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Kids get Media Smart as UK initiative is launched

Media Smart®, a new media literacy initiative focussing initially on helping children interpret and understand advertising, was launched in November by UK advertisers, broadcasters, advertising agencies and the children’s publication The Newspaper.

Developed in association with teachers, parents and charity partner the National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations (NCPTA), Media Smart® is designed for primary school children, aged six–11 years old. Media Smart® uses a range of teaching and advertising materials to explain the purpose of advertising and how advertisements are made

Media Smart® is the first initiative of its kind in the UK. It includes:
• A national TV and a print advertising campaign
• An information and educational website www.mediasmart.org.uk featuring dedicated areas for parents, children and teachers
• A teaching resource, called Be Adwise, which includes an in-school video, teachers’ notes, classroom activity sheets, poster and parents’ leaflet.

Available to all UK primary schools from January 2003, the Media Smart® teaching resource has been developed with teachers and meets National Curriculum requirements in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland in English, maths, art & design, PHSE and citizenship.

A similar successful industry-led programme, TV & Me, is running in Canada and has the support of parents, teachers, and the Canadian government. It is hoped that similar initiatives will also run in other European countries.

Speaking at the launch, The Rt. Hon. Tessa Jowell MP, Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, said:

"I want young people to grow up challenging everything. Questioning everything. Because that is the only way to understand everything."

"It is only right that people should have the chance to understand how the persuaders persuade. So that they can make more informed choices. As consumers, and as citizens."

"Media Smart evens up the odds a little. Gives the consumer a fighting chance. It is an example of an industry taking responsibility for its own actions. It is enlightened self-interest."

Extracts from speech by Rt. Hon. Tessa Jowell MP Speaking at the Media Smart launch – Wednesday November 13 2002

"Over the past 2 decades the media industry has changed dramatically in size and reach. 98% of households have televisions and some 40% of UK households have digital television. The number of television channels in the UK has risen from three, twenty years ago, to over 250 today. British viewers could choose from 300 hours of television in a week in December 1980. Change is fast too. Take the Internet. Broadcast television took 13 years to reach 50 million users but the Internet reached that level of usage in just four years. Today they could choose from over 40,000 hours."

"From a young age children must have the ability to think critically about what they are viewing. In relation to advertising, we ought to encourage the development of specific "skills", such as an awareness of and ability to assess the commercial messages within programmes and develop, in young children, a critical approach to advertising."
"They need help to decode the messages that they are sent by an increasingly diverse media so they can make informed judgments. That is why I welcome the work you are doing to help young people deconstruct and understand the adverts that are aimed at them. Advertising is not bad in itself - of course it isn't. It is a given of modern life. In fact, loss of advertising funding of children's programming would have an undeniably negative impact on its availability and quality. But it aims to persuade. That's the point of it."

"….And speaking about the Communications Bill that will be introduced into Parliament this session, she said…..The Protection of citizens and consumers is high on OFCOM’s agenda. We have provided for a Consumer panel, with a principal duty to protect the interests of consumers, and at the heart of OFCOM will be the content board, representing the public interest in broadcasting, ensuring that effective content regulation continues and that media literacy is encouraged. Where broadcasters are not acting in the public interest OFCOM will be able to bite. I hope it will not have to bite too often."

To read this speech in full go to: http://www.isba.org.uk/public_documents/SoSC-Mediasmart-speech.pdf

Paul Jackson, Chairman of Media Smart®, said: “The advertising business has a long track record of responsible advertising to children. Media Smart® continues this tradition. Media Smart® is a positive initiative by industry and charity partner the NCPTA to help children use advertising for their benefit. By explaining the purpose of advertising and how advertisements are made, children will learn more quickly and more easily how best to make more informed choices.”

Media Smart® is supported by the following organisations and companies:

Advertising Association, British Toy and Hobby Association, BSkyB, Burkitt DDB, Cadbury Trebor Bassett, Fox Kids, GMTV, Hasbro, ISBA, Kellogg's, Masterfoods, Mattel, National Confederation of Parent Teacher Associations (charity partner), Nickelodeon, Procter & Gamble, The Newspaper, Turner
Broadcasting and Viacom Brand Solutions.

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