MAGIC NEWS ARCHIVE APRIL 2004

EVENTS
South Africa to host 5th Summit

Firdoze Bulbulia (left) and Regina de Assis (right) with Kami (Photo: Chris Schuepp)
Summit attendees joyously celebrated the choice of South Africa as sit to the 5th World Summit on Media for Children and Adolescents, in 2007. The announcement, made by WSF President Patricia Edgar, Firdoze Bulbulia invited Africans in the audience onto the stage. Bulbilia represents the South African organization, Icasa, and was an active proponent for the choice of his country as the next summit host.
“As you can see, a small group of people can generate a powerful effect. We are pinpoints in a great movement. There are thousands of people involved in this movement around the world. This Summit propelled the movement forward,” exclaimed Patricia Edgar, recalling that South Africa has been an important part of the in the Summit movement for nine years.
“Viva Africa! Viva Africa”, Firdoze Bulbulia, cheered from the stage, calling on the audience to join her. “Africa, this is our victory! Africa you are arriving in the world” she cheered, promising an African flavor to the next summit. “Let’s all draw on the effort and success of this Summit in Brazil. We’ll see you in Africa in 2007!” she added.

From the ANDI website - in Portuguese:
A África do Sul será a sede da 5ª Cúpula Mundial de Mídia para Crianças e Adolescentes. O anúncio foi feito no encerramento da 4ª Cúpula, finalizando o maior evento internacional do gênero, que reuniu mais de dois mil especialistas em mídia e infância, entre profissionais, pesquisadores, educadores e adolescentes na Escola Naval do Rio de Janeiro, entre 19 e 23 de abril.
MORE IN PORTUGUESE

DOCUMENTS
Rio Charter
Read the Rio Charter, the final document of the 4th World Summit on Media for Children and Adolescents, on the Summit website.
English - Spanish - Portuguese

NEWS
Rio Summit has started
More than 150 young people from all over the world are attending the 4th Summit in Media for Children & Adolescents in Rio de Janeiro / Brazil from April 19-23. Altogether, there are 2,000 participants sharing their views and opinions in panel discussions, workshops and other events.
SOME IMPRESSIONS FROM THE SUMMIT

RESOURCES
Radio Manifesto
Young delegates from South Africa, West Africa, India, and the Ukraine are in Brazil this week to talk about their Radio Manifesto. Broadcasters and broadcasting regulators around the world face a new challenge as the children's & youth Radio Manifesto is made public at the Rio Summit, the 4th World Summit on Media for Children April 19-23 in Rio de Janeiro.
The Radio Manifesto sets out what young people want and what they really need from radio. Children's & youth radio groups in many different parts of the world have taken part in discussion workshops since 2001 to prepare their own contributions to the document. Their wishes for appropriate programming on the radio are presented in the form of a Declaration, with four following sections on Participation, Children's Rights, Traditional Culture & Entertainment, and Education.
Youth radio broadcasters at Bush Radio in Cape Town, South Africa pioneered the Radio Manifesto. The World Radio Forum has helped young broadcasters in other countries in Africa and the rest of the world to develop their own contributions to the text. Young people aged 8 - 18 have contributed from townships, remote villages, and the streets of capital cities, together with the new young citizens of emerging democracies. Their Manifesto proclaims strongly to radio authorities the rights, needs, and hopes of young people everywhere.
Copies of the Radio Manifesto are being distributed in Portuguese, Spanish, and English to participants at the Rio Summit. The text is also available in English as a free download on the World Radio Forum website and in the MAGIC resources section. Translations into French and Russian will be available at a later date.
The process of contributing to the Radio Manifesto remains open for other children's & youth radio groups. The World Radio Forum web site offers notes for structuring discussion workshops, which enable young people to develop their thoughts on the issues. If you would like your youth group to contribute to the Manifesto, contact WRF Director Sarah McNeill.

EVENTS
SNAP: New Youth Media Show
Link TV, a national satellite network, along with NextNext Entertainment, a New York-based production company, are seeking innovative, youth produced media to be shown on SNAP - a new series of two-hour interactive television specials aimed at teenagers and young adults. Submissions can be short films, music videos, docudramas and any other youth produced media (artists under 30) from around the world that will incite live conversation among viewers, hosts, callers, emailers and a "virtual audience" of webcammers.
SNAP will give young media artists the opportunity to be showcased and celebrated. It will also serve as a forum for you to share your thoughts and experiences with a culturally diverse audience.
To get your youth produced media on the air, email Katrina Baker or Tiffani Knowles.
MORE INFO

EVENTS / PROJECTS
Youth Media Network - brainstorming meeting in Rio
The Youth Empowerment Alliance, Inc. is committed to working with youth media organizations to develop and distribute youth-generated stories to mainstream media worldwide.
Currently, youth worldwide are utilizing the media to advance their own communities. The 1999 Oslo Challenge called for all organizations to promote the use of major media for youth to express their views. Worldwide, more than 500 organizations have accepted this challenge. The next logical step is to systematize this process and enable youth from all over the world to learn of others who share their views.
As part of an effort to educate the general public about issues of importance to children, the Youth Media Network is being established to harness existing youth media (ages 25 and under) a permanent voice in mainstream media. Modeled after a syndicated news service, YMN will offer youth-generated stories for mainstream media internationally.
MORE INFO

PROJECTS
Introducing the Youth Media Exchange

In line with Listen Up!'s commitment to making it easy for youth media organizations to submit, host, share, and distribute youth media online, we would like to announce a major new initiative, in collaboration with our partner organizations below, to build a free, open media publishing platform for youth media organizations worldwide: the Youth Media Exchange.
We are confident that this project will be a major contribution to maturing the infrastructure of the growing youth media field.
MORE INFO

EVENTS / WEBSITES
Vilnius Film Festival - Lithuania, April 17/18, 2004

The Vilnius Film Festival has a new website - check it out at www.movewithmovie.net

EVENTS
4th World Summit on Media for Children and Adolescents
Hundreds of young people, media professionals, education and child advocacy experts will gather in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil during the week of 19-23 April for the 4th World Summit on Media for Children and Adolescents.

The theme of this year’s summit is ‘Media from All, Media for All.’ Participants at the summit will focus on how to best provide quality media for all children and adolescents across the globe. UNICEF will host an inter-generational dialogue on 21 April, allowing youth and broadcast executives to speak out on fresh approaches to issues that concern young people the most.
UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy will also give the keynote address at the official opening on 20 April to over 1,200 attendees and over a hundred adolescents.
In the coming days, UNICEF panelists will lead discussions on youth and media in the digital age.
UNICEF will also launch the new Voices of Youth (VOY) website, upgraded and redesigned with new interactive features on 19 April at the International Forum for Adolescents, which is taking place in conjunction with the summit. By providing a well-functioning and inviting space for both young people and adults, VOY offers a safe space for children and adolescents, in both developing and developed countries, to collaborate, partner and discuss issues impacting them and their communities.
The International Forum for Adolescents will host 150 teens from around the world where they will exchange ideas and experiences, and how media plays a part in each of their diverse communities. UNICEF helped to select 30 forum participants from UNICEF-assisted projects in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and Latin America.
OFFICIAL RIO SUMMIT WEBSITE
Youth Voices from the VoY/MAGIC web-dialogue

RESEARCH
NZ television violence similar to US and UK
New Zealand television screens a similar amount of violence to that shown in the United States and United Kingdom, according to research by the Auckland University of Technology.
But promotions for upcoming programmes are a concern because they often select the most violent incidents and concentrate them into a short time slot, the study conducted by the Centre for Communication Research at AUT has found.
Centre Director Professor Allan Bell said that the high level of violence within promotions was just one of the findings of the research commissioned by the Government appointed Working Group on TV Violence which presented its recommendations to the Minister of Broadcasting on April 1, 2004.
MORE INFO

PROJECTS
Jewish and Arab journalism students in Israel to produce joint student newspaper in peace initiative
Twenty-four Arab and Jewish journalism students described by their professor as 'potential messengers of peace' are to produce a bi-lingual newspaper in northern Israel in a media peace initiative.
The undergraduate students from the Media & Communications Department of the Emek Yezreel College, near Nazareth, are involved in a three-month project, 'Finding common ground in Israel - Jewish and Arab journalism students working together', organised by the college and the London-based Media Diversity Institute (MDI).
MORE INFO

EXHIBITIONS
Overlooked children around the world speak out
Exhibition of photographs - 7-26 April 2004
UNESCO, Hall Ségur / 7, place de Fontenoy / 75007 Paris
"A street cannot have a child, so how can we be considered as street children?" This message from a Malian child who is about ten years old and who has gotten to know life in the street over a period of several years sums up the dreadful phenomenon now known to all our societies: the exclusion of thousands of children who constantly see their rights flouted.
The lives of children and their development should be an absolute priority of States. These have committed themselves, through the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to the respect and promotion of the rights of each child with regard to health, protection, justice, education.
In setting up this exhibition, UNESCO hopes to challenge the public and make it aware of the children who have been abandoned on the fringes of our societies and of the non-respect of their rights, in particular, the right to education. Deprived of this right, how can they break the infernal cycle of poverty, illness, survival in the street and exploitation? Three artists, Julien Chapsal, François Perri and Eric Visser, invite us to
discover the "words" and "images" of children from several continents; these children take us into their world and thereby help us to better understand their suffering and their hopes. Let us better understand to better act, because "a street cannot have a child".
For more info, contact Florence Migeon, Programme Specialist, UNESCO Division of Basic Education
Tel. 33 (0) 1 45 68 11 73
Fax: 33 (0) 1 45 68 56 26

RESOURCES / BOOKS
"Promote or Protect? Perspectives on Media Literacy and Media Regulations"

The aim of the sixth Yearbook from the International Clearinghouse on Children, Youth and Media is to contribute to reflections on the whole range of 'measures' to promote children's, young people's and adults' media competence and to protect them from potential harmful media contents. What do scholars say about the responsibility of parents in this regard, about the state of media education in and outside school, about media professionals' awareness of children and media, and about the effectiveness of media regulations?
MORE INFO from the Clearinghouse website

RESOURCES
Kodak Filmschool Competition Opens to Asia-Pacific and Latin American Schools
The Kodak Student Filmmaker Program is open to submissions for its fifth annual cinematography competition. Designed for students and recent graduates in the Latin America and Greater Asia and Japan regions, the competition has seen past winners from schools in Argentina, Australia, HongKong and Korea.
FULL ARTICLE
PROJECT WEBSITE

ARTICLES
TV Show Censured for Encouraging Children to Feed Babies
ITV's Saturday morning kids' show Ministry of Mayhem has been criticised by watchdogs over a stunt which encouraged children to feed lemon juice to babies. The programme featured a clip of a nine-month old baby being given a teaspoon of the juice. The presenter told young viewers: "Do it on your brothers and sisters as it's very, very funny." Programme maker Carlton said the stunt was safe because lemon juice was a natural food and not harmful to babies. The baby boy involved was the son of a doctor, Carlton added.
But media regulator Ofcom upheld complaints about the show and ruled it had breached programme guidelines. "We accepted that feeding lemon juice in itself would not be harmful to a baby. However, we were particularly concerned that a presenter of a children's programme should encourage children to feed a baby at all," Ofcom said.
FULL ARTICLE

RESOURCES
35 candles for Sesame Street

The cast of "Sesame Street" - (Photo by ©2004 Sesame Workshop)
Tonight's prime-time "Sesame Street" special is being brought to you by the number 35. The show's Dracula-like Muppet, the Count, will be happy to count that high for the occasion. His beloved PBS series is launching its 35th anniversary season this week.
FULL REPORT

RESOURCES
Report on Internet Study in Kenya: TeenWeb Nairobi
This report concerns TeenWeb, an innovative, school-based Internet study that involved over 1,000 youth in five public secondary schools in Nairobi.
FULL REPORT

RESOURCES
Navigating the Children's Media Landscape
In a media environment rife with "wardrobe malfunctions" and bloodthirsty spectacle, parents are increasingly torn between two extremes: imposing an all-out television boycott on their kids, or else throwing their arms up in despair and taking a hands-off approach.
A study released on April 2nd, 2004 warns against both extremes. Parents needn't give up the educational benefits of electronic media, but they shouldn't leave those benefits to chance. "Navigating the Children's Media Landscape" offers tips
on dodging the pitfalls of children's media use.
Prepared by the Washington-based American Institutes of Research, the report is a joint initiative by the National Parent Teacher Association and Cable in the Classroom, a nonprofit organization run by the cable industry.
FULL ARTICLE
FULL REPORT available on the MAGIC resources page

ARTICLES
Children's TV in India
At least three new channels for kids are eyeing the Indian market place and are likely to go on air in the next few months. If you are worried that television is turning your little ones into couch potatoes, then brace yourself for some more news. At least three new channels for kids are eyeing the Indian marketplace and are likely to go on air in the forthcoming months.
FULL ARTICLE

AWARDS
Give Us Our Daily Bernd

Bernd das Brot and his creator, Tommy Krappweis, at the Grimme Awards 2004
Forget Claudia Schiffer, Boris Becker and Marlene Dietrich, Germany has a new star. His name is Bernd and he is a loaf of bread. He may be small, rectangular and baked golden brown, but that hasn't hurt the career of Bernd the Bread, or Bernd das Brot, as he's know to thousands of German fans. Appearing on the children's television station KiKa for the past three years, the puppet has won the hearts of kids and adults alike with his curmudgeonly yet lovable disposition.
In the age of reality TV where anyone can go to a casting and
become a star, Bernd - besides being a talking loaf of bread - is unique. He was neither cast, nor does he even want to be on television. In fact, there's nothing that would suit him better than to never again appear on the small screen.
FULL ARTICLE

Click the image to get to Bernd's website (in German only)

RESOURCES
Nelonen joins UNICEF's media education project MAGIC

Finnish TV channel Nelonen participates UNICEF's international MAGIC (Media Activities and Good Ideas by, with and for Children) education project. The project aims to help children to understand what is true and what is fiction in television.
The first part of the cooperation is a competition for advertising planners where Nelonen and UNICEF challenge them to write a script for a spot. The title is "Help children to understand what is true and what is fiction in television". The competition starts on 1 April 2004. The best scripts will be produced into spots that will be seen in Nelonen in autumn.
"We are proud and happy that UNICEF accepted Nelonen as its partner", says Pirjo Airaksinen, Nelonen's Senior Vice President, Programming. "Media has to recognise its influence in children. As the third largest media in Finland, Nelonen wants to participate in the media education of youth and children. Under MAGIC-concept we will carry out numerous projects for and with youth and children that will develop their media literacy skills", Airaksinen continues.
"We are happy to start this project with Nelonen. It is an excellent example of how the MAGIC concept can be applied at the national level. We really appreciate this opportunity to highlight young people's right to participation via a media outlet with such a solid young profile", says Young People's Media Network Coordinator Chris Schuepp of MAGIC.

Nelonen's MAGIC website link
UNICEF Finland

RESOURCES
Print Media coverage on children's issues in Nepal 2003
Hatemalo Sanchar, being an ally of media and children, has been takinginitiatives for Media Monitoring Programme from April 2002 in its endeavor to watch the media coverage. "Print Media Coverage on Children's Issues" areport prepared in 2002 was completely an innovative initiation on part of Hatemalo. Acknowledging the feedback and suggestions drawn from the journalists and children, the second report "Print Media Coverage on Children's Issues 2003" is prepared with an improvement in its methodology.
This report has been prepared in an effort to shed light on the media coverage related to children on the backdrop of United Nation Convention on the Rights of the Children (UNCRC), especially under the four categories of the Child Rights - to Survival, Development, Protection and Participation.
FULL REPORT or 2002 REPORT ON THE RESOURCES PAGE

WEBSITES
Young people speak out for quality media on Voices of Youth
Over the past 36 months, young people from all regions of the world have used Voices of Youth’s adolescents and media board to explore the impact of media on youth and society, and how its impact can be harnessed for positive change. Through their discussions, participants offered clear recommendations for media professionals, decision makers and their peers, such as: calling for a halt to the negative representations of adoles-cents; using the media to spread awareness and understanding of sensitive issues; implicating parents and governments in media regulation; and most critical, partnering with young people to ensure a quality media that fairly represents and appeals to youth.
Read the summaries and participate in the ongoing web dialogue leading up to the 4th World Summit on Media for Children and Adolescents in Rio from April 19-23, 2004.
Voices of Youth website

OPPORTUNITIES / AWARDS
Commonwealth Photographic Awards 2004
Established in 1999, the Commonwealth Photographic Awards are organised by the CPU in collaboration with the Commonwealth Broadcasting Association.
This is an open competition for all Commonwealth residents whatever their profession. Each year there is a different theme and the entrants are asked to write a short caption explaining why they think their photos is are significant.
A film about the winning images and the Awards will be commissioned and made available for broadcast in most Commonwealth countries. An exhibition of the winning pictures will take place in London and it is planned that others will be held around the Commonwealth.
A special category has been created for the 2004 Awards for children aged between 12 and 18 on 1 September 2004. The prize will be announced at a later date. The same entry details above apply to this category except the entrant's date of birth must be stated.
FULL INFO

RESOURCES
Young People's Questions about Sexuality, Drugs & HIV/AIDS & STI prevention in Kyrgyzstan and their Answers
UNICEF in Kyrgyzstan and the German Development Agency (GTZ) are pleased to introduce you to a series of eight Question and Answer booklets in Russian about issues related to growing up in Kyrgyzstan. The development of the booklets is part of a process first initiated by GTZ in 2000 in Tanzania.
The success in Tanzania led to the replication of the process in
many other countries of where Kyrgyzstan is one of them. Since independence Kyrgyzstan has seen an increase in acute poverty
and an erosion of the social service sectors.This is affecting the health of young people, as they have become more and more exposed to drugs, tobacco, alcohol, and the increasing danger of sexually transmitted infections, including HIV/AIDS.
At the same time recent studies in Kyrgyzstan show that most young people lack basic information on the process of growing up. In 2002 a UNICEF-funded survey about Knowledge, Attitude and Practice (KAP) with regard to HIV/AIDS/STIs, reproductive health and drugs was conducted among 4000 adolescents in five regions of Kyrgyzstan. The survey revealed that there is an urgent need not only for information, but also for life skills which
enable adolescents to put their knowledge to use.
MORE INFO AND FULL REPORT

RESOURCES
Stardom for Clootie and Dumpling
Two Scottish cartoon cows are poised to become Bollywood stars astheir exploits are unveiled to a potential audience of 60 million.The real Highland bulls, Clootie and Dumpling, live in a field inKemnay, Aberdeenshire, but their cartoon characters lead an adventurous lifethat has even seen them fly over the moon in a rocket.
Their exploits have been turned into a TV series for children which istipped to be an international hit and is a major success for Mallard Media, an Aberdeen screen-writing and animation company. Clootie and Dumpling are currently being launched in Cannes, at MIPTV, Europe's leading international television programme festival.
FULL ARTICLE

ARTICLES
Sesame Street Divided
Can you tell me how to get, how to get to Sesame Street? That's what the classic US Sesame Street theme song used to ask, and of course everyone wanted to get there... to a place where children of all colors - and even animals and monsters - were good, where they spent their time singing and skipping beneath the blue, blue skies.
But nowadays, hardly anyone in this neck of the woods asks for directions to such a place. The 35-year-old program has been dubbed into dozens of languages in more than 100 countries. In the early 1980s, a Hebrew edition with local characters, mixed with dubbed US-made segments, aired successfully in Israel. And in the optimistic post-Oslo years, a version created for Israeli and Palestinian audiences was also a hit. But that new Middle East Sesame Street buckled under the weight of the intifada. The metaphor of a street that is safe for both Israelis and Palestinians ultimately became downright far-fetched, and the program was canceled.
FULL ARTICLE

RESOURCES
Polish version of the CRC online
The Polish version of the Convention on the Rights of the Child is the latest resource added to the MAGIC website's CRC page. To find all more than 30 languages available now, please go to the MAGIC briefing.

PROJECTS
World Newspaper Reading Passport Launched With Ghana Pilot Project
The World Association of Newspapers launched its World Newspaper Reading Passport with a pilot project in Ghana, where teachers, students and journalists are testing the initiative to encourage young readers to Use the newspaper as a learning tool in their daily lives.
MORE INFO

MAGIC partners | Privacy policy | Top