Should children be portrayed in media and does the portrayal of children and kids cartoon characters have an influence on media literacy and mental health? These and other questions were the topics of this year’s annual media debate event hosted by the Student Council of Creative Business (StuCo CB) at NHL Stenden. To receive an insight behind the scenes, YourPost talked to the contestants, the judges and the initiator.
By: Marisa Greiner – video: StuCo CB
This year was all about children in media, the responsibility of internet personalities, the legal consequences of online bullying or harassment and many more topics. Orientated on the new law to ban children cartoon characters from advertisement, two teams, each consisting of a CB tutor and student, debated over the role of children and media. The event took place on May 21 at NHL Stenden and for the first time, the whole event was broadcasted live on StuCo CB’s YouTube and Facebook page.
The initiator
The initiator of the event Lyubomir Konstantinov, CB Student at NHL Stenden:
“The whole idea behind the Media Event was to focus on a current issue that will remain important and relevant in the future and that addresses everyone (…). Children in media is a very blurry subjects, it is something that is relevant everyday (…) especially with social media being very demonized and presented in a bad light by traditional media, we wanted to show that there is more to it (social media) and that the whole role of children in media is a highly complex topic to discuss.”
Although, the turn out could have been more promising, Lyubomir explains that overall, he was really satisfied with the debate and how prepared and engaged everyone was:
“It was really enjoyable and fun to watch, everyone was so competitive and yet so respectful. Truly a great night”.
Contestants & judges
Ronald Dikkeboom, CB tutor at NHL Stenden, who was in the winning team together with Leonardo Morelli, also a CB student, explained that he really enjoyed the event:
“it was a lot of fun and it made me aware of the meaning and importance of the issue (…). It was both educative but also entertaining”.
Mitch de Pon, who just started studying CB last September and who participated in the second group, pointed out that opposite to most debates, Media Event enabled both teams to have an ongoing discussion:
“Most debates usually only consist of single teams stating their statements and then the jury decides. With this event both teams had the chance to not only present their side but to respond and discuss between each other as well”.
Next to that, his team mate, CB tutor Elger Abbink, described that the debate was a great example of what CB focusses on:
“The research on such topics is one of our main tasks (…) for anyone who is interested in those kind of topics, I highly recommend them to look into our department or to contact us”.
Similar to the participants, both members of Jury, Zalia Omar, first year CB student, and Floris Langen, CB tutor, both explained that they really enjoyed their time. While Zalia Omar explained that the hardest part was to decide on the winner, “it was really hard because both sides had really good and convincing arguments and it was fun to hear each opinion,” Floris Langen had another struggle:
“I really enjoyed the debate, although it was really hard not to join and debate myself”.
Overall, the debate was a great chance to make more people aware of the topic. If you’re also interested to get more information about the topic or to review the debate, a broadcast of the entire night is now available on Stuco CB’s Facebook and YouTube page and below:
