Local TV News Distorts Real Picture of Children.

Local television news broadcasts under-represent the presence of children in society, distort the level of crime committed by and against children and rarely focus on public policy issues that affect American families, according to a new study.

In addition, the study found that more than one third of all stories about children depict them as victims of crime, contributing to a climate of fear for children’s safety, by portraying them in grave danger and in need of protection. In particular, African American and Latino children are depicted in stories of explicit violence more often than other children, presenting an incomplete picture often lacking a relevant social and policy context.

“The Local Television News Media’s Picture of Children,” the most comprehensive, nationally representative study of children and children’s issues in local television news coverage to date, was released today by Children Now, a national child policy and advocacy organization.

Among the findings:

Almost half of all stories about children focus on crime (45%), followed by health (24%), lifestyle issues (19%), education (9%) and politics and economics (3%).

Children account for over a quarter of the U.S. population but only 10% of all local news stories.

African American children account for more than half of all stories (61%) involving children of color, followed by Latino children (32%). Asian Pacific American and Native American children are virtually invisible on local news.

African American boys are more likely than any other group to be portrayed as perpetrators of crime and violence whereas white girls are most likely to be depicted as victims.

“By rarely covering children and when they do, reporting primarily negative stories, local television news marginalizes many issues that directly impact children’s lives,” said Patti Miller, director of the organization’s Children & the Media program. “This sends the wrong message to children, parents, voters and policy makers,” she said.

REPORTS:

View the Local Television News Media’s Picture of Children (HTML)
http://www.childrennow.org/media/local-news-study/index.htm

View the Local Television News Media’s Picture of Children (PDF) 388k
CHARTS (in HTML):
http://www.childrennow.org/media/local-news-study/local-news-01.pdf

View the Where Adults Get Their News Chart
http://www.childrennow.org/media/local-news-study/chart-where-adults.htm

View the Adults Who Believe Youth “Don’t Have a Sense of Right and Wrong” Chart
http://www.childrennow.org/media/local-news-study/chart-adults-who-believe.htm

View the A Typical Week of Children in the News Chart
http://www.childrennow.org/media/local-news-study/chart-typical-week.htm

View the Who Talks in the News About Children Chart
http://www.childrennow.org/media/local-news-study/chart-who-talks.htm

View the Content of News About Children (Overview) Chart
http://www.childrennow.org/media/local-news-study/chart-content-overview.htm

View the Content of News About Children by City Chart
http://www.childrennow.org/media/local-news-study/chart-content.htm

View the A Child’s Health In The News Chart
http://www.childrennow.org/media/local-news-study/chart-health.htm

View the A Child’s Life in the News Chart
http://www.childrennow.org/media/local-news-study/chart-life.htm

View the Public Policy Issues in the News About Children Chart
http://www.childrennow.org/media/local-news-study/chart-public-policy.htm

View the US Demographics – Diversity of Children Chart
http://www.childrennow.org/media/local-news-study/chart-us-demographics.htm

View the Race and Ethnicity of Children in the News Chart
http://www.childrennow.org/media/local-news-study/chart-race.htm

View the Top Crime Stories by Race and Ethnicity Chart
http://www.childrennow.org/media/local-news-study/chart-top-crime.htm

The study was conducted before the events of September 11th and examined one month of local television evening newscasts on major network-affiliated stations across six nationally representative media markets: New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Boston, Seattle and Des Moines. Research shows that 86% of Americans get their news from local TV broadcasts, more than any other media source.

Crime continues to dominate

Crime stories account for almost one in every two (45%) stories about children, of which 84% were related to violent crime. Further, 69% of crime stories feature children as victims of crime, even though U.S. Department of Justice data show that the violent crime victimization rate for youth—assaults, rapes, robberies and killing of youth—has declined by half since 1994.

By 1998 the violent juvenile crime offender rate had dropped by over half from a high in 1993 to the lowest level recorded since the Justice Department survey began in 1973. Despite this downward trend, a Census Bureau 2000 poll found that nearly two thirds of respondents said they believed juvenile crime was growing.

“By portraying children, particularly children of color, as perpetrators and victims of crime this frequently, local news fosters an environment where children are seen as constantly in peril,” said Frank Gilliam, a UCLA professor who conducted the research for the study. “This tends to lead to one of two actions by parents and policy makers: either bubble-wrap our children to protect them or support punitive measures against them.”

Recommendations

The study recommends ways that broadcasters can improve coverage in stories about children. These include exploring the implications of any story on children and youth, increasing awareness about the many policy issues that affect children’s lives and consulting with the local community to determine what is relevant in newsgathering about children.

The release of the study coincides with the broadcast of a national PBS television series on the issue, Local News, which is airing throughout October. In addition, community forums in several cities—including Columbia, SC; Austin, TX; Madison, WI; Chicago, IL; New York, NY; Charlotte, NC; San Francisco, CA; and Miami, FL—are planned throughout October and November to discuss the implications of local news coverage for different communities.

This is the third report by Children Now on the news media’s coverage of children and the first to focus exclusively on local television news. The organization’s Children & the Media program also conducts ongoing research on the entertainment media, including television, video games and the Internet, particularly around race, class and gender messages to children.