As Trump targets public media and media research, I worry for America’s children
With the elimination of funding for both PBS and the Department of Education, the quality and innovativeness of children’s media are likely to disappear.
On a hot July day in 1999, I appeared before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce to testify about the beneficial effects of quality educational television for children. The hearings were focused on reauthorizing funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which supports PBS and NPR. At the time, public broadcasting was frequently criticized for being overly progressive and a waste of taxpayer dollars.
I won’t argue about the political leanings of public media, but I will argue, as I did back then, that some of the very best children’s media is publicly funded. Sesame Street has been on PBS since 1969, and is perhaps the clearest example of what public media can achieve.
Its aim was to provide underserved children, especially those without access to preschool education, with the opportunity to learn basic skills like their ABCs and numbers before they entered first grade. Studies consistently showed that Sesame Street succeeded in its mission.
But the show could not have existed without federal funding, nor could it have reached such a broad audience without public broadcasting stations that were able to distribute it widely.
Over the decades, numerous other educational programs have been developed thanks to the U.S. Department of Education’s funding for research and development. With the elimination of funding for both PBS and the Department of Education, the quality and innovativeness of children’s media are likely to disappear, too.
And if you assume for-profit media will fill the gap left by cuts to public funding, think again. Commercial media companies are not concerned with children’s education or well-being. They are focused solely on capturing children’s attention for commercial gain.
Looking back at my testimony from 1999, I could never have imagined the existential threat facing public media today. Our conversation in that hearing room was about the size of the budget, not the value of the mission.
Neither could I have imagined how dramatically the media landscape would change. Today, according to recent research by Common Sense Media, most children over the age of 7 have their own mobile device. Roughly four out of 10 children aged 8 to 12 have social media profiles.
President Joe Biden’s surgeon general rang the alarm in 2023 with a report warning that platforms like Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok are eroding young people’s mental health, and urgently calling for increased funding for research on the effects of social media.
For a brief time, that funding materialized. About $15 million was allocated to the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Much-needed studies were initiated, and researchers were on the verge of answering crucial questions, like: Are teen brains rewired by their cell phones? Is social media contributing to the rise in adolescent depression? Why do some teens thrive with digital media, while others struggle?
The answers seemed within reach. But then came the Department of Government Efficiency emails notifying the researchers that they would no longer be funded. Projects that were months in the planning — developing study protocols, purchasing equipment, and enrolling participants — were abruptly canceled. NIH began pulling down its calls for research proposals as funding priorities “realigned.” Even the NIH web page chronicling knowledge about digital media effects was archived.
Sesame Street could not have existed without federal funding, nor could it have reached such a broad audience without public broadcasting stations that were able to distribute it widely.
This is where we find ourselves after the devastating cuts. The safe, trusted space PBS provides children and parents could very well disappear. The window of opportunity to better understand the effects of digital media on young, developing brains is closing.
The loss of funding is devastating for children and is a dangerous step backward in the effort to protect children and adolescents from the potentially harmful effects of technology.
Our political leaders have decided that it’s best to pull the plug on what has always been a safe space for children in an otherwise banal and crowded children’s landscape. And instead of a robust, evidence-based conversation about how to help kids and families navigate this new digital environment, these same politicians have decided to let tech companies keep experimenting with our young people without anyone (except the companies themselves) understanding how young people are impacted.
These are decisions that reflect lawmakers’ list of priorities, and if one thing is clear, the healthy development of our nation’s youth does not rank highly on that list.
Amy Jordan is a distinguished professor of journalism and media studies at Rutgers University-New Brunswick and a member of the board of trustees at Sesame Workshop.