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Pictures of Youth: An Introduction to Children’s Visual Culture

Explore visual culture for children and young people including, picturebooks, comics, film, television and drama

Duration

4 weeks

Weekly study

3 hours

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Explore contemporary visual children's culture with leading experts in the field

In a world where young people are surrounded by an ever increasing range of media, visual analysis of children’s culture is becoming increasingly important.

The course provides an introduction to popular types of visual culture for children and young people. By the end you will gain a deeper understanding of children’s film, television, drama, picturebooks and comics.

You will discover the wide variety of works on offer, learn to decipher these media, understand some of the ways in which they are conceived and consumed, and have a go at creating your own analysis.

Week 1
Picturebooks
- Introduction
  Welcome to the course - time for some introductions to the course and each other before we start learning
- What is a picturebook?
  Definitions
- Word and picture relationships
  We now look more closely at the ways in which text and images interact in the creation and reading experience of a picturebook.
- Picturebooks and literacy
  How picturebooks contribute to children's visual and verbal literacy
Week 2
Comics
- Introduction
  What are comics anyway?
- Comics literacy
  How do we read comics?
- Comics for children and ideology
  There's been much moral panic surrounding comics. Let's have a look at what scholars have said about ideology in comic books.
- Comics culture and children today
  Children and young people are huge consumers of comics in many forms. In this final part we learn about contemporary forms of comics literacy and production.
Week 3
Film
- Defining ‘children’s film’
  In this activity, we try out ways to decide what counts, and what does not count, as 'children's film'.
- Picturing youth with Studio Ghibli
  In this activity, we get acquainted with the films of Japan's Studio Ghibli, beloved of children and adults worldwide.
- Analysing Ghibli’s pictures of youth
  In this activity, we pay close detail to the features of Studio Ghibli's films which might make them fit the category of 'children's film'.
- Studio Ghibli in society and culture
  What can Studio Ghibli's place in society and culture internationally tell us about how it fits into the category of 'children's film'?
Week 4
Television
- Television as sugar-coated education
  In this activity, we consider the way in which showing teaching and learning activities on television allows broadcasters to meet their remit for education as well as entertainment.
- Reality television and schoolchildren
  This activity considers schoolchildren and their incorporation within programmes in the genre of 'reality television' as a particular focus of televised teaching and learning.
- Three examples of children's Shakespearean reality television
  In this activity, we explore in detail several reality television programmes starring children learning and staging Shakespeare.
- Analysing children's Shakespearean reality television
  Here we discuss some features that might allow us to define these programmes as part of a reality television genre that purports to offer participants a 'make-over' of their Shakespearean knowledge and ability.