ige 2, May 6, 1979- Sunday News _

Near the end of Jim McDowell's article on TV,

speckulations
‘b y Peter Speck ;

ough, tender kids

he refers to children as.tender, but...tough. It’s a
good thing they are, especially i in the confusing

society they: are ‘growing upi in.

Most of us are aware of
the tremendous potential of
-'television,- but. regret tably,
we .are also aware of the
‘failure of *the medium to
reachi its potential.

“TV OR NOT TP"
By JIM MCDOWELL

. I hope you didn’t miss
Channel Nine’s “Bill Moyers’
- Journal” last Monday night,

Children especially, are --titled “Keep Out of the

prone to the full range of
. television. No’ matter what

. restrictions most of us place
on TV. watching, the

younger members of the
_ family always seem to watch
" more than anyone else. |

‘Yet, they are sharp, they
are—observant, and they do

~ have Probing minds.

-Is Tv the: bogeyman’ we all
see when talking about the
medium and all our children,
or is it, as Jim says, an in-
dication that:children should
have. the same rights as
adults?

¢

- Read on...

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Reach of. Children.” Moyers
is using the TV magazine
format to study. the foun-

dations of our society, and _

he has a lot to say aboat

_ young People.

Monday night
looked at the effect of TV

ads on children, and I think -
he’ was blinded by his own |

preconceptions about kids.

Ending the: half-hour
battle over TV selling aimed
at kids, Moyers finds it
“astonishing that advertising
to young people is a matter

of debate...This debate is

between two views of human
nature. One treats young
children as feeling, won-
dering, and wonderous
beings to be handled with
care because
-fragile. The other treats
them as members of a vast
collective to be hustled. We
shall know a great deal about
our society when we know,
in this’ battle, which view
prevails.”

Moyers failed to see how
blind he was to what the kids
he interviewed were trying
to tell him. The typically
biased child psychologist he
propped up for scientific
credibility was even less able
to listen to the children.

1 saw the program -as
eloquent evidence for giving
children the same rights that
we have as adults; in this
case the right of free and
open access to information,
(and misinformation!).

The = seven-year-olds
Moyers interviewed showed
they were aware of what was
going on. They knew the
difference between the
commercial and the

rogram. They understood

/¢ aim of the ads: “so the
store can make more
“money.” They knew the
consequences of begging
their parents to buy
something they'd scen on TV
— a whack on the backside,
in one case. And they were
able to talk about what made
an ad “good” or “bad.”

An older” group of
youngsters was surprisingly
sophisticated about the
different products, about the
tricks that are used to sell
them, about truth in’ ad-
vertising. And it's clear how
they got to be so smart’ —
they've had lots of Saturday
morning practice.

\ man said, “Children are like

) Moyers ;

they are-

’ ‘fairly. But these are rich

resist the

will become strangers to

. Those who would protect:
the children from TV ads see
children’s minds. as_ being
delicate, tender, and in-
completely formed.

To my surprise it was the
ad-men who didn't. un-
derestimate the intelligence
of children. Although I don’t
trust them, I agree with this
respectful attitude for
children’s minds. As one ad-

everyone else: they. have a

right to learn the market.

place.”
.] know that

propaganda,
‘seduction,
formation.

And those are ‘things
they'll never learn in school

where teachers have talked

about propaganda’ = and
preached about health and

hygiene over and over-to no
avail.

Sure your kids will give
you a bad time, at the
supermarket. They'll create
lots of new problems for us
as parents. We'll have to talk
with them about things we'd
prefer to take for granted.

- We'll have to know what

we think and stand up for it

opportunities for moms and
; dads to help children learn
' about persuasive messages
— a powerful education for
anyone. How many of us
adults have leaned it?

Experiments by an
associate professor of
communications at Stanford
University, Don Roberts,
show that children as young
as seven can be educated to
persuasive
techniques of advertisers.

The question parents need to.

ask is, “Are you going to be
the teacher of this lesson, or
is this something else you're
going to pass on to the
school to make a mess of?”

As Moyers says, “En-
tertainment§ today has
achieved. the status of a
right...Television can in-
struct, inform, inspire as
well as distract, distort, and
demean. And turning it off
rejects the good with the
bad...This marvellous
medium, with all its
potential for laughter and
light, is worth fighting for,
or, in matters of popular
culture, we and our children

excellence.”

Develop the “Bill Moyers"

Journal” habit.

yoy
fae. -. nt mY

young |
children are tender, but they ..
are also tough” enough to ~
Stand up to the ad-man's .
hustle. Over time, with the
right kind of assistance ‘from: ©
parents they can learn the .
difference between hard-sell .
soft-sell |
and solid in-

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