The State of the Media - a short social studies lesson for any family

Last night President Obama delivered his fifth State of the Union address. My 12-year-old and I sat down to watch the last few minutes and some of the media coverage, as well as the Republican response.

My 8-year-old became interested as well as mommy began interjecting commentary into the programs, as I'm sure many citizens across the country did. My boys began asking pointed questions about the differences between what was being said in each speech and by the news commentators afterwards.

We discuss politics a lot with our boys, so this wasn't anything new. What was new, and what our lesson evolved into, was that they were catching the partisan messages coming across in the news commentary as we switched channels and listened to the reports.

I began to explain that different news networks covered stories with different slants. We went to the internet to see some examples in the newly posted headlines from the speeches that were given. I wish I would have taken screen-shots from the headlines we viewed, because their stark contrast was so amazingly clear that even my younger son picked up on it. "But, Mom, CNN makes it sound like this when FOX is making it sound like that!" Yes, son. Welcome to the world of the partisan media.

Now, this is not a blog about which is right or wrong, or being conservative or liberal. What it is about is teaching our children to become discerning consumers of media, and being discerning ourselves. I admit, for a long time I was not. I was more of an ostrich with its head in the sand, just ignoring it altogether as much as I could. I wonder how many Americans are still in that place.

"But, Mom, how can they do that?! Isn't the news supposed to just state the facts?"

Now, of course, I could have launched into a big moral speech about how the media needs to be doing a better job. But, really, in all honesty, what I said to my son was... "Honey, these people are just human, too." I went on to point out that each of us has our own beliefs and some we are very passionate about and asked if they thought they would be able to completely leave their beliefs out of things if they had the opportunity to be heard by a lot of people and possibly sway others to your opinion. It would be hard! I'm not sure I could do it. In fact, I'm sure I couldn't. I'm too opinionated.

Now, do I just let the media off and say, "Oh, well. People will be people?" No. I do believe they should hold themselves to a higher moral standard or put a system of checks and balances in place. But can I do anything about that? I suppose I could do it by not watching the mainstream news networks on TV or the internet. Where I really feel my power lies is in my children, though.

If I can teach my children to understand that news can be, and often is, delivered with a slant because of the network's or individual's personal filter, I can teach them to be discerning media consumers and check their facts before they believe something. Of course, this argument could be pushed to the point of instilling cynicism, and I don't want that for my kids. I just want them to be wise, ...and not bullied.

So, I encourage you to have this discussion with your kids. Go to the internet, pick out headlines from different news networks or newspapers that are all on the same topic and discuss how the headline makes that story sound. Do they use positive or negative words? Do they seem to be making accusations?

You can, of course, go on to discuss what your family's beliefs are on the topic, but be sure to point out the differences in stories and ask your kids why they think that is and what they should do it about it. Lead them to an understanding that they need to be wise before deciding to believe something they read or hear.