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CNN Saturday Morning News
Interview With Sara Huberty, David Mindich
Aired December 08, 2001 - 09:34 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: For those of us in the West who take TV and satellite dishes for granted, a concern over recent years, especially for those of us in the news business, has been the falling viewership among younger Americans in particular.
But that may be changing. Take a look at these poll findings which we've just found from the Pew Research Center. It found that 61 percent of people under 30 are following the current events more closely now. Thirty-six percent say they keep tabs on the military campaign very closely, and the same number for the recent American Airlines crash in New York, and 32 percent watch closely for anthrax reports.
So what do we have here? A whole new generation of news junkies?
Joining me from Tampa, Florida, is Timeforkids.com reporter Sara Huberty, and in Burlington, Vermont, David Mindich, chairman of the journalism department at St. Michael's College.
Sara, we're going to go with you first, ladies first. Thank you for being with us.
SARA ANN HUBERTY, TIMEFORKIDS.COM: It's a pleasure being here.
O'BRIEN: All right, now, you are a news junkie, right?
HUBERTY: Yes.
O'BRIEN: Before September 11 that was the case, right?
HUBERTY: Yes. I'm a kid reporter for both "Time for Kids" magazine and Timeforkids.com and Radio Disney.
O'BRIEN: All right, so you, you're out there, you're obviously on the path to becoming a journalist. I'm curious perhaps more about your friends. How plugged in are they to current events, and how do they get their news, if at all?
HUBERTY: A lot of my friends at school and a lot of the people I've talked to, they watch the news and read the newspaper a lot more since 9/11, and they usually watch the news, but sometimes they read the newspaper.
O'BRIEN: What about the Web? There's an awful lot of talk about how, you know, your generation, maybe a little bit older than your generation, and certainly the younger ones coming along, are going to be more accustomed to getting their news on the Web.
HUBERTY: Yes, there's some Web sites you can go to, and there's a lot of stuff that you can go to to, you know, get your questions answered, and you'll have comments and stuff like that on the Web.
O'BRIEN: But are kids watching more television as well now?
HUBERTY: Yes, I think so, the news.
O'BRIEN: All right. David Mindich, do you agree? Is Sara's anecdotal information among her peers something that is reflecting a true trend?
DAVID MINDICH, ST. MICHAEL'S COLLEGE: Yes. Both anecdotally and statistically, we know that young people are consuming a lot more news since 9/11 than they were before. The statistics that you cited at the beginning, the Pew polls about young people and their news readership, has -- is actually a mixed story. Young people are consuming a lot more news about the terrorist attacks, but then when you kind of go back into the background stories, the disputes over whether the airport security should be federalized, for example, older Americans are still consuming the news much more closely than young Americans are.
O'BRIEN: So older Americans want a little more depth and context as opposed to younger Americans.
MINDICH: Yes, although you see -- I mean, throughout the country, wherever -- whatever town you were in, you'd see that young Americans from Sara's age up, and even -- I have a 5-year-old who was very concerned about a plane going into the World Trade Center -- you see tremendous fear among young Americans. And news at its most primal level is about fear, is about, Am I OK?
And so this was a central question for all Americans, particularly the youngest.
O'BRIEN: David, look in your crystal ball for me, then. Where are -- is this generation, Sara's generation and younger, perhaps, where will they be getting their news?
MINDICH: Well, it's again a mixed picture. On one hand, Sara's generation is growing up at the perfect time to get more involved in news, just as the people 60 years ago, December 7, 1941, suddenly were confronted, young people were confronted with a world in which they had to participate. There were dangers out there, there was a tremendous civic involvement in the 1940s. And that engendered both a civic participation in the 1960s, when they grew up, and also a tremendous following of news.
However, the parents of Sara's generation have been really tuned out of news for so long, so it's really upon us, those of us who are on a -- in our 30s and 40s, to really reenter politics, to reenter the news, and to really show our children that we must be civically involved.
O'BRIEN: Sara, let me ask you this. As more and more of your peers tune in, are they getting more and more scared? Or do you get the sense that the more they learn, the -- you know, the more assured they are, in a sense?
HUBERTY: Well, at first a lot of my friends were very scared, but then when they watched the news, they really -- you know, they really understood what was going on. And at first, we were at school when it happened, and kids just thought a plane hit the Empire State Building, it wasn't a terrorist attack. But because of the news, they understood quickly that it was a terrorist attack.
O'BRIEN: Do you have the sense, Sara, that as time goes on and this event, perhaps fades somewhat from the front pages, anyhow, that your generation will have sort of developed a news habit that will last them their lives?
HUBERTY: Yes, I think a lot of kids my age and younger will keep watching the news and will be -- get more interested in it, whether it's watching it on TV or reading it in the newspaper or reading it in a magazine that you get or on the Web or anywhere.
O'BRIEN: Why do you think it's so important for them to be a part of this and be informed in this way?
HUBERTY: Because kids want to know too what's going on in the world and what's going on around them. And a lot of my friends wanted to know if they should be scared, you know, if there's a reason to be scared, and they had questions like, you know, Are they going to come to our town? And they had a lot of questions, and the news is the way that they find that stuff out.
O'BRIEN: David, you know, in our business, as you well know, there's an awful lot of soul-searching, has been over the years, as to why young people were not tuning in. It's sad to say it takes an event like this to bring them back in. But I guess to a certain extent it shouldn't come as a surprise.
MINDICH: Yes. Again, going back to the dangers that suddenly young people face, that can bring in young people very quickly. But we also have to encourage young people to think about this central issue of our day, which is going to be the balance between civil liberties and safety.
I talked to my 11-year-old daughter about military tribunals. I talk to her about the problems that a lot of people have with military tribunals. And she gets it and she understands it, and she wants more news.
It's really up to us as educators and as parents to really -- to show young people that there is a political world out there, that there are decisions that have to be made, and that we can affect these changes. We can talk to our congresspeople and push change.
O'BRIEN: Sara, we're just about out of time, but I want to ask you, just give us a little piece of advice to take away as we consider delivering news and information to your generation. What are we not doing? What should we be doing?
HUBERTY: A lot of kids, you know, they'd rather watch MTV or other stations, but the news is a good way that you can get informed so you don't have to ask around and stuff, because that's how rumors get started. But if you watch the news, you know you're getting it straight.
O'BRIEN: All right. Sara Ann Huberty, David Mindich, thank you very much for this impromptu focus group, if you will. We appreciate your insights on the media and the younger generations.
MINDICH: Thank you.
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