"If we do our jobs right, and if we get kids interested in the what, the why, and the what-if, then who knows what may be?" asked Linda Ellerbee at the Second General Session presentation. Sharing personal experiences with her trademark directness and occasional humor, Ellerbee discussed the importance of media literacy and the necessity of teaching children about interpreting what they see and hear on television.
Linda Ellerbee
"Let's face it: Television has a lousy reputation," Ellerbee said bluntly. "We're told it will rot our minds, that it's programmed to the lowest common denominator, and that it's habit-forming." Most 5-year-olds now come to school with between 1,500 and 3,000 hours of television-watching experience, Ellerbee said, and older children spend an average of three or more hours a day watching the box—often without their parents present. "Television may not be children's most important teacher," Ellerbee continued. "But it could very well be their most damaging one."
The most damaging elements of television come from news reports, Ellerbee asserted. "When we ask kids what they find to be the scariest thing on television, they regularly tell us it's the news," she said. Children are particularly frightened by local stories involving the death or harming of other children, something television tends to exaggerate or sensationalize too often, according to Ellerbee. "Murder is the least frequent crime in America, but would you know it by watching the evening news?" she asked. "We need to remind our children over and over that they are smarter than their television sets."
Encouraging children to have a responsible approach to television requires not a discouragement of television viewing but careful instruction about how to watch television, something Ellerbee has tried to do for 10 years with her show, Nick News, on the children's cable television channel Nickelodeon.
"We need to remind children that television news is not the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth," Ellerbee continued. "No matter how many times it is described that way, the news is always the way a few people saw the world's events in a limited period of time."
In addition to media literacy, Ellerbee discussed a number of personal experiences that shaped her as a journalist and television pioneer. "I did not start out to be a journalist—both of my parents worked for a living," she quipped. "But I had this teacher who told me, ‘You're a writer. That's what you will do.’ That teacher was Mrs. Scott, and I owe her everything I've become."
Even with her accomplishments, however, Ellerbee confessed that her teacher's reflections can still leave her humbled.
"When my book And So It Goes was number two on the bestseller list, I had been on national television for 20 years," Ellerbee said. "My friends invited me back home to Texas to throw a party to celebrate my achievements, and they invited Mrs. Scott. When I thanked Mrs. Scott for helping me and told her that I owed her so much, she just looked at me and said, ‘Well, Linda, I was so happy to be invited to this party—because for 20 years, I've always wondered whatever became of you!’ "
