How the news media “see” kids

America’s future is in the hands of its children. Children come in all shapes and sizes, many colors, and a wide range of conditions, from secure and sustained to homeless and hungry. Like most concerns important to the country, the subject of children is covered by the news media, which fulfill an essential role in informing the population about the issues facing today’s youth. In order to get a representative look at how United States (US) media cover children, the study assessed the news content delivered daily for the entire month of November 1993 in five major US metropolitan newspapers. The study also assessed the nightly newscasts of the three major commercial television networks. A predictable distinction between print and television coverage was the finding that whereas 18 percent of all newspaper “stories” were opinion-based, not a single TV segment was devoted to commentary or editorializing. This, of course, reflects the prevailing pattern in television news, which has seen most commentaries fall by the wayside.