Follow the White Rider

Follow the White Rider is a Christian children's television program broadcast by IradOne, the state broadcaster of the Irad Special Economic Zone (ISEZ). Made for primary-school children, it combines short cartoons, Bible and saints' stories and simple lessons on the customs of the Syro-Iradi Catholic Church. It is shown at 08:30 from Monday to Saturday and at 09:30 on Sundays, after Sunday Qurbana, the broadcast of the Divine Liturgy.^[1]

Format

Each half-hour edition is built around one story, introduced by the presenter as "today's story". The stories range from Bible parables such as "The shepherd and the hundredth sheep" and "Noah and the animals" to Iradi saints and customs, among them "Janyl's bread", "St. Toma the traveller", "Why we light the arsha" and "The star that never moves", which explains the Iradi veneration of Polaris.^[1] The title refers to The Legend of the White Rider, in which Christ appears as a horseman in white to guide Janyl. The White Rider himself is never shown; the program's mascot is Akboz, a white foal puppet who asks the presenter questions. Dubbed animated series acquired abroad fill the rest of the slot.

History

The program was first broadcast in September 1995, during the US territorial period, as a co-production between IradOne and the media office of the Archbishopric of Iyık Janyl, whose catechists still write the scripts. It was originally in English, with a weekly Iradi edition. Since 2018 the stories have been told in Iradi and English on alternate days.^[2] Because it is produced with the church, it kept its original title when IradOne's own English-language programs adopted the "One" prefix in 2016. Chinara Soorombaeva has presented it since 2014.

Reception

In the 2023 audience survey of the Irad Media Research Center, Follow the White Rider was the most-watched children's program on IradOne, with its largest audience on Sunday mornings.^[3] Clergy have praised it for teaching urban children customs that are fading in the cities. Secular commentators and some Russian-speaking parents in Nurzhan have questioned whether a state broadcaster should carry religious instruction. Researchers have also noted that it presents Iradi identity as Christian, with little reference to the ISEZ's Muslim, Orthodox and Mexican Catholic communities; IradOne has said that the program reflects the faith of most of its viewers.^[4]

References

1. ^ IradOne (2024). Follow the White Rider: Programme Information. Talas: IradOne Media Group.
2. ^ Archbishopric of Iyık Janyl, Media Office (2015). Twenty Years of Follow the White Rider. Iyık Janyl.
3. ^ Irad Media Research Center (2023). Television and Online Audience Survey of the ISEZ. Talas.
4. ^ Daniyarova, Saltanat (2020). Screens of the Nation: Television and Historical Memory in Irad. Talas: Talas State University Press.

External links

• Programme page on IradOne Online