Through Children’s Eyes: The Children’s Media Mentoring Project

This 19-page report was produced by the Children’s Media Mentoring Project (CMMP), started in 2003 by the Media Monitoring Project (MMP) of South Africa, on behalf of Save the Children Sweden (SCS), and in partnership with the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism (IAJ). This report shares the results of the 2006 Children in the Media Monitoring Project, and offers insight into how children would like to see the news, based on newspapers the children produced during a workshop in 2006. The report also reflects the results of a children’s monitoring exercise and the impact of the CCMP on reporting on children in the media. It concludes with some recommendations for child-friendly reporting.

The broad aims of the project are to raise awareness of children’s issues and improve reporting on children in the South African media. The CMMP approach involves working with children as monitors and with journalists as mentors. According to the organisation, it is a unique project in that, in addition to children’s participation being central, a group of journalists, who remain in the newsroom throughout the process, are selected as media mentors with the view to help them become ‘child friendly’ journalists. Through a number of training sessions and interactions with a group of schoolchildren, they are provided with specialist knowledge, skills, and experience on children’s issues and children’s participation in the news media. In 2006, the CMMP selected and worked with a group of nine journalists. In addition, they trained 60 schoolchildren from different schools in and around Johannesburg as child monitors, in order to build their critical thinking and reading skills and have them contribute to discussions around children’s representation and participation in the media. The children monitored print news media, the Sowetan and The Star newspapers, and two English television programmes, SABC Kids News Room (KNR) and e-tv news.

According to the report, children provide unique insight and a fresh look at news-making processes, for example, in determining the value of news and the kinds of sources which should be used. One of the key findings of the children’s monitoring is that children mostly feature in stories about disaster, accidents, and war, and that they are predominantly cast as victims. The report proposes that there should be more positive stories about children, especially girls, who mostly feature as victims. Boys feature significantly higher than girls in stories about children as heroes and children’s achievements.

The report also identifies photographs as an area of concern. Only 40% of the children liked the images that were used for the stories. The majority of children expressed dislike because they felt the photographs violated a child’s right to privacy. They also reacted negatively to images that depicted suffering too graphically.

The report states that the results presented and discussed demonstrate that it is not only important, but also very beneficial to reporting, if children’s participation in the decision-making process around news-making is taken into account. The analysis reveals that coverage improves after participation in a project like the CMMP. It also proposes that this can be as simple as taking a few extra minutes to ask child sources what they think of the news making process and how they would like to be portrayed, and building trust by treating them with respect and dignity.

The report outlines the following observations and recommendations:

• Stories about children are considerably weaker when they do not include the voices of children. Journalists can include voices and opinions of children to make stories stronger, more believable, and authentic.
• Names should always be changed and identities not revealed in order to protect vulnerable children.
• Sometimes it is clear to audiences that children have not been asked permission for their photographs to be taken or published. Children should always be consulted on whether, and how, they would like to be portrayed.
• Gender sensitivity needs to be incorporated into reporting on children. The “girls as victims” and “boys as heroes” stereotype should be avoided.
• Just because children are often vulnerable, does not mean that they are always helpless victims. They are also strong and resilient. A balance needs to be struck between reporting their vulnerability and not stereotyping them in the “victim” role.
• Photographs that are aesthetic and ethical can be taken. The challenge to take images sensitively enhances the creativity of the photograph.
• Generic photographs from the archive should be avoided. They raise ethical issues around informed consent for the particular story they accompany.
• A good and ethical story or photograph should always be child-centred and in the best interests of the child.
• In order to develop a child-friendly approach, journalists should familiarise themselves with the law, ethics, and rights around reporting on children.
• Journalists can benefit greatly from interacting with children in contexts like the CMMP.
• Sometimes headlines, captions, and generic photographs compromise the integrity of a good story. Sub-editors should be involved in issues related to reporting on children to ensure this is addressed.
• Editors can and should be drawn into the process. With editorial commitment, coverage of children improves significantly.