Heidi’s Favourite TED Talk

Talk: re:Think Children’s Media by Lesli Rotenberg, Senior VP, Children’s Media at PBS

Link: http://www.tedxsmu.org/talks/leslie-rotenberg-rethink-childrens-media-tedxsmu-2012/

Why: I love Lesli Rotenberg’s talk because, as a mother and media professional, I think a lot about the impact of media on children and am interested in viewpoints offered on it. However, I have found that there is a tendency to paint all media – games, television, movies – with one broad stroke: BAD.

Lesli takes a nuanced approach. She concedes that there is actually good media out there and, while working with the world’s largest creator and distributor of high quality children’s programming may have an impact on her thinking, her arguments do not begin and end with public/educational television.

She talks about how media, even the games that we as parents love to hate, can teach children powerful lessons in grit and tenacity and inspire curiosity.

Because, as she notes, our job as parents is to prepare our children for the rest of their lives. And, if media can live up to the aspirational goals of cultivating the positive qualities we wish to see them develop, then the media is doing its job, just as we expect our teachers and scout leaders and the other adults in our children’s lives to do.

She notes at 15:40 in the talk: “All media should spark children’s curiosity and should expand their possibilities and it should give them the confidence to keep trying and never give up. And if we could do that, then the content we create can have an impact so much longer.”

 

About Heidi Lasi (Design)

Heidi Lasi, an award-winning director, producer and writer with over 25 years of experience, is president of Communicarium, a firm specializing in strategic communications, marketing and PR.

At Communicarium, they believe in the value of strategy and a cohesive vision to bring your goals and objectives to life. While the media landscape changes, the message must remain focused and true. They integrate traditional media approaches with social and digital in all their forms, to their greatest benefit and effectiveness.

Their tagline “The playground for serious communications” says it all: They take a fun, creative dynamic approach to state of the art communications reflecting clients’ brands in a modern, dynamic, exciting and accessible ways integrating graphic design, copywriting, social and traditional media, video production, and digital.