Adorned with photographs of children playing soccer, the article “Soccer festival pulls in the kids” (The Star, 29/09/08, p. 5), failed in all respects to present children’s views and opinions on an initiative they were directly involved in. The article deserves a MAD OAT Mad nomination because in failing to include children’s voices it undermines any efforts made to promote the positive contribution of children.

The article focuses on the soccer festival, dubbed My 2010 School Adventure, initiated by the 2010 local organising committee, in partnership with the departments of education and of sport and recreation. It explains that the aims of the initiative are to raise public awareness about 2009’s Confederations Cup and the 2010 World Cup, and also to increase children’s involvement in sports.

The article does start by introducing the story of one of the children involved in the initiative, including his name and photograph. However, he is not directly accessed for his views.

Given that the story is about an initiative involving children, it should have had one of the children profiled in the article quoted instead of the woman spectator. The woman is quoted as saying: “Where is Italy? (Is it in?) North America? I don’t think so. Europe? Yes!” (The Star, 29/09/08, p. 5). It is unclear why the journalist chose to quote a woman at one of the stands because the quote adds no value to a seemingly good story.

Children seem to make up the central aspect of the story. Therefore, The Star would have given appropriate weight, value and honour to the children’s priorities and interests had they included children’s views in their story.

MMP asked children their views on the article as part of the Media Monitoring Project (MMP)’s Empowering Children and the Media Strategy. Commenting on how the article made them feel, one child said, “Sad because they did not make time to talk to the children”. Asked about which rights the story protected and/or violated, one child said, “Freedom of speech. They must let children speak”. Another one said, “He did not interview any child” (Children’s Workshop, 29/09/2008). This clearly shows that children want to be listened to.

Children’s opinions on activities that concern them and their lives are of critical importance [1]. This is because the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), which South Africa is a signatory to, enshrines children’s right to participation [2]. Further, without hearing from children themselves about issues that concern them we cannot hope to device strategies and solutions that will address their concerns, and will constantly be struggling to make sense of the world without some of the vital information we need [3].

The Media Monitoring Project (MMP) maintains that journalists should ensure that children are fully involved in matters that concern them and their lives. They should encourage children to speak and they should listen so that when reporting they capture the children’s feelings. This, however, should be done in an ethical way [4].

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Footnotes

  1. Clacherty, G & Donald, D. 2007. “Child Participation in Research: Reflections on Ethical Challenges in the southern African context”. In African Journal of AIDS Research 6(2), pp.147-156.
2. Article 12 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) states that children have the right to express an opinion and to have that opinion taken into account in any matter or procedure affecting them. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.1989 (entered into force 1990).United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights: Geneva, Switzerland.
3. Ivan-Smith, E. & Johnson, V. 1998. “The way forward”. In Ivan-Smith, E & Johnson, V. (eds.). Stepping Forward: Children and Young People’s Participation in the Development Process. Intermediate Technology Publications: London.
4. See UNICEF and Media Monitoring Project. 2003. All sides of the story. Reporting on children: A journalist’s handbook.