MAGIC news archive
January 2006

AWARDS
Ukrainian teenager wins Staying Alive Foundation Award

© Denis Stepura - 2004
Producing a radio show in Kiev, Ukraine: Denis Stepura
Denis Stepura (19), from Kiev, is among the winner of this year's Staying Alive competition. The awards are given to young people as well as youth organizations engaged in grass roots HIV/AIDS awareness, education and prevention campaigns. Denis is the only winner from Europe. All other winners come from Africa, Asia and Latin America.
FULL ARTICLE

VIOLENCE ON TV
Children's films aren't so safe anymore
From life-or-death battles in "The Chronicles of Narnia" to laser-wielding aliens in "Chicken Little," today's G- and PG-rated movies are much different than they used to be. According to a recent Harvard study, violence is on the rise in those movies.
FULL ARTICLE

OPPORTUNITIES / AWARDS
The WACC Photographic Competition 2006
This competition, in its third year, it is being run on Flickr for the first time! It closes on May 1st and has cash prizes! Entries are invited interpreting the theme of: THE MEDIA AND PEOPLE.
The competition is open to all men, women and children, of all ages and from all countries. Entries from amateurs and professionals are welcome. There is no limit to the number of photographs that a person may enter, but no entrant may win more than one prize in the contest.
The closing date is 1 May 2006. The competition winners will be announced on World Communication Day, 8 May. A selection of entries will be exhibited in London and will be used in the WACC publications such as the website and the journal "Media Development".
A panel of judges will select the winners. All decisions by the judges are final and no correspondence will be entered into. All winners will be contacted immediately after the results of the competition have been announced.
Contact the competition coordinator Erick Coll by e-mail with any questions, or write a new "topic" at the PROJECT WEBSITE.

DIGITAL DIARY

© UNICEF Ghana/2005/Den Dulk
Berenice making a recording for her UNICEF Digital Diary.

30 January 2006:

Berenice shows us around her local market. Part 3 of 6.

23 January 2006:

Berenice shows us around her youth radio show, Curious Minds. Part 2 of 6.


16 January 2006:
18-year-old Berenice Akuamoah from Ghana tells her own story in her digital diary. Part 1 of 6.

MORE ABOUT BERENICE

ARTICLES
Educating parents of techno-savvy kids - by Dr Pieter Streicher
Western society has become more and more permissive with the emphasis on the "freedom of expression" of individuals. However, these consenting rights need to be balanced by the protection of children's rights. Gone are the days when parental control meant keeping your kids off the neighbour's farm. Today parents need to be vigilant and protect children from harmful media content.
Parental vigilance of media is becoming increasingly difficult. Adult magazines abound in stores and adult videos, adult movies on TV and adult websites are accessible. Now, even cell phones can download adult content.
FULL ARTICLE

INTERVIEWS
„Kinder wollen die Welt begreifen“ - (in German)
Seit Dezember 2005 ist der Sender Baby TV für 1,1 Millionen Haushalte im Kabelnetz Baden-Württembergs frei empfangbar. In seinem Ursprungsland Israel gehört Baby TV zu den erfolgreichsten Pay-TV-Sendern. Das werbefreie 24-Stunden-Programm ist speziell für Kleinkinder zwischen dem 0. und 3. Lebensjahr konzipiert. Tagsüber will Baby TV Kinder und Eltern zu Aktivitäten motivieren, nachts glaubt man mit ruhiger Musik und Farbflächen den Schlaf der Kinder fördern zu können. SCHAU HIN! sprach mit der renommierten Kinderfernsehexpertin Dr. Maya Götz, Leiterin des Internationalen Zentralinstituts für das Jugend- und Bildungsfernsehen (IZI) in München, über Sinn und Wirkung von Fernsehsendungen und die richtigen Fernsehregeln für kleine Kinder.
Frau Dr. Götz, seit Dezember letzten Jahres gibt es in Deutschland den ersten 24-Stunden-Sender für Babys und Kleinkinder. Was sagt die Expertin für Kinderfernsehen dazu?
Dr. Götz: Von der Grundidee ist es ein Angebot für Eltern, die ein altersgemäßes Fernsehangebot für ihre Kinder suchen. In diesem Fall für sehr junge Kinder. In seinem Ursprungsland Israel hat dieser Sender eine bestimmte Funktion: In Israel gehören leider sehr erschreckende Bilder über die Folgen von Terroranschlägen und Kampfhandlungen zum Fernsehalltag. Hier ist es sinnvoll, sich einen Pay-TV-Kanal zu leisten, auf dem keine blutenden Menschen zu sehen sind. Für Israel kann ich noch verstehen, wenn Eltern für ihre Kinder – nicht aber Babys – ein Programm wünschen, in dem keine Schreckensnachrichten gezeigt werden.
FULL INTERVIEW
SOURCE

RESOURCES
Child Rights Album in Serbian, Albanian, Hungarian and Romani added to MAGIC resources

You can find this illustrated child rights resource here.

BROADCASTING
'Little progress' on children's TV in Thailand
Academics yesterday blamed a lack of progress made in improving the content of television programmes for children on a lack of integration among state agencies. Most TV channels continue to run programmes considered inappropriate for young people, they said.
Apinya Vejayachai, dean of the faculty of social welfare at Thammasat University, said far too many panels had been set up to handle the issue, including committees under the Prime Minister's Office, the Culture Ministry, the Education Ministry and the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security.
However, instead of working in unison to integrate the best measures for the best possible outcome, they appeared to working independently of each other.
FULL ARTICLE

ADVERTISING
Youth marketing: Time to take more responsibility?
A groundswell of anger at improper advertising aimed at children means marketers must rethink their use of risque advertising. Sex, violence and spiralling debt. The roll call reads like a guide to misspent youth, and marketers should not be surprised to hear they are being blamed for encouraging such a lifestyle. Marketers are targeting children with inappropriate advertising more than ever, and a growing volume of protest from parents and authorities threatens the industry with shunned brands and unprecedented legislation if they fail to change their ways.
FULL ARTICLE

RADIO
UNICEF Digital Diary: Berenice's story from Ghana, part one of a six-part radio series - By Blue Chevigny
Voices of Youth Digital Diaries are all about young people who want to know more.do more.and say more about the world. Our goal is to amplify their voices by inviting the world's children to share UNICEF's electronic podium. These reports are first-person/eyewitness accounts by young people from around the world.
ACCRA, Ghana, 16 January 2006 - Berenice Akuamoah used a mini-disc recorder and microphone to document her life in a six-part series for UNICEF Radio and Voices of Youth. Berenice is a very unusual 18-year-old young woman who hopes to become a lawyer, a sociologist, a political scientist and a journalist. "As you can see," she says, "I am a young woman with many aspirations for my life."
FULL ARTICLE AND AUDIO

AWARDS
The Alliance for Children and Television Launches Its 2006 Awards of Excellence

Montreal, January 16, 2006 * The Alliance for Children and Television (ACT) today announced the launch of its French-language Awards of Excellence. This edition of the awards will honour outstanding achievement in French-language Canadian TV programming for young viewers over the past two years.
The competition is open to all Canadian-made, youth-oriented productions originally broadcast in French between January 1, 2004, and December 31, 2005. Nominations must be submitted by no later than Friday, March 3, 2006, at 5 p.m.
With this installment of the Awards of Excellence, ACT is introducing a new evaluation process designed to better reflect the abundance of talent on the French-language production scene today. From now on, the awards will go to programs originally produced in French, and in an effort to recognize excellence in its myriad forms, categories and age groups have been eliminated.
A total of 10 awards will be handed out, including a grand prize for the most outstanding production to hit the small screen in the past two years, along with awards for best accompanying website, emerging talent, and lifetime achievement. ACT's executive director Caroline Fortier stresses that "because only 10 awards are given out, these hard-won trophies will reward truly exceptional achievements that help raise the profile of our industry as a whole."
The juries will judge the quality of the entries based on various components of production, including concept, writing, overall direction and direction of actors, art direction, research, technical aspects, performance, audience targeting, music and interactivity.
The awards gala, to be held in Montreal on June 1, 2006, is a true celebration of the talent and creativity of Canada's French-speaking youth-television professionals.
WEBSITE: www.act-aet.tv

NEWS
MediaWise calls on Editors' Code Committee to toughen up the industry's Code of Practice

The media ethics charity MediaWise believes much more can be done to protect the public against unfair and inaccurate press coverage, harassment, intrusion into grief and unscrupulous journalism, and to protect the rights of journalists themselves.
MediaWise welcomed the new procedure of an annual review of the Editors' Code of Practice which is policed by the Press Complaints Commission, and especially the opportunity it affords to members of the public, civil society groups and journalists to contribute suggestions to improve the system of self-regulation of the press.
For the last 13 years, MediaWise has offered advice and support to members of the public affected by inaccurate, intrusive or sensational media coverage. Our recommendations are the result of dealing with thousands of enquiries. Many of the cases we have dealt with illustrate the devastating impact that poor journalism can have on ordinary people's lives.
FULL ARTICLE

RESOURCES
UN Convention on the Rights of the Child now in 55 languages on MAGIC

Romani, Indonesian and Tetum (Timor Leste) are the latest languages added to the CRC databank on MAGIC. We also added a child-friendly version of the CRC in Farsi.
MORE

CARTOONS

Meena, 8, is a popular cartoon character loved
by children throughout South Asia. © UNICEF video
Popular cartoon character helps children cope with natural disasters
NEW YORK, 12 January 2006 – Meena is an eight-year-old cartoon character. She goes to school and lives with her family in a small village in India. Conceived and produced by UNICEF, Meena has appeared in more than 30 episodes that deal with topics including health and hygiene, the dangers of trafficking and children’s rights. The latest episode, ‘Life Has Changed’, aims at helping children cope with natural disasters like the 2004 tsunami and the Pakistan earthquake.
FULL ARTICLE

INTERNET
Majority of UAE youth addicted to the Internet
DUBAI - After television, the Internet consumes an enormous part of people's time. According to Etisalat officials, more than a quarter of the population in the UAE is using the Internet out of which 44 per cent are families. Each member of the family is using the Internet at least for four hours. A majority of the youth have become addicted to it. Critics call it the Internet addiction, and say that it is highly dangerous.
FULL ARTICLE

RESOURCES
CRC now available in 52 languages on MAGIC
We recently added the Ukrainian version of the Convention on the Right of the Child to the MAGIC resources. You can browse through the different language versions right here. Before adding Ukrainian, we uploaded Dhivehi (Maldives) and Malagasy (Madagascar). There is also a CRC photo essay link, plus child-friendly versions.

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
Participate in the OneMinutesJr workshop in Salzburg from May 28 - June 1st, 2006

Would you like to create your own one minute video in Salzburg, Austria? If you are between 12 and 20 and live in Austria, Italy, Slovenia, Germany, Hungary or the Czech Republic you can! We are looking for enthusiastic youngsters who are interested in media, want to express themselves creatively, are eager to learn new things, and would like to make new friends. All travel and accomodation expenses will be covered by the European Cultural Foundation, so just fill in the application form showing your motivation and reasons for wanting to participate.
Download the form here and send it to Raya Ribbius (ECF). The deadline is April 20, 2006.

WEBSITES
Educar Para Os Media - Um diário de Educação para os Media
O Educar Para Os Media destina-se primordialmente a pais e professores mas tenho a certeza que qualquer pessoa que regularmente (espero) me faça aqui uma visita, irá encontrar motivos de sobra para não dar por perdido o seu tempo.
Website: http://EducarParaOsMedia.blogspot.com

WEBSITES
Educación para los Medios de Comunicación
La "audiencia" a quien se destina primordialmente el Educación para los Medios de Comunicación serán padres y profesores pero tengo la certidumbre que cualquier persona que regularmente me haga aquí una visita, irá a encontrar motivos de sobra para no dar por perdido su tiempo.
Website: http://educacionparalosmedios.blogspot.com

RESOURCES
Periodistas hablan: Violencia mediática contra la niñez - Un estudio sucinto y expedito

El Centro Nicaragüense de Derecho Humanos, CENIDH, con el respaldo de Save the Children Noruega, presenta la investigación "Periodistas hablan de la violencia mediática contra la niñez". El propósito de esta investigación es contribuir a la sensibilización del periodismo nacional, de las organizaciones civiles y de las instancias gubernamentales a las que incumbe el tema. Pretende también documentar la relación entre los medios de comunicación y la violencia que sufren niñas, niños y adolescentes, y aportar al debate que tiene lugar en el país en torno a la violencia que se genera desde los medios de comunicación, particularmente desde algunos canales de televisión, mediante el género periodístico que se denomina "nota roja".
MORE

EVENTS
The Tromsø International Film Festival -TIFF- 2006 (January 16th to 22nd 2006)

Same presedure as every year: NUFF cooperation with TIFF. Like in the last years will we screen a film program with all winner films, the workshop films and the documentary from NUFF 2005 at Cinema Fokus, a two hour program presented by NUFF. Also will we have our legendary NUFF lunch reception at the youth culture house TVIBIT. All young film interested people will have the possibility to meet the international and national guests at TIFF.
But not enough with that, we will arrange a seminar for young people with a known filmmaker. Former guests have been Jim Stark, the known film producer from USA, Margrete Olin who presented her film "Ungdommens Råskap" and Mike Leigh the legendary film director from England.
The NUFF-special this year will be film workshop. We will invite 6 - 8 young filmmakers between 15 and 20 years from Northern-Norway to Tromsø during the Tromsø International Film Festival January 16th to 22nd. This group shall produce a short film about TIFF in five days. The teacher will be Daniel Alegi from Sweden who was already one of the workshop leaders at NUFF 2005. The film will be screened at the outdoor cinema on Saturday and perhaps at the closing ceremony of the festival. Submit here.
On top of our cooperation with TIFF will be that we are responsible for the film program of Freeze Frame the outdoor cinema of the festival. There we will screen "The Best of NUFF" and youth cinema from the culture house TVIBIT. This will be a program about 12 hours in the middle of the city! You will find more information on www.tiff.no!
SOURCE

PROJECTS
Save the Children Sweden presents the comic strip "Los Niños Primero"
Chutín is a restless and curious boy. Along with his friends Julio, Bruna and Barbara, he will experience an entertaining odyssey, traveling through many neighborhoods of Lima and learning, with his textbook, about GDP, nutrition, health, education and State policies and how all this affects the well-being of the boys and girls of his country.
This is in outline the plot of "Los Niños Primero" ("Children First"), the most recent work of comic strip writer Juan Acevedo, published by Save the Children Sweden, and presented on Thursday, November 10th, at Meliá Hotel, Lima.
On that occasion, Chutín's adventures were commented by his creator, as well as by Per Tamm, representative of Save the Children Sweden, Diego Paliza, representative of the Second Conference of Children and Adolescents, and Alejandro Cussiánovich, on behalf of the Instituto de Formación para Educadores de Jóvenes, Adolescentes y Niños Trabajadores - IFEJANT (Institute for the Training of Educators of Working Youth, Children and Adolescents).
FULL ARTICLE

NEWS
Media can help preserve rights of children (BANGLADESH)
Speakers at a view exchange meeting said the media could play a vital role to preserve children's rights by creating awareness among the children.
As journalist, children would become disciplined and participate in many development works in the society. The view exchange meeting on 'Role of Child Journalist to Preserve Children's Right' was held at the CIRDAP Auditorium in the city yesterday. Children's Express, a news agency working for the betterment of child journalists, organised the meeting.
FULL ARTICLE

PROJECTS / BACKGROUND
UNICEF’s Youth Broadcasting Initiative (YBI) in Somalia
In the East African region the development of better broadcasting as a means for creating dialog among different communities is essential to building more effective practices of human rights and people led development. As the UN Children’s agency, UNICEF’s role is one of support directly to children and youth. In Somalia the youth broadcasting project was developed to broaden the scope and reach of broadcasting in Somalia. The two main aims set out for the project were to support Somali youth to produce radio programs and to develop support for youth broadcasting in Somalia.
In Somalia youth groups have formed to meet many social, economic and environmental demands. Youth in Somalia have poor access to education, are vulnerable to the violence and abuse brought about by the ongoing civil war, are vulnerable to poverty, poor access to health care and a range of child rights issues. Today UNICEF has identified 200 youth groups throughout Somalia. UNICEF is working with these youth groups to implement community mobilization for polio vaccination, awareness raising on female genital mutilation and other activities. The UNICEF/ ‘Youth Group’ partnership provides them with leadership training, support to carry out their development goals and helps them achieve a leading voice in their communities.
As an oral culture the regard Somali’s have for radio and now video is a reflection of their traditional reliance on forms of expression, poetry, drama, songs and debate to provide news and information across the expanse of the country. While local radio coverage does not reach the majority of Somalis the importance of local voices speaking about local development issues is critical to begin debates that will spread throughout the country. Despite the receptiveness of audiences and the need to provide local level broadcasting to reach the diverse developmental, economic and demographic groups in Somali society, very little community based programming has been developed. Local broadcasters have been trained in news journalism rather than specific skills to produce local programs on community development topics. Specialized training and support is required to build the skills of Somali producers, bring about accurate & in-dept exchange of information about development issues, and foster an appreciation for community based dialogue on a range of issues effecting women and children.
FULL PAPER

PROJECTS
Mobile cinema brings entertainment and education to Niger's desert dwellers - By Sabine Dolan

Children watch open air movies and UNICEF health messages at the remote desert oasis of Azzel, Niger. © UNICEF video
AZZEL, Niger, 30 December 2005-After a long drive through northern Niger's arid landscape, a minivan pulls up in the remote desert oasis of Azzel. This evening, the van is bringing not supplies, but entertainment and education. The "cinema on wheels" has arrived.
After a round of traditional greetings from the Tuareg villagers and nomads who have turned out, Salamatou Alhassane, the coordinator for this mobile movie theatre, quickly gets down to business along with her staff.
Known as the "Cinéma Numérique Ambulant" (CNA - French for "Mobile Digital Cinema"), the open air cinema projects popular African films along with UNICEF health messages.
As her team lays down straw mats for tonight's screening and plants posts in the soft sand for the large movie screen, Alhassane pauses to explain the project. "The objective of the CNA is to show to the most remote populations, populations that have no distractions, no radio, no television, to show them their own films: African films. The people here are really interested in our films, not only because they don't have many distractions, but also the films we project and the themes debated are problems they experience," she says, before quickly brushing sand from her flowing dress and returning to work.
FULL ARTICLE

ADVERTISING
Sugarcoated junk: Should SpongeBob be feeding your kids? - When cartoon heroes are on the package, youngsters want it on their plates. - by Kristen Gerencher /Marketwatch
SpongeBob's diet may be full of holes, at least when it comes to the way the cartoon character is used to sell food to children.
That's just one of the complaints in a recent report that takes food marketers to task over their role in the growing problem of childhood obesity in the United States.
The report, which Congress asked for, hits hardest at television advertising, which it says strongly influences what kids younger than 12 request and eat. Those junk-food pitches increase children's risk of long-term health problems, the study contends. The report was written by a committee of 16 people in disciplines from advertising to psychology to pediatrics who were chosen by the Institute of Medicine, acting at the behest of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
FULL ARTICLE
FULL REPORT

REPORTS
Periodistas hablan: Violencia mediática contra la niñez - Un estudio sucinto y expedito

El Centro Nicaragüense de Derecho Humanos, CENIDH, con el respaldo de Save the Children Noruega, presenta la investigación “Periodistas hablan de la violencia mediática contra la niñez”. El propósito de esta investigación es contribuir a la sensibilización del periodismo nacional, de las organizaciones civiles y de las instancias gubernamentales a las que incumbe el tema. Pretende también documentar la relación entre los medios de comunicación y la violencia que sufren niñas, niños y adolescentes, y aportar al debate que tiene lugar en el país en torno a la violencia que se genera desde los medios de comunicación, particularmente desde algunos canales de televisión, mediante el género periodístico que se denomina “nota roja”.
FULL REPORT

AWARDS
Image of a street child in Odessa wins UNICEF International Photo Award

Yana, a street child in Odessa. One image captures the tragedy of HIV and poverty in Eastern Europe. © David Gillanders
The Scottish photographer David Gillanders is the winner of this year’s international photographic contest, UNICEF Photo of the Year“.
His photo of Yana, a street child in Odessa, captures the scale and human tragedy of the HIV epidemic in Eastern Europe. Yana was originally from Moldova, the poorest country in Eastern Europe. Her father, an alcoholic, died young and her mother went to jail when Yana was eight years old. Yana had been living on the streets ever since, most recently in Odessa. She died on the street last Christmas, addicted to drugs and infected with HIV.
FULL ARTICLE

BROADCASTING
Viacom testing limits of youth TV in China
By David Barboza / The New York Times
SHANGHAI - When Nickelodeon's popular children's program "The Kids' Choice Awards" came to China last month, the producers were required to make some serious modifications. (...)
Nonetheless, Viacom, the U.S.-based company that dominates youth-oriented programming in much of the world with its networks MTV and Nickelodeon, is aggressively courting Chinese youngsters, hoping to introduce them to its brand of playfully anti-authoritarian programming. Viacom is pushing its children's programming at a time when News Corp. and Time Warner have been aggressively seeking alliances to produce and broadcast more programs in China.
FULL ARTICLE

PROJECTS
KNN responds to urgent needs of youth

Roxas City (28 December) - A two-day meeting of the Kabataan News Network (KNN) bureau coordinators nationwide was held recently in Manila to further enhance the 30-minute weekly program aired over two national television stations. The United Nations Childrens Fund (UNICEF) sponsored project implemented by Probe Media Foundation, Inc. (PMFI) aims to maximize children participation thru television medium.
Participation rights of children were recognized in the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) adopted during the United Nations general assembly in 1989. The CRC also upheld and acknowledged the survival, development, and protection rights of children already stipulated in the 1959 Universal Declaration of Child's Rights.
Dr. Dale Rutstein, UNICEF-Manila Communications Officer and founder of KNN, said that the program is responding to the urgent needs of the youth to be heard through television as a medium of child participation. He also discussed the situation of the country's young people citing research studies on child labor, armed conflict, substance abuse, HIV/AIDS as well as adolescent development and participation approaches among others during the meeting.
FULL ARTICLE
MORE ABOUT KNN

RESEARCH
Television and Children's Fear - Research Findings from Slovakia
[Media Violence] - by Elena Hradiská, Ph.D.
Emotions are integral to people's intricate complex of psychological expressions. They are outcomes of subjective responses to a variety of stimuli. Fear is one such emotion, and its experience is attended by many internal and external changes in the human organism. Any individual manner and form of response to an outward stimulus is contingent on inborn endowments of the organism, the social milieu in which the stimulus challenges the organism, as well as the nature of the organism. Human individuality, therefore, shows a whole gamut of ways in which persons may experience feelings of fear and fright.
FULL TEXT

OPPORTUNITIES / COMPETITIONS
BL!NDSPOT - Visualize the unseen - Short film competition 2006
BL!NDSPOT - Visualize the unseen should challenge film makers to confront themselves with a new kind of perception, - a new way of seeing - allowing them to become creative towards this concept. We are looking for films belonging to the following categories: documental, animation, experimental, short films and music videos. They should confront themselves with:
Space (velocity, proportions, mobility),
Time (old-young, day-night, labour time - leisure time)
Values (beauty, mode, brands)
The idea to create a competition based on these aspects originated after questioning ourselves if new IMAGES are reinvented in the mind of the visitors to the exhibition "Dialog in the Dark, an exhibition in which the public experience their daily life in specially constructed darkened rooms designed to reflect urban and countryside environments.
MORE INFO - DEADLINE is FEB 15, 200

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