An award for a pioneer and a salute to children's television programming

I was so pleased to hear that Linda Ellerbee will receive a prestigious award next month for her lifetime of work in broadcasting and journalism.  It's especially nice because it highlights the importance of news programming for children.

She is the pioneering journalist who created Nick News with Linda Ellerbee for Nickelodeon in 1991. Before that, she had a long career at NBC and also at ABC.  A singularly independent-minded person, Ellerbee has won many awards during her career.  You may remember her as the anchor for NBC News Overnight and also as the anchor for the ABC series Our World.  What sets Ellerbee apart is her writing style and her confident delivery.  Always clear and direct, she has the ability to present the essential core of issues. Many in network television considered her irreverent. You may remember her signature sign-off on News Overnight.  She always closed the broadcast with this: "....and so it goes."

In many ways, Ellerbee has maintained a child-like curiosity about the world. This served her well when she started her Lucky Duck Productions company and proposed a news program for children. Always a hands-on manager, she serves as executive producer, writer and anchor of Nick News with Linda Ellerbee. It is the longest running children's news programming in North American television history.

The show has won every major television and journalism award usually associated with adult programs.

In September,  the Radio Television Digital News Association (RTDNA) will be handing Ellerbee it's highest award for "a lifetime of hard work and leadership," as the awards chairperson says in a press release.  (The RTDNA is the largest professional organization devoted exclusively to electronic journalism.)

Nick News is not afraid to present topics that are difficult for children, like the Afghan war, AIDS or gang crime in big cities; but it does so with a sensitivity and understanding of its audience that is very special.

In our rapidly-changing, complex world, it's important that children are not only entertained, but also informed about issues in the news.  As Ellerbee points out, kids "just can't escape the world." Children have questions about what they see and hear in the media.  The challenging topics in the news need to be explained and presented in a way they can understand and also in a way that takes into account their emotions and psychological development.

I applaud Ellerbee's achievements.  Let's not forget that we depend on today's children to provide better solutions for tomorrow.

(2011/08/14)

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Notes:

Nick News is only available on the Nickelodeon network. If you'd like to get a sense of Ellerbee's writing and some of the topics the show covers, take a look at the Nick News web site.

You can see several profiles of Linda Ellerbee on YouTube.  Ellerbee is an outspoken cancer survivor and also an author of several books.  I found this one interesting, even though it precedes her work on children's television. A more recent interview is here.

For those of you who were around in the 1970s and the '80s, you may recall that CBS used to present news information for children on Saturday mornings.  The CBS segments were also outstanding examples of explanatory news writing. Do you remember "In the News" ?

Levity in the news

The news these days is so depressing that it's hard to avoid all the negativity. Thankfully, comedians step to the forefront and do their thing.  It seems that hard times provide lots of satirical material. As a result, we all benefit.  A chuckle can really make a difference in an otherwise gray day.

Fark.com is a news aggregator web site.  While the content is sometimes bleak, what makes the site interesting are the fun headlines.   

Here are some sample from today's postings:

"How many times have you heard this one and yet it still makes you just shake your head: ' Two arrested in robbery after stopping to ask cops for directions.' "

"BBC radio presenters suspended after referring to the disabled as 'window-lickers', now wish they hadn't gone full retard."

"Why is the city of Chicago backing off its law against using cell phones while driving? If you said, 'Because an alderman was caught doing it,' you win the prize."

"Man barricaded in his home is brought into custody when Atlanta police try an experimental new tactic: Waiting for him to fall asleep."

"Dalai Lama's gall stone successfully removed. Stone will now ascend to its higher purpose."

"Academic finds evidence that Bach's wife wrote some of his music. Mostly the pieces that seem to go on and on forever without ever really getting to the point."

And then there's the Onion, a tongue-in-cheek site that seems to have a lot of money to mimic real newscasts. Check out this parody of a weather alert on television:

Extreme Weather Alert: Meteorologists Predict Intensely Brisk Autumn

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Diversity: a toolkit for journalists

For some time, the association that brings together Canada's broadcast news directors, has been working on a number of initiatives to improve the reflection of Canada's diversity in news operations, both in front of the camera and behind the scenes.

One of these was the creation of a "Diversity Toolkit."

Presented by top Canadian journalists, it consists of a video guide for news managers, with features that review such things as the history of diversity in Canada, why diversity is good for business and how to make news content more reflective of Canada's communities.

An accompanying booklet adds material on the country's Aboriginal people, guidelines for better hiring practices and recommendations related to people with disabilities.

The Diversity Toolkit offers an interesting insight into Canada's rich demographic reality.

You can view the videos or read the booklet at this web site:

http://www.rtndacanada.com/Content.asp?PageID=2.10