Somewhat curiously

Posted by R. Berg July 31, 2003In reply to Somewhat curiously posted by Mei on July 31, 2003

Hi,

Could anyone tell me the meaning of the bracketed sentence?

'How come they call it news if it's always the same?' is a rather intriguing question posed by a child in a New Yorker magazine cartoon. [Somewhat curiously given the amount of public debate concerning the possible effects of television on young minds], investigations into children's engagement with televisual news in the household are few and far between .

Thanks a lot

Putting a comma after "curiously" would help. The writer means that the lack of research on children and TV news is strange ("curious") because people worry out loud, in public, about the effect of TV news on children.