September 22nd, 2009
Whether it be a presidential election, a major sporting event, or just local news, the television media plays a significant role in the public’s knowledge of current events. While it can be human nature to create biases or prejudged views on these kind of events, the media has a very different mindset. The media’s main purpose is to entertain and inform the audience of news-worthy stories, not to create unfair stereotypes for the public to see. In the article, “Kids See the Darndest Things” written by Joe Saltzman, the main message is that the media needs to become more responsible in how it reports the news so children will not create negative stereotypes in their minds, but the media does not report the news to create stereotypes; they report the news to entertain and inform. The media is not the parent of children around the U.S., nor is its goal to corrupt children, but instead is a protector of public knowledge and should not be censored.
The main provider of life lessons and moral values lies within the parents and the household, not the television set. While the article discusses how in today’s world there is a breakdown in a sense of family, thus making it easier for children to sit in front of the television, therein lies a logical fallacy by the author. Saltzman argues that because of the break down in family, more kids are being sat in front of the television, thus making them corrupted by the media and news; but Saltzman falls short in acknowledging the argument that children becoming more depressed when watching the news could just be a correlation and not a causation. Children becoming more depressed is more likely to be caused by the breakdown in family time, thus putting kids in front of the television more than with their families. Because of this, the media should not solely be blamed. Saltzman’s solution to this is a “…more responsible news media” (2), but a better solution would be for a more responsible family unit....