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| Media’s coverage
of children |
Individual medium’s coverage
of children was assessed in terms of which medium
carried the most coverage of children’s items,
and where children were identified in media where
they should not have been.
Referring to the graph below, it can be seen that
of the 6% of stories on children, print carried
75% of the items, while radio and TV each carried
12.5%.
Of all the items on children, the Citizen carried
10%. Die Burger carried 9% of the items, and The
Star carried 8%. It was to be expected that print
media would contribute the most to the total number
of items on children as there are far more news
items in print media compared to radio and television.
However, it is important to look at the number of
children’s items relative to the total number
of items that they each carry in order to get a
better idea of how each medium represented children.
The graph below showed how children were represented
by television. Of the 5 prime-time news bulletins
monitored, it was found that 19% of SABC 2’s
Sotho bulletins contained children, followed by
SABC 1 with 18%. SABC 3 had 16%, while the SABC
2 Afrikaans bulletin had 15%. Of all the news bulletins
monitored, e-tv had the lowest number of news reports
in relation to children, with 13%.
The following graph indicates a closer analysis
of how radio stations represented children. The
highest news content in relation to children was
Y-Fm with 13%, Zibonele Fm with 12%, Radio PMB with
11% and P4 with 4%. The radio station with the lowest
news content in relation to children was Radio Sonder
Grense with 6%.
The following two graphs indicate how the daily
and weekly newspapers represented children. Of the
daily newspapers, the Daily News had the highest
representation of children with 8%, followed by
the Natal Witness and the Citizen with 7% each.
The EP Herald, Die Burger, Cape Times and The Star
were each close to 6%. The Beeld had 5% and the
Sowetan 4%, while Business Day had the lowest representation
of children with 1%.
Of the weekly newspapers, Ilanga had the highest
representation of children with 12% (Ilanga is slightly
different, however, as it is a bi-weekly paper).
This was followed by the Sunday Sun and Independent
on Saturday with 7% each, the Rapport, Saturday
Star, Mail & Guardian and Sunday Times with
6% each, the Sowetan Sunday World and the Weekend
Argus each with 5%, the Sunday Independent with
4% and lastly, the City Press with 3%.
Overall, the average content relating to children
for daily newspapers was 5.6% of the total coverage,
for weekly newspapers, children’s stories
comprised 6%, the average for radio was 9% and for
television, was 16.3%. Television had the highest
number of children’s stories relative to the
number of stories that they carry, while print had
the lowest number of stories on children relative
to the number of stories that they carry. |
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