somewhat curiously

[mei]

Hi,

Could anyone tell me the meaning of the sentence in bold?

'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 .

[Tdol]

It means that there has been little research into how TV news affects children, which is surprising given the amount of debate there has been about the other effects TV has on children, like the effects of advertising, violence, sex, bad language, etc.