Media Analysis: Representation of Children in Film and Television

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of how children are represented in various media, focusing on cultural assumptions and the ideals promoted by producers of children's content. It examines the TV show "In the Night Garden" and its impact on children's sleep patterns, delves into the 'somatext' of the animated character Nemo from "Finding Nemo," considering gender and marketability, and discusses why children are considered a special audience with reference to the movies "Frozen" and "Wall-E," as well as the TV series "Playschool." Furthermore, the report explores the role and impact of toys associated with films, using Sheriff Woody from "Toy Story" as an example, highlighting how such characters influence children's behavior and perspectives. The analysis concludes that media plays a significant role in shaping children's understanding of the world and their relationships.

ANALYSING
MEDIA

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
QUESTION 1...................................................................................................................................1
QUESTION 2..................................................................................................................................2
QUESTION 3..................................................................................................................................3
QUESTION 4..................................................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Any media message can be used for doing a close analysis but commercials are often
considered as better option because they are tightly and slightly packed with powerful images
and words, sound and music impact general public (Fuchs, 2017). There are numerous shows
that broadcast on television and its category too vary from each another. There are shows that are
mainly created for children while some for young generation and adults. The central idea of this
report is how children are represented in films and television program.
QUESTION 1
Introduction: This question talks about the representation of children in television and films.
The chosen show for this question is “In the Night Garden” which is popular BBC children's
television series aimed for 1 to 6 years old kids. The main motive of this particular task is to
reveal cultural assumption regarding childhood and media's engagement with children's view of
this stage of life.
Main Body: The series was announced in the year 2006 with an aim of helping kids to relax and
attain calming relationship with parents. The show features a large cast of colourful
characteristics with uncommon names who live in magical forest scattered with brightly coloured
pompom flowers and large daises (Gerbaudo, 2018). The central idea of the show was to make
children finally asleep when they are pretending to be asleep. The director of show wants to
explore the difference between being asleep and being awake from children's point of view i.e.
the difference between trying to asleep and actually closing eyes. One of the most common
issues that every parents face is trying to make their kids asleep even if they are not feeling
sleepy. Following the old tradition or culture they try to feed them milk, sing rhymes, switch off
the light so that they can fall asleep but none of their tricks actually works. According to one of
the report, it has been figured out that children aged between 1 to 6 years becomes more active at
night and moreover they prefer to sleep in the morning rather than sleeping timely in night.
In the Night Program comes a saviour for those parents. By seeing this program children
actually started falling asleep. The irony was television makes children awake but this time it
makes them fall asleep. The episode start with a different child in their bed boat travelling to the
Night Garden. The camera zooms up in the sky followed by blooming flowers and narrator start
introducing the episode. Iggle Piggle's is the main character who runs away from falling asleep
but after listening to the story he automatically sleeps. So this show basically reveal the culture
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assumption that children can fall asleep by watching TV as well. In the starting days of shows it
was much difficult to believe the fact that any show can make kid fall asleep. Parents left with no
other option as they tired of making their child asleep even though he doesn't want to (Karlsson
and Sjøvaag, 2016). At last they give a shot to this option as well and guess what they found it
actually working. The main reason was the show was able to get easily get connected with
children because of their fascinating characteristics. Other thing that producer taken into
consideration was all key factors that makes them tired throughput the day and they easily fall
asleep at night. The main focus of the show is on Iggle Piggle and its daily activities that makes
them tired and it is also necessary to carry out them as well.
Conclusion: This question concludes that even television can make children fall asleep. When
young people are not feeling sleepy they watch television but this show is came up with an aim
of making children fall asleep by reciting stories to them through the mode of television and with
their unique and fascinating characters as well.
QUESTION 2
Introduction: This question revolve around “somatext” and its impact on animated character.
This further analyse the somatext and taken into consideration factors such as race, class, gender
and marketability in context of movie “Finding Nemo”.
Main Body: The term “somatext” refers to the integration of narrative and visual element in the
construction of animated character (Laurell and Sandström, 2016). The chosen character for this
particular question is Nemo. He is the only Marlin's son left after the barracuda attack. His voice
is narrated by Alexander Gould. He is much excited about his life and exploring the ocean.
However somehow he is abducted by the boat and sent to dentist's office in Sydney. In- between
Marlin tries to retrieve Nemo and she meets Dory. Since Nemo is Marlin's only son left he
considers themselves as much stronger as he is the only one who escape from barracuda attack.
When Nemo accidentally separated from his mother he somehow managed to survive and tries
all efforts to escape from them. Though initially it was little difficult for Nemo to deal with such
situation but as his mother has raised him over protectedly he become anxious. But latter on he
somehow manage to find ways so as to escape from dentist and reach home safely. Talking about
factors like race, gender, marketability that taken into consideration while analysing somatext.
Since Nemo is a male and still he is raised by his mother in over-protected manner. The is
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mainly because he is only son Marlin left with after the death of her other children and husbands.
Nemo is basically a fish and tries to
Conclusion:
QUESTION 3
Introduction: This particular question revolve around the why kids should be considered as a
special audience in animated movies like Frozen, Wall-e and Playschool. The plot of each movie
is differ from one another but ultimately all are tend to explain the relationship that kids share
with their siblings and how these movies seize the attention of children.
Main Body: Frozen is a 3D computer animated musical fantasy film produced by Walt Disney.
The movie revolve around two sister named Elsa and Anna and the bond they share (Mehmet
and Clarke, 2016). Elsa has some super natural powers and one day she accidentally spell her
magical powers on her younger sister. This is the turning point of the movie that shows affection
of one sister towards other. Relating it to children this movie indicates that kids aged between 1
to 6 years share special bond with their sibling or friends. In-fact by seeing such movies kids
started acting like them. This movie beautifully explained the bond or rapport shared by two
sisters. When kids watch such types of movies they also tries to establish great bond either with
their sister or friends. With the help of this movie, children are able to understand that family or
friends are always their to help and save you.
Talking about other movie i.e. Wall-e gives three meaningful lessons to children. First it
teaches children that they should value work and this can only be possible if they start learning
and respecting work from their childhood only (Munro, 2016). Any thing that a kid learn at the
age of 2-8 will remain with them permanently. Second message that movie gives is life has only
meaning when person starts focusing on relationship. Children needs to understand the
importance and value of relationship far above all material achievement. The only way through
which kids can learn is from their parents imitation and experience (Zubiaga and et. al., 2016).
Thirdly, this movie gives the message that if individual face any issue or problem then by simple
sitting one cannot solve their problem they need to do some efforts. It has been believed that if
children understand or learn something at young age it will go long away from them and form
healthier attitude towards work and responsibility. In addition to that Wall-e indicate that no
matter how advance and innovative technology can become we still have to remain connected
with our roots. Now a days parents are spending less time with their kids and to make them busy
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they provide their mobile phone to them so that their children can watch video on them and
remain busy. This might assist parents but it indirectly posses negative impact on children as
they are spending most of their time watching videos on mobile phone rather than playing in
park with other kids.
Play school is an Australian educational television show that mainly broadcast games,
songs and activities related with children (Ranieri and Fabbro, 2016). The show is mainly
designed to provide knowledge to kids in a unique manner. Their character are fascinating and
enable children to watch their show and start acting or performing with them simultaneously.
Conclusion: According to this question it can be concluded that kids can easily catch anything
which tend to remain with them for life long. Therefore it is recommended to give them good
knowledge which remain with them for life long.
QUESTION 4
Introduction: This question covers how toys are related with a particular film or television
program. It also discuss how does their role adds value to the program, film's purpose and
fictional world. Each character of the story possess great impact on entire film or television
program.
Main Body: For this particular question the chosen fictional character is Sheriff Woody. He is a
floppy pull-string cowboy doll and plays the role of toys leader in all series. He was the favourite
toy of his owner Andy Davis and the leader of Andy's toy room. His position was in danger with
the arrival of Buzz Lightyear an astronaut action figure that his owner gets as a birthday present.
Both tries to compete with each other for the affection of owner's love. Woody was Andy's
favourite toy among others (Schäfer, Scheffran and Penniket, 2016). He was much liked by the
audience as he doesn't left his owner in his difficulties and moreover fight for their owner by
joining hands with its biggest competitor. He is a passionate toy who put themselves intro trouble
for the sake of its owner. As soon he knows that his owner is in trouble he gives his 100%
commitment or dedication towards solving their issues. In all three films Woody makes strong
relationship and friendship with Jessie and Buzz (Wood, 2017). Initially when Buzz temporarily
becomes Andy's favourite toy, Woody tries to compete with him but latter on they both develop
good bond. When Andy was bullied by Sid they both collectively make efforts towards
protecting him. The impact of his role can be observed on children as they started acting like
him. The message given by film was clear that how collective efforts provides best possible
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solution. As a result, children started behaving like Woody. He was audience's favourite amongst
all other characters. This is mainly because of his strong leadership qualities and skills.
Sometimes a film can give strong message that change the mind set or perspective of individual
(Willig, 2016).
Conclusion: From the above question it can be conclude that there are various movie that posses
great impact on changing the mind set of individuals or children. Woody is a passionate guy and
plays a role of transformational leader that indirectly affect children as somewhere they also
started behaving like that. Overall the movie denote good and positive message among children
that solution to any problem can be generated with collective efforts of people.
CONCLUSION
It get concluded from the project that analysing media is a major source which used to
understand by an individual properly. By effective and appropriate analysis of media,
management of an individual become possible in tenure so that better and supportive could be
done. This project define and includes about various film and pictures analysis so that their story
telling conclude a better and definite outcome. Some pictures made great impact on a children
mind which reflect it as a motivation on the other hand some film made a violation on an
individual health and mind.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Fuchs, C., 2017. Social media: A critical introduction. Sage.
Gerbaudo, P., 2018. Tweets and the streets: Social media and contemporary activism. Pluto
Press.
Karlsson, M. and Sjøvaag, H., 2016. Content analysis and online news: epistemologies of
analysing the ephemeral Web. Digital Journalism. 4(1). pp.177-192.
Laurell, C. and Sandström, C., 2016. Analysing Uber in social media—disruptive technology or
institutional disruption?. International Journal of Innovation Management. 20(05).
p.1640013.
Mehmet, M. I. and Clarke, R. J., 2016. B2B social media semantics: Analysing multimodal
online meanings in marketing conversations. Industrial Marketing Management. 54.
pp.92-106.
Munro, J. F., Baxter Healthcare SA and Baxter International Inc, 2016. Optical imaging system
with multiple imaging channel optical sensing. U.S. Patent 9,476,825.
Ranieri, M. and Fabbro, F., 2016. Questioning discrimination through critical media literacy.
Findings from seven European countries. European Educational Research Journal.
15(4). pp.462-479.
Schäfer, M. S., Scheffran, J. and Penniket, L., 2016. Securitization of media reporting on climate
change? A cross-national analysis in nine countries. Security Dialogue. 47(1). pp.76-96.
Tjaden, B., Cooper, S.J., Brett, D.J., Kramer, D. and Shearing, P.R., 2016. On the origin and
application of the Bruggeman correlation for analysing transport phenomena in
electrochemical systems. Current opinion in chemical engineering. 12. pp.44-51.
Willig, I., 2016. Field theory and media production: A bridge-building strategy. In Advancing
Media Production Research (pp. 53-67). Palgrave Macmillan, London.
Wood, M. A., 2017. Antisocial media and algorithmic deviancy amplification: Analysing the id
of Facebook’s technological unconscious. Theoretical Criminology. 21(2). pp.168-185.
Zubiaga, A. and et. al., 2016. Analysing how people orient to and spread rumours in social media
by looking at conversational threads. PloS one. 11(3). p.e0150989.
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