John
Craven's Newsround
 BBC 1 saw John Craven present his Newsround at five past
five on weekdays.
It aired twice weekly in the beginning and went to every
weekday in 1979. Cheesecloth shirts, pandas and domino toppling
were all on the agenda of this news program for children.
John, then a journalist on the West Country regional
current-affairs program Points West, and Edward Barnes,
head of children's programs at the BBC, had both been saddened by
a survey which had shown that only 0.7% of children ever watched
the news.
They felt this could be changed if John could lead children
through the same items their parents saw later in the evening, but
with the intricate made simple and all the disturbing bits left
out.
Newsround provided background to headlines which adult
news program took for granted their audience knew about, and
conflicts from Rhodesia to Northern Ireland were explained to the
kids.
Investigative reports covered such issues as school dinners,
school uniform and pocket money. Animal stories featured heavily -
the program's first story covered the near extinct osprey's return
to the UK.
But how do you explain this complicated and sometimes violent
world to children between the ages of five and 12? The show
carefully aired difficult subjects without unduly upsetting
younger viewers, for example removing overt violence from film
reports.
It dispelled playground rumours that children could catch AIDS
from toilet seats, while never detailing how the disease was
actually spread.
In the days when there was no BBC TV news between lunchtime and
5.45pm, Newsround would often break important news stories
- When the space shuttle Challenger exploded on take-off in
1986, it was decided to break the story in Newsround
instead of in a newsflash. The shooting of Pope John Paul II in
1981 was another exclusive.
From the start the program drew audiences of 6 - 7 million, and
it still does. The show was presented until 1989 by John Craven,
and since then various presenters have anchored a show simply
called Newsround. Spin offs have included Newsround
Weekly and Newsround Extra.
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