Television Reception Among Young Viewers who are Forcibly Displaced

Abstract

The article examines how two major Colombian networks: RCN and Caracol, approach the children’s television audience in the Falla Bernal district in the city of Neiva (Huila Department), an area where most of the residents are victims of forced displacement. A quantitative study was designed initially to show the type of television reception and possession, followed by a qualitative study to describe and explain the children’s television audience in light of the programming being offered (in 2008). Access to television was found to be limited as a result of signal failures, the fact that not many homes have a television set, and the availability of only five local channels (two private and three public; there are no subscription-based television services). In addition, parents were found to be more permissive when it comes to allowing children to watch the violence portrayed in the cartoon segment, given the real-life violence in their own neighborhood. The television screen is said to be foreign to the context of children’s lives, since the language they hear on television is less aggressive compared to the sexual, drug-related and other types of violence youngsters are exposed to.