Techtots generation::TV? Kids these days watch cell phones, iPods, computers

As boomer experts continue to debate the effects of watching television, many preschoolers yawned and moved on: Linear TV is so last millennium.

Instead, tots can watch "Wow! Wow! Wubbzy!" cartoon podcasts on an iPod, check out streaming video of "Blue's Clues" on the computer, view clips of Playhouse Disney on a cellphone or insist on "Barney and Friends" at any hour from video on demand.

Remember when having cable TV was cool? Now kids as young as 2 interact "across platforms" in this new era of a "changing digital children's media landscape."

"Children are platform agnostic," said Alice Cahn, vice president of development for Cartoon Network. "If you want to look foolish with a preschooler, say, 'Sorry, you can't watch that. It's not on.' It's TiVoed, it's online, it's on video on demand. 'Appointment viewing' is not part of their lexicon and never will be. There's not a sense that television has any primacy with them."

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New center promotes 'media mindfulness'

n an upper room above the Pauline Books & Media store in Culver City, some 40 communicators of the printed and spoken word gathered June 7 for the dedication of the new Pauline Center for Media Studies.

Our Lady of the Angels Region Auxiliary Bishop Edward Clark opened the service with a prayer blessing the center's mission of "promoting and teaching media mindfulness within the context of culture, education and faith formation." Backed by a movie screen on the wall behind him, he spoke about the importance of training people in media literacy.

"People need to be educated to get to the heart of the truth [in different forms of media] so that they can simply draw it into themselves, absorb it and come to understand the truth by what they experience. So often we need teachers to teach us that, especially in the sound and visual media [so we can] discover what in fact is truth and distinguish it clearly from what is propaganda," said Bishop Clark

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