Avril Lavigne, Elmo and Eragon
What do Avril Lavigne, Elmo, and Christopher Paolini (author of Eragon) have in common? They were all big winners at this years annual Common Sense Media Awards in San Francisco on Januray 27th, 2004. Set-up by a non-partisan non-profit in San Francisco, it promotes the concept of quality media for children and these awards honor artists, shows, products and organizations whose efforts have engaged and inspired kids and made a positive difference in their media lives.
Did you know that on average, kids spend 3-5 hours a day watching television? That out of a 100 hours of waking time, 40 are spent with the media? That’s 10 more hours than are spent in school, and nearly twice as many as the average of 17 of a 100 waking hours the average American child spends with his or her parents. This makes the media at least as important (if not as friendly!) as your parents. This is why Jim Steyer, the founder and CEO of Common Sense Media likes to call the media “The Other Parent.”
Who are your favorite artists? What kind of values do they promote? Do you care? What is good media to you? Do you know if a media product is educating or insulting you?
Common Sense Media honored Avril Lavigne as the musician whose work did the most to “engage and inspire kids.” Finding Nemo by Pixar won for best film. Joan of Arcadia was similarly honored among television shows, while the Leapster by Leapfrog won for educational best product. The novel Eragon by Christopher Paolini who started his writing the book at age 15, won the best book award. Winners were chosen from over 18,000 nominations on the organization’s website, CommonSenseMedia.org.
The night’s Lifetime Achievement Awards went, first, to Elmo, for a “a career dedicated to making television an educational resource for kids around the world. A special video with testimony by Diane Sawyer and a number of other celebrities praised Elmo for how he inspired their careers. Two more Lifetime Achievement Awards were presented to FCC Commissioner Michael Kopp and Walden Media, Producer of the year’s hit movie, Holes.
“The award winners prove you can make great media for kids and families without relying on gratuitous violence, lurid language or over-the-top commercialism to attract an audience,” said Jim Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense Media. “Families and kids are a huge audience for the entertainment industry today, and the Common Sense Media Awards mark the first opportunity for their voices to be heard about what they’ve seen, heard, read and surfed this year… the good, the bad and the truly ugly.”
