Through the round window - was there a strong subtext to children's tv to get us primed for the internet?

While I was only half joking on the 6th February about the use of children’s tv in the form of ‘Finger Bobs’ to get us used to the right hand mouse movements I just thought of one other example. The attempts to get computer use engrained in our culture to a point where we all feel comfortable for hours at a time using a mouse and a keyboard may be something that media organisations may legitimately do, however, as this may have involved shaping the behaviour of children years before the products they were being primed for were likely to come onto the market.

This may also lead to mood changes with certain products as there could be strong associations between feeling good as a child and then feeling good when doing the same behaviour pattern when operating the internet and potentially be a factor which may contribute to web addiction in later life.

The issue that struck me as being relevant to the BBC increasing web-affinity was the use of the ‘through the round window’ scenario on Play School being a means of offering options to consider going through and preparation for web links perhaps. This would have otherwise been a very irresponsible thing to do, to encourage children to go around looking through windows?

I would assume that if the BBC had an agenda of increasing affinity with internet and PC products they would inform us of this – perhaps they will one day… I wonder what technology kids are being primed for through the web?

The sucess of privatisation - were improvements in telecommunications due to advances in technology not privatisation?

Of all the most positive impacts that Thacherism made there was a feeling that there was going to be a major series of improvements to standards of living because the free market coming into it's own and liberating us from our old left ways.

The winter of discontent was all about the dead being 'left unburied' and society falling apart because of evil, selfish socialism. There were great assumptions that were made about the significance of privatisation and how significant the improvements were and to a large extent I wonder if journalism has failed the nation (or is it run by the same collective or nazi's who want all public resources privatised) I really can’t say. I think there was a need for change as most left-wingers around in the 1970’s would have agreed but it’s been change that has privileged a few with some signs of evidence of this, such as British Gas share dividends and increases in the value of the shares, rather than the many who may have been genuinely unaware of what a good deal nationalised distribution of domestic fuel could be.

The issue of how important the impact made by the ‘successful’ privatisation of the telecommunications industry was for the UK can not be understated. It did to a large extent shape the expectations of the public who may not have been majorly concerned or interested in private ownership of their already owned resources – is this completely my imagination or was this a well conceived plot to dupe the British nation into believing that privatisation was going to be a major benefit to the British public?

It’s interesting to explore the multiple impacts of privatisation – but perhaps, on another day.

Sub-texts to children's tv programmes: were we being primed to like the internet?

I have heard a few, what amount to being little more than tales regarding the reasons that we may lean towards different children’s tv programmes – for instance Magic Roundabout was watched by the parents of children who had all taken major forms of medication during the late 1960 and rumour has it there was a ‘seaman stains’ and ‘master bates’ in Captain Pugwash. There may be something more than slightly illicit about some of the other childrens tv that was around in the 1970s with the preparation for the imminent arrival of the internet and promotion of consumer items without our awareness.

I recall the hand movements of the tortoise in finger bobs being very similar to those when I now use a mouse with a scroll roller in the middle between the left and right clicking buttons. I don’t know what degree of conditioning there was to lead to uptake of a product which we now find useful and indespensible I can’t say. It does seem that there should be some restrictions on the promotion of products through children’s tv without the awareness of the viewer and that commercial television should be restricted from undertaking this action.

And Jamie and the magic torch seemed to open up some form of dream-world probably linked to deep sea diving and the use of a torch which can highlight colour with only blue spectrum colours being let through deep water at relatively great depth. Maybe there was innocent intent with this one but it does seem like a child entering another world when his parents have gone to bed does seem like an invitation to hop online to enter the colourful world of the web.

Do you suddenly feel relaxed online when moving the mouse using a finger-bobs hand movement? There’s probably a stronger link with parental neglect to internet use than anything else and the contribution that tv programmes themselves make to internet addiction is probably minimal. It would be interesting to hear a BBC perspective on finger bobs though…

Healthy Liverpool – Will the Healthy City initiative influence the profile of the city during time the city is the European Capital of Culture?

There are a great many academic levels to approach the subject matter of ‘the city’ upon and I’ve had some involvement in several of them. There was my involvement ‘in practice’ within the Health For All initiative which was developed in Plymouth which led to the Healthy Plymouth project in the early 1990's. The Healthy Cities ‘movement’ tends not to be too widely known outside the public health and local government circles that have been the most significant proponent and as it was aimed primarily at these professional groups this doesn't necessarily indicate a failing. My involvement was largely dependent upon the Princes’ Trust having opened the door for me after I’d been on a course, that is the Princes’ Trust Volunteers. I guess I was involved to be, within an ecological perspective that is taken within the Healthy Cities movement, one of the white blood cells within the organism that the project can be and assist with the development of the other cells, or individuals, that function within the larger urban body. Clichés aside, there was to a degree mutually supporting relationships that ensured that those who were there because of qualification, I had recently finished a first degree, were benefiting from the street-culture issues that were brought in by the other members of the group.

On some levels the ‘Healthy City’ is only a fascinating concept which may only appeal to the academics who have an interest in this type of initiative, when on other levels it should have excited the community groups and individuals who may have some connection to it and they may have felt the equality of status that this initiative could have brought through. Each community group given some sense of equality of status as a functioning organ within the city-organism may be failed to materialise within some healthy cities and it’s not been a feature that has really ‘lived’ – most models and theories related to health promotion are lacking in some respects. The world health organisation designation of Healthy City status or accreditation may not mean a great deal beyond the immediate public sector staff who have worked on the many projects linked to the initiative.

On other levels, the city is the economic hub, with some areas in need of area-based regeneration, or a cultural backdrop to a range of cultural activities. It is a location of higher rates of crime and various forms of criminality and disorder than rural counterparts. And it is a competitive unit which forms a large part of a regions economic activity, that are each to an extent in competition with other regions of the UK, Europe and elsewhere further a field. It is an architectural and town planning phenomenon with various levels of action through from community participation to being a ‘design phenomenon’ with skyline features which may infuriate HRH Prince Charles and delight others. It also may have identity which can impact upon the life of virtually everyone who has lived or worked in the city.
There are sociological levels to life in the city that may make rural areas envious and environmental issues to grapple with that may make city folk ashamed. As an academic area the city is a significant social, economic, cultural, aesthetic and environmental phenomenon.

What strikes me most about the potential of Healthy Liverpool is that it does have some capacity to tackle an issue of the esteem that many Liverpudlians may be held in owing to the prejudice held against Liverpool as a crime ridden city or scousers as criminal in nature. There doesn't seem as strong an emphasis on tackling regional prejudice as there is on dealing with racial or national differences and I regard this to need re-examination. Perhaps, there could be reasonable to tap into the local pride that no doubt is strong in Liverpool and carry out a number of innovative community safety initiatives over the year of culture aiming to try to explore why the identity may have been associated with Liverpool and what the costs and benefits of tackling what can be dealt with – may be undertaken. There is an diverse theoretical background necessary to develop this type of initiative but interestingly, from a Healthy City perspective, the city has the resources to heal it’s identity and restore it’s equilibrium. Can they innovate social and cultural change on a large scale and shape the way that Liverpool is perceived on a national and international level over the next few years.

There are some very interesting issues which could be tackled in terms of the colonial heritage of the entire nation through this type of initiative notably the relationship between Britain and Ireland and also the role that Britain, with a particular emphasis on Liverpool, played in the development of slave trading: will the year of culture be used to reunite communities within the city in the manner a 21st century city may need to look to do? While there may willingly be a finger pointed at those from Liverpool over any scouse related prejudice, there could be a scar not on the conscience of the world but on the descendents of the wealthy who may feel some animosity from those who descended from the relatives of those who suffered in the potato famine in Ireland that British action contributed to significantly. Has this led to shame in those who control media images and they still sense resentment from the descendents of those who were subject to maltreatment from their fore-fathers? Are the population of Liverpool secondary victims of British history? Maybe the UKs national media-barons owe something to the likes of the average Liverpudlian and could assist in changing the profile of the city – with the city leading the process.