Romana

The Foundation for the Development of Social Communication (COSO) was created by a group of Valencian journalists nine years ago as a result of previous experience as an informal working group. Their purpose is to assist the formation of journalists and communicators and to foster topics in public debate related to human values.

On February 25, in its fourteenth working session, the COSO Foundation brought together two specialists to speak on “The family and youth in television fiction.” The meeting took place in Valencia’s Instituto Francés. Before an audience of some fifty journalists, TV producers, teachers and leaders of family organizations, the image of the family and of youth presented on television was analyzed. The conference sought to explore the impact of television on society, particularly in the year of the World Congress of Families.

By way of introduction, Ximo Perez, president of Empresas Audiovisuales Valencianas Federadas, gave a description of the national production of television fiction since television arrived in Spain some fifty years ago.

The address by Ruth Gutierrez, professor in the School of Communications at the University of Navarra and an expert on movie and television script writing, was entitled “The new heroes of the televised mirror.” She provided elements for an analysis based on the narrative structure of television programs.

The second talk was by Petra María Pérez, professor of Educational Anthropology at the University of Valencia and head of the Institute for Educational Creativity and Innovation. In 2003 she published a study entitled “The socializing impact of TV on children and adolescents in the Valencian community.” In her talk she stressed the effect television content can have on young children.

The working session ended with a round table moderated by Jose Ramon Navarro, editor of the newspaper La Razón.

Several weeks later, in collaboration with Magisterio, a periodical specializing in education, COSO brought together in Valencia a dozen experts for a professional seminar. They spoke to the principals of more than a hundred schools—public, cooperative and private—on the need for a plan of communications in schools, especially when problems with public repercussions arise, as in the case of school violence. The study conference was closed by Carlos Precioso, Undersecretary of the Council for Culture, Education and Sport in the Autonomous Community of Valencia.