Investigating young children's talk about the media

This study was an investigation into the ways in which two classes of six- and seven-yearold children in Hawaii talked about the media. The children were shown video clips from a variety of media and asked to respond both orally and in writing. The qualitative data gathered in this study were researcher notes, video and audio-taped focus group interviews with the children, and their written responses to open-ended questions about the media clips they viewed. The results suggest that these children were more media savvy than commonly assumed, and already grasped basic understandings of key media concepts. Drawing upon Foucauldian theory, we argue for the need to move from the dominant model of developmental stage theory in media education, based on a deficit view of the child, to a strengths-based approach that recognizes and validates young people's varying experience with and knowledge about the media, and their agency when interacting with it.