Wits Accredited Certificate Course – Reporting on Children in the Media – (10 Day Course)

17 – 20 June and 23 – 28 June 2019

DOWNLOAD THE COURSE OUTLINE 

Entrance requirements: a minimum of 2 years reporting experience or a degree/diploma in journalism with a minimum of 6 months reporting experience

TO REGISTER: Contact Taryn Hinton at Media Monitoring Africa (082 940 6188 or taryn@hintonlee.co.za before 31 May 2019)

Reporting on children presents many legal and ethical challenges. The media constantly has to navigate their way through the murky ethical waters and fight against a general lack of knowledge and sensitivity when reporting on children.

The representation of children by the media is often in violation of the very children’s rights that they vow to protect. This module aims to challenge the common representation of children and their issues in and by the media, as well as opens up new possibilities for alternative representation of children. In exploring how children are represented, this module ensures that new skills are acquired and demonstrates how children’s rights can be respected in the media whilst ensuring journalism of the highest quality.

Some of the experts who lecture & participate in the course:

• Mrs Joan van Niekerk, Child Rights Consultant (Childline South Africa)
• Dr Ann Skelton, Director, Centre for Child Law
• Mr George Kalu: Child Participation Expert (Media Monitoring Africa)
• Mr William Bird, Director of Media Monitoring Africa
• Mr Lebogang Montjane, CEO of Isasa
• Diana Schwartz, Social Media Law Practitioner

The purpose of this course is to:

• make participants experts in reporting children;
• give participants confidence and skills when reporting on children;
• empower participants with knowledge and skills in children’s rights, ethics and the law surrounding children;
• help participants to identify and follow best practice when reporting on children;
• build the expertise of participants by providing them with both the theory and practical input in this area;
• help participants with their writing skills;
• contribute to the creation of an ethical media and human-rights centred approach to children’s reporting;
• advance the creation of a media that not only values but reflects the diversity of opinions, including the opinions of children.

Outcomes: this module will equip participants to:

• access experts (in a wide field) as well as children to ensure a diverse and informed perspective on issues that affect children;
• integrate the learnings and experience of other journalists and experts into the way in which participants report children’s stories;
• identify and unpack the effect that poor media coverage of children can have on children and their issues;
• develop practical strategies when reporting on children and ensure a human-rights centred approach to their reporting;
• present events in terms of issues and human interest to engage journalists;
• write clearly and effectively on children’s issues.

Assessment:  

The certificate course is a block release course and presented as a series of seminars. Participants are required to attend 100% of seminars and contribute to class discussions. Accreditation requirements are:

1. To take part in a diary meeting and present a story idea about children (20%)
2. To submit a long piece of work (created for the course and based on your diary meeting story idea) (40%), which will be externally moderated.
3. To take part in an on open-book examination to test knowledge and application of what has been learnt during the course to facts presented as a real-life case study (40%), which will be externally moderated.