Invisible Child: The Image of the Child in Media Contents Intended for Adults

This research study, available in the Serbian language (with an English-language summary) is based on the following observation: "Attitudes towards children, typical of a given society, are considerably influenced by the (often implicit) images, conceptions and values related to the nature of the child and childhood prevailing in that society. Those images, conceptions and values are based on what adults know, or believe to know, about children."

Its central purpose was to analyse how often and in what way children are presented to adults by the media in Belgrade and other areas of Serbia. Researchers surmised that this type of analysis could provide a basis for exploring the ways in which this portrayal shapes the public opinion on children - in turn guiding and informing political decisions concerning children.

The study was conducted of media (the press, radio, and television) covering the territory of Belgrade, the majority of which also reaches other parts of Serbia. Data gathering was carried out in April and May 2001 using the technique of content analysis. The unit of analysis was texual or pictorial theme. Particular attention was paid to whether a given theme contained explicit or implicit reference to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, or to whether children's rights were referenced in symbolic ways (e.g., children have a right to a happy childhood). For each unit of analysis, the researcher also noted the sex, age, and social status of the child being portrayed in order to capture possible variations in visibility.

Excerpts from the "Results and Discussion" section of the Summary follow:
The visibility of children in our media, measured by the percentage of time dedicated to them (for radio and TV programs) and the frequency of child related themes on front pages, as well as the length of texts (for the press) - compared to the percentage of their actual presence in the population - is astoundingly low...

Of all three analyzed media, visibility of children is the lowest on the radio - the appalling 0.7%. Visibility of children on television, measured by the percentage of total time allotted to them, is considerably higher - 7.6%. However, this is also alarmingly low in comparison with the 23% of children in general population, particularly in the light of the fact that a part of the analyzed material was a targeted sample (programs in which child related themes are likely to appear, or appear regularly), as well as the fact that the percentage of children in news programs is as low as 2%. Finally, visibility of children in the press, measured by the percentage of headlines related to children on front pages of daily newspapers amounts to only 3%, with only 1% of the texts on children beginning on the front page...

The presented data are only a bird's-eye view of our findings. The actual measure of invisibility of children in our media, inspected more closely, is much more dramatic...

Besides visibility, another indicator of the minor importance attached to children in our media is a very rare inclusion of professionals/experts directly or indirectly dealing with children - 16% in the press, only 10 statements out of a total of 39 related to children on the radio, and 21% on television...

The single finding in this study that is seemingly encouraging is related to demographic indicators - the presence of boys and girls tends to be equal in all three media. However, the sad truth is that it reveals their equality in invisibility, i.e., in insignificance and marginal status...

In all three media the child is portrayed as, above all, passve [sic], whether as an object of adults' protection and care, or as an actual or potential victim. The percentages for the press and television are similar - 62% and 65%, respectively, and in 40 out of 47 units of analysis on the radio. Within the passive category, the child is most frequently portrayed as endangered and/or victimized, although the percentages for the press and television differ in this case - 52% and 67%, respectively. In radio programs the child is also primarily portrayed as endangered (in 20 out of 40 cases within the passive category) and, almost equally, as an object of adults' protection and care (19 out of 40 cases). Regarding the latter type of portrayal, the percentages for the press and television are similar - 35% and 31%, respectively...

In relation to the total number of units for each medium, children's statements appear most frequently on television - in 16% of cases, in only 3% in the press, and on the radio in one single case. These data show that children are the least likely of all people to be asked about anything...

The study shows that child rights are practically not mentioned at all. In this regard, an interesting and indicative paradox was noticed: while the child is presented as a (potentially and actually) endangered member of the society, neither his/her rights nor the document regulating them are mentioned!..."

The full report is only available in Serbian. An English Executive Summary used to be available but has recently been removed from the web.

Click here for the full paper, in Serbian, in PDF format.