Small screens : television for children

In the UK, concern over the 'dumbing down' of children's programmes has met with defensive responses from television producers.

In the US, after much lobbying, legislation designed to ensure compulsory inclusion of 'educational' progammes for children in the television schedules has been introduced.

Such debates are a response to broader changes, both in broadcasting and in conceptions of childhood.

The move towards a multi-channel, commercially-led global media system has led, far from the expectations of critics, to more provision of children's programming.

Meanwhile views of what is appropriate for the audience have shifted as the boundaries between childhood and adulthood are increasingly blurred.

This book provides a comprehensive account of the main areas of children's television by means of a series of case studies of programmes produced in Britain and the US.