Is There Local Content on Television for Children Today?

Abstract

This chapter explores the dichotomy between “local” and “global” television content targeting children in the context of debates on media globalization. Our three case studies – TVNZ6 in New Zealand, Minimax in Eastern Europe, and Al Jazeera Children's Channel in the Middle East – focus specifically on locally produced content offered on thematic children's television channels launched to promote the cultural heritage of a particular nation or region. Operating in small but radically different media environments on different continents, these channels provide concrete examples of how local content is conceptualized and what types of content are being offered and produced for children today.

Production studies, transformations in children’s television and the global turn

“…production issues in US children's television (Bryant, 2010;McAllister & Giglio, 2005); with local TV production in New Zealand, Hungary and Qatar (Lustyik & Zanker, 2013b;Lustyik & Smith, 2010); as well as television production in Australia (Potter, 2015), the UK (Steemers, 2010) and Canada (Davis et al, 2008). A survey of JOCAM's output over 10 years reveals many important examples of scholarship from around the world, but few articles that deal directly with production issues or production scenarios that move beyond television, because production research is hard to do, requires trusted access, and tends to be dominated by experiences in the Global North.…”