Children's TV and digital media in the Arab world : childhood, screen culture and education / edited by Naomi Sakr and Jeanette Steemers

" ... several chapters in this volume can be traced back to presentations made at a symposium on Arab television for children, held at the University of Westminster ... in May 2013"--Page vii

Includes bibliographical references (pages 227-241) and index.

Children's screen content in the Arab world: an introduction / Jeanette Steemers and Naomi Sakr -- Arab and western perspectives on childhood and children's media provision / Feryal Awan and Jeanette Steemers -- Forces for change in official Arab policies on media and children / Naomi Sakr -- Insight 1: the EBU as a transfer hub for media policy / Helle Strandgaard Jensen -- Arab animation between business and politics / Omar Adam Sayfo -- Insight 2: prominent personalities and the fortunes of children's media in Egypt / Seham Nasser -- Rebranding Al-Jazeera children's channel: the Qatarization factor / Naomi Sakr and Jeanette Steemers -- A channel for every child: exploring a parallel Arab children's television universe / Tarek Atia -- Gender, music videos and Arab youth: the curious case of Mini Studio / Kirsten Pike and Joe F. Khalil -- Domestication and commodification of 'the Other' on Egyptian children's TV / Ehab Galal -- Representation of language in Arab media for children / Atef Alshaer -- Insight 3: educational priorities and language use in Shara'a Simsim / Daoud Kuttab -- (Mis)trust, access and the poetics of self-reflexivity: Arab diasporic children in London and media consumption / Nisrine Mansour and Tarik Sabry

Who analyses children's screen content and media use in Arab countries, and with what results? Children, defined internationally as under-18s, account for some 40 per cent of Arab populations and the proportion of under-fives is correspondingly large. Yet studies of children's media and child audiences in the region are as scarce as truly popular locally produced media content aimed at children. At the very time when conflict and uncertainty in key Arab countries have made local development and diversification of children's media more remote, it has become more urgent to gain a better understanding of how the next generation's identities and worldviews are formed. This interdisciplinary book is the first in English to probe both the state of Arab screen media for children and the practices of Arabic-speaking children in producing, as well as consuming, screen content. It responds to the gap in research by bringing together a holistic investigation of institutions and leading players, children's media experiences and some iconic media texts. With children's media increasingly linked to merchandising, which favours US-based global players and globalizing forces, this volume provides a timely insight into tensions between differing concepts of childhood and desirable media messages