Giving Children a voice in the media

Giving children a voice in the media

Children are often said to be the ‘future’ of the country. The fact is they are citizens today. The media must provide space for children’s expressions, needs and rights. It must draw up guidelines for the representation of children to prevent sensationalism, exploitation and invasion of privacy.

The mainstream media is fast becoming a full-fledged commercial enterprise -- quite often the mouthpiece of select political parties or fundamentalist groups. As the State, or elite sections of society, own most of the mainstream media, they frequently manipulate it to further their own concerns and ideologies.
With the media becoming an industry of sorts, its audience is being morphed into ‘consumers’. And in its attempt to become popular, the media increasingly sensationalises or toes the popular line -- at the cost of its integrity and credibility. In this cacophony, the voices of the marginalised, most of all children, are muffled.
In the media, news about children is either ‘cute copy’ or ‘sensational news’. Child victims are routinely written about in gory detail, violating all norms of decency and privacy. Children’s rights are hardly ever talked about, nor are children provided the opportunity to express themselves in the media.
There is no dearth of well-formulated international and regional declarations and resolutions (UNESCO website, January 2004, http://www.nordicom.gu.se/unesco.html) on what the media policy should be in relation to children. But these guidelines are usually violated, with the violators going unquestioned because neither the children nor their guardians have the means or the support systems to hold the media and society accountable.
Children around the world are denied access to information that has a direct bearing on their lives. Indeed, they are not considered capable of accessing or analysing information, forming opinions, expressing their thoughts, or taking decisions.
Although civil society movements have discovered the potential of the alternative media as a tool to reach out to a large number of people, to build public opinion and to gather support for their cause, but this has limited reach.
Considering that children constitute almost half the world’s population, their exclusion is a grave injustice. Lack of respect and recognition of children’s rights is a reflection of how the world views children. And we, the adults, stand guilty.
As an organisation committed to advocating children’s rights and ensuring that children realise their rights, The Concerned for Working Children (CWC) has, in consultation with children, evolved a media code of conduct. CWC has been working to empower marginalised children and their communities since 1980. The organisation attempts to ensure children’s participation in decision-making and governance on all matters that concern them.
In the course of two decades of work with children, activists at CWC encountered a serious lack of understanding, even indifference to children’s issues in the media. Children often have to deal with violations of privacy and insensitive and sensational coverage of their lives, which further victimises them.
CWC began holding discussions with members of Bhima Sangha (a union of, by and for working children in Karnataka, facilitated by The Concerned for Working Children, with a membership of over 13,000) and other children on how they would like the media to be. The children’s views were then discussed with media practitioners and adult organisations and finally put in the form of a Media Code to Realise Children’s Rights, which was released in 2005 at a conference on human rights and the media, in Bangalore.
Why a new media code to realise children’s rights?
The Indian mass media scenario, in the context of children, presents two sets of images. One is the violation of children’s rights through insensitive reportage and misrepresentation; the other, denial of space for children’s opinions on various issues. There are many forms of violations of children’s rights in some of the widest selling and most popular media fora.
Children’s right to participation is violated.
Children’s issues are never newsworthy unless they offer scope for sensationalism.
Children’s rights as ‘users’ and their right to information are violated.
Children are stereotyped as ‘victims’, ‘vulnerable’, ‘innocent’, ‘charming’ or ‘spoilt’.
There is lack of children’s programming in the media.
Children are rarely portrayed as protagonists.
Children’s opinions do not appear in the media.
Children are ‘commodified’, treated as objects.
All children do not have equal access to the media.
The media displays insensitivity whilst dealing with children.
Children’s contexts are negated.
Children’s consent is rarely sought before interviewing or photographing them.
Children are made to stage or say things that are not part of their reality or history.
Children’s right to privacy and confidentiality is violated.
Children’s right to dignified representation is violated.
To read more : http://www.infochangeindia.org/features410.jsp