Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) is pleased to award this week’s GLAD[1] to Cape Argus for an article that celebrates four learners from a high school in Milnerton who won a prestigious competition.
The article titled, “Cape teens embody black girl magic by winning big in app ideation challenge” (07/05/2021) and written by Nomalanga Tshume details the story of four learners from Sinenjongo High School in Joe Slovo Park, Milnerton who out of 455 participants from the Western and Eastern Cape came out tops in the goIT Challenge hosted by Tata Consultancy Services and others.
According to the article which is published on the IOL website, the learners won with their app idea called the WO-MEN, an app that works to promote gender equality and create space for dialogue on gender related matters.
Speaking to the journalist, one of the learners, Lilitha Masizana from Sinenjongo High School, said, “We are so happy and excited to have won, and as a team we stand by what our app was designed to do – to promote gender equality and the acceptance of gender diversity, which includes a conversation platform to highlight the impacts of gender inequality.”
It bodes well for journalism that the journalist accessed one of the learners and had their views and opinions aired in a national publication. It is also good as it shows children doing innovative and human-centred campaigns and projects like promoting gender equality and raising awareness on the impacts of gender inequality.
Accordingly, MMA’s Editorial Guidelines and Principles for Reporting on Children in the Media highlight that “Children have a right to have their views heard on matters that affect them, so the media should try and include them.”[2]
That the journalist accessed the learners and included a picture of the four of them in their school uniform as according to the guideline mentioned above, enriches the article.
As such, we give a thumbs up to Nomalanga Tshume, Cape Argus and indeed IOL for publishing the article on its website.Do continue giving a voice to children including those who are excelling, especially when it is in their best interest.
By Azola Dayile
[1] GLAD’s are awarded to media for reporting on children responsibly and for accessing them
[2] http://54.217.43.239/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/mma_editorial_guideline.pdf