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| Methodology |
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The Empowering
Children & Media project monitored and analysed
over 22,000 items from 36 different South African
media, including print, radio and television media.
From March to May 2003, every item that contained
a reference to a child or children was monitored
by the MMP. Relevant information about the topic,
sources, representation, and other issues was captured
in a specially designed database.
The most exciting and innovative part of the project
was the participation of children themselves. The
children engaged in a parallel monitoring project
where they monitored the media for a two-week period.
This was done so that the children could express
their views directly, and so that they could see
for themselves how the media represented children.
Participation workshops were held in three provinces
(Eastern Cape, Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal), with
children from different backgrounds, race, sex and
age groups. The workshops gave children the opportunity
to share their perceptions of the way they are represented
in the media, what they thought was important in
the news, but most importantly, they were able to
develop critical media literacy skills. As an example,
the children were given the opportunity to make
their own newspapers. This exercise illustrated
that news is determined out of choice and that the
perspectives of journalists and reporters shape
the news.
In order to ensure that children would be able to
continue applying the critical media literacy skills
they had acquired during the project, they were
provided with solar- and friction-powered radios
from the Freeplay Foundation.
As a key element of the MMP’s partnerships
with the South African National Editors Forum (SANEF)
and other media stakeholders, the MMP will, during
2004, conduct specialist journalist training to
bring the diversity of children’s issues into
the newsrooms, address strengths and weaknesses
in reporting, and help to ensure that children’s
rights, including children’s right to participate
in and have their voices heard in the media, are
considered in the newsrooms. |
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