Children And News Consumption: Tailoring News Broadcasts For Young Audiences

It is important for children to know what is going on in the world, but they should not get afraid of what they see in the news. The Dutch children television news show Jeugdjournaal makes the news more understandable and suitable for children by using strategies. The present study investigated Jeugdjournaal to discover how the show uses the consolation strategies by Van der Molen and De Vries (2003), and if they use any other strategies during tragedies to comfort children. Also, the show was investigated to find how they frame messages for children during all different news items. A media analysis was conducted on 40 episodes of the news show over the last 20 years, which were two episodes per year. In addition, a media analysis was conducted on the coverage of the entire month of November 2015, when the major tragedy of the Paris terroristic attacks happened. The results showed that Jeugdjournaal did a good job in using the consolation strategies during tragedies, however, they started to use new strategies over time. These new strategies are redirecting the focus of what happened and creating a more positive ending after heavy topic items. Implications for parents and producers are provided