Policy Solutions and International Perspectives on the Funding of Public Service Media Content for Children: A Report for Stakeholders

This project on Policy Solutions and International Perspectives on the Funding of Public Service Media Content for Children began on 8 February 2016 and concludes on 31 May 2016. Its outcomes contribute to the policy-making process around BBC Charter Review, which has raised concerns about the financial sustainability of UK-produced children’s screen content. The aim of this project is to evaluate different funding possibilities for public service children’s content in a more challenging and competitive multiplatform media environment, drawing on experiences outside the UK. The project addresses the following questions: • What forms of alternative funding exist to support public service content for children in a transforming multiplatform media environment? • What can we learn from the types of funding and support for children’s screen content that are available elsewhere in the world – in terms of regulatory foundations, administration, accountability, levels of funding, amounts and types of content supported? • How effective are these funding systems and funding sources for supporting domestically produced content (range and numbers of projects supported; audience reach)? This stakeholder report constitutes the main outcome of the project and provides an overview and analysis of alternatives for supporting and funding home-grown children’s screen content across both traditional broadcasting outlets and emerging digital platforms. The report has been made publicly available, so that it can inform policy work and responses to the UK Government White Paper, A BBC for the Future, published by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport in May 2016

The BBC's role in the changing production ecology of pre-school television in Britain

This paper examines the changing production ecology of British pre-school television in light of developments since the mid-1990s and the specific role played by the BBC. Underpinning the research is the perception that pre-school television is characterised by a complex set of industry relationships and dependencies that demands content which needs to satisfy a wide range of international circumstances and commercial prerogatives. For the BBC this has created tension between its public service goals and commercial priorities. Pre-school programming began in Britain in 1950, but it was not until the mid-1990s that Britain emerged as a leading producer of pre-school programming worldwide with government/industry reports regularly identifying the children’s production sector as an important contributor to exports. The rise of pre-school niche channels (CBeebies, Nick Junior, Playhouse Disney), audience fragmentation and the internationalisation and commercialisation of markets have radically altered the funding base of children’s television and the relationships that the BBC enjoys with key players. The international success of much of its pre-school programming is based on the relationships it enjoys with independent producers who generate significant revenues from programme-related consumer products. This paper focuses on the complex and changing relationships between the BBC, independent producers, and financiers, that constitute the production ecology of pre-school television and shape its output. Within the broader setting of cultural production and global trends the paper investigates the following questions: 1) In the light of changes to the sector since the mid-1990s, what makes pre-school television significant both generally and as an ideal public service project? 2) What is the nature of the current funding crisis in British children’s television and what implications does this crisis have for the BBC’s involvement in pre-school television? 3) How is the Corporation reacting to and managing the wider commercial, cultural, regulatory and technological forces that are likely to affect its strategies for the commissioning, production and acquisition of pre-school content

Representing Childhood and Forced Migration: Narratives of Borders and Belonging in European Screen Content for Children

This article explores representations of childhood and forced migration within a selection of European screen content for and about children. Based on the findings of a research project that examined the intersections of children’s media, diversity, and forced migration in Europe (www.euroarabchildrensmedia.org), funded by the UK’s Arts and Humanities Research Council, the article highlights different ways in which ideas of borders and belonging are constructed and deconstructed in a selection of films and television programmes that feature children with an immigration background. Drawing on ideas around the “politics of pity” (Arendt), the analysis explores conditions under which narratives of otherness arise when it comes to representing forcibly displaced children within European-produced children’s screen media. It also examines screen media that destabilize borders of “us” and “the other” by emphasizing the agency of children from migration backgrounds, and revealing both the similarities and the differences between European children with immigration backgrounds and White European-born children. It is argued here that, operating according to the notions of living “together-in-difference” (Ang), “narratability” (Chouliaraki and Stolic), and “the struggle for belonging” (Kebede), these representations destabilize narratives of borders and otherness, suggesting that children with a family history of immigration “belong” to European societies in the same ways as White European-born children

Children's Screen Content in an Era of Forced Migration: Manchester Workshop Briefing

Fair and accurate representation of displaced children is a key step towards helping them and others around them deal with their new situation. This report summarises the proceedings of the first in a series of three one-day workshops taking place as part of a one-year project funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council under the title ‘Collaborative Development of Children’s Screen Content in an Era of Forced Migration Flows: Facilitating Arab-European Dialogue’. Based on input from content producers, television executives, audience researchers, child’s rights advocates and others working in European and Arab contexts, the Manchester Workshop Briefing reviews relevant material available for children under 12 along with issues relating to ethics, ‘othering’, diversity, children’s media use, structural limitations on production, regulation, commissioning, distribution and education and offers six recommendations. The Manchester workshop took place in December 2017. Other briefings in the series are based on workshops in Copenhagen (March 2018) and Munich (May 2018). The project ends with a symposium in London in September 2018

Children's Screen Content in an Era of Forced Migration: Copenhagen Workshop Briefing

Iraqi, Syrian and other refugees and migrants who undertake dangerous journeys to Europe are often viewed as a set of statistics. In thinking about how we reach young children with stories about migration, it is worth remembering that Europe has its own long history of forced migration, through invasion, persecution and deportation. This report summarises discussions at the second in a series of three workshops taking place as part of a one-year project funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) under the title ‘Collaborative Development of Children’s Screen Content in an Era of Forced Migration Flows: Facilitating Arab-European Dialogue’. Based on input from documentary film-makers, especially from Denmark and the Netherlands, as well as television executives, audience researchers, child’s rights advocates and Arab media practitioners, the Copenhagen Workshop Briefing summarises participants’ responses to films, news items, web series and advocacy videos dealing with children’s escape to Europe and their next steps. It looks in detail at the challenges of funding and distributing such material, the ethical risks in making it, and examples of content that shares cultural and political knowledge. Other briefings in the series are based on workshops in Manchester (December 2017) and Munich (May 2018). The project ends with a symposium in London in September 2018

Curation as methodological enhancement in researching production cultures behind screen content about displaced children in Europe

This paper starts from the premise that research into how producers negotiate issues of diversity and multicultural content in Europe is rare and mostly relies on interviews and documents and that work on understanding those negotiation processes in relation to children’s screen content is even rarer. The paper seeks to reflect critically on an alternative hybrid research method, which aimed to open up a space for dialogue about production processes and was applied in three workshops about children’s content and forced migration that the authors ran with content creators and broadcasters of children’s screen content in 2017-18

Children's Screen Content in an Era of Forced Migration

Children from Arab countries constitute a growing proportion of media audiences in Europe. Recent conflicts in the region have caused hundreds of thousands of families to flee their homes in the Arab world, especially Syria and Iraq, to find safety in Europe. These displaced populations in European countries include large numbers of children. The one-year project summarised in this report was funded by the UK's Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC). One of the project's major objectives was to explore representations of forced migration and diversity in European screen content for young children - those aged 12 and under. Arab experts were integrated into this process of exploration, creating opportunities for dialogue between European and Arab media practitioners and helping to alert European producers to the media needs, wants and experiences of Arabic-speaking children now living in Europe. Drawing on this dialogue, the project gathered recommendations concerning the regulation, funding and distribution of children's media content dealing with diversity and forced migration

An experimental study on the shielding performance of buildings exposed to aircraft noise comparing measurements near front and rear facades

© 2016, German Acoustical Society (DEGA). All rights reserved. This paper explores the shielding properties of buildings exposed to aircraft noise by comparing sound levels near front and rear facades at two locations in the proximity of Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. The focus of the study lies on an experimental approach to measure the shielding capacity of airplanes as fast moving source passes, but primarily on how the urban environment might contribute to noise attenuation from air traffic. The paper therefore builds on studies about shielding effects of buildings seen from an architectural design perspective. In total three pilot studies 45 fly-overs were recorded by microphones in front and behind buildings. One pilot study focuses on ascending airplanes and two on landings. The shielding effect of the building was calculated by subtracting the OASPL (overall A-weighted sound pressure level) graphs of the microphones for the first four seconds of a stabilized sound peak evoked by the passing airplane. A spectral analysis for these time frames is added to study the shielding effects for octave bands between 31.5 and 4000 Hz. The results show that the two buildings have a mean shielding effect of around 11 dB(A) for landings and 14 dB(A) for ascending airplanes, when taking into account the moment sound levels peak at microphone due to a passing airplane. The results show a large variance between results of single flyovers, mainly at the octave bands between 31.5 and 4000 Hz. For instance, for landings the figures show a range between 0 and 7 dB for eight octave bands below 125 Hz while variance stretches between 8 and 14 dB above 125 Hz. For starts these results were respectively around 4 dB for octave bands below 125 Hz and ranges between 8 and 12 dB for bands between 125 and 4000 Hz.Cambridge Trus