For Young and Inquiring Minds : ALL THE NEWS THAT’S HIP PLUS BOSNIA, AIDS AND RACE RELATIONS

Robbery, car chases and factory fires are out; Bosnia, street violence, AIDS and sexual harassment are in. So are jump-rope contests and the Roach Olympics. In syndication, on MTV, Nickelodeon and on public television, news shows targeting children and young adults offer a unique window on the world. What the view is from that window varies with each show and the philosophy behind it.

“NICK NEWS W/5” Saturdays, 1 p.m. Nickelodeon

Age range: 8 to 11, but “we know from studies that about a third of our audience is grown up,” says the show’s creator, Linda Ellerbee.

Format: Half-hour magazine and talk show playing off the “who, what, when, where, why” of journalism. Veteran reporter Ellerbee, casual in tennis shoes and leisure wear, is the show’s host and guiding force. Lots of on-location footage, kid reporters, in-studio discussion of issues between Ellerbee and schoolchildren.

Story sampling: “When is a house not a home?”--profile of sons and daughters of members of the House of Representatives. “What if you had to choose?”--to join a gang or not.

“When did the Navy go overboard?”--kids invited on a Navy vessel as a goodwill gesture after the Gulf War catch the sailors doing wholesale, illegal trash dumping into the sea. They snap pix with their cameras and alert napping film crew to capture it on film. Embarrassed senior officer shown later trying to explain in official hearings.

Highlight: Ellerbee’s upbeat sign-offs: “Brought to you by the Earth. The best show on Earth, is Earth.” Every show ends with the dictum: “If you want to know, ask.”

Focus: “We want to encourage kids to question everything,” Ellerbee says.

She rejects the view that “everything should be in short bursts,” MTV-style, to hold a child’s attention, deciding to concentrate instead on being “good storytellers.”

“Most of what we tell kids is news to them. If we have to do a story on a town that was decimated by the closure of a military base, we have to spend eight minutes and explain what the Cold War was.”

Some issues, such as events surrounding the Rodney King beating and a talk about AIDS with Magic Johnson, are given an entire half-hour. Sexual harassment was another “long story,” Ellerbee says.

“There is no subject we wouldn’t do,” Ellerbee says. “Part of our mission is to take those stories that are ongoing in the grown-up news, stories that are probably working their way into the kids’ consciousness . . . and try to explain them in terms of issues.”

Ellerbee hopes that if kids get anything from the show it’s that they “come away nosy. Nosy and loud. We don’t have an agenda of how kids ought to think. Our agenda is that kids should think.”

“IN THE MIX” Sundays, 5 p.m. KCET

Age range: 12 to 16.

Format: Half-hour magazine, a production of WNYC-TV in New York. Multiethnic teen hosts, MTV-style graphics; fast cuts, slo-mo, color and black and white, animation, hip hop and rap music videos. Lots of “Yo, wassup?” and “check it out” intros. Teen reporters are frequently part of the story. Snippets of commentary on issues from teens around the country.

Story sampling: Profile of rapper Heavy D, “American Gladiator” tryouts, racism, sex, paying for college.

Highlight: Teen reporter Kevin Jordan behind the scenes at the circus keeping his cool as he’s shoved out of the way by an adult photographer who snarls, “You’re not press, you gotta card?”

Focus: “It’s important that they can think fast on their feet. They actually are reporters,” says executive producer Sue Castle about the show’s main teen trio, Jordan, Melanie Glickson and Alimi Ballard, and the other reporters in the field, ages 15 to 20.

When the show was in its planning stages, Castle says, the consensus among “hundreds” of local kids was that they wanted to see “real kids talking about issues that concern them.”

Some of the “heavy issue” features have been about “prison, alcohol, steroids, a whole range,” always from a personal angle, Castle says, “which is what kids will listen to.” Upcoming: a story about homeless teens, one on teens in East Los Angeles and Rebuild L.A., a one-hour special called “Teens Talk Violence” and, “We’re going to follow one teen through drug detox for four weeks.”

The show is heavy with rap and rock-star profiles, but Castle says, “We won’t do celebrities like Ice T,” not because of controversy, but “it’s just not the image we want to promote to the kids. When we do rappers, they’re giving positive messages.”

Castle says that no stories have earned negative responses, not even when the ebullient maven of sex education, Dr. Ruth Westheimer, answered in-studio teens’ questions with “the 411 on sex, dating and relationships.”

“If something’s worthwhile and important content-wise, such as the AIDS story, that’s what the program’s for,” Castle says.

Breaking news doesn’t make it into the show because segments are shot seven to eight weeks before they air. Instead, teen-agers across the country are asked about a hot topic and their comments are edited into a later show. To combat the preponderance of teens’ negative media images, each show includes a story on a teen “who is making a difference in some way. The kids really appreciate that.”

“REAL NEWS FOR KIDS” Saturdays, 7 a.m. KTLA and 10 a.m. KNSD

Age range: 8 to 14.

Format: Half-hour magazine out of Turner Broadcasting in Atlanta. Catchy graphics, quick cuts, bright colors along with well-spoken and ethnically mixed kid reporters. Headline news, issue stories, movie reviews, light features. “Sound Waves” segment gives kids their say about the issues.

Story Sampling: The signing of the Family Leave bill, with pro and con spokespersons. The start of the second LAPD trial in the Rodney King beating, how it differed from the first. United Nations attempts at formulating a peace plan for Bosnia, “but nobody’s sure if just adding some new lines to a map will stop the killing.” How children are being affected by the conflict there. Report on the Spam Festival. Letters from viewers. Movie reviews.

Highlight: “Kids Call” segment. Viewers call an 800 number to vote for or against such subjects as plastic surgery to improve looks, wearing fur, curfew for teen drivers, sex education in school. Results are given the following week.

Focus: “We wanted to show that younger people can make statements and interact with the events surrounding them,” says executive producer Jerry Krieg. “That they have a voice in all of this.

Krieg bases each show on “the news of the week. I try to pick the stories that show a trend or that are sort of the center of a larger issue, or that show the country or the world trying to work something out.

“If I think the story has reached a level of water-cooler conversation, then kids have heard a lot about it and are going to have a lot of questions about it, and I think we have to tackle it.”

In an effort to balance the show, Krieg says, “We try to have an international story, a story to lighten things up, a story that shows kids’ empowerment.”

Providing balance in content is another concern.

“If an 11-year-old is hearing something and having questions about it, I would hope when they tuned in (to our show), some of those questions would at least be addressed. If there’s not an answer, we say so.”

“MTV NEWS” and “THE WEEK IN ROCK”

Age range: Teens to 20s; core group is 18-24.

Format: Surprisingly straightforward for the network that changed a national culture with its trademark flash. Two-minute drop-in stories each hour daily, including breaking news and updates and a half-hour magazine format airing sporadically Saturday and Sunday.

Heavy social and political issues mix it up with youth trends and lots of who’s who and what’s what in rock. During last year’s election, a “Choose or Lose” theme encouraged young people to vote. This year, the theme is “Free Your Mind,” an exploration of racial, social and ethnic prejudices.

Hosts are Kurt Loder, author and contributing editor for Rolling Stone, and Tabitha Soren, who earned high praise, a high profile and a gig as contributing correspondent for the NBC “Today” show for her work as MTV’s political reporter during last year’s presidential elections.

Story Sampling: The victims’ side of the Spur Posse incident, where teen-age boys earned points for sexual conquests of girls. The second Rodney King/LAPD trial and how it differed from the first; hate rock vs. free speech; Clinton’s first 100 days; Prince’s announced retirement; Ted Nugent extolling the joys of hunting.

Note: MTV News has been tapped for broadcast syndication with a new, half-hour news and entertainment show to begin airing weekdays in the fall of 1994.

Highlight: Sober report on hate rock, with excerpts of material and comments from white supremacists in Germany, Great Britian and the United States. Nugent suggests continuing to let them go public with their views, “so we can keep an eye on them.” Black rap groups vent their own frustration; one rapper defends white and black hate rock as a social safety valve.

Focus: “We’re very fortunate in that we have a pretty good idea of who our audience is and what they’re interested in,” says Linda Corradina, head of MTV’s news department.

“It’s easier for us to come up with creative angles that speak directly to that audience because we don’t have to appeal to such a wide variety of tastes, education levels.”

An issue is covered “when it starts to permeate the popular culture and the lifestyle of our audience,” Corradina says. “If it affects them, there’s almost no subject we wouldn’t consider doing. We’ve done politics, the war in the Gulf, civil rights issues--it’s a matter of how interesting it is and how difficult it is to explain.

Not everything is grist for the MTV mill. Viewers probably won’t see a report on Social Security, “but we would try to explain health-care reform,” Corradina says, “focusing on what will affect young people and what it (might not) provide--psychiatric treatment, abortion, whatever the things are that young people might use.”

Corradina is aware of the criticism some have leveled at the show for a leftist bent.

“Some conservatives will write in that we’re liberal. We say if you look at the mix it is very balanced. The hard news will say here’s the issue, both sides, black and white. We might do that in the introduction, but pick a point of view to concentrate on. We’re not breaking the news, we’re focusing on the issues in the popular culture ...”

“Some people hear ‘MTV’ and put up blinders,” Corradina says. “Sometimes it’s frustrating , but I know we’re trying to represent all sides objectively.

“The good thing about it is we don’t have the time constraints or such a broad group to appeal to, so we have a lot of freedom to experiment. We’re on the air 24 hours. If we don’t get it right today, we get it right tomorrow.”