The Media's War on Children

Suchitra, Bhakti, and Madhuri delve into the media's problematic portrayal of children, particularly in conflict zones. The episode asks: who gets to be a “child” in mainstream media? The coverage of children over the years reveals two broad themes: 1) the process of “un-childing” and 2) tendency towards saviorism that can produce troubling representations of children’s bodies, especially girls. It addresses how language and representation shape perceptions of childhood, the impact of state policies on Black, brown, and Muslim children, as well as, the contradictions in society's view of innocence. The conversation also highlights the role of the media in normalizing violence against children and maintaining a savior complex that often accompanies humanitarian narratives in non-white and conflict-zone countries. Ultimately, it emphasizes the need for hope and resilience in the face of despair.

Keywords: Journalism, media ethics, reporting, headlines, propaganda, narratives, children, Palestine, minority discrimination in the US, race and religious discrimination, representation, genocide, saviorism, white-saviorism, un-childing, police violence, childhood, activism, humanitarianism

Key Takeaways: 

• The media plays a significant role in shaping perceptions of childhood.
• Legal manipulation of language legitimizes comes first and enables the media to justify violence against children.
• Palestinian children have historically been dehumanized in media coverage.
• The US has waged totalizing war against children seen in their coverage of police killings of Black youth and in their child services systems.
• The concept of 'un-childing' reflects a broader societal issue.
• State policies disproportionately affect non-white children.
• The basis of colonialism and the existence of the empire is in deliberately targeting family structures that are not deemed conventional or appropriate for them, examples are, removing children from parents, destroying indigenous family structures, etc.
• There is a contradiction in society's view of childhood innocence.
• The notion of “genocide” in Palestine is debated in the media but analyzing the deliberate killing of children precisely proves this. 
• Visuals of suffering children can evoke sympathy but also desensitize audiences.
• Saviorism in humanitarian efforts can perpetuate colonial narratives.
• Hope and resilience are essential in the fight for justice.
• Resistance to totalizing logic of Palestinian annihilation and erasure is necessary.

References:

1. Incarcerated Childhood and the Politics of Unchilding by N. Shalhoub-Kevorkian
2. UN experts deeply concerned over ‘scholasticide’ in Gaza: OHCHR
3. Black Disparities in Youth Incarceration by The Sentencing Project
4. Parents behind Bars and Racial disparities: AFCOIP
5. US: Family Separation Harming Children, Families: HRW
6. Racism at Every Stage: Data Shows How NYC’s Administration for Children’s Services Discriminates Against Black and Brown Families: NYCLU
7. Slacktivism by Oxford English Dictionary
8. Clicktivism by Oxford English Dictionary
9. Guidelines for ethical reporting on children in conflict: International Journalists’ Network
10. A Hierarchy of Innocence: The Media's Use of Children in the Telling of International News by Susan Moeller
11. The War on Children, 2018 report by Save The Children
12. The rise of the digital saviour: can Facebook likes change the world? By Bhakti Shringarpure
13. The Status of Palestinian Children During the Uprising in the Occupied Territories by Anne Elisabeth Nixon and Swedish Save the Children

Suchitra Vijayan  is a writer, photographer and activist. She is the founder and Executive Director of The Polis Project. For her first book, The Midnight's Border: A People's History of India, Suchitra traveled across the 9000-mile Indian border. A barrister by training, she previously worked for the United Nations war crimes tribunals in Yugoslavia and Rwanda before co-founding the Resettlement Legal Aid Project in Cairo, which gives legal aid to Iraqi refugees. She is the co-author of How Long Can the Moon Be Caged? Voices of Indian Political Prisoners (2023) which offers a lens into today's India through the lived experiences of political prisoners.

Bhakti Shringarpure is a writer and editor. She is the co-founder of Warscapes magazine which transitioned into the Radical Books Collective, a multi-faceted community building project that creates an alternative, inclusive and non-commercial approach to books and reading. Bhakti is the author of Cold War Assemblages: Decolonization to Digital (2019) and editor of Literary Sudans: An Anthology of Literature from Sudan and South Sudan (2017), Imagine Africa (2017) Mediterranean: Migrant Crossings (2018) and most recently, Insurgent Feminisms: Writing War (2023).

Madhuri Sastry is a former lawyer, specializing in international and human rights law. She was the publisher of Guernica Magazine. Her political writing, cultural criticism, interviews and essays have appeared in several publications including The Nation, Guernica, Slate, Bitch and New York Magazine. She is on the editorial board at the Polis Project.