Mini-conferences about Power

Synopsis

Children’s power over television

Sara Pereira

For most children, TV is a world of information, news, stories, characters, adventures, of imagination, and places to discover.

The shows that are on TV channels, Youtube, Netflix, or other platforms, are thought by adults, but you have the power to decide what to watch, what not to watch, and what time to watch it.

You have a say on any content that may disturb you and that may question your rights and the rights of other people. You can also complement the content you like best.

In this session, you will get to know the power of TV and other content broadcasting services, but you will also find out the power you have over them, how you can achieve, and exert it.

Social media: succumbing to them like a redfish or navigating through them, holding a compass?


Joana Fillol

Like so many other things in life, social media aren’t bad or good: it all depends on how we use them. In a theater named after the poet that best narrated the Portuguese expansion, the sea serves as a metaphor to talk about digital spaces such as TikTok, Facebook, or Instagram.
How do we want to sail on these platforms, real oceans of information? Should we let ourselves be caught by the sharks that command these net(work)s? Or, on the contrary, are we fishermen that learn how to throw them?
Some people say we now live in a redfish society because, like that species, we can’t focus on one thing for more than nine seconds. The fault, it is said, resides on digital platforms that will do anything to keep us dependent, logged in, and glued to a screen. After all, it is our attention that feeds the “sharks”: the more time we spend online, the more they sell and collect data about us.
To know how these networks work and what mechanisms they use to allure us, it is halfway to protect ourselves from their manipulation and to take the best of them. That will benefit our personal and social life.
Knowledge does not mean solely power: it is a compass that will keep us from drifting. Shall we get to know more about social media?

Sara Pereira is a professor at the Communication Sciences Department of Minho University and a researcher at the Center for Communication and Society Studies. Her investigation is focused on Media and Children, and Media Literacy. She co-coordinates the Media, Information, and Literacy Observatory – milobs.pt – and she co-authored Critical Hear, a radio program about Education for the Media, broadcasted by Antena 1.

Joana Fillol is a journalist and a Ph.D. student in Communication Sciences, at the Center for Communication and Society Studies of Minho University. She is also a fellow of the Foundation for Science and Technology. Her research focuses on children’s relationship with the news. She has worked several years for the written press and, in 2015, she founded a news information site for children and young people (jornalissimo.com).