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This article examines Flemish parents' opinion on the depiction of homosexual characters in children's television. Based on twenty interviews, three categories were composed in relation to different gradations of acceptance. The first category consists of parents who found it necessary to represent homosexuality on television, so that children learn from a young age that this minority group exists. The second category experienced feelings of aversion when two people of the same sex had physical contact with each other. This was considered unnecessary or inappropriate, particularly for young children. The third category includes parents who criticized the amount of homosexual characters on contemporary television, calling it 'positive discrimination'. In sum, Flemish parents approve the depiction of homosexual characters on children's television, yet opinions vary on how television should portray them. Physical contact between two people of the same sex, in particular, is perceived as a possible threat to 'childhood innocence'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper researches the intentions and motivations that guide media producers to position different cultural perspectives in their programme. The Dutch documentary programme Metropolis functions as a case in point because the programme presents stories from people around the world produced by local journalists in collaboration with Dutch producers and editors. Its main aim is to confront Dutch audiences with diverse worldviews on a given topic. Against a theoretical background on media as a source of social imaginaries and cosmopolitanism, this study combined participatory observation, in-depth interviews and textual analysis to understand the choices these producers make. The analysis shows that while the programme's goal is to show different cultural perspectives on a given topic, the diverse worldviews of the correspondents are mostly presented through a dominant Dutch perspective for a range of reasons, leading to a limitation of the cosmopolitan potential of the programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]