In 2014 Mediawijzer.net organized the third edition of the Media Ukkie Dagen. This campaign focuses on parents and professionals, and supports them in educating their children from ages 0-6 years about the media. The slogan of the 2014 campaign was: ‘Do you raise your child or does the media?’ (‘Voed jij je kind op of laat je dat over aan de media?’) The campaign took place from 9-18 April.

Mediawijzer.net organized four activities during this campaign:

The development and opening of the Media Ukkie Pavilion – Media Ukkie Land – at Beeld en Geluid, the Dutch Institute for Sound and Vision

Symposium Media Education

Media Ukkie Award

A repeat of the ‘Iene Miene Media’ research project

In addition, the website (www.mediaukkies.nl), a poster, a pamphlet and local activities were important tools to communicate with the target group.

Aims: The aim of the Media Ukkie Dagen is to offer parents and professionals information about both the opportunities that the media offer in raising their children, and their limitations.

Goals

- To show parents where they can go with their questions regarding media education

- To get 20% of the daycare institutions to consider including media education in their educational policy

- To persuade municipalities to motivate their local daycares and similar institutions to improve their media education

- To get 15% of parents, caretakers, pedagogical staff and aid workers to get to know one of the communication tools (research, publication, poster) during De Media Ukkie Dagen

- To achieve an increase of 10% in the proportion of daycares that include media education in their educational policy

Target group(s)

Primarily:

- Parents and child care workers of children aged 0-6 years

- Pedagogical staff and management at daycare institutions (daycares, primary school)

- Aid workers (Centra voor Jeugd en Gezin/Youth and Family Centers (CJGs), family doctors, etc)

Secondarily:

- Media creators of children’s media

- Policymakers (municipalities and Vereniging van Nederlandse Gemeenten / VNG

– Association of Dutch Municipalities)

Media/activities

Development and opening of the Media Ukkie Pavilion at Beeld en Geluid – 9 April 2014

The creation of a new pavilion – Media Ukkie Land – in the Experience in Beeld en Geluid, which focuses entirely on children from ages 4-6 years and their parents. De Media Ukkie Dagen 2014 started simultaneously with the opening of the new pavilion. Young children and their parents are invited inside the pavilion to experience how the media use temptation techniques to influence children.

Symposium Media Education – 15 April 2014

Symposium for policymakers and pedagogical staff to demonstrate how the brain of a young child works, and how and in which situation or context media education can aid in the development of a young child.

Media Ukkie Award – 15 April 2014

The Media Ukkie Award is a Dutch award for the best app for children aged 0-6 years.

Repeating the ‘Iene Miene Media’ research project

New research on the media usage of the youngest children for this and the results of earlier studies were analyzed to map the developments and enable continuous monitoring in the future. http://www.mediaukkies.nl/over-de-media-ukkie-dagen/onderzoeken

Also:

Website: www.mediaukkies.nl

Poster: http://www.mediaukkies.nl/media/83357/poster_media_ukkie_dagen_-_printversie.pdf

Pamphlet:

http://www.mediaukkies.nl/media/85606/pamflet_media_ukkie_dagen_voor_professionals_-_printversie.pdf

Research on what daycares are already doing in the area of media education: http://www.mediaukkies.nl/voor-professionals/onderzoek

Local activities organized by libraries and CJGs

Methods: Advocacy campaign targeted at a broad audience (see above)

Duration of project: The Media Ukkie Dagen campaign lasted 10 days. The website and materials remain available for the entire year. Media Ukkie Land remains open for visitors the whole year.

A family without media is unimaginable. Babies, toddlers and preschoolers are able to swipe easily and effective through the apps (for children) on tablets and smartphones. In addition, parents use media on an intense and daily basis, making media use more appealing for children. To use the media properly, however, is something children have to learn, just like they have to learn other skills.

Research on the effects of media usage on young children is still in an early phase. Not much has been discovered or proven academically. It is known, however, that the media usage of young children does not always correspond with the development stage they are in. A child’s brain from 0-2 years develops mainly through sensory experiences like touching, moving, feeling and tasting. These skills can only be gained in the physical ‘real’ world. The media cannot replace the role the parents and educators have in this development stage.

Parents and educators are unsure about what is sensible for children and what is not, or they are not aware of the chances the media can offer.
The supply of clearly defined information on media education is fragmented and it is unclear what information is available and where it can be found.
Pedagogical staff was not raised at a time of omnipresent media and are in need of a crash-course.
Municipalities have influence over the daycares’ educational policy.

See above.

Due to a small budget we depend on intermediaries to connect with parents, educators and aid workers.
Parents don’t visit daycares daily; most of the attention has to be generated through the website.
We have to take advantage of existing initiatives.
The days are meant to enable our partners to plan their activities in their organizations.
It’s a challenge to generate free publicity for the Media Ukkie Dagen.

To stimulate parents and educators, and create self-awareness of their responsibilities regarding media education
To offer a clear source of information
To guide parents

Parents should think about how they want to integrate media in the upbringing of their children and should take responsibility for this.
Media can play an important role in raising young children, as long as this is done in a sensible manner. We help parents and pedagogical staff from daycares by advising them on positive content.
It is important that daycares include media literacy in their educational policy and think about their choices regarding media literacy.
Municipalities should motivate daycares to do the above.

Many parents wonder how they could adapt their media usage when they are around young children. To help them we developed a poster. It has been distributed (4,000 copies) among daycares and CJGs during the campaign. The poster includes four tips (based on the book Speel Digiwijs (‘Play Digitally Smart’):

Tip 1: Discover together what media can offer. Children learn the most by doing things together with their parents/caretakers.

Tip 2: Know what media are appropriate. When choosing an app, check to see if it fits into the development and living environment of your child.

Tip 3: Create connections between the media and the real world. Imitate what you have seen or done in a game and make the experience lifelike.

Tip 4: Lead by example. Children copy their parents’ behavior. Media are fun, but also show them there is more to the world than media.

Print a copy of the poster:

http://www.mediaukkies.nl/media/83357/poster_media_ukkie_dagen_-_printversie.pdf

Media Ukkie Land has been developed specifically for children from 4-6 years. The educational content of the new pavilion in the Experience in Beeld en Geluid is targeted at the parents of children in that age group. Media Ukkie Land stimulates the awareness of parents and child care workers about the temptation techniques used to influence children. This is done objectively and no judgments are conveyed in the experience. By tempting children in the pavilion with the same techniques used on television, Beeld en Geluid wants to give an insight into the media’s workings. To create awareness and recognition is the most important goal that Beeld en Geluid wants to attain.

Too little time (7 to 8 weeks) to create a more in-depth campaign; we had to organize a lot in a short time-span
We had difficulties in effectively bringing the elements from the different sources together in the content and the message. We depend on the input of parties such as Bureau Jeugd en Media, Sardes, NJi and Digidreumes.
To get all the parties (i.e. municipalities) involved for a long period

We try to target multiple target groups (parents and educators). This fragments the attention and message. When you focus on one target group you can create depth in the campaign.

Initiator

Mediawijzer.net, the Dutch center of expertise in media literacy

Partner(s)

Mediawijzer.net is an expertise center that links the activities of various organizations in the area of media literacy and promotes cooperation between them. There are five organizations at the center’s core: