News, Children's Exposure to

All forms of media have some effect on audiences who consume them. The nature and extent of the effect varies from one type of media to another, but all media impact their audiences in some manner. The news is not exempt from this universal media trait.

When children are exposed to news, whether print or broadcast, they experience a mix of effects. The overriding effect of children's exposure to news seems to be that they are better informed, more likely to understand how the world works, and better equipped to make sense of the challenges they will face in society than they would be without exposure to news.

It is possible for news coverage, particularly reports about violent, tragic, or otherwise disturbing events, to frighten, sadden, or confuse children. Like violence in entertainment media, violence in the news can, to some extent, desensitize children to violence, making them more accepting of it and, some would say, potentially more likely to behave violently. Others would disagree, saying that violence in the news is rarely presented in a way that is conducive to social learning of violent tendencies.

To maximize the benefit of children's exposure to news and to minimize potential negative effects, research has shown that parents should watch the news with their children, discussing and explaining what they see. Studies suggest that doing this will help children make more sense out of the news, put events into context, and probably increase their interest in news and current events.

A study conducted in 2002 by Stacy Smith of Michigan State University found children in the fourth, fifth and sixth grades understood television [Page 623]news better than younger children, but the older children also found some news stories more upsetting than their younger counterparts did. It was probably their superior ability to understand the news that caused the older children to find certain stories more upsetting. However, this research shows that children in both age groups reported finding at least some news reports to be upsetting. Other research shows that television viewing in general can be upsetting to children and that exposure to news is proportionally less upsetting than exposure to other types of violent or actionfilled programming.

Some of the most insightful information about children's exposure to news can be found in data from a study of 14- and 17-year-olds from 29 countries conducted in the year 2000 by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). The IEA data suggest that children who are exposed to news, whether through television or newspapers, have a higher level of knowledge about civic events and issues than do children who are not exposed to news. In addition, the more exposure they have to news, both in newspapers and on television, the greater the level of their civic knowledge. However, the IEA study shows that exposure to television of all kinds is also positively correlated with an increase in civic knowledge. This pattern holds true for general television viewing up to 5 hours a day. For those who view more than 5 hours of television a day, the positive correlation does not persist.

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