Angelina Jolie to produce kids’ news show
ANGELINA Jolie (pic) is adding another producer’s credit to a dozen-strong list by way of 10-episode children’s series Our World.
The show is aimed at children between the ages of seven and 12 years old; seven being the age that children become aware of the news (per BBC-commissioned British research) and just over 12-and-a-half being when the average American child opens their first social media account (per a 2016 Common Sense Media report).
“Children today are exposed to a lot of opinion, but not necessarily to information that is fact-based and reliable,” Jolie said in the BBC’s prepared announcement.
“As a mother, I am very pleased that the BBC World Service is taking this step. It is also important to me that the project is global, and will help young people in different countries to be connected to each other and to have greater awareness and understanding of the news on an international basis.”
Jamie Angus, the BBC’s World Service director, noted that in a 2017 survey, over a six-month period, “59% of 10-18 year-olds had shared a story that they either subsequently found to be inaccurate or were now uncertain as to its veracity”.
The show’s aim is to “give kids the tools to distinguish the genuine from the false and encourage them to develop critical thinking. To ask themselves – who produced the video and why are they a reputable organisation? Are they just telling one side of the story? Is there another view?” Angus said.
Our World is to debut in 2019 in the form of a 10-week project pilot.–