Children are rarely accessed for their opinions. Children were quoted directly or indirectly in only 13% of the items on children. This suggests that children are given a limited opportunity to represent themselves, to exercise their right to participation, and to express their views and opinions in matters that affect them.

Children in all of the workshops talked about how few journalists interview children themselves and ask them to tell their stories.

“I realised that we can understand what is going on around us. If it is about us we are the best people to say something about it.

”The names the children chose for their newspapers was interesting as the titles indicated that the children recognised that this was an inclusive forum through which they could express themselves. It also demonstrated strong ownership of the newspaper and recognition for what children are capable of achieving.

“We called it ‘Children’s Voices’. We made this newspaper and it is our voice.”

“We chose that because we put things that are happening in ‘Our World Today’, things that are affecting us."

When children were sourced, their comments were limited to sport, arts/culture, and war/conflict/violence.

The stories in which children appear are predominantly negative. The results show that almost 50%, or 1 in every 2 stories on children is negative. While it is a common feature of news to report on “bad news” stories such as crime, violence and abuse, this severely narrows the representation of children and helps locate children more often as victims in “bad news” stories.

The children in the workshops were acutely aware that most of the coverage afforded to children in the media tends to be negative:

“They only show bad things that happen to children. They never speak about good things that we do as children.”

“I feel sad because nothing is said about the good children do."

In addition, the children raised the fact that the media tends to focus on dramatic issues, such as child abuse, and may ignore other children’s issues. This was also reflected in the monitoring done by adult monitors, thereby indicating a fairly narrow representation of children in the news media, both in terms of topics and roles.

“There is always a story about abuse in the paper and when a child is abused then the story is discussed by people on the news but then what about other things that happen to children. Teachers beat children and they send them home if they have no uniform. What about those stories?”

In their own newspapers, the children strived to maintain a balance between positive and negative news stories, and often tended to juxtapose a positive item with a negative item. Even though they used negative images or stories, there was a distinct sense that these were employed in order to deliver more positive or meaningful messages. The children also demonstrated a need for news that is relevant to their lives.

Children’s stories do make big news. The results showed that the majority of children’s stories appear on the first 3 pages of a newspaper or in the first 3 items of a news bulletin. Almost 60% of these prominent topics were about crime, disasters/accidents, child abuse, and war/conflict/violence. It would seem that children are newsworthy when the topics are dramatic and extreme, e.g.:

Child who lost his limbs in a bomb blast in the Iraq war/invasion
• White pupil shoots black boy
• Teacher burns pupil’s genitals.

Such stories typically shock audiences and capture their attention. It is understood that the media must report bad news in order to raise awareness of particular issues in society, but when it is predominantly these stories that receive media prominence, it limits the way that children are represented in the media.

Children were represented as victims in 25% of the items monitored. The depiction of children as victims, either through language or the use of photographs can have the intention to elicit sympathy from readers/viewers, or to shock them about the particular event. That children are represented as victims ties in to the types of topics in which children are found i.e. crime, abuse, and disasters/accidents. It would seem that an additional component of children’s newsworthiness is their role as victims.

One of the effects of this representation of children is that children are primarily viewed as powerless, helpless, vulnerable victims.

Many of the children commented on the way in which they are frequently represented as victims.

“In every news bulletin there are children who are raped, street kids, orphans and more. This is bad for children.”

In their newspaper-making exercise, many of the children included articles about children who were represented as heroic or featured in positive roles. Many of the children selected an article about a street child who had been talent-spotted and had this to say:

“Still, even if you are poor it does not mean that you will never get anywhere in life. This girl she was poor, she had nothing basically, and now she is famous. The message is no matter what happens you can always become something in life.”

Issues that dealt specifically with children and gender were incorporated into the methodology. These dealt with common perceptions of boy and girl children, and how they were represented in the media. Notably, gender issues did not receive much coverage during the project. The only exception was the coverage of the “Take a girl child to work” initiative by a prominent mobile phone company. The initiative received a significant amount of coverage, although the gender issues surrounding it were only dealt with marginally. Emphasis was placed on the fact that the campaign was a mobile phone initiative and served largely as an advertorial. Although this was a corporate initiative, it was a missed opportunity for the media to explore the issues surrounding the socialisation of girl children and the occupations that they choose.

The first girl child conference held in Durban received only minimal coverage. The Star (02/04/03, p. 5) report only dealt with the occurrence of the event, while nothing about what the conference hoped to achieve was discussed. The report was, however, accompanied by a photograph of the girls working in preparation for the conference. This was a positive and empowering representation of girl children.

One article introduced the issue of media influence on children’s perceptions of their appearances. The Star (01/05/03, p. 11) carried a report: “When being yourself is just not acceptable.” This article was based on a story about an overweight 6-year old girl who attempted to cut the fat off her body as a result of the constant pressure of having to look thin. While the article attempted to tackle the issue of child obesity, the child was named and identified in the article, and a picture of her mother holding the knife that the girl used was also featured. This image served no purpose in the article, other than for dramatic effect. Although the issue of child obesity was dealt with in general, the media missed an opportunity to further explore the impact that media images have on children’s perceptions of themselves and how this affects girl and boy children respectively.

Addressing issues of gender, particularly the roles both girl and boy children play in society, would educate the public and challenge gender stereotypes. The media is in a particularly powerful position to assist in addressing gender stereotypes. By using language that empowers both genders, and by showing t he diversity of roles that men and women occupy, the media can help to bring about change in society.