Producing Serious News for Citizen Children: A Study of the Bbc’s Children’s Program newsround

“. . . challenges the notion that that news media simply reflect the ‘objective’ state of environmental affairs. . . . underscores how news professionals’ visualizations of this distinctive news program have a profound impact on upon news agendas and news access.” – Dr. Alison Anderson, University of Plymouth

“. . . makes for provocative reading and is certain to contribute to lively discussion and debate.” – Prof. Stuart Allan, Bournemouth University

“This book provides an exemplary template for future studies that set out to explore and refine our understanding of today’s fast-changing news ecology and how this now variously provides or restricts opportunities for enhanced cultural citizenship.” – Prof. Simon Cottle, University of Cardiff

List of tables
List of figures
Foreword
By Professor Simon Cottle Acknowledgements
Introduction
The need to know: children, citizenship and the environment
News, form and the imagined child audience
Structure of this book
Chapter 1: Old issues and new(s) agendas
Children, media and citizenship
Citizenship, politics and the media
A communicative space reflecting children’s cultural rights
‘Childhood’ and media production
Production research
Television news: constructing the for(u)m
News forms
Journalists, practices and the production of form
Imagining audiences
News-making practices: epistemology and symbolism
Television news: constructing the for(u)m: a summary
Explaining and representing the environment
A larger view: risk society, the media and the visible environment
Constructing the environment
Summary
Researching the children’s news programme
Chapter 2: Inside programme production
Newsround: the case study
Co-operation within the BBC: a tale of two departments
News staff and production routines
News production: a day in the newsroom
The demands of news production and the programme visualization
Production rituals and creative news making
Visualizing the children’s news form
Visualizing the imagined programme audience
Conclusion
Chapter 3: Visualizing Newsround’s agenda, stance and style
The children’s news form
Visualizing the news agenda
Relevance: the selection of adult news
Interest: an alternative agenda?
Fun stories and the changing agenda
Visualizing the news stance
Imagined audience and the mode of address
Mode of address
Personalization
Demonstrativism
Irreverence
Visualizing the news style
News language
Personalizing news language
Simplifying news language
Explaining the news
Popularizing the news
News style – popularizing the visual
Personalizing the visual
Conclusion
Chapter 4: ‘Naturalizing’ the news agenda: the mediation of the environmental agenda
Visualizing the child-centred news agenda
Selecting ‘nature’: children and the environmental issues
Establishing the environment: linking kids with nature
The modern agenda of environmental problem stories
Popularizing news and the natural disaster
Personalizing the ‘human threat to animals’
Simplifying the pollution story
Explaining food and scientific issues
The modern agenda of environmental solution stories
Mediating the conservation of animals
Mediating the greening of society: industry and the individual
Mediating the conservation of the land
Conclusion
Chapter 5: Mediating news voices: ‘out of the mouths of babes and experts’
Producing news-access opportunities
Mediating news voices: the adult news source
Mediating the child news source
Mediating environmental voices
Informing the audience: environmental groups introducing problems
Inserting the environmental group voice in the environmental story
Access for the audience: children’s news voices
Inserting the voices of children
The mediated limits of experiential reactions
Mediating the boundaries of analytic interpretations
Conclusion
Chapter 6: Constructing the environmental issue: mediating environmental language and visuals
News practice: writing environmental stories
Simplifying the environmental issue
Animals as a synonym for the environmental problem
Blame and justice in environmental problems: the representation of human actors and their actions
Personalizing the environment story
‘Natural’ appeals to the audience
Anthropomorphic appeals to the audience
Complementing words with pictures
Acknowledging children’s sensibilities and the news visual
The power of pictures
Conclusion
Chapter 7: Conclusion
Social problems and children’s news
News practices and the popularizing of news
A more serious approach: children’s news and the communicative space
Bibliography
Index