Quality in children’s television

Abstract

With this presentation we try to reflect upon the concept of quality with regards to television for children. In addition, we aim to identify a set of criteria which can allow us to recognize and evaluate the quality of programming for younger audiences. This analysis is based both on the contribution of different authors that have studied quality in television and on the opinions of professionals who intervene and pay especial attention to programming for children in Portugal. The opinions of these professionals were collected by interview in the frame of a larger study which focused the offer and programming criteria for children in the Portuguese terrestrial channels. As we shall see, some professionals emphasize the content of television programming and programmes, while others stress the levels of audience, the human and technical resources as well as the goals pursued by each channel..