{"id":7970,"date":"2020-04-14T01:05:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-14T07:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/?p=7970"},"modified":"2020-04-13T07:52:06","modified_gmt":"2020-04-13T13:52:06","slug":"campaigners-call-on-broadcasters-and-streamers-to-seize-the-moment-to-switch-on-subtitles-for-kids-programming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/?p=7970","title":{"rendered":"Campaigners call on broadcasters and streamers to seize the moment to switch on subtitles for kids\u2019 programming"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vanessa Thorpe<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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An urgent call is to go out to children\u2019s television broadcasters this weekend, backed by major names in British entertainment, politics and technology. Writer and performer Stephen Fry, best-selling author Cressida Cowell and businesswoman <\/span>Martha Lane Fox<\/a>are joined by former children\u2019s television presenter Floella Benjamin as signatories to a letter, carried in today\u2019s <\/span>Observer<\/em>, that urges all leading streaming, network and terrestrial children\u2019s channels to make one simple change to boost literacy among the young: turn on the subtitles.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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If English-language subtitles were to be run along the bottom of the screen for all programming, they argue, reading levels across the country would automatically rise. Longstanding international academic research projects prove, they say, that spelling, grammar and vocabulary would all be enhanced, even if children watching TV are not aware they are learning.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

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The campaign aims to improve reading ability across the English-speaking world and has won backing from former President <\/span>Bill Clinton<\/a>, who said: \u201cSame-language subtitling doubles the number of functional readers among primary school children. It\u2019s a small thing that has a staggering impact on people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Madison\u2019s taxpayer supported K-12 school district,<\/span> <\/span><\/span>despite spending far more than most<\/a><\/u>, has long<\/span> <\/span><\/span>tolerated disastrous reading results<\/a><\/u>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Vanessa Thorpe: An urgent call is to go out to children\u2019s television broadcasters this weekend, backed by major names in British entertainment, politics and technology. Writer and performer Stephen Fry, best-selling author Cressida Cowell and businesswoman Martha Lane Foxare joined by former children\u2019s television presenter Floella Benjamin as signatories to a letter, carried in today\u2019s Observer, that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7970"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7970"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7970\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7971,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7970\/revisions\/7971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7970"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7970"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.zmetro.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7970"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}