| This dissertation is the historical investigation of the changes that have occurred in the arena of children's television since the late 1980s in Hungary. It also functions as a case study, both of the examination of certain aspects of the changing nature of broadcasting, and of changing assumptions about childhood itself. Children's media have attained a symbolic importance in national public debates about the development of new media systems, and therefore can provide a useful lens through which broader social, cultural and even ethical debates regarding the boundaries of childhood.;My research questions are the following: How and why have media practices towards children changed after 1989 in Hungary? How does the contemporary transformation of children's television in Hungary inform our understanding of the social construction of childhood, both in historical and in cross-cultural terms? To what extent do the changes in children's television in Hungary follow global trends or in what ways is the Hungarian case unique?;Undertaking this project has involved the collection and analysis of data of very different kinds. The data are employed in a qualitative sense, and are gathered from such various sources (e.g., TV guides, newspapers, corporate literature) and in depth interviews were conducted with people involved in the production, distribution, scheduling and regulation of television programs designed for children, with the aim of gathering valuable insights from those whose work is connected to children's media in Hungary. Because of the interdisciplinary nature of this project, the dissertation has a 'mosaic' structure, with each chapter having a rather different emphasis, although together they should provide a more complete picture. The goal is to demonstrate that the economic, political and technological processes that began in the late 1980s have contributed to a new conceptualization of the child viewer, who is more powerful than ever before, but that power is given, expressed and experienced primarily through consumption. |
