Children are considered to be a group of special interest by media scholars and advocates, especially because they are seen as a vulnerable group whose rights must be protected and also because they represent the future of the world, and so their education and socialisation is of particular importance. While there has been global research on children’s media practices, in India, there has been very little critical work in this area.
Childscape, Mediascape fills this gap by bringing together, for the first time, a variety of perspectives from media researchers, practitioners and those involved in secondary school education, with a focus on children, childhood and media. Questioning what it means to ‘grow up digital’ in twenty-first century India, this collection explores a variety of themes relating to children and the media landscape. The volume contains twelve essays on relevant topics such as digital media literacy among children and their new media practices; mediated childhood and child rights; children as both consumers and producers of social media; digitality and education; children’s entertainment and leisure practices, and issues of identity, representation and community in a mediated world. The book also contains a comprehensive introduction by the volume editors.
This volume will be of value to scholars of media and communication studies and cultural studies, while also drawing readers from psychology and journalism. The chapters offer critical insights of relevance to parents, teacher training institutes, child-focused NGOs, and others who work with children.
Usha Raman is Professor at the Department of Communication, University of Hyderabad.
Sumana Kasturi works in international education and is an independent researcher.
List of Tables and Figures Acknowledgments
Introduction Children and Media: A Two-way Street Sumana Kasturi and Usha Raman
PART I: DISCOURSES 1. Coming of Age: Reviewing Research on Children and Media in India Manisha Pathak-Shelat 2. What’s the Story Here? Children in the Digital Media Landscape Devina Sarwatay PART II: REPRESENTATIONS 3. Transgressing ‘Innocence’: Childhoods from the Margins Deepa Sreenivas 4. Juxtapositions and Transformations: Children, Gaming and Society Aditya Deshbandhu 5. Reflections and Representations: Reading about Children in Indian News Mehak Siddiqui PART III: INTERACTIONS 6. To Be or Not to Be…with Technology Kamala Mukunda 7. Everyday Use of Digital Technologies by Adolescent Girls Anita Sareen Parihar 8. Adolescents and Social Media: Attraction, Addiction, Image Creation and Necessity Archana Kumari PART IV: CONSTRUCTIONS 9. Kids Make Art: Children, Creative Practice and the World Samina Mishra 10. Redefining the Political by Visual Narratives of Sangwari Khabariya in Central India Vasuki Belavadi PART V: NEGOTIATIONS 11. Romance in the Times of Facebook: The Surplus Digital Self and Young Adults in Urban India Nimmi Rangaswamy 12. Religious Socialisation of Children: Narratives from Villages in Gujarat Kiran Vinod Bhatia Notes on the Contributors Index