public Media Alliance, the Children's Media Foundation and the Children's Media Conference. Those who attended the projects event have been encouraged to publicise the report to others. They include the following organisations, excluding academic institutions: Project Partners: BBC, BBC Media Action, Danish Film Institute, CPH: Dox; the Prix Jeunesse/International Central Institute for Youth and Education; Public Media Alliance, Production companies: Schema Producties; A Little Lady (Belgium); Big Bad Boo Studios (Canada); Dansk Teknefilm; Gorilla Media; Lokefilm (Denmark); Blink Studios (Dubai); Batoota Films (France/Lebanon); Imago TV, Sad Origami, Tellux Films, Bluedar Productions (Germany); Essence Film (Switzerland); Astra Development; Drummer TV, Evans Woolfe, Grass Roots Media, Kindle Entertainment, Lime Pictures; Roobydoo Media; Three stones Media (UK); Sesame Workshop , Wonderreel (US) Broadcasters: DR (Denmark); YLE (Finland); ZDF, WDR (Germany); Roya TV (Jordan); Vientos TV (Mexico) NRK (Norway) RTS (Serbia); RTV (Slovenia); European Broadcasting Union. Cultural Organisations and NGOs: Artopia; Danish-Egyptian Dialogue Institute; flygtningebørn; International Media Support; Medierådet for Børn og Unge (Denmark) Children's Global Media Summit/Irish Youth Media (Ireland); Cinekid; International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (Netherlands); CRIN (Palestine); National Council for Youth and Educational Television (Philippines); Financing Forum (Sweden); Fubon Cultural & Educational Foundation (Taiwan); Al Ghurair Foundation (United Arab Emirates); Children's Media Foundation; Emerginomics; Empathy Lab; International Broadcasting Trust; Media Diversity Institute; Pact; Tomorrow's Child; Voice of the Listener and Viewer; We are Museums; Words of Colour; (UK). Going forward the team are exploring new funding avenues to undertake sorely needed research with ethnic minority child audiences in Europe, a gap that became evident during the course of the workshops. Sakr and Steemers have put together a funding bid with the Freie Universitaet Berlin on "Children's Screen Production, Arab Migration, and Integration in Germany and the United Kingdom" which will explore children's perspectives, and reunite partners and contacts from this project - namely the Prix Jeunesse, the Children's Media Conference and the Children's Global Media Summit, which will take place in Dublin in 2021. Separate from this Sakr and Steemers are drawing together many of the research leads from the project for a new book Screen Media for Arab and European Children - Production and Policy Encounters in the Multiplatform Era. This allows us to reconnect with many of those who participated in the workshops. We continue to receive requests for blogs, articles and presentations associated with the outcomes from the project. A key priority is to try and integrate a strand dealing with diversity and integration into the next Children's Global Media Summit in Dublin in 2021, and we are having discussions with the organisers. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2017 |
| Sector | Communities and Social Services/Policy,Creative Economy,Education,Government, Democracy and Justice,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections,Security and Diplomacy |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal,Economic,Policy & public services |
| Description | 4th Project Event SYMPOSIUM: INVISIBLE CHILDREN: CHILDREN'S MEDIA, DIVERSITY, AND FORCED MIGRATION, KING'S COLLEGE LONDON, 14 SEPTEMBER 2018 |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | 62 participants took part in the final Project Symposium ""Invisible Children: Children's Media, Diversity, and Forced Migration", held at King's College London on 14th September. This was an opportunity to present findings from the workshops, release a Project Report to Stakeholders, and bring together key players involved in producing, regulating, funding, commissioning and commenting on children's screen media in Europe. Sakr, Singer and Steemers used the Symposium to present findings from the three previous workshops in the first session "Arab-European Dialogue about Children's Screen Content in an Era of Forced Migration: Outcomes and Observations" (Slides available here (https://euroarabchildrensmedia.org/symposium-slides/). The Symposium was also an occasion to engage with project partners, practitioners and producers who attended the earlier workshops and presented across 4 panels: 1) - Diversity in Children's Screen Content: Why it Matters 2) Arab Perspectives on Media, Children, Forced Migration and . Diversity . 3) Producer Perspectives on Media Representation, Children,Migration and Diversity 4) Next Steps Participants filled in a feedback form at the end of the Symposium which confirmed high satisfaction with the workshop * 100% thought it the symposium was useful (54%) or extremely useful (46%) * The programme format, guest speakers and moderation were rated 100% good or excellent, with over two-thirds rating guest speakers and moderation excellent. * 63% rated the symposium topics excellent * 67% stated that their level of knowledge after the workshop had improved a lot; 33% somewhat * 67% stated that the workshop enabled them to network with others. * 100% stated that the Project Report provided as a hard copy at the event was relevant * 100% stated they would use the resources in the following ways: "In planning for relevant projects" "I made interesting contacts and heard important fact and opinions about the issue" "Advocacy purposes" "We are not exactly working in the cinema field as we do a variety of project including cinema. When we do we rely on expert like the ones I met today." "In production" "In background research" "It was very educational. I will be happy to join you at other similar events. "Good specific meeting-symposium that shows a lot and new perspectives (and problems)" "Very thoughtfully curated and exceptional speakers who, thankfully, spoke their minds and were not afraid to challenge ideas/others' assumptions. Well done and thank you." |
| URL | https://euroarabchildrensmedia.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/154/2018/09/Symposium-Feedback.pdf |
| Description | Project Workshop 1: Children's Global Media Summit PRE-SUMMIT WORKSHOP, BBC, SALFORD, 4 DECEMBER 2017 |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | 25 participants took part in the first workshop of the project "Children's Screen Content in an Era of Forced migration: Facilitating Arab-European Dialogue", held at the BBC on 4th December. Participants were alerted to the media needs, wants and experiences of young (under 12) Arabic-speaking migrant children and families based on previous AHRC research. European practitioners and children's media advocates got to meet Arab experts in workshops that discussed European content and created spaces for critical reflection and dialogue. The debates generated by four workshop sessions that looked at Empowerment, Education and Entertainment, highlighted content and knowledge about Arab audiences and society. They enabled European stakeholders to think through policy, production initiatives, public discourse and professional practice through a series of clips both factual and fiction which featured migrant children or children of Arab heritage. As part of the workshop participants were able to identify the key elements necessary to produce relevant screen content, and there were opportunities to engage with the the producers of the clips. Participants filled in a feedback form at the end of the session which confirmed high satisfaction with the workshop * 35% thought the quality of the workshop content and material was excellent; 50% thought it was very good. * 67% stated that their level of knowledge after the workshop had improved a lot; 33% somewhat * 95% stated that the workshop enabled them to network with others. * 60% stated that the workshop definitely changed their mind about any aspect of screen content addressing Arabic-speaking refugee children; *94% stated that they planned to apply content or ideas from the workshop to their own work or practice, commenting as follows: * Many participants commented that they planned to apply ideas or content from the workshop to their own practice as follows: "Yes in thinking through directions for transnational public service media distribution and funding" "Yes-where it is possible..." "Yes. I'm very delighted to have gained insights from the workshop & will apply them to our own advocacy." "Yes, in storytelling development and commissioning work" "Discussions and overall shared research content as well as examples were very interesting! Looking forward to the next workshops and learning from there as we develop content" |
| URL | https://euroarabchildrensmedia.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/154/2018/03/CGMS-Pre-Summit-workshop-fee... |
| Description | Project Workshop 2: CPH:DOX WORKSHOP, COPENHAGEN, 19&20 MARCH 2018 |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | 26 participants took part in two mornings of workshops "Children's Screen Content in an Era of Forced migration: Facilitating Arab-European Dialogue", held at the Danish Film Institute on 19th and 20th March. Participants were alerted to the media needs, wants and experiences of young (under 12) Arabic-speaking migrant children and families based on previous research. European practitioners and children's media advocates got to meet Arab experts in workshops that discussed European content and created spaces for critical reflection and dialogue. The debates generated by four workshop sessions that looked at Flight, Escapism, Understanding Democracy and Democracy in practice highlighted content and knowledge about Arab audiences and society. They enabled European stakeholders to consider policy, production initiatives, public discourse and professional practice through a series of factual/documentary clips from the following European countries: Netherlands, Denmark, UK, Germany and Malaysia/Yemen. As part of the workshop they were able to identify the key elements necessary to produce relevant screen content, and there were opportunities to engage with producers of the clips. Participants filled in a feedback form at the end of the session which confirmed high satisfaction with the workshop * 42% thought it the workshop the quality of the content and material was excellent; 37% thought it was very good. * 61% stated that their level of knowledge after the workshop had improved a lot. * 72% stated that the workshop enabled them to netwwork with others. * 29% stated that the workshop definitely changed their mind about any aspect of screen content addressing Arabic-speaking refugee children; * Many participants commented that they planned to apply ideas or content from the workshop to their own practice as follows: " Yes definitely ideas around format, production, representation gaps, ethics etc." "Yes to include 'new' Dutch children as guest programmers" "Maybe include the topic more in teaching". "How can we help the kids feel at home here well, that's basically already the topic" "Yes be more aware of the different perspectives when producing educational materials" "Including children's perspective in the process. More knowledge about refugee background and heritage on screen, knowing and spending time with subjects before pointing the camera at them". |
| URL | https://euroarabchildrensmedia.org/copenhagen-workshop-feedback/ |
| Description | Workshop 3 : PRE-FESTIVAL WORKSHOP, PRIX JEUNESSE, MUNICH, 24 MAY 2018 |
| Geographic Reach | Multiple continents/international |
| Policy Influence Type | Influenced training of practitioners or researchers |
| Impact | 34 participants took part in the third Project workshop "Children's Screen Content in an Era of Forced migration: Facilitating Arab-European Dialogue", held at the Bavarian Broadcasting Corporation/International Central Institute for Youth and Education on 20th May. Participants were alerted to the media needs, wants and experiences of young (under 12) Arabic-speaking migrant children and families based on previous research. European practitioners and children's media advocates got to meet Arab experts in workshops that discussed European content and created spaces for critical reflection and dialogue. The debates generated by four workshop sessions that looked at fiction programming under the themes of Storytelling for young children, Strong stories, Strong Children and the future for telling stories about forced migration, highlighted content and knowledge about Arab audiences and society. They enabled European stakeholders to consider policy, production initiatives, public discourse and professional practice through a series of fiction and reality entertainment clips from the following European countries: Germany, Belgium, UK, Wales, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Switzerland and Serbia. As part of the workshop they were able to identify the key elements necessary to produce relevant screen content, and there were opportunities to engage with producers of the clips. Participants filled in a feedback form at the end of the session which confirmed high satisfaction with the workshop * 42% thought it the workshop the quality of the content and material was excellent; 37% thought it was very good. * 52% stated that their level of knowledge after the workshop had improved a lot; 48% somewhat * 68% stated that the workshop enabled them to network with others. * 32% stated that the workshop definitely changed their mind about any aspect of screen content addressing Arabic-speaking refugee children; * Many participants commented that they planned to apply ideas or content from the workshop to their own practice as follows: "Yes, some of the ideas of genuine Arab perspectives" "How to bring humour in the integration programmes" "Yes, I'm thinking about markets from online services". "Don't focus on the immigration status/the everyday" "Yes...storytelling approaches and formats that can be implemented back home" "Thinking about these issues as they apply to my country" "Labelling in production and advocacy in North America about the refugee and immigration dialogue" "Yes, I thought it was interesting in the Flemish film that they asked ordinary youngsters and not actors to play the role" "Yes, for content targeting refugees and host communities in Lebanon" "I hope so, but that will be contextual, dependent on the work" "Yes. Think more in "archetypes" for storytelling and leave the "labelling" of programmes" |
| URL | https://euroarabchildrensmedia.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/154/2018/08/Feedback-Munich-.compressed.... |
| Title | 36 Films/Clips |
| Description | This comprises a list of 36 films or clips of children's content that we used as stimulus material for our workshops. The list of clips with links can be found on p. 78 of the project's consolidated report. Available here. https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/102210294/Consolidated_Report_FinalSV_221018.pdf |
| Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
| Year Produced | 2018 |
| Provided To Others? | Yes |
| Impact | The material was used as stimulus material in the project's 3 workshops. So in terms of impact it allowed participants to think about how children of Arab heritage are represented in European screen material, and also to reflect on how and why this material is made, and how it could be improved. |
| URL | https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/files/102210294/Consolidated_Report_FinalSV_221018.pdf |
| Description | BBC Media Action Partnership - membership of Steering committee and advice on Arab context including refugees |
| Organisation | British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) |
| Department | BBC Media Action |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Our contribution was to involve BBC Media Action in all our events including three workshops, because they have been running a programme for children in the Middle East Lebanon. As experts in Middle East media, and because they are actively engaged in the region we invited their representatives Maha Taki, Project Director Syria, and Alessandra Buccianti, Projects Manager Middle East and North Africa to our workshops in Salford, Copenhagen and Munich as well as our Symposium in London. We provided them with our expertise on Arab child audiences and screen content. As participants in the workshops they were able to widen their contact base both among European and Arab practitioners and experts to whom we introduced them. They were given prior access to all our reports. |
| Collaborator Contribution | Taki and Buccianti, as British-based executives of BBC Media Action, acted as experts within the three workshops we organised in Salford, Copenhagen and Munich. Their contribution and knowledge of both Arab and UK contexts was highly valued by participants and by our team. They also provided us with valuable feedback on how we ran the workshops. Additionally Buccianti gave the workshop an introduction to a project BBC Media Action are running for children in the Middle East, alongside a representative from Sesame Workshop. This contribution is mentioned in the report for our Manchester workshop. Alexandra Buccianti has also been a highly valued member of or steering committee, which met before each of the three workshops. She gave valuable advice on the programme for each workshop and our choice of children's clips as stimulus material. |
| Impact | Steemers, J. H., Sakr, N., & Singer, C. (2018). Children's Screen Content in an Era of Forced Migration: Facilitating Arab European Dialogue - CPH:Dox Festival , Copenhagen: Workshop Briefing 2: Documentaries, Distribution, Ethics , 19-20 March 2018. King's College London. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | BBC Partnership for project Pre-summit Workshop, Manchester as part of the CGMS Children's Global Media Summit 4 December 2017 |
| Organisation | British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) |
| Department | BBC Children |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Public |
| PI Contribution | Our contribution to the the partnership was to run a workshop on Children's Screen Content in an era of forced migration: Facilitating Arab-European Dialogue as a pre-summit workshop for the Children's Global Media Summit, a prestigious conference attended by 1500 people and hosted by the BBC in December 2017. This workshop was attended by European and Arab practitioners and was also attended by some BBC staff, and children's producers who have been commissioned by the BBC. The BBC encouraged the event as part of the the Children's Global Media Summit in Manchester in December 2017, which is hosted every three years in different cites around around the world. The teams contribution was in providing access to our knowledge and experience of Arab child audiences, which provided the basis for discussions of European material with Arab stakeholders in the workshops. As a recipient of all the project reports the BBC also received data and feedback on its own productions. |
| Collaborator Contribution | The BBC's main contribution was in providing expertise (a speaker for the final Symposium) and also equipment and facilities to host the first project workshop in Manchester. In support of the AHRC project, and as part of its role in organising CGMS 2017, the BBC hosted the pre-summit workshop at its premises in Salford on 4th december. They provided a room at the BBC MediaCity buildings in Salford on Dec 4th, which created a space for critical reflection and dialogue between European and others gatekeepers who regulate, commission, fund or produce children's content and practitioners and academics with experience of children's media in Arab countries. They gave us assistance in promoting the workshop to delegates on the CGMS website (all delegates were offered the chance to register for the workshop) as part of the proceedings. They assisted in disseminating the programme to delegates and within the BBC. They paid for lunch at the workshop and provided a technical assistant on the day to assist with the presentation. They provided contact details and introductions to UK producers with CBBC/CBeebies commissions who attended the event (e.g.Apple Tree House, My Life, Around the World). They also provided a key speaker for our end of summit Symposium in London. Kez Margrie, Commissioning Editor, 6-16, Independents, BBC Children's, Salford, UK. Margrie took part in a panel on Diversity in Children's Screen Content: Why it Matters alongside contributors from the Diversity Institute, Words of colour, the International Broadcasting Trust and the International Central Institute for Youth and Educational Television. |
| Impact | A workshop report from the Manchesster workshop was published in March 2018. Steemers, J. H., Sakr, N., & Singer, C. (2018). Children's Screen Content in an Era of Forced Migration: Facilitating Arab-European Dialogue: Workshop Briefing, Children's Global Media Summit, BBC Media City, Salford Quays, 4 December 2017. King's College London. Contributions by Kez Margrie are documented in Symposium report from September 2018 Steemers, J. H., Sakr, N., & Singer, C. (2018). London Symposium Briefing: Invisible Children: Children's Media, Diversity and Forced Migration (14 September 2018). King's College London. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | CPH: Dox - Assistance with Copenhagen workshop 19-20th March 2018 |
| Organisation | Copenhagen International Documentary Festival |
| Country | Denmark |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | We used the children's films around migration that had been selected for the educational component of the CPH: Dox Festival in Copenhagen March 2018 as stimulus material for the Copenhagen workshop. These were provided to us by the CPH:Dox team and included Ahmad's Hair (Netherlands); Children's Mayor (Netherlands); Hello Salaam (Netherlands) ; Holiday on Refugee Island (Denmark). In return we invited the producers of these films to the workshop in Denmark, and they were able to stay longer at the festival and gauge how their films fared. |
| Collaborator Contribution | CPH dox secured us free registrations to the film festival and helped us to secure the venue for the two workshops at the Danish Film Institute. They also helped us to contact relevant producers of material for the workshops, and also helped with clips for the following shows: Ahmad's Hair (Netherlands); Children's Mayor (Netherlands); Hello Salaam (Netherlands) ; Holiday on Refugee Island (Denmark). |
| Impact | Steemers, J. H., Sakr, N., & Singer, C. (2018). Children's Screen Content in an Era of Forced Migration: Facilitating Arab European Dialogue - CPH:Dox Festival , Copenhagen: Workshop Briefing 2: Documentaries, Distribution, Ethics , 19-20 March 2018. King's College London. |
| Start Year | 2017 |
| Description | Danish Film Institute - Assistance with Copenhagen workshops 19-20 May |
| Organisation | Danish Film Institute |
| Country | Denmark |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| PI Contribution | We were able to run two workshops on Danish Film Institute Premises on 19 and 20 March. We had to move our second workshop from France to Copenhagen, when the event the Global Media Congress in France was cancelled. We made contact with the DFI and felt there was a lot to be gained by working together. We ran the two workshops and invited Danish colleagues from the Danish Film Institute, as well as a wide range of Danish producers whose work has been funded by the DFI. As a team we brought our expertise on Arab children's screen content and child audiences to the workshop. Inviting colleagues from other European and Arab experts, we expanded the DFI's contact base. |
| Collaborator Contribution | DFI colleagues Charlotte Giesse, Claus Hjorth, Lisbet Sibbessen attended the Copenhagen workshop in the Danish Film Institute Building and provided unique insight into the Danish funding of children's screen content and also insight about the DFI's important role in providing financial support for content with an educational remit, and its role in providing educational packs for content. DFI colleagues helped us to source key shows and contact Danish producers of shows, who also attended, adding to the dialogue between Europeans and Arab experts. The event took place at the Danish Film Institute, and the DFI helped with technical support on the day. |
| Impact | Steemers, J. H., Sakr, N., & Singer, C. (2018). Children's Screen Content in an Era of Forced Migration: Facilitating Arab European Dialogue - CPH:Dox Festival , Copenhagen: Workshop Briefing 2: Documentaries, Distribution, Ethics , 19-20 March 2018. King's College London. |
| Start Year | 2018 |
| Description | "Policy Communities Seeking to Empower Children through Media: A Comparative Case Study" Presentation at the Children's Global Media Summit, 7th December 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | About 25 delegates from the Children's Global Media Summit attended this panel. Naomi Sakr and Jeanette Steemers presented a paper on Policy Communities Seeking to Empower Children through Media: A Comparative Case Study . The aim was to look at connections between Children's rights and media policy, with a focus on national policy communities in Morocco and the UK ; and regional policy communities within the European Broadcasting Union and the Arab council for Childhood and Development. Talk connects with research from our original AHRC Project on children's media in the Arab world and this follow-on project. The main aim and outcome was to stimulate increased interest in our research to influence public policy and stimulating changes in public attitudes. After our presentation we had discussions with attendees including Dr Patricia Edgar, the President of the Chair, The World Summit on Media for ChildrenFoundation |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://euroarabchildrensmedia.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/154/2018/12/CGMS-Presentation-7-December... |
| Description | 4th Project Event SYMPOSIUM: INVISIBLE CHILDREN: CHILDREN'S MEDIA, DIVERSITY, AND FORCED MIGRATION, KING'S COLLEGE LONDON, 14 SEPTEMBER 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The project ended with a symposium entitled 'Invisible Children: Children's Media, Diversity, and Forced Migration', on 14 September 2018 at King's College London. This was an opportunity to present findings from the workshops, release a Project Report to Stakeholders, and bring together key players involved in producing, regulating, funding, commissioning and commenting on children's screen media in Europe. Sakr, Singer and Steemers used the Symposium to present research findings in the first session "Arab-European Dialogue about Children's Screen Content in an Era of Forced Migration: Outcomes and Observations" (Slide available here (https://euroarabchildrensmedia.org/symposium-slides/). Resources from the event including a `Project Report to Stakeholders; Symposium Report; Programme; Slides; Survey Feedback and a review by the Public Media Alliance are available to download on the project website here: https://euroarabchildrensmedia.org/programme/. Two reviews of the event were written. The first "Providing children's content in an era of migration: Challenges and opportunities" was published by the Public Media Alliance on 24 September 2018 (https://www.publicmediaalliance.org/childrens-content-migration-challenges-opportunities/). The second published by Egypt Today in October 2018 as "Invisible Children:Migrant Arab Children & European Media" by Nadine El Sayed. The Symposium was also an occasion to engage with project partners, practitioners and producers who attended the earlier workshops. The Symposium include 4 expert panels with contributions from our partners, the BBC, the Public Media Alliance and the International Central Institute for Youth and Educational Television ; Producers (Three Stones Media/UK; Schema Produkties Flanders; Blink Studios/Dubai ); Broadcasters (ZDF Germany; DR Denmark; Roya TV, Jordan); NGOS (Words of Colour, International Broadcasting Trust; Media Diversity Institute ); Academics (Universities of Lille, Westminster, Ulster, Open University and King's College London) and representatives from the World Summit on Media for children and the European Broadcasting Union (children's drama). Participation in the event raised interest in the underpinning research and has reinforced a network of contacts with an interest in diversity and children's media. A symposium survey revealed that 100% participants found the event useful or extremely useful. 100% of survey participants rated the programme format, speakers and moderation good or excellent. Over two-thirds rated guest speakers, moderation, and topics excellent. 67% felt that their knowledge had improved a lot after attendance; and a further 33% somewhat. 100% thought the Project report was relevant and 100% said they would use the project resources in future for production, research, contacts. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://euroarabchildrensmedia.org/programme/ |
| Description | Blog Post "Children's Screen Content in an Era of Forced Migration" by Public Media Alliance |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | A Blog post by our project partners about our first workshop, Children's Screen Content in an Era of Forced Migration: Facilitating Arab-European Dialogue , held as a pre-summit event at the Children's Global Media Summit in Manchester on 4th December. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.publicmediaalliance.org/childrens-screen-content-era-forced-migration-2/ |
| Description | Blog Post "Getting a Euro-Arab conversation going about young children's media needs in an era of forced migration" for Medium |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | This was a blog post for the Medium online website, designed to generate interest in the AHRC Project, which sparked interest in the project |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://medium.com/@jeanettesteemers/getting-a-euro-arab-conversation-going-about-young-childrens-me... |
| Description | Blog post "Children's Global Media Summit 2017 - What does the future of media hold for Generation U?" |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Commissioned Blog for our partner the Public Media Alliance, which reviews the Children's Global Media Summit, hosted by the BBC in December 2017, and which links with our own pre-summit workshop, hosted by the BBC on 4th December |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.publicmediaalliance.org/review-cgms-2017/ |
| Description | Blog post "Exploring good PSM provision for young children in a diversified Europe" for Public Media Alliance Website |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Commissioned blog post by the Public Media Alliance one of our project partners. The aim of the blog post was to promote our AHRC project and engage with members of the PMA, an organisation representing public service broadcasters around the world. The article sparked interest on social media (Twitter and Facebook) and led to inquiries about our first workshop at the Children's Global Media Summit in Manchester on 4 December 2017. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.publicmediaalliance.org/exploring-good-psm-provision-for-young-children-in-a-diversified... |
| Description | C. Singer, J. Steemers, N. Sakr, : "Producing screen content for refugee children in Europe: Authorship, authenticity, and remediation". 18th International Migration Conference, TU Cologne/Germany, 22 June 2018. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Post-doc Christine Singer presented a paper "Producing screen content for refugee children in Europe: Authorship, authenticity, and remediation". at the 18th International Migration Conference, TU Cologne/Germany, 22 June 2018. The audience was primarily academic. The purpose was to share findings from the project with an academic audience and promote the project in advance of our final symposium in London. We made some very useful contacts in Germany which spurred us on to apply for the AHRC-DFG joint programme for research in the humanities with colleagues from the Freie Universitaet Berlin. https://euroarabchildrensmedia.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/154/2018/09/Cologne-presentation-no-clips-compressed.pdf |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.th-koeln.de/mam/downloads/deutsch/hochschule/aktuell/termine/f01/migrationskonferenz_201... |
| Description | CGMS PRE-SUMMIT WORKSHOP, BBC, SALFORD, 4 DECEMBER 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Based on the findings from three years of research, the workshop - Children's Screen Content in an Era of Forced Migration: Facilitating Arab-European Dialogue - aimed to bring together European broadcasters, children and media experts, content producers, advocacy groups and policy makers to discuss the challenges and opportunities that arise when reflecting migration through children's content in Europe. Group work, short screenings, and presentations fed group discussions, attended by 30 participants including experts of the Arab media world. The workshop also explored the different ways childhood is understood in both the European and the Arab world, where adults mostly remain "leaders" of children's lives and programming. The group discussions, examples and feedback, showed how current content mostly feeds a narrative where children migrants are often portrayed as passive recipients of their peers' help and compassion. Too often it seems, the programmes' tend to victimise, rather than empower children refugees, opting for sympathy stories at the expense of optimism, growth and dialogue. There were some examples however, of programmes bucking this trend. Participants were shown clips of content that allowed children to take an active lead in the direction of content. CBBC demonstrated an episode of 'My Life', which was filmed by a Syrian child while he played with friends. This and "Where in the World" allow young audiences to experience and learn about other cultures through the eyes of other children. Project findings will be reported in an Impact report. A survey of attendees (21 respondents) ( https://euroarabchildrensmedia.org/manchester-workshop-feedback/ revealed that 60% of attendees (12) felt that the workshop had changed their changed their mind about screencontent addressing Arabic-speaking migrant and refugee children? with a further 20% claiming some change. Comments made included:"Not all TV programs on Arab refugees are negative. In fact, I didn't know there were shows dedicated to children as well" "More attuned to the pitfalls (often unintentional) of 'othering'" "To an extent, as an Arabic-speaker, I would have enjoyed research and fact driven content about what shows work/don't work for Arab children." "That children should be treated as children. They have their rights, that they should always be considered in all aspects, because they are human beings." |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://euroarabchildrensmedia.org/manchester-workshop/ |
| Description | Feature article about the September symposium in Egypt Today, called "Invisible Children: Migrant Arab Children and European Media" October 2018, pp. 58-62 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | This feature article reviewing the final project event, the London Symposium was written by Nadine El Sayed for Egypt Today. The aim was to find about what the project is about; there are interviews with participants and analysis of the projects recommendations. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://euroarabchildrensmedia.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/154/2018/12/058-061-FE_Migrant-Media-Pro... |
| Description | Invisible Children - Announcement of Symposium in Children's Media Foundation August Newsletter |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Brief post to publicise the Project's Symposium in London in September 2018 and publications that are available online |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.thechildrensmediafoundation.org/archives/6824/invisible-children |
| Description | Invisible Children. Project Blog for the Children's Media Foundation, published 28 March 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | This was a short blog post contribution to the Children's Media Foundation Monthly newsletter entitled "Invisible Children" The aim was to spark interest in our events and publications and we gave details of our website. it sparked further interest in what we were doing. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.thechildrensmediafoundation.org/archives/6461/6461 |
| Description | J. Steemers, N. Sakr, C. Singer: "Arab-European Dialogue about Children's Screen Content in an Era of Forced Migration: Outcomes and Observations" Arab-European Dialogue about Children's Screen Content in an Era of Forced Migration: Outcomes and Observations". Invisible Children: Children's Media, Diversity, and Forced Migration. Symposium, 14 September 2018, King's College London. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | J. Steemers, N. Sakr, C. Singer gave a presentatiobn "Arab-European Dialogue about Children's Screen Content in an Era of Forced Migration: Outcomes and Observations" at the Final Project Symposium" Invisible Children: Children's Media, Diversity, and Forced Migration. Symposium, on 14 September 2018, King's College London. The Purpose was to summarise the project findings and launch the projects recommendations as part of a hard copy report which was circulated to delegates. The session was chaired by Shakuntala Banaji from the London School of Economics. All the project member had an equal presentation as speakers - The findings were illustrated with clips from films which had been shown in earlier workshops. The discussion at the end of the presentation allowed - attendees to ask questions about the findings. Slides for the presentation are available here https://euroarabchildrensmedia.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/154/2018/09/Session-1-wo-clips-compressed.pdf |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://euroarabchildrensmedia.org/symposium-programme/ |
| Description | Keynote speech at The Youthification of Television and Screen Culture Biennial Conference of the Television Studies Section of ECREA (European Communication Research and Education Association) 24-25 October 2019, University of Groningen |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Postgraduate students |
| Results and Impact | Key note lecture on "Policy and Production Encounters Around Children's 'Television' and Diversity: Facilitating Arab-European Dialogue" as part of the he Youthification of Television and Screen Culture Biennial Conference of the Television Studies Section of ECREA (European Communication Research and Education Association) 24-25 October 2019, University of Groningen. Audience included academics and post-graduate students. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://ecreatelevisionstudies2019.wordpress.com |
| Description | Media Diversity Institute Blog Post about the final Project Symposium in September 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | This was a review written by the Media Diversity Institute. Milica Pesic from the Institute chaired a session at the final Symposium in September 2018, and the purpose was to raise awareness of project publications |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.media-diversity.org/en/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=3332:invisible-childr... |
| Description | Naomi Sakr, J. Steemers, C. Singer: "Responding to changes in child audiences for screen content in Europe". Cinekid Industry Forum, Amsterdam, 24 October 2018. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | The Cinekid Industry Forum invited Jeanette Steemers to come to the Cinekid conference to talk about the results of the project report. Naomi Sakr undertook the presentation. The forum took place on Wednesday 24 October in the Westergas Theatre in Amsterdam. The Industry Forum is a full day programme where children's media professionals get inspired and can reflect and discuss certain trends/issues within the field. The set-up was as follows: Participants discuss issues of burning relevance and debate the future of the industry with experts in the field in alternating 40-minute round table sessions. In these alternating sessions experts elaborate on the development of their projects, the pitfalls and the roads to success. Naomi Sakr attended the conference as as a speaker and talked about the Consolidated report from the project Attending the Cinekid Forum enabled us to reach out to a broad audience of practitioners. The format of the event - involving a series of roundtables, went beyond presentation of results and allowed Sakr to engage in a dialogue with a series of media practitioners across different roundtables including representatives from the IDFA International Documentary Film Festival of Amsterdam, Giggle Media (UK), , Bienale College and Near East Entertainment, Kulturtanken (Norwegian organisation that takes culture to schools), the Netherlands Film Fund, CANUK Productions, Giraffe Insights (UK) Cinekid and other independent producers and consultants. Engagement with a variety of stakeholders allowed us to raise the profile of the project and the underpinning research . Slides for the presentation are available here: https://euroarabchildrensmedia.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/154/2018/11/Slides.pdf |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.cinekid.nl/en/professionals/professionals-programme/industry-forum/naomi-sakr |
| Description | Piece in Children's Media Foundation Newsletter September 2017 promoting first project workshop in Manchester |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Our first workshop in Manchester in December 2017 was promoted by the Children's Media Foundation as part of its newsletter in September, sparking further inquiries |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.thechildrensmediafoundation.org/archives/6033/childrens-screen-content-in-an-era-of-force... |
| Description | Presentation - J. Steemers, N. Sakr, C. Singer: "Children's Media and Diversity. What's Next in Europe?" Children's Media Conference Research Session 7, 4 and 5 July 2018. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | Jeanette Steemers gave a presentation twice in the Research Strand (Session 7 an 8 ) at the prestigious Children's Media Conference in Sheffield on July 3rd and July 4th. The purpose of the talk "Children's Media and Diversity: What's Next in Europe?" was to inform practitioners about how you show diversity in children's content, and how can we find ways of making content that has something engaging and entertaining to say about being an informed citizen? This was illustrated with clips from the European content we had shown in the project workshops. As a result of the workshop Jeanette Steemers was invited to give the same presentation at the Away Day of Belgian children's channel, Ketnet In Brussels in August 2018. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.thechildrensmediaconference.com/blog/2018/07/04/report-research-7-8/ |
| Description | Presentation at 'Creative Industries, Creative Economies: A Forum" Organised by Publishers Routledge at King's College London 23rd october 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Industry/Business |
| Results and Impact | Jeanette Steemers was an invited speaker at an event organised by the publishers Routledge (Taylor and Francis) and hosted at King's College London to establish where research stood in respect of Creative Industries, and what publishers interests might be. The presentation enabled me to scope our AHRC project and explain our objectives to an audience of publishers and academics. Interest was sparked from the editor of Cultural Trends for a potential article. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://euroarabchildrensmedia.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/154/2018/12/Routledge-Forum-23102018.pdf |
| Description | Project Website https://euroarabchildrensmedia.org/ |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | This is the project website for our AHRC-funded project. We launched it in December 2017 and the intention is to publicise the events and activities of the Follow-on project. This website is a resource for the AHRC Follow on Project " Collaborative Development of Children's Screen Content in an Era of Forced Migration Flows: Facilitating Arab-European Dialogue " AH/ROO1421/1. The site provides access to project information, event details, original project findings, and access to materials about the project workshops and symposium. These materials include three Impact Reports after each of three workshops in Manchester, Copenhagen, Munich and an end of project Symposium report (including details of case studies, discussions and recommendations). The website also gives access to a Consolidated Report from the project and a Stakeholder Report with recommendations. There are photographs and video clips from each of the project events; The resources published via the website pin down the political, economic, and social rationale for supporting the development of media content for migrant children using the expertise of Arab and European practitioners, provide references to relevant documentation in various languages, and highlight examples of good practice. There are sections about the project (people, steering committee, aims and objectives previous research); Publications (reports, conference presentations, books); Events (relating to 3 workshops in Manchester, Copenhagen and Munich plus the London Symposium - with programmes, slides, clips, reviews and event feedback plus reports); names of those in our export network; news about blogs and presentations; contacts and our embedded Twitter feed. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017,2018,2019 |
| URL | https://euroarabchildrensmedia.org/ |
| Description | Project Workshop 1: Children's Global Media Summit PRE-SUMMIT WORKSHOP, BBC, SALFORD, 4 DECEMBER 2017 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was the first workshop in the project which explored screen content made for and about children from the Arab region who have recently arrived in Europe. Attended by 28 participants and aimed at 'Impact and Engagement', the workshop was intended to share findings from a three-year AHRC-funded research project (2013- 2016) on screen content for children in the Arab world with stakeholders in Europe, including broadcasters, regulators, commissioning editors, producers, researchers and children's media advocates. It was organised by the project team, Steemers, Sakr and Singer as part of the projects impact and engagement activities. One of the major objectives of each workshop was to explore representations of forced migration and diversity in European screen content for young children - those aged 12 and under. By integrating Arab experts into this process, we created opportunities for dialogue between European and Arab media practitioners, helping to alert European producers to the media needs, wants and experiences of Arabic-speaking children now living in Europe. Drawing on this dialogue, each workshop gathered recommendations concerning the regulation, funding, and distribution of content for children that deals with diversity and forced migration. The first workshop was attached to the Children's Global Media Summit (CGMS), hosted by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in Salford/Manchester in December 2017. The workshop, taking place on 4 December, focused mainly on English-language content. Discussion topics were guided by themes featuring in the CGMS itself, notably 'empowerment', 'freedom', 'education' and 'entertainment'. The two project partners helping to support this event were BBC Children's and the Public Media Alliance. The workshop was facilitated by Professor Steemers and Professor Sakr with the assistance of Dr Singer. Workshop materials including the programme, a workshop report, slides, clips, feedback and reviews are available on the project website. https://euroarabchildrensmedia.org/manchester-workshop/. The workshop was reviewed by the Public Media Alliance https://www.publicmediaalliance.org/childrens-screen-content-era-forced-migration-2/ and promoted on the main website of the Childrens' Global Media Conference (http://cgms17.com/satellite-events/). Participation in the event raised interest in the underpinning research and a workshop survey revealed that participants found the content and material 'provoking and inspiring' and that it was r"eally good, sparked interesting debate." 85% rated the workshop Very good or excellent. 67% felt that their knowledge had improved a lot after attendance . 60% changed their minds about content addressing Arabic speaking migrant and refugee children after attending, and 94% said they would apply content and ideas from the workshop. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://euroarabchildrensmedia.org/manchester-workshop/ |
| Description | Project Workshop 2: CPH:DOX WORKSHOP, COPENHAGEN, 19&20 MARCH 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was the second workshop in the project which explored screen content made for and about children from the Arab region who have recently arrived in Europe. Attended by 29 participants and aimed at 'Impact and Engagement', the workshop was intended to share findings from a three-year AHRC-funded research project (2013- 2016) on screen content for children in the Arab world with stakeholders in Europe, including broadcasters, regulators, commissioning editors, producers, researchers and children's media advocates. It was organised by the project team, Steemers, Sakr and Singer as part of the project's impact and engagement activities. One of the major objectives of each workshop was to explore representations of forced migration and diversity in European screen content for young children - those aged 12 and under. By integrating Arab experts into this process, we created opportunities for dialogue between European and Arab media practitioners, helping to alert European producers to the media needs, wants and experiences of Arabic-speaking children now living in Europe. Drawing on this dialogue, each workshop gathered recommendations concerning the regulation, funding, and distribution of content for children that deals with diversity and forced migration. The second workshop was attached to the CPH:Dox documentary festival in Copenhagen in March 2018. The second workshop took place across two mornings at the Danish Film Institute (DFI) on 19 and 20 March 2018 as part of the Copenhagen International Documentary Film Festival, CPH: DOX. In line with the documentary focus, it explored mostly factual formats and we followed two themes chosen by the CPH:DOX Children and Youth section, namely 'escaping' (pa° flugt) and 'democracy' (demokrati). Our project partners, CPH:Dox and the Danish Film Institute contributed to this event by facilitating access to a venue and access to relevant clips from this year's festival and the DFI's own archives. The workshop was facilitated by Professor Steemers and Professor Sakr with the assistance of Dr Singer. Workshop materials including the programme, a workshop report, slides, clips, and feedback from a survey available on the project website. https://euroarabchildrensmedia.org/copenhagen-workshop/. Participation in the event raised interest in the underpinning research and a workshop survey revealed that participants found the content 'opened up new ideas'; 79% rated the workshop Very good or excellent. 61% felt that their knowledge had improved a lot after attendance. 29% felt that the workshop had definitely changed their minds on some aspect of screen content addressing Arabic-speaking children and a further 42% felt some changes in their views. Several participants said they would use idea's from the workshop in their own practice. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://euroarabchildrensmedia.org/copenhagen-workshop/ |
| Description | Promotion of first project workshop on the Children's Global Media Summit website as a pre-summit event |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Engagement focused website, blog or social media channel |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | Promotion of our first project workshop on the main website of the Children's Global Media Summit, 2017, hosted by the BBC. This resulted in over 60 participants signing up for more information and for over 30 signing up for the event, so that we met our target. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://cgms17.com/satellite-events/ |
| Description | Reflecting the Refugee Experience 21 December 2018 - Contribution to CMF December Newsletter |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | This was a blog post in the Children's Media Foundation December Newsletter , drawing attention to an 80 page consolidated report from the project which can be downloaded for free. This lead to more downloads from the website |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.thechildrensmediafoundation.org/archives/7131/reflecting-the-refugee-experience |
| Description | Review in Public Media Alliance Blog of the first Workshop held a the BBC on 4 December. "Children's Screen Content in an Era of Forced Migration" published 20 December 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | This was a review of our first Engagement and Impact workshop held as a preconference workshop for the Children's Global Media Summit on 4th December 2018. The review was written by Marta Catalano, who works at the Public Media Alliance and attended the workshop. The purpose was to tell people what happened at the workshop and raise awareness of the project among PMA's members in 57 countries. Articles by PMA sparked more interest, and were disseminated also on Twitter. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.publicmediaalliance.org/childrens-screen-content-era-forced-migration-2/ |
| Description | Review of Children's Global Media Summit "Children's Global Media Summit 2017 - What does the future of media hold for Generation U?" by Christine Singer, Published 12 January 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | This was a review of the Children's Global Media Summit 2018, penned by project Post-doc Christina Singer. The aim was to draw attention to our project, but also place developments around children, media and migration within the broader context of changes in children's consumption of media. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.publicmediaalliance.org/review-cgms-2017/ |
| Description | Review of first workshop in Manchester by Public Media Alliance |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | A review of our first workshop at the Children's Global Media Summit by the Public Media Alliance, published on their website, which reported on how the workshop was run including the discussions and possible outcomes. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.publicmediaalliance.org/childrens-screen-content-era-forced-migration-2/ |
| Description | September 2018: Review of our End of Project Symposium "Invisible Children: Children's Media, Diversity, and Forced Migration" by Public Media Alliance. Providing children's content in an era of migration: Challenges and opportunities |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A magazine, newsletter or online publication |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Media (as a channel to the public) |
| Results and Impact | This was a review of final Project symposium in London in September 2018. The purpose is to draw attention to the project and its online publications. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.publicmediaalliance.org/childrens-content-migration-challenges-opportunities/ |
| Description | Workshop 3 : PRE-FESTIVAL WORKSHOP, PRIX JEUNESSE, MUNICH, 24 MAY 2018 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Professional Practitioners |
| Results and Impact | This was the third and final workshop in the project which explored screen content made for and about children from the Arab region who have recently arrived in Europe. Attended by 37 participants and aimed at 'Impact and Engagement', the workshop was intended to share findings from a three-year AHRC-funded research project (2013- 2016) on screen content for children in the Arab world with stakeholders in Europe, including broadcasters, regulators, commissioning editors, producers, researchers and children's media advocates. It was organised by the project team, Steemers, Sakr and Singer as part of the project's impact and engagement activities. One of the major objectives of each workshop was to explore representations of forced migration and diversity in European screen content for young children - those aged 12 and under. By integrating Arab experts into this process, we created opportunities for dialogue between European and Arab media practitioners, helping to alert European producers to the media needs, wants and experiences of Arabic-speaking children now living in Europe. Drawing on this dialogue, each workshop gathered recommendations concerning the regulation, funding, and distribution of content for children that deals with diversity and forced migration. The third workshop, in Munich on 24 May 2018, was hosted by our project partner, the International Central Institute for Youth and Educational Television (IZI) on the premises of Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR) and under the umbrella of the biennial Prix Jeunesse International festival of children's screen content. In keeping with the 2018 Prix Jeunesse theme of 'Strong Stories for Strong Children', the workshop explored treatments of migration and diversity in mainly fictional storytelling genres. The workshop was facilitated by Professor Steemers and Professor Sakr with the assistance of Dr Singer. Workshop materials including the programme, a workshop report, slides, clips, and feedback and reviews are available on the project websitehttps://euroarabchildrensmedia.org/munich-workshop/. Participation in the event raised interest in the underpinning research and a workshop survey revealed that participants found "some great content and interesting discussion" "with great selection of content and discussion topics". 79% rated the quality of the workshop Very good or excellent. 52% felt that their knowledge had improved a lot after attendance, with a further 48% stating it had improved . 32% changed their minds definitely about content addressing Arabic speaking migrant and refugee children after attending, with a further 44% changing their minds to some extent. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://euroarabchildrensmedia.org/munich-workshop/ |