Modern Life: Kids Shows and Environment

Rocko's Modern Life R-E-C-Y-C-L-E


Thinking back to your favorite childhood shows, can you remember them talking about the environment or recycling? It seems difficult to recall if you did learn about these issues from media. In the example from the 1990’s “Rocko’s Modern Life,” that many might remember, there is a wonderful song about recycling. Surprisingly even at a young age children’s shows are tackling large issues. When watching this clip the garbage character covers issues of recycling, conservation, and not polluting. He goes over how the ozone is deteriorating because of peoples waste and goes over the fact that if people do not do something they will pay for it. The song also even goes into the cutting down of trees and how that reduces the earth’s oxygen supply, which is also harmful to the environment and us. The lyrics at this part say “it’s not enough to sit around and grieve,” which is interesting because it is calling for action from a young age group who may not even truly understand the message they are receiving. The song is happy, but uses a scare tactic that if we do not act, we’ll get what we deserve. This example in particular is a call for civil engagement to a younger audience by showing all the characters coming together and discussing this issue.

At an early age children are being exposed to ideas and norms of being a “good citizen.” What are kids seeing? Now there is even more of a cultivation of the “go green” attitude being promoted to younger age groups. As we can see even starting in the 1970’s these ideas have been brought up in children’s show. “Sesame Street,” “Reading Rainbow,” “The Magic School Bus,” “Captain Planet,” all began educating kids about environment. Children’s shows now continue to bring up the ideas of recycling and helping the earth, and show it being a rewarding act and a civic duty. The youth is important to target at a young age because they are easily impressionable during the critical period of their lives. If environmental issues are being shown as important and show kids ways to take action on and individual or group level and the rewards these actions will have, they may be more likely to continue these ideas through out their lives.

Another interesting thing about how children are learning about how to be involved in environmental issues is the use of the Internet. Children television networks have websites and links on how to be green. For example Nick Jr. has a whole page dedicated to creative recycling, turning recycling into fun craft activities. Also PBS has a short clip show called “The Greens,” which is a family that gives children fun environmental tips and awareness. The website has green games, tips, and the clips for kids to interact with. The communication of environmental awareness starting at a young age helps for a more active and engaged generation.

http://www.nickjr.com/crafts/all-shows/creative-recycling-crafts/all-ages/index.jhtml


http://meetthegreens.pbskids.org



Coleen Maloney

Norms Affect What's Really Reported, And What's Not

Climate change is one of the biggest environmental issues we have today, but one of the reasons the chances that the US will take action are slim is because of journalistic norms, as explained by this journal article about government policy. The norms have caused the scientific perspective on the climate change problem to be misrepresented. Scientists generally speak in a cautious, uncertain language that experts in their field would understand perfectly, but the public may have more difficulty with. Therefore, their language needs to be translated into the clear, certain discourse that is employed by journalists.

According to an article about journalistic norms and their functions, several specific journalistic norms are believed to cause misrepresentation of environmental problems like climate change. The first is personalization, “the tendency to downplay the big social, economic, or political picture in favor of the human trials, tragedies, and triumphs that sit at the surface of events” (Bennett, 2002, p. 45). The media tend to personalize the problems and focus on the individual tribulations instead of the greater context and process. This leads to the belief that the problems are centered around individuals and structural analyses of institutions and government are ignored.

Another journalistic norm that influences news output about environmental problems is dramatization, where “news dramas emphasize crisis over continuity, the present over the past or future, conflicts” and “downplay complex policy information, the workings of government institutions, and the bases of power behind the central characters” (Bennett, 2002, p. 46). Dramatized news tends to ignore comprehensive analysis about a problem, and rather focuses on the plots on the surface. It trivializes the news content, as well as blocking out news that does not have an immediate conflict or controversy.

The third journalistic norm is novelty. Journalists face a need to report “new” news, and repeatedly reporting on the same environmental problem may dedramatize it. Therefore, persistent and growing environmental problems may be unreported because there is nothing new to report. Journalists prefer to publish stories that are fresh and new over stories that have already been reported on. Consequently, they reject about continuous, chronic problems in favor of those about day-to-day crises.

These journalistic norms –personalization, dramatization, and novelty- cause mass media coverage of environmental problems like climate change to be deficient. We should keep in mind these journalistic norms at play when reading about environmental problems on the news.


By: Alice Leung