邁入二十一世紀後，台灣學界開始出現媒體如何再現兒童形象的探討，其出發點皆是踩在社會建構觀的立場，批判媒體形塑或扭曲兒童形象的不平等力量。另一方面，台灣從 2003 年起興起了輔導兒童創作影片的熱潮，公共媒體、企業界和政府部門紛紛舉辦兒童的影像培力計劃。本研究的動機始於好奇，由兒童透過攝影機所再現的兒童形象，與大眾媒體中所見有何不同？兒童是否掌握了建構與傳播童年意像的主體位置？本研究以最早舉辦，且唯一持續進行的「小導演大夢想」已出版的 59 支短片為對象，進行內容分析。

研究發現，兒童在所有的影像中皆未缺席，擔任採訪、被採訪、演員或旁白的角色，是關心社會和環境的未來公民，或樂觀進取的特殊兒童，或偏鄉和離島文化的繼承者。幕後，工作權力與資源分配則向成人傾斜，真正由「小導演」圓拍片夢想者不及四分之一，後製作業由兒童完成者不及五分之一，多數兒童是以助理角色協助成人進行童年意像的集體建構，使得童年觀看充滿政治性。

At the turn of the 21st century, the academic discussions surrounding how children were portrayed in the media can broadly be divided into two positions: Grounded in the social constructivism, the dominant critical discourse of media literacy emphasized the social forces and commercial interests distorting the images of children. On the other hand, since 2003 it has become trendy to engage children in visual projects, and public media, companies and governmental agencies vied to initiate empowerment programs to teach children how to represent themselves visually. In the backdrop of these growing concerns, this study was aimed to examine to what extent the images produced by children themselves were different from those portrayed in the mass media? How do children shifted from the position of reception to that of production? “Little Director Big Dream” is the first and on-going children’s film making forum in Taiwan. Since 2004 this forum has held children’s film contests biannually and has cumulated 59 award-winning short films in its archive. This study uses the method of content analysis to examine the 59 films with a view to explore how children constructed childhood images through the forum of Little Director Big Dream.

This study concludes that children are present in all the film, playing the role of interviewers, interviewees, actors, narrators, etc. Based on the issues that some films were examining, it was evident that children were learning to become the world citizens with the social and environmental consciousness. Some films dealt with how children managed to live under the unusually difficult children conditions with tenacity and admirable strength and optimism. Nonetheless, behind the scene the power structure of the production team was skewed towards the adult. Less than one fourth of films were directed by adults and less then one fifth of the films were edited by adults. It seemed that while children had an access to film production, the politics of filmmaking and visual communication remains to be an issue to tackle.