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Study: Newscasts create 'climate of fear' for children, shun key issues
Posted: Tuesday, October 23, 2001
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Local newscasts give scant coverage to key children's issues such as education while creating a "climate of fear" by exaggerating crime dangers for kids, a study says.
The study for Children Now reviewed a month of local evening newscasts from July 1-31, 2000, on stations in the major media markets of New York, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Boston, Seattle and Des Moines.
Forty-five percent of all stories about children on the ABC, NBC and CBS owned or affiliated stations focused on crime, usually violent crime, according to the study released Tuesday.
By comparison, 24 percent of stories were about health and 9 percent about education, said Children Now.