Parents who have been paying attention to the news may find themselves experiencing a range of emotional reactions to it. What parents may not realize is that their kids may also have been reading the news. Common Sense Media has a report that gives insight into how the news affects kids.
Common Sense Media is the leading nonprofit organization dedicated to helping kids thrive in a world of media and technology. They help empower parents, teachers, and policymakers by providing unbiased information, and to help them harness the power of media and technology as a positive force in all kids’ lives.
A study called “News and America’s Kids: How Young People Perceive and Are Impacted by the News” was done by Common Sense Media. It was conducted in January of 2017 and include 853 children age 10-18 drawn from a nationally representative panel, as well as an oversample of African-American and Hispanic/Latino children drawn from an opt-in web panel.
The results of the study revealed information that parents should know about. Some of the results made it clear that parents really can’t ignore the impact the news has on kids. Most kids feel smart and knowledgeable when they watch, read, or hear about the news. But many kids say that the news makes them feel sad or depressed, angry, or afraid. Here is some of what the report uncovered:
Kids feel neglected and misrepresented by the news.
* Sixty-nine percent say that the media has no idea about the experiences of people their age.
* Less than half of children think the news covers issues that matter to them.
Kids are extremely skeptical and distrustful of the news media.
* Only one in four children puts “a lot” of trust in the information they receive from news organizations.
Kids see racial and gender bias in the news and feel there is a real bias in how children are portrayed.
* Only 29 percent of children agree that the news treats people of different racial and ethnic backgrounds equally fairly.
* Only one in three children agrees that the news treats women and men equally fairly.
* More than two in five children say that children in the news are often associated with crimes, violence, or other problems.
Some hopeful information was revealed in the report.
* Kids care about the news, and they want to be informed.
* Most kids access the news and generally feel smarter when they do.
* Half of all kids say that following the news helps them to feel prepared to make a difference in their communities.
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