Accessing children and allowing them to share their views and personal experiences on issues that affect them is one of the practices that the media rarely do. Therefore, when they do access children, the media must be commended. Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) awards IOL and SowetanLIVE a GLAD[i] for accessing children in articles celebrating some of the 2021 matriculants.
The IOL article written by Harvest Thwala and titled, “Matric who was sole survivor in a crash says support of friends and teachers carried him through” (19/01/2022) is about 17-year-old Luke Lotter of Crawford International College who passed his matric. According to the article, Luke passed despite the challenges he faced as a child, having had been left paralysed after an accident which claimed the lives of all his family members in grade one. The article reports that sport and Luke’s friends and teachers helped him overcome his stress.
Speaking to the journalist, Luke said, “When exams became stressful and deadlines started looming, my friends were always there to support me and at times l would go play basketball just to get my mind off things. I can say a strong support system and sport helped me a lot to stay focused.”
The journalist did a great job in publishing a success story about a child with a special need. Such stories are hardly published in the media. Further, by accessing him, the journalist gave the child an opportunity to have his voice heard in a story about him.
The SowetanLIVE article, “Twins lean on each other to bag 13 distinctions” (21/01/2022) written by Mpho Koka is about the Chilinkhwambe twins, Michael and Amanda from Pretoria who scored a combined thirteen distinctions in their matric exams. According to the story, the class of 2021 twins are among the top achievers at Maragon Mooikloof High School which scored a 100% pass rate.
A beautiful image of the twins in their school uniform accompanies the article.
The journalist went all out to access Amanda and Michael by interviewing and quoting them throughout the article.
Amanda is quoted in the article saying, “I am very relieved. It has been a long time waiting for the results. I was nervous but finally the weight has been lifted off our shoulders.”
By interviewing the children, both journalists adhered to MMA’s Editorial Guidelines and Principles for Reporting on Children in the Media.[ii] The Guidelines urge media to access children stating, “Children have a right to have their views heard on matters that affect them, so try and include them.”
MMA applauds IOL and SowetanLIVE for positively portraying children and accessing them in stories about the children. We encourage both media and journalists to continue reporting on children and giving them a chance to have their voices heard.
Written by Girlie Sibanda
Edited by Lister Namumba
[i] GLADs are awarded to media for reporting on children responsibly and for accessing them.
[ii] http://54.217.43.239/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/mma_editorial_guideline.pdf See p.3