They’re not spared the Baghdad car bombs nor the “rotting bodies” the tsunami disaster left behind. There’s a sprinkling of the bizarre and a good dose of gore (the man who sucks milk through his nose and squirts it through a tear duct). And of course some solid “ag shame” factor: the dog who’s adopted kittens.
The lead story of the first edition gave children this no-nonsense version of one of the biggest stories of 2004: “Schabir Shaik is a businessman from Durban. He’s also Jacob Zuma’s friend and he gives the deputy president advice on money matters. A couple of years ago he was arrested and accused of giving Jacob Zuma money in exchange for favours that would help his business. So he’s been accused of fraud and corruption, and that’s what the Schabir Shaik trial is all about.”
Jimi Matthews, SABC’s head of TV news, explains the thinking behind such items: “News for young people is not necessarily only stories about children. One is often surprised at how informed they are. So the team is able to convey complex stories in a way that they are accessible to children.”
But the most striking feature of Kids News Room (KNR) is the vibrant voice of the children, in stories about their concerns and achievements: the coping strategies of orphans, the whizzkid whose invention has helped the blind.
“It talks about world issues and that is good,” says Daniel Basckin (11), offering his interpretation of the bulletins. Nomonde Ntespo (12) has a comment that approaches an insightful critique of mainstream news (the adult version): “I could see the children were all OK with being on TV, they had consented – which contrasts with the general way where children are often depicted as victims.”
Research done by the Media Monitoring Project (MMP) in 2003 shows children have a keen interest in news. Yet an analysis of 22,000 news items from 36 different media, including print and broadcast, reveals children feature in only 6 percent of news items, even though children under 15 years make up about 40% of the population. The research also shows that one in two stories featuring children relate to negative items such as crime or abuse, and that children are predominantly represented as victims.
In creating KNR, the SABC has responded to a challenge from children, who want the media to represent them in more positive roles.
“It’s exciting that there’s a new platform that deals factually with real issues, yet is funky and colourful,” says SABC Education’s Jacqui-Hlongwane-Papo, for whom KNR is a life dream come true.
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In addition to drawing on the MMP research and assistance from the Dutch-based Kids News Network, the team intends to keep checking with its audience what it wants. Show producer Robyn Smith says focus groups with children constantly reveal fresh angles. “We had thought they’d be interested in missing children, but this had little impact on them. They wanted to see lots of good news.”
For now, KNR relies largely on the re-versioning of incoming news. But sometimes completely new versions have to be scripted. “When we had a story about drought in Limpopo and implied pity for children who have to fetch water, the children revealed their issue was that they were scared of the crocodiles!” recalls Matthews.
William Bird of the MMP gives KNR a considered thumbs up. Bird is keen to see if KNR will get the level right. “The most difficult thing in journalism is to put complex things simply, without dumbing down,” he says.
As far as some members of the target audience are concerned, it seems KNR is getting the level about right. “Some of the things the presenter said was half on a child level and half on an adult level,” says Tankie Ngidi (12). “They didn’t talk to us as if we were babies – the stories were age-suitable for us. I’d watch it again,” adds Matthew Molver (11).