Policy Imperatives for Managing Children's Media Based on the Requirements of Social Responsibility Theory

Zarifian Yeganeh, Mohammad Hossein

doi:10.22082/cr.2025.2062445.2816

Policy Imperatives for Managing Children's Media Based on the Requirements of Social Responsibility Theory

Document Type : Original Article

Author

Mohammad Hossein Zarifian Yeganeh

Assistant of prof. in Media Management Department, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22082/cr.2025.2062445.2816

Abstract

Today, children's lives are intertwined with the media, and it is the media that has the greatest impact on the process of their "socialization". Children's media, as a type of mass media, has great appeal and impact on the child audience and even parents. This impact increases the responsibility of children's media. The theory of social responsibility of media states that children's media should be policy-making and managed with a pluralistic, commitment-oriented, preventive, legal-oriented, and accountable attitude. This research, which was conducted with the aim of discovering and formulating the policy requirements of children's media management, has established a common point between the requirements of this theory and the functions of children's media from the perspective of the theory of social responsibility of media. In this study, which was conducted with the qualitative method of theme analysis. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 14 experts, including children's media managers and experts in the fields of children, media, and education. Then, by coding the texts, 128 open codes, 84 basic themes, and finally 17 organizing themes, which are the policy imperatives, were extracted and obtained in the form of two comprehensive components of "transformation in the organization" and "audience-centricity". Finally, by preparing a matrix of seventeen policies and the requirements of the social responsibility theory, it was determined that the greatest emphasis in children's media is on pluralism, commitment, accountability, prevention, and finally legalism, respectively.

Keywords

Media Management

Children's Media

Normative Theories of Media Management

Social Responsibility Theory of Media

Media Policymaking

Subjects

communications

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