Media monitoring training for children

A two day workshop on media monitoring is taking place on 16 and 17 April at Pelican Park Primary in Grassy Park, Cape Town. The workshop is attended by grade seven pupils from the school. The focus of the training is twofold: The first part looks at human rights, children rights and how they relate to the media. It also introduces the project to the children. The second part is about how news media work, how media can either promote or violate children’s rights in the way they report stories on children and how to do media monitoring.

In one of the exercises, children were asked to identify in pictures what they think are key problems facing children in South Africa. Issues that came up from group presentations include: substance abuse – children introduced to alcohol and drugs by other children and by parents, physical abuse, child neglect, teen pregnancy, child prostitution, rape, HIV AIDS, poverty, homelessness, children not heard, verbal and emotional abuse. They also identified what rights are affected by the problems. These were: the right to safety and protection, freedom of speech, right to shelter, health and access to education or school.

This activity is part of the Children and the Media programme which is implemented in South Africa and Zambia. In South Africa children in Cape Town and Johannesburg participate in the programme. The media monitoring is done by primary school children. Mrs Dudley, a teacher at the school, indicated that the children who participated in the programme in 2011 improved in their writing skills, their confidence levels had improved and also the way they communicate has changed. She noted that some of the new children in the 2012 group showed interest after interacting with the 2011 group.

The aim of the programme is to empower the media to utilise a rights-based approach towards reporting on stories involving children which will contribute towards the media’s positive portrayal of children. Assisting and encouraging media to provide spaces and support for children to express themselves and communicate their opinions through initiatives such as media monitoring of children in the news and how they are portrayed and these activities are carried out by children, adults and the civil society. The project also aims to build the media’s skills on children’s rights and reporting on children, through workshops, use of reporting guidelines and ongoing media monitoring.

The outcome of this project is that: Southern Africa society increasingly responsive to children’s rights. The main result for this area is an improvement in the coverage of children’s issues by the mainstream media. The number of articles posted on children, the quality of the articles, the voices of the children in the media and monitoring reports shared with the media on the quality of the reporting will be indicators. The programme is funded by the European Union.