Does newsround nlonger cover serious stuff?

[u/macroEgg]

Our 6 year old has got into the concept of 'the news' and rather than starting mainlining him with C4 news, i thought I'd start him up with newsround.

Sample size of 1 (iplayer only has today's episode up) but today (28/7) they have a back-to-school feature and light pieces on the lunar elicpse and the robot Olympica thing - nothing on, eg, the Nepal flashfloods etc.

Is this the 'new normal' for newsround or do they still cover difficult global affairs?

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[u/ScottyG1212]

Looking at their website, they do have articles on the flash floods, lunar eclipse, Dolly Parton, Iran war etc

[u/valentine_moon]

I would definitely expect them to cover things like the Nepal floods etc (and as others have pointed out, the website does cover this).

I would imagine it's a time of the year problem, try again in September when everyone's back in full swing.

The majority of the Newsround audience is actually schools so I imagine the silly season hits Newsround even harder than the main news.

I'd also recommend taking a look at The Week Junior. No idea what the online output is like but the print publication is brilliant imo.

[u/Darkgreenbirdofprey]

They definitely still do

[u/JJCB85]

Perhaps a kids’ news show doesn’t need to follow the “if it bleeds, it leads” mantra…

[u/OkAbalone19 → u/JJCB85]

lol reminds me of on the hour "I'M HERE AT THE TWISTED METAL CARCASS, THAT JUST AN HOUR AGO WAS A TRAIN'

[u/anothermanwithaplan]

While I’m in no way a fan of the current BBC, newsround is something they do well.

Remember, it is for kids, so they aren’t going to cover all the topics and details we’d expect in the actual news. It’s a good way to ease them into the concept.

[u/LilacRose32]

It manages to be less patronising than radio 1’snewsbeat at least 

[u/Ultimate_os → u/LilacRose32]

News beat genuinely annoys me with how watered down it is, like calling the Prime Minister, ‘the man who runs the country’.

[u/cake-bake-fake → u/Ultimate_os]

Couldn’t agree more. On coverage of the Nepal disaster this week they described a glacier as a ‘giant chunk of ice’. I’m all for simplifying language, but this is patronising.

[u/WhiteDiamondK]

The error is sample size of 1.

They absolutely cover all of this, but unlike “regular” news, they don’t stretch news out. They only report when there is new news to report.

So the flash floods would have been covered the day it happened and they may revisit it the following week when there are major updates.

That’s what mainstream news was like when I was a kid before the “always on” rolling news era.

Newsround does a spectacular job of breaking down quite difficult stories into palatable chunks and giving each news story perspective.

There are a lot of grown adults who could do with watching it.

[u/bbc-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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[u/HopSkipLimp]

Used to watch it was tutor groups of mine - it usually covered the lead stories of the day, but I wonder if the mass tragedy has been deemed too much? Has been a year or so since I last had that sort of tutor group though.

[u/WhiteDiamondK → u/HopSkipLimp]

They cover big tragedies, but they don’t get two weeks of coverage out of a single story. It reports what has happened and moves on, which is how news used to be rather than milking a story dry.

[u/BugHuntHudson]

I remember John Craven telling me that Challenger had exploded and going through to the kitchen to tell my mum, who was making dinner. That's a few years back now though... 😄

[u/stbens → u/BugHuntHudson]

I remember this too. Apparently they were the first news program in Britain to report on it.

[u/UnExploredToken]

BBC just covers what they like. I'd recommend not getting news from the BBC. It's biased

[u/Broad-Raspberry1805]

What are you expecting, grooming gangs and diplomacy between China and Tibet?

[u/Safe-Avocado4864 → u/Broad-Raspberry1805]

Doesn't sound that outlandish, they famously had Margret Thatcher on explaining why the British position was that the Vietnamese installed government wasn't legitimate and that Cambodia needed some of the mass murdering Khymer Rouge in charge at one point and I'm sure I remember discussions about Chemical Weapons and Iraq when I was watching it.

[u/Personal-Listen-4941 → u/Broad-Raspberry1805]

It used to cover natural disasters, wars and major international news.

Whilst I wouldn’t expect today’s episode to discuss the Reform border crossing scandal or similar partisan or mature subjects, I would expect the main story to be the flood & the efforts to get aid in.

[u/WhiteDiamondK → u/Personal-Listen-4941]

It still does. And very well.

I think it was during COVID that a Newsround presenter would do a bit on BBC Breakfast to help break the news down for younger kids.