Children's Media and the development of the Child Audience (1900-1975)

Children are a structural component of society; as such they also represent a specific component of the media audience, to the point that certain media target them as a priority or favoured group. In the current media system, children’s media constitute a particularly lively and interesting segment of the cultural industry; however, this situation is the historical outcome of a long process of establishing the child audience as a public in its own right. In this essay, we will attempt to identify the main dynamics in this process, as regards Italy between 1900 and 1975. We will highlight elements of continuity both from a historical point of view and in terms of the relationships between different media, so as to reveal the dynamics underpinning the process more clearly: the tension between inclusion and exclusion, whereby children are considered part of the media audience whilst at the same time substantially different from adult consumers. This distinction has dictated the strategies of both provision and protection adopted by the media in addressing childhood audiences over the course of the twentieth century.