LOS ANGELES, Jan 1 — Ten episodes of current affairs show Our World are on their way from the BBC and executive producer Angelina Jolie.
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 UK research) and just over 12 and a half being when the average US 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 over a six-month period, “59 per cent 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,” according to another 2017 US survey.
The show’s aim is to “give kids the tools to distinguish the genuine from the false and encourage them to develop critical thinking,” Angus said, “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?”
Our World is to debut in 2019 in the form of a 10-week project pilot, with the BBC looking to distribute internationally through existing World Service partners and other broadcasters.
Jolie’s existing producer or executive producer credits include In the Land of Blood and Honey, Unbroken, By the Sea and First They Killed My Father, all of which she directed, as well as upcoming animated gorilla comedy The One and Only Ivan, Peter Pan and Alice in Wonderland crossover prequel Come Away, and Maleficent and its 2020 sequel. — AFP-Relaxnews
