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Creating dialogue: Children’s soap opera in Kenya

De Block, Liesbeth; (2013) Creating dialogue: Children’s soap opera in Kenya. Journal of Children and Media Green open access

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Abstract

I discuss audience responses to a children’s soap opera, Junction Juniors, produced and broadcast in Kenya. The soap takes a child’s perspective life in their small rural community. Many of the storylines address controversial topics concerning rights, conflict and democracy. I discuss the principles underlying Entertainment-Education and Communication for Social Change in development contexts and apply them to child audience responses to this soap opera. By shifting from a focus on the ‘message’ to one that prioritises child engagement, the programme challenges notions of the passive child and of ‘rights’ being externally determined. I draw on the notion of ‘refraction’ to explore how children’s rights are reframed and enacted in the contexts of development practice (Reynolds, Nieuwenhuys & Hanson, 2006) and the ways in which media can be a vehicle for this refraction. At a time when the focus is on new mobile communications technologies Junction Juniors is a reminder that television still plays a powerful role in children’s lives.

Type: Article
Title: Creating dialogue: Children’s soap opera in Kenya
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
Language: English
Keywords: media and cultural studies, International, Informal learning, Media and cultural studies, All Children, Media, Rights
UCL classification: UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Education > UCL Institute of Education
URI: https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10017496
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