Review article
https://doi.org/10.22572/mi.31.2.4
Bibliotherapy for Children and Mass Media: Unused Potentials of Children’s Literature in Mass Media Contents
Kristina Silaj
; Nacionalna i sveučilišna knjižnica u Zagrebu
Ljubica Josić
orcid.org/0000-0001-6901-4812
; Leksikografski zavod Miroslav Krleža
Abstract
Starting from the fact that children’s literature can be used as a medicine, or as an aid in alleviating children’s problems and suffering, this article provides a brief insight into the possibilities of applying bibliotherapy as a method in protecting the mental and emotional health of children in the mass media. The aim of the paper is to investigate the importance of distributing the value of children’s literature in children’s magazines, on television and in other mass media, taking into account the communicational point of view. After explaining the theoretical starting points of bibliotherapy, the messages of works from children’s, predominantly Croatian, literature are analyzed, and the possibility of offering children’s literature in magazines and various programs for children is examined. The social importance of the paper is reflected in the fact that the use of children’s literature as an instrument can contribute to non-violence and the reduction of violence among children, which also affects non-violence in society as a whole. The paper emphasizes the psychological and didactic benefits provided by works selected from Croatian and foreign
children’s literature. Given that bibliotherapy is a literary aid to medicine in the public sphere, with which bibliotherapy therapists help children, emphasizing the fact that it can never replace specific medical care, and that the promotion of children’s literature through public communications is in the public interest of the Republic of Croatia, but also that it is important to present the bibliotherapy values of Croatian children’s literature to the international public, this is a relevant topic in terms of communication. It reflects the broad possibilities of mass communication, testifies to an optimistic view of the media, and points to the importance of mass media representation of bibliotherapy as a special type of cultural content, especially for the youngest.
Keywords
mass media, children’s bibliotherapy, children’s literature, children’s mental health, violence
Hrčak ID:
342310
URI
Publication date:
23.12.2025.
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