There is a tempting marketing theory stemming from the idea that a ''global consumer'' would exist and that he or she would be the consumer of the future. Is that why Censydiam set up shop in East Asia, in China to be precise?
If a ''global consumer'' would exist, consumers would behave in a uniform way all over the world. Censydiam would not need to do marketing research in China - or wherever other place for that matter - and marketers would only have to ''globalize'' local market information.
That so-called global consumer however does not exist. Consumers do not behave in the same way in different places over the world for the simple reason that they belong to different cultures, though they may seem to respond in the same way to the same picture codes. The problem with this approach consists in the fact that, in this particular case, the code is mistaken for the message. What appeals to the consumer is not the code itself but the meaning it generates and the promise it expresses. What appeals the the Chinese consumer is what Censydiam tries to find out. In China, however a lot of the East Asian consumers appear westernized nowadays. We do it in the spirit of the Chinese adage ''To excel others, master the classics.''

De auteurs zijn allen verbonden aan het onderzoeksinstituut Censydiam. Jan CALLEBAUT is managing director. Cis PAELINCK is master in marketing en Oost-Europese economie, Danny LAM is als marktonderzoeker gespecialiseerd in Azië.

This book offers a large array of approaches to studying childrend and the media, including views from communication theory, developmental psychology, sociology, cultural studies, educational theory and history, with methodologies such as quantitative analysis, ethnographic studies and theoretical inferences.

Topics include chilren''s culture, the child audience, parental regulation of violent TV contents and other forms of parental media guidance, media use and conflict, communication, self-concept and socialisation, problems related to the integration of information and communication technology in schools. The purpose of this multi-and interdisciplinary overview of studies and perspectives is to show how varied and rich are the ways in which children''s use of the media can be studied from the child''s perspective. Throughout this book there is a strong emphasis on children''s experiences and perceptions. Children are active participants in a process of meaning production within the restraints and boundaries of their surroundings and the social and psychological system in which they live. This environment affects them, but - as it all too often ignored - is also affected by them.

While this book studies media and children, the view that children are active participants in producing meaning in their lives is applicable to other areas of interest. This book offers some food for thought and gives provocative perspectives to propagate an active approach to children, an approach that still struggles to complete with the more dominant view of children as mere objects of socialisation.

Bea Van den Bergh is Senior Researcher at the Population and Family Study Centre (CBGS), Brussels.
Jan Van den Bulck is Assistant Professor at the Department of Communication, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven.