I frequently make a presentation to civic groups around town that I call "How the News Gets Shaped". It contains observations on the differences between print and broadcast journalism and a brief history of TV news.
I always make the point that today’s TV writers, producers and reporters didn’t learn from reading the way their parents did. They grew up on pictures. However, I soon shut up, because I do not fully understand the deepest differences between the linear and the pictorial.
Now, the April issue of "Pediatrics" tells us that researchers at Children’s Hospital in Seattle heard from 1345 children and their parents on viewing habits and behavior. They concluded that the more TV watching the youngest kids did, the more likely they would have attention deficit problems by age 7. And beyond the over-stimulation, the researchers worry that TV watching might permanently "rewire" the developing brain.
This reinforces, says an AP story, the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics that children under 2 not watch TV.
Different "wiring"?
Maybe this explains why the journalism young people offer is so lacking in content, coherence and depth.
Mind you, "different" does not always mean backward. I sense that younger Americans are miles ahead of my generation on issues like racial prejudice, for example. And the personhood of women.
Still, if I had children, I would keep them from television until they were deep into reading.