Contemporary Notions of Childhood and the Function of Children’s Media in Palestine

Abstract

Abstract This paper maps out constructions of childhood as reflected in debates about the provision children’s media and various screen-based initiatives in the West Bank. It identifies key issues affecting children’s media in Palestine, through an analysis of the changing discourses of childhood in Palestinian society and the ways in which these discourses are articulated in academic and public debates, and in strategies for children’s screen media. Analysis and findings are based on fieldwork undertaken in April and May 2014; this included participant observation and interviews with stakeholders in the children’s cultural sector in the West Bank cities of Ramallah and Nablus. In this paper, I conclude that protectionist discourses based on western Romantic and Lockean constructions of childhood dominate discussion on childhood and the media, and hence children’s television space is ‘occupied’ by adults (parents and producers). Children are constructed as vulnerable and passive victims of their society and are not credited with possessing the tools to play an active role in their own learning.