February 16, 2005
Rating The News
I heard a clip from a CNN interview this morning that stirred up some interest in me, something that is rare when CNN is involved. I don't know the name of the interviewer (it may have been Wolf Blitzer) or the interviewee, but the interviewer said something about children and news. This answer came back: "My 6-year old doesn't watch the news, so he doesn't know."
As frequent readers of this blog know, my wife and I have no children, so their TV viewing habits are not something I think about. When I was a child, we had one TV in the house and four channels that came in clearly. If I or my siblings wanted to watch TV, we watched what our parents were watching. We watched every news show then available: the local and national news and '60 Minutes' on Sunday night. I don't remember when I started watching the news, but I don't remember a time when it wasn't a part of my life.
With everything that has changed in the past 20 years (like the birth of all-news channels), news is more available to young children than ever before. It is also more varied (some would argue that it's as much entertainment as information). So, for those of you who have little ones or who used to have little ones, I pose this question: do you let your young children watch the news? If so, how old were they when they started watching? Do you make them watch it with you? Do you discuss it with them? Do you think it's better to shield them or to let them see the brutality that exists in the world?
Inquiring minds want to know.
Posted by Matthew at February 16, 2005 08:46 AMTrackBack URL for this entry:
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Matt,
My kids, 6, 8 and 10 don't watch the news much. The reason being that we rarely have the news on during the day. Since we do not have cable (a major sin these days) we are forced to watch the major network news. I feel the major news networks are either opionion, propaganda, or Katie Currik(SP) fluff so I no longer watch it. Believe it or not, my kids often discuss news issues at school (scary isn't it!). While around the dinner table, Roba and I go through a counter brain washing session to tell the kids what's really going on in the world, very similiar to our younger days. I may be raising a generation of skeptics but better that thnn the gullabilty that seems to be the rule today.
Matt,
There is more news available to our children. You mentioned all news channels. What you may have failed to realize with cable tv and satalite tv, there are not several but many all cartoon channels. Cartoon network, two or three Disney channels, two or three Nickeloden channels, I have a feeling many children or parents don't even think about the news. My daughter reads a portion of the newspaper every morning at breakfast. She will at least read the Metro section (to check weather and astronomy), if nothing else. She has done this since for as long as I can remember. She may watch 3 to 7 hours of tv in a week. She watches alot of Discovery and Animal Planet, some cartoons, 24 (I just got on board for this show), and Soccer on Fox Sports Net. We watch the News In the rare instance we are home to see it. I know alot of children that watch alot of tv. 3 to 7 hours a day. I have a feeling they will become mush mouth, drooling, vegetables in the not so distance future.
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at February 16, 2005 10:41 AM
Correction please. distant future. I am a drooling vegetable.
Posted by: Sly at February 16, 2005 10:42 AM