This paper examines the manner in which the South African media report children during the annual traditional ritual of initiation (ulwaluko in Xhosa), a ceremony which involves circumcision and is regarded as a rite of passage from boyhood to manhood. Research data has been sourced from five newspapers: The Star, Citizen, Sowetan, City Press and Sunday Times.
Original Title
Analysis of Media Coverage of Children Using Traditional Initiation as a Case Study
This paper examines the manner in which the South African media report children during the annual traditional ritual of initiation (ulwaluko in Xhosa), a ceremony which involves circumcision and is regarded as a rite of passage from boyhood to manhood. Research data has been sourced from five newspapers: The Star, Citizen, Sowetan, City Press and Sunday Times.
This paper examines the manner in which the South African media report children during the annual traditional ritual of initiation (ulwaluko in Xhosa), a ceremony which involves circumcision and is regarded as a rite of passage from boyhood to manhood. Research data has been sourced from five newspapers: The Star, Citizen, Sowetan, City Press and Sunday Times.
Student Number: 397276 University: Wits University, South Africa Course: Media Research Supervisor: Natalie Ridgard Word Count: 8 962 Submission Date: 18 October 2008 Essay Topic: Analysis of the news media coverage of children using traditional initiation as a case study
Abstract This paper examines the manner in which the South African media report children during the annual traditional ritual of initiation (ulwaluko in Xhosa), a ceremony which involves circumcision and is regarded as a rite of passage from boyhood to manhood. Research data has been sourced from five newspapers: The Star, Citizen, Sowetan, City Press and Sunday Times. A total of 24 articles from these publications are being analyzed. In exploring the relationship between the media and children during reportage, this research uses a review of media literature and engages in a foundational discussion of theories of the media which relate to news values, and medias role in the promotion of democratic participation. These two components form the basis of the work that follows; the work of extracting meanings out of texts in the news articles under scrutiny. The use of existing legal instruments aimed at protecting children has also been employed for this work. This paper makes various findings which include that media often fail to protect childrens interests and also sometimes fall short in their attempt to take positive action towards children. There are some pockets of disinterest in childrens issues. Although there are instances where media work give commendable service to childrens issues, this study finds that these are scanty and often fraught with problems. Another basis of this paper is from the premise that merely reporting about children is not enough; media have a deeper social role to play. It has a duty to improve public life; It has a duty to fertilize democracy, to ensure that the field is appropriate for democracy to flourish, and to facilitate a scenario in which the public, including children, gets a meaningful opportunity to participate and that its voices are heard. Unless media take positive steps towards achieving this, the prevailing state of children shall remain grim.
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Contents
Introduction .................................................................................................................................................. 3 Aim and Rationale ......................................................................................................................................... 5 Aim ........................................................................................................................................................ 5 Rationale ............................................................................................................................................... 6 Literature Review Chapter ............................................................................................................................ 8 Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................................................... 13 News Values ........................................................................................................................................ 13 Public Journalism and Social Responsibility ........................................................................................ 16 Methodology ............................................................................................................................................... 18 Data Collection .................................................................................................................................... 19 Data Sampling ..................................................................................................................................... 20 Data Analysis ....................................................................................................................................... 21 Strengths and Limitations ................................................................................................................... 21 Validity, Reliability and Credibility ...................................................................................................... 22 Findings ....................................................................................................................................................... 24 Presentation of findings ...................................................................................................................... 24 Muting of child voices ......................................................................................................................... 25 Stereotyping ........................................................................................................................................ 28 Neglect of the interest of the child ..................................................................................................... 31 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................... 34
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Introduction Every year, generally between June and July, South African male children take part in a ritual of initiation. This ritual is culturally regarded as a boys rite of passage to manhood. This custom is very important for the boys because it earns them a place in society. The boys leave their homes to spend roughly 30 days of initiation school in the bush. The going away to the bush generally referred to as going to the mountain. Once there, the boys set up camp and are accommodated in makeshift huts made of twigs and sheets of plastic. It is a scenario of survival and the boys are made to collectively undergo prescribed hardship. This hardship and other teachings forge the boys into men. The custom is kicked off by conducting a circumcision procedure; the cutting off of the foreskin of the penis. The procedure in non-aesthetic and is conducted by traditional men who also oversee the whole process and give the all-important teachings to the boys in their journey to manhood. Year in and year out, there are tragic media reports of deaths, violence, forced circumcision and kidnappings of young boys all in the name of culture. Most of these reports made up of images, news stories, editorials and opinion pieces appear in the media play a vital role in relaying meanings and forming representations of these children taking part in the ritual. These media elements are important in shaping the publics understanding of the issues surrounding the ritual; to inform the debates relating to the social and political standing of children. And indeed, the public is a critical judge (Edwards, 2005). The purpose of this research is to investigate the manner in which the media reports the children who are involved in the ritual. The status of children in many parts of the world remains critical as a result of unsuitable social conditions, natural disaster, armed conflicts, 4
exploitation and hunger, among other things (United Nations [UN], 1989). According to the United Nations Declaration of Childrens Rights (1989), children enjoy special protection under special instruments linked to childhood. Now, because of this, those tasked with reporting children in the media are constantly faced with the herculean task of giving a voice to the children, of safeguarding and promoting their rights and ensuring that their actions are in the best interests of the children. Yet the biggest question is: in a news item, who determines that the scene, narrative, trail of interview and image is enjoyable or pleasurable? This is an issue one that sparks much debate. According to Gill Swanson (1989), this is more so because the elements contained in a news item provide an indication of how power relations stand; who has the right to speak and to who. But how do the South African media give a voice to children in initiation; how do they protect and promote their rights; and what is being said around this issue? This may be answered by examining the work of those involved in the construction of perceptions; the journalists who report on children.
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Aim and Rationale Aim The main aim of this study is to closely look at elements in the news reports that get published in print media about children involved in the ritual of traditional initiation. It will also explore how children are reported on in these news stories and also examine elements in them that relate to childrens rights; do media protect or contravene these rights? The aim is to assess how the media is doing in executing its important role of creating a platform that enables participation of the public and children in the democratic space and how it promotes the instruments, such as the Childrens Act and the UNCRC, put in place to advance democracy. Issues around circumcision and those that ensue as responses to news stories involving children participating in the ritual will also be investigated. This essay will also probe the degree of prominence of the childrens voices as subjects and sources in the text of news stories. It will also be important to examine the kind of language used in description of child initiates and their situations in the stories. More specifically this project aims to analyze the text and accompanying images of children in circumcision in articles in five main-stream, Gauteng-based newspapers for two months. Research Questions How were children covered in news media reports of the traditional initiation? How are issues such as stereotyping, including the voice of the child and child rights treated in the reporting? 6
What does this say about medias responsibility in promoting rights?
Rationale Many issues that arise in society are fertilized by the intervention of media as a forum that is embraced as a public arena that is deemed neutral for deliberation (IFJ, 2002). With no exception, traditional initiation is one of the issues that are of interest to society. This is where children, political players and leaders of the future, get socialized into adults. Therefore the public has a duty and an interest in the ritual. Like all matters that concern society, the initiation of children has a place in the media as the spot where its presence is overwhelming. And one of the consequences of its presence in the media is that it shapes public opinion and deliberation. As mentioned earlier that children have their own set of rights (UN, 1989), the rationale of this study arises as a result of an interest to measure how far media have gone in their goal to put children in the right (International Federation of Journalists [IFJ], 2002). South Africa, a relatively emerging and flourishing democracy apart from being one of almost all member states on earth that are signatories of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC) has shaped its policies to emphasize greatly on elevating those sectors of society that were previously marginalized. Children are a very important sector in society because they are tomorrows leaders and are of the age group that makes up a large proportion of South Africas population. They are also the most vulnerable members of our society. Yet they are inherently seen and heard from afar, exhibiting meekness that shows itself through any dialogue relating to media and the rights of children (IFJ, 2002). 7
The press is powerful, and its ability to communicate what is accurate or inaccurate is phenomenal. Yet, by virtue of its role as a public sphere, the media prompts the publics responses to the reality that it constructs or distorts thereof about anything, in this case about children and their wishes and feelings. The public, in this instance, could also mean the state, which in some cases may respond by reshaping policy or alter distribution of resources; to make sure children get what they are entitled to. It is because of this reason that the manner in which children in circumcision are represented in media deserve to be examined and the thematic elements that appear in these stories to be pin-pointed.
This research is carried out with a keen awareness of its limited scope. It is conducted on the basis that the findings will make a contribution to the oasis of information that is vital to inform us how South African media, as a public space for discussion, are behaving in their engagement with issues of children in traditional initiation.
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Literature Review The South African Childrens Act of 2007 stipulates that a child is any individual up to the age of 18. This is in line with the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC). In South Africa, boys who participate in the rite of initiation are predominantly of any age from early teens to about 18, although in some cases even boys aged 19 and older do take part. For purposes of this study, it is useful to review the work of researchers and Non-governmental Organizations that have examined the quality and quantity of news reporting on children and the socio-economic, political and cultural issue they face. The work of other researchers who have come before offer a background on which to build my research. In one study jointly conducted by the Childrens Institute and the Centre for Social Research in the University of Cape Town, Helen Meintjes and Rachel Bray (2005) analyzed South African medias reporting on children affected by HIV/Aids. They did this by doing a close reading of a total of 114 systematically chosen news articles carried in 21 English-medium newspapers over two specific periods. In another study, Emily Nwankwo and Arthur Okwemba (2002) set out to look at how Kenyan newspapers, the Daily Nation, the East African Standard and the Kenya Times covered childrens rights issues between June 16, 2000 and June 16, 2001. They also conducted a close reading and applied content analysis of articles from the three newspapers. Both these studies indicate that media generally gave lukewarm service to reporting on childrens issues. Meintjes and Bray (2005, p7) found that in covering childrens issues, media rarely took into account the real impact that the HIV/Aids epidemic had on children: Only two of a total of 114 articles analyzed made reference to children living with sick caregivers. Direct quotes from readings needs a page number Okwemba and Nwankwo (2002) observed that when 9
media did positively address childrens rights and had special programs for children, these programs remained skewed in favour of children from rich families, disregarding those from poor settings. They also note that media content focused on issues that did not relate to the majority of children living under poor conditions. On offering a critique of a specific story carried by the Daily Nation to mark the Day of the African child, Okwemba and Nwankwo found that the story did not appear to promote the rights of the child as contained in the UNCRC. When making reference to abuse the author did not indicate how the rights of the child should be guarded and protected. The story also had no direct quotes from the child which meant the childs voice remained unheard thus violating the childs right to express him or herself. Yet article 12 (respect for the views of the child) of the UNCRC seeks to guarantee the childs right to say what he/she thinks should happen and to have their views taken into account. What stands out in Meintjes and Brays study is their acknowledgement of the fact that as much as reporters and editors would personally wish to cover certain issues, they are constantly faced with limitations such as budgets, access to resources and literary freedom and their organizations influence as a result of the need to sell a product and stick to their chosen political position (Stein, 2002). Other previous studies have also offered a critique of medias failure to recognize not only the childrens voice but also the childrens explanation. Ennew (2003), building on Jill Swarts (1990) work based on street children in Johannesburg, emphasizes the importance of avoiding giving translation using adultist interpretations. She argues that what may seem to mean to the adult may be a totally different thing to the child. 10
In the two studies by Meintjes and Bray (2005) and Okwemba and Nwankwo (2002) there appears to be a consensus that media seem to look at childrens stories in some particular way, which is different to the way they consider other stories. Childrens news stories are generally poorly received yet the same could not be said of other news. Perhaps this is because childrens issues are often not as dramatic as other news such as political issues (ibid). Therefore media tends to ignore childrens news stories. However, media evidently take a keen interest on childrens issues when the children are involved in abuse and violence (ibid). Out of the 420 surveyed Kenyan articles, it was found that 157 were on child violence and abuse. On the other hand Meintjes and Bray (2005) found that in the articles they analysed the lack of interest to cover childrens issues manifests itself in the terminology that reporters use. The terms, which are sometimes even hurtful, make blanket descriptions of children, treating them as if they are the same even if they are in different situations. For instance the majority of the studied newspapers propagated the stereotype of the orphan as the victim of Aids or Aids orphan even if the issue at hand was not necessarily exclusive to children who have been orphaned as a result of Aids. This challenge could emanate from the very notion of the definition of childhood. According to Swart (2003) the very concept of The Girl Child is as fallacious as the assumption, for instance, that the girl who grows up to become Queen Elizabeth II can be imagined to fall under the same category as The Girl Child in rural Nkandla. The same could be said for something like The African Child. Because of this, problems may arise when actions of intervention are to be taken to address childrens issues if children are treated as homogeneous and their issues blanketed simply as issues of aids orphans, for instance. Although the Kenya study does not reveal this state of affairs, it does highlight the need for proper education of reporters on the UNCRC provisions. 11
This essay will argue that not only training should be provided, but robust advocacy that will result in reporters internalizing the UNCRC and holding the rights of the child close to their hearts is gravely necessary. Okwemba and Nwankwo, commenting on the Daily Nations story, do allude to the possibility that the writer knew little or nothing about the UNCRC. Article 4 of the UNCRC encourages the education of those working with and for children in order to set the stage for increased child participation to take place. Meintjes and Bray (2005) point out a very crucial aspect of medias tendency to use linguistic techniques to describe certain things and the potential danger of stereotyping, alienating and making children feel inferior or a threat to broader society. They use examples of text found in newspaper stories, such as mushrooming orphan numbers, Aids orphan explosions. In other instances, the media has been caught, albeit unconsciously, warning their readers: Aids orphans: Help us! (p17). This headline presents a serious ambiguity which on one hand may be construed to mean orphans are calling for help, or more disastrously, warning readers or the public about the problems we face as orphaning gets out of hand. Although the Kenyan study is not bold in its acceptance of the challenges faced by journalists as a result of media ownership and organizational culture, it does highlight a concern. It was found that although Kenyan media generally addressed childrens rights and had substantial programming tailored for children, the challenge was the imbalance of their benefit to children faced with poverty compared to those from well-to-do families. As a result issues of poverty naturally took a back seat. Yet the majority of children in Africa generally live under serious poverty conditions. The media, faced with commercial pressures, (Noam Chomsky, 1991), which are as real as newsroom pressures exhibited a tendency to feature childrens stories mainly on Sundays when children and parents are often together and the children will influence the parents 12
to buy the newspaper for them to read their sections (Okwemba and Nwankwo, 2002). This creates a problem because media is then seen as using children as marketing devices. In conclusion, Meintjes and Bray (2005) argue that the reading public seldom scrutinizes, not to mention dismantle, the messages within media texts. Therefore conveying the key message which in the case of this study could be the message of the importance of protecting the rights of the child in whatever way possible should be a priority for South African journalists. They concede that the use of news writing strategies that are staged and well-acted out, including employing sensationalist tactics and deliberate stereotyping is justified. The findings from both studies were arrived at via qualitative analyses of texts in print news media.
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Theoretical Framework This research hinges on theories of the media which serves as a foundation for the analysis to follow. The data to be analyzed will appraise the theories that I will discuss here. News Values Through the words of Walter Gieber (1964), Michael Schudson (2003) says news is what the newspapermen make it. Schudson also explores another theorists belief that news is the result of the methods that news workers employ (Fisherman, 1980). Indeed, journalists are the authors of every single word that appears in the papers of on screen as news stories. As part of their job, they literally make a selection of what appears and how it appears as they compose their publications (Schudson, 2003). This theory will help provide an understanding of why children get to be reported the way they are in the media. I found Schudsons work particularly useful and the points he makes are adequately relevant for the kind of work that I am doing for this project, which is why I have relied on him quite a lot. Far from being the reflection of reality, news is a constructed representation of the world (Schudson, 2003). As earlier stated, in constructing the representation of the world, journalists make selections and take decisions, rendering the picture they seek to paint subjective. Considering the work of David Manning White who studied a wire editor at an American newspaper for one week, Schudson (2003) illustrates how highly subjective, how based on the gatekeepers own set of experiences, attitudes and expectations news really is. Some of the reasons given by the editor for rejecting some of the stories were not bright (Schudson, 2003, p177): not enough space, dull writing or drags too much. Others were plainly political: propaganda, or he is too Red. Page number is needed for a direct reference 14
It should follow therefore that given these reasons stated above, which are subjective, there would be some variation among wire editors if a larger sample were to be studied (Schudson, 2003). But Gieber found a differing pattern in another study of 16 wire editors in Wisconsin. They all selected their news the same way. They were not doing politics; they were doing a systematic task (Schudson, 2003). However, focusing only on the editor, who is the gatekeeper, undermines the process of looking at the whole chain of news production, yet news production is more complex than gatekeeping (Schudson, 2003). One more sophisticated approach to news values that relates to the resultant news packages is the view of political economy. Some time ago, Graham Murdock (1982) said this is linked to the structure of the state and the economy, and the economic foundation of the news organization (in Schudson, 2003). Murdock (1973) warns, however, that this link is not simplistic. Rather it is oblique to day-to-day journalism, Schudson (2003) notes that Curran et al (1980) find that advertisers find value in publication that are attractive to small, concentrated elite audiences; hence chain ownership becomes a commercial necessity. Schudson (2003) also notes that some scholars suggest that corporate ownership and commercial organizations simplistically compromise the democratic promise of public communication (McChesney, 1997). Yet Schudson himself is actually wary of the absence of commercial organizations or their total domination by the state. The second approach is borne out of studies of sociology; the attempt to understand how journalists professional input is squeezed by organizational and occupational demands (Schudson, 2003). He says journalists operate within a set of real constraints, the pressure of time being one of them. He laments that they have to write accurately about real occurrences in the 15
world; whoever planned their occurrence and whichever way and time these came to the medias attention. Other writers observe that the ability to report remotely, using telefax and email, has led to more shorter stories on timely events rather than longer more in-depth stories and less time-based work. This has the potential to compromise the quality of news, suggest Weaver and Wilhoit (in Schudson, 2003). This may be the same manner in which news involving children is treated. Schudson notes, however, that journalists are individuals capable of making their own judgments as opposed to operating robotically. However, he also concedes that, if theorists are right, it does not matter who the journalists are and how judicious they wish to be in observing professional precepts, they will quickly be socialized into the values and routines of daily journalism. There exist signs of a shared professional culture among journalists (Gurevitch, Levy and Roeh, 1991). News is constructed; socially constructed. Schudson builds on Harvey, Molotch and Marilyn Lester (1974) to define news by the manner in which the news organization becomes aware of it. If an event is planned by one person or organization and then promoted as news by its planners, this is a routine news item. If an event is planned by one person and then promoted by another as news, it is a scandal. If it is unplanned, it becomes an accident. (Harvey, Molotch and Marilyn Lester, 1974) According to them, the news media represents not a world out there but the actions of those who have the power to determine the experience of others. Those advocating for the recruitment of more women and minorities into the newsrooms hold the belief that the individual values that reporters bring to the job from their social backgrounds will dye the news they produce (Schudson, 2003). Schudson talks of a fear in the United States that the burgeoning number of journalists who report by fax and email and access databases from 16
their computers will be disconnected from direct contact with the poor whereas the hope was that bringing in the minorities would help the press responsive to a broader social spectrum. Another critical aspect of the analysis of the social organization of the process of news production is the reporter-editor relations. Even though there have been suggestions of ways that reporters may engage in self-censorship when they are out to please an editor, sociological research has particularly succeeded to substantiate the claim (Schudson, 2003). Another important theory that enhances the foundation of this research is the notion of public journalism as discussed below.
Public Journalism and Social Responsibility Media have a duty to serve society. It is Theodore Glassers (1999) belief that public life (which includes children) needs to improve and media have a responsibility to renew their commitment to democracy and democratic inclusivity. Over and above reporting on the days happenings, according to Arthur Charity (1995, p.14), media have to take a step further to make the press more relevant to people as citizens. Davis Merritt (in Glasser, 1999) defines the press in the notion of public journalism as a fair- minded participant in a community that works a rational judge who has no interest in the final outcome, but is concerned that the process progresses as the participants agreed that it should. Therefore, the manner in which media conduct their refereeing of children events is a critically important aspect of public journalism. The UNCRC, Constitution and Childrens Act are the precepts of the reporting process in this case. 17
Charity (1995), an obvious proponent of public journalism, warns journalists, however, that they should not degenerate into agents of reform, but should focus on creating a platform where citizens can assemble and engage with one another in a rational and constructive way. In essence, the argument here is that media are not expected to provide solutions to societys problems, rather to set the stage for democratic inclusivity to be possible so that citizens are able solve their issues. Glasser (1999) uses Michael Sandels critique, in which expresses a belief that public journalism offers no conception of what democracy demands; instead it is concerned with what democracy is. Because of this, Glasser (1999) fears media may be incapable of promoting social change. Technological developments in media have been accused of curtailing the press performance in meeting the social and moral needs of society (Denis McQuail, 1987). This is echoed by Nick Davis (2005) who says modern journalists are virtually chained to their keyboards and no longer get out there to dig deeper for information. As stated in earlier chapters, previous research shows that childrens stories rarely rank high up in priority. Even if they are touched on, it is literally scrapping over the surface. Yet one of the fundamental principles of a socially responsive press is that it has specific obligations to society (McQuail, 1987). These obligations can be fulfilled by setting high professional standards of informativeness, truth, accuracy, objectivity and balance. However, advocates of public journalism seem to think that truth, accuracy and balance are not enough. They believe that journalists must explore issues deeper and must strive to cast the net wider. In this way, childrens issues will have a better chance in the media; the public arena for these issues to be discussed. 18
Methodology This research is based on aspects of the qualitative methods. These methods of research are techniques which enable a researcher to, among other tasks, conduct a critical evaluation of texts; to understand the nature and attributes of text. However, it is not confined to this it is a much wider field. Jane Stokes (2003) explains these methods as being primarily made for understanding meaning and interpretation. They help a researcher to determine how audiences understand media and texts. For the specific purpose and scope of this research, I employ certain elements of the qualitative methods to examine texts to draw manifest meaning. As stated in earlier chapters, the aim of this study is to investigate the nature of reports carried by South African news media on children taking part in the tradition of initiation. In other words the answers to my research questions lie in texts. To answer these questions, the most appropriate methods to use therefore are the qualitative research methods, which means I shall do a close reading of news articles and accompanying pictures, opinion articles and letters to the editor. These were published in the period between July 1, 2009 and August 31, 2009. Using the qualitative methods is in keeping with the nature of my research, which hinges on studying the character of media reports. This research technique will enable me to strip down the mechanics of text and images. Texts are made of several dimensions and layers but for the purposes and scope of this project I will only be looking at manifest content. 19
In my analysis of the texts, I will be dong a close reading, looking at how language is used; how the children are described; and who speaks, where in the reports they speak and what they say. I will dismantle sentences and look at the words, analyze sentences and scrutinize paragraphs to determine what is being said and what is not being said. Data Collection An Internet keyword search using the words circumcision and initiation search yielded several results of articles talking about the traditional initiation of children, but these were problematic. A good number of them were not dated and as opposed to articles in print media it proved difficult to determine how these articles were in the publications in which they were carried. For example there is a possibility that on the print publication an article was packaged with a picture but not when it was republished on the online version of the publication it was not accompanied by one. For purposes of this study, packaging of articles is one of the key issues in the quest to see how children were reported; were articles accompanied by pictures, what did the pictures look like. Because of these challenges, I opted for hardcopy newspapers. Wits Universitys William Cullen library provided me with copies of five mainstream Johannesburg-based newspapers, namely, Citizen, The Star, City Press, Sunday Times, and Sowetan published from July 1 to August 31, 2009. The Star, Citizen and Sowetan are daily newspapers whose coverage is nationwide whereas the City Press and Sunday Times are weeklies which are published on Sundays. The period from July 1 and August 31 wee chosen after an investigation revealed that news articles of the childrens initiation started trickling into media pages during July and continued to take space 20
in the media until early September. In order to avoid having to deal with big chunks of information, I opted to confine the sampling period to between July 1 and August 31. These copies carry substantial amounts of text and images are generally readily available as compared to other forms of media. I manually collected clippings of these articles and images by physically searching page by page. Data Sampling Although the initiation season normally runs from June to July and sometimes encroaches into August, my sample is taken from July to August because news articles start trickling in when the event is already well under way. Also, because the debates that ensue in relation to the custom, articles continue to pour in even after the event as my initial investigations revealed. These specific newspapers were chosen because looking at the resources available at the time of research they proved to be more easily accessible, yet they were also more suited for this research because they have national reach and carried fairly substantial amount of the reports being studied. My profiling of these newspapers has been informed by the 2007 All Media Product Survey (AMPS). The most important question for this research is how children were reported during initiation and how issues surrounding that were debated, so I decided to include letters to the editor as part of how the media reported and debated the unfolding events. With this in mind, I found a total of 37 articles on initiation from the five publications. However, 13 of those were not necessarily speaking about the children themselves, but the tradition of initiation in general, so these articles fell off. 21
Data Analysis The general approach for analysis of the text and images is based on aspects of thematic content analysis. I conducted a close reading in order to examine recurring themes in each of the final sample of my research material. The data will be classified (Creswell, 1998) in terms of the patterns that characterize each article and single-instance occurrences to seek meanings in relation to each case. As such, I will be critically looking at the language being used, examining quotes to see who is being given a voice and what this voice says. Also I will be looking at whose voices are muted. I will also comb the text to see whether media reports do promote childrens rights and how they go about doing so. Images will also come under scrutiny as I consider who is in the pictures and how these pictures were taken. I must state though that the scope of this study, and owing to the academic level at which it is being conducted, is confined to reading for manifest content only what can be read off the surface.
Limitations This study is conducted with full awareness that children participating in the initiation ritual have been reported about in other forms of media. Because this works focus is limited to print media, specifically the five newspapers being studied, this makes the data sample to be too small. This is especially so because children may have been reported differently in other newspapers and other forms of media and not necessarily the same as this study will find. 22
Another limitation that I readily acknowledge is that the researcher cannot claim lustrous credentials and experience in the field of research. Although due care has been taken to avoid this, being a player in the production of news could result in the researcher introducing biased opinions. Also, as an inherent factor of qualitative research methods, there is no single truth to be discovered; it is possible that other researchers may hold differing views, with each of these holding equally binding authority (Creswel, 1998).
Validity, Reliability and Credibility The next step was to ensure that the information presented in this research as a data sample is reliable and valid. Sapsford, in (Stokes, 2003), explains the concern of validity as one that relates to the question whether the material presented as evidence has the weight of the conclusion that is drawn from it. Will the methods used give the same result again and again, no matter who is using it? According to Stokes (ibid), accurate and properly done research addresses the issue of reliability. This research was conducted using newspaper text and images as data sources. Long-established conventional research methods as laid down in the work of acclaimed authors such as Stokes (ibid) and Boyatzis (1998) were applied. In that case the research can be deemed to be measuring what it is supposed to be measuring (how news media reported children in traditional initiation). Anyone else following the steps that this researcher has followed will arrive at a similar set of findings. An effort has gone into this project to ensure it is appropriately conducted. To take this 23
a step further, the researcher has also attempted to ensure accuracy by physically conducting his own photocopying and tagging of the clippings from the newspapers.
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Findings A total of 24 newsprint articles from five newspapers, namely The Star, Sowetan, City Press, Citizen and Sunday Times, published in the period beginning from 1 July and ending on 31August 2009. This section of this project is an overview of the data sourced from the newspapers named above. This data is grouped in themes which were identified in the investigation of how the print news media reported children involved in the ritual of traditional initiation, which also involved circumcision.
Presentation of findings Summary of findings: Three themes came out of the data: a) Muting of child voices This is the exclusion of the childs say in a story that involves the child and in some instances the child is the primary source of the story. This is in the form of the absence of direct quotes from the child. b) Neglect of the interest of the child This is the failure to put the interest of the child above all else, and the failure to promote the rights of the child in sheer contrast to medias social duty to catalyse democracy and improve the publics life. c) Stereotyping of the child This theme resulted from the descriptions of children in the media stories. Stereotyping paints children in certain circumstances using words that result in them getting new identities, some even hurtful and with a potential to dehumanise them. 25
Prior research and the theory discussed in the framework chapter aided the development of codes for these themes. I found that the themes that came out of the two prior research studies that I have reviewed were compatible with my study (Boyatzis, 1998). The thematic codes were perfectly applicable to my raw data and emerged as I mechanically worked through each article, zooming in on the words, the language being used and what was being said and by whom.
Muting of child voices Article 12 of the UNCRC expressly calls for the respect of the childs views. Any decision that may be taken and which affect the child should be taken in full consideration of what the child feels because the child has a right to say what they think should happen (UNCRC). This section will discuss the articles that this research has found do not give children a chance to voice their opinion yet the issues covered in the articles relate to their issues. Out of the 24 news articles under review, only six allowed children space to add their views and express their feelings on how taking part in the ritual affects them personally. Consider for instance the four articles published by The Star, (July 1-7, p2) which reported on the rising death toll of children taking part initiation in Eastern Cape. None of those stories catered for the voice of the child yet the death of the children were as a result of the conditions that the boys are subjected to, some horrifying. Interestingly, these articles are all that The Star reported on the children taking part in the ritual during the period being reviewed. Other articles came from the Citizen (July 7&10, p7) which are also silent on what children think and feel about the things that are happening to their peers. As observed in the data, the journalists mainly opted to speak for the children. When it was not the journalists speaking, it was the health 26
department officials, the police or the traditional leaders. Regrettably in all likelihood, they failed to express the views of the child. The articles merely focused on how many had died and how many were receiving treatment; no individuality of these children was considered. Another observation is that none of these news stories were accompanied by images in both publications. The Star, for instance ran only these headlines during the entire initiation season: Teen dies after botched circumcision (July 1, p2), Boy dies following illegal circumcision (July 2, p2), Circumcision death toll 24 after boy dies (July 3, p2), Circumcision death toll rises to 36 (July 7, p2). The body of these articles do not have names of the children involved and the circumstances of their death or the real conditions of those that are in hospital. As a result, a few of the articles analyzed painted a picture of what these children go through, what their experiences are in the mountain other than that children are dying. Meintjes and Bray (2005) accuse the media that in covering childrens issues, they rarely took into account the real impact of the situation children face. This research has also made a similar observation. Three of the five analyzed publications seem to have been predominantly interested in the statistics of those children who had died or those fell sick while in participating in traditional initiation than what was really happening to them as individuals. In the articles, children have no say in the manner they are circumcised or how the whole process is conducted. The effects of medias attitude of general disinterest in childrens issues were displayed in the Sowetan. This publication did not carry a single textual report specific to children in initiation during the period that is being reviewed by this research. As a result, public opinion, in the form of letters to the editor (July 2 & August 24), mainly focused on issues of the tradition of initiation and not the key participants the children. They did not even pretend to be speaking on 27
behalf of the children. Only one letter zoomed in on children: Initiation is for teens, not children (July 28, p12). Indeed, as Schudson (2003) considers, journalists literally make a selection of what stories appear and how they appears as they go about the production of their publications. This scenario also seems to reaffirm Okwemba and Nwankwos (2002) findings that the media are more readily available to cover children when they are in hardship There was not a single story that was a feel good; one that celebrates the achievements of those children who survive the mountain. Or talks about the experience from a positive point of view Media also seem to be conflicted in its approach to the coverage of children. Offering a critique in a Citizen column, Stephen Mulholland decries the fact that media seem to place similar childrens issues at different levels of the agenda (July 22, p12). He laments that the Stars coverage of initiation (bullying) in private schools indicated that the paper treated these news stories as massive news worthy of the sort of blaring front-page headlines that might greet and outbreak of war whereas those of traditional initiation which are characterized by tragic and awful deaths were relegated to minor fillers. It is therefore difficult to avoid making the assumption that Curran et al in Schudson (2003) are right in accusing the media of acting in accordance with the wishes of advertisers who find value in publications that are attractive to small, concentrated elite audiences. A contrasting picture of the prevailing theme of muting childrens voices was provided by articles in the Sunday Times (July 19 & August 9) and City Press (July 19 & 26) shed some light by making use of the voices of the affected children. The articles displayed that a story takes a fresh perspective when players in the story are allowed to insert their voices. Even the space that these stories were allocated on the pages, especially in the City Press (full pages), allowed the 28
children to speak out. Be that as it may, there were shortcomings that this research observed and these will be discussed below. Stereotyping As Meintjes and Bray (2005) observed that the theme of childrens innocent victimhood sits at the heart of South African print media, this section of the research has also found this to be evident in the data that was analyzed. Children involved in initiation are made to appear as victims of initiation. It must be said though that chances are good that the journalists do not mean harm when they use the descriptions that they use when reporting children (Meintjes and Bray 2005). More often they mean well. Take the City Press opinion article under the headline Cruelest Cut for instance (July 19, p22). The author might have innocently set out to argue the legitimacy and relevance of the initiation ritual but he arrived at a point where he portrayed children as victims of an idiotic ritual who die for the removal of a piece of skin (referring to circumcision). This is an example of media setting out to undertake a social responsibility role, and instead achieving the contrary. The word idiot denotes a stupid person; a fool; a person with very low intelligence, an imbecile who cannot think or behave normally. Clearly this motivates an act of judgment and blame. This judgmental word also possesses the potential to contrast children; those who willingly and enthusiastically take part in the ritual and those who do not. It has the power to create tension among children when you consider the implied intellect of those children who escape going to the mountain or who opt to be circumcised by medical doctors. The use of this strong word could also be interpreted to mean those children who die do so in vain and those who participate in this ritual are potential victims foolishly dicing with death. Those who are 29
befallen by the misfortune of being mutilated and physically scared for life will suffer double jeopardy. This especially so with the use of the word shame when he describes the circumstance of these survivors: They live in silence and shame. The word shame does not benefit the dignity of those who bear the scars of botched circumcision. The word itself makes connotations of disgrace and a need to feel embarrassed. Consider two City Press articles about Mfundiso Nqwarhube and his 18-year-old brother, Mawandle, who are captured in hospital and Mbedesho Nogoji, who died trying to fulfill his dream of becoming a man (July 19, p27). If the article discussed above which appeared in the same publication on the same date, is taken into consideration, then there is a serious contradiction in the way this paper handled its reports of children in circumcision. In the article about Mfundiso and his brother, the two boys are portrayed as heroes who, despite their private parts being hurt and risking amputation, they are eager to see the ritual through because, its our culture. But the headline, Mutilated in the name of culture is problematic because it seems to validate the earlier article that dismisses the ritual of circumcision as idiotic. And the journalists decision to name the two boys has potential ramifications on the boys lives. Although the report gives hope that they will regain use of their penises, the likelihood of them being viewed as victims of initiation rather than heroes is exacerbated by the headline. The same scenario was evident in the article in the Sunday Times (July 19, p11). In the article headlined Circumcision Horror the boy whose rotted (sic) genitals literally fell of hours earlier lies in his hospital bed. The author chooses to describe the state of the teenagers genitals using the word rot. Besides it being inaccurate, the adjective has a remarkable impetus in its 30
meaning: decayed, having gone bad, unpleasant and possibly smelly. It does not portray the child in good light and aggravates the implication that he is a victim. It is dehumanizing more than anything else. Even though the picture of him is taken facing away, the journalist goes ahead and names the teenager in the article. This is an unethical practice because the Child Care Act stipulates that the identity of the child concerned should not be exposed publicly. Also as stated in earlier chapters that Article 3 of the UNCRC calls for the best interest of the child to take precedence over all. Ignoring this, as the journalist did, amounts to neglect and could fertilize the chances of the child being stigmatized and it constructs an image of helplessness, hence a need to be saved. The recurring use of the word initiate also takes away any likelihood of recognizing these children as individuals. In doing this, the media then runs the risk of relegating their responsibility to treat these individuals as children who are entitled to special protection. Only 12 of the 24 reviewed articles referred to children as boys, kids, children or aspiring men. The Circumcision Act outlaws the circumcision of children less than 12. Yet City Press carries a picture, taken in an up-close manner, of an eight-year-old boy. The headline of the article, My men make proud, creates a contradiction because the mood of the story is meant to coerce the reader to share a feeling of pride that the boy has become a man at such a young age, yet the same page carries an article announcing that it is illegal for this boy to have been circumcised. In fact, labeling an eight-year-old a man has the potential of creating an identity crisis for the child. In the background is a crowd of other children who look the same age as him. It does not benefit the childrens interests to be publicized in association of or as victims, even subjects of a crime. Also the boy it would seem the photograph was meant to portray the child as a heroic warrior at 31
his age. But this attempt seems to have resulted in an image of a child in helpless misery and therefore appears as a victim of a ritual which, in terms of the law, he should not even be attending. This is an issue of ethics on the part of the photographer. The Sunday Times carries a picture of boys taking lessons on health issues which is unrelated to the article headlined, Circumcision Horrors (July 19, p11). Yet the picture is fully embedded in the article. This is problematic because at a glance this layout has a great potential to suggest that these are the boys who have been mutilated thus stigmatize them. Yet this is just a case of unfortunate proximity of the picture to an unrelated matter. This observation is especially backed by the argument advanced by (Meintjes and Bray 2005) that the reading public seldom scrutinizes, not to mention dismantle, the messages within media texts. It is therefore easy for the public to make assumptions.
Neglect of the interest of the child In the theoretical framework chapter, it was stated that the media has a duty to serve the public (Glasser, 1999). The public includes children whose lives must also improve (ibid). This section discusses the observation of the theme of neglect of the interest of the child. Interestingly none of the stories in the analyzed coverage of children in traditional initiation made a single reference to any section of the UNCRC. This is in the same light in which Okwemba and Nwako (2002) complain that in a Kenyan newspaper report commemorating the Day of the African Child which made reference to abuse, the journalist failed to indicate how the rights of the child should be guarded and promoted and protected. This research has also found that even those stories which were reporting on the abuse of rights did not make any mention of those rights. It must be 32
remembered that the promotion and protection of rights is a fundamental aspect of nurturing democracy, which is one of medias duty to society. The Sunday Times article headlined Circumcision Horror and was about a boy whose genital organs had fallen off and who was telling a story of how he and other initiates were beaten up and forced to wake up at 3am: It was raining outside and very cold. We were told to get out of the hut and stand naked outside. We were suddenly beaten up and then made to sing and dance (July 19, p11). This boys younger brother died while he held him in his arms. Needless to say, there was abuse of human and child rights in this scenario, but nowhere did the journalist attempt to bring this out as the main and most important theme of the story and therefore squandered an opportunity to promote the childrens rights. Whereas Article 4 of the UNCRC says all available measures should be taken to protect the rights of the child. This amounted to abdication of public duty on the part of the journalist whose other purpose is to create socially positive outcomes. A big number of the stories reviewed indicate that children go through suffering, violence even death. This gives more weight to the need for media to create awareness and promote childrens rights. But this is absent. Even when some of the publications make mention of the Circumcision Act which among other things bans the initiation of boys younger than 12, they do so without being specific to the legislation. Only seven stories mentioned the existence of the Act, of these only one article by City Press drilled down the provisions of the Childrens Act of 2005 (July 26, p10) and actually engaged officials from the South African Law Reform and the social development department, who expressed their desire to have the Circumcision Act repealed because it clashed with certain sections of the Childrens Act. 33
An article in the Citizen, Zim boys forcibly taken to initiation (July 10, p7) is about five boys which were kidnapped while they were in the course of employment, loading sand onto a truck after they were hired by a certain businessman in Limpopo. Once again, the journalist relinquished a chance to raise awareness that a crime had been committed on children; that of kidnap and commercialization because the kidnappers were reported to have later demanded R3 750 from the businessman to secure the childrens release. Instead, what seems to have been the prime angle of the story was that these children were Zimbabwean. This is evident in the perpetual reference to them as Zimbabweans. This reference appears five times in a seven-paragraph story. Reading from the mere mention that these were young boys and were employed raises a suspicion that a case of child labor is also what the journalist should have explored to promote childrens rights.
Discussion of Findings Childs voice: As this research had set out to investigate how children were covered in news media during traditional initiation, it has emerged that children are largely not allowed to speak in the media. They are not given the space to express their views regarding the circumstances they find themselves in as a result of taking part in the ritual despite that some of their circumstances involve horrid experiences. However, this study has also found that some media do make an attempt to address this shortcoming. Interest of the child: Media are not doing enough to fulfill their duty to ensure the terrain is level enough for democracy to flourish. Childrens rights seem not to enjoy the top spot on medias 34
priority list whereas the protection and promotion of rights is the cornerstone of a healthy democracy. Stereotyping: The manner in which media generally report on children in initiation is beset with problems. Descriptions of children result in creating negative representations of them. These descriptions have the potential to do more harm than good. This results in other problems such as stigma and so on. Conclusion This research aimed to determine the manner in which the media reported children participating or involved with traditional customs by making use of annual ritual of traditional initiation which entails circumcision. A total of 24 articles from five Johannesburg-based newspapers, namely The Star, Citizen, City Press and Sunday Times, were analyzed in order to extract themes that were drawn from the language that was used in the texts. What was also looked at was who spoke in these articles, what words were being said and on whose behalf were these words being said. The main objective was to use the meanings that were learnt from the texts to determine how South African media were treating issues of children in relation to the necessity to protect these young lives and their rights and how the media was discharging its social responsibility. Simplistically, this is a responsibility which means media should provides information to the public as a service. But in a more complex way, as earlier chapters have noted, reporting on events involving children is not enough. Media have a role to play in the improvement of the publics life. They have to ensure that the field is appropriate for democracy to flourish, that public has a chance to participate and its voices are heard. 35
In keeping with the findings of other researchers, this project notes that the manner of coverage of children generally remains a concern. Although trying, the media, as seen in the previous chapter, have yet to do enough to report children in a manner that includes them in the democratic space, in a manner that does not expose them to undesirable elements but rather one that recognizes them as individuals with rights. Firstly it is a tragedy that out of 24 media articles only six gave a voice to children, yet they were subjects and sources of these media stories. The findings of this paper revealed that some of the media is disinterested in childrens rights, perhaps because commercial interest took priority. This research also exposed that childrens stories were often relegated to filler material, fit for obscure pages regardless of the seriousness of what the children being reported were going through. All four of the stories in The Star were during the two-month period reviewed on page two as briefs, some even shorter than four lines and were often portraying children in a statistical manner. The theoretical framework section of this research demonstrated that sometimes media set out to do good to the children but unconsciously prejudiced these children. This researchs findings revealed how a City Press column, in an argument likely intended and with a massive potential to promote and protect the interests of children ended up painting an unpleasant image of children who take part in a custom legitimated by society for years. It portrayed children as sitting ducks and willing victims. And more seriously it created potential conflicts among children. It has also been seen how images improve and enhance news stories. In the same vein it has been seen how a well-intended picture can result in a pregnancy of negative connotations. 36
As shown above and in the findings, media ultimately fail to put children in the right. They fail to give children dignity. They fail to protect and promote the interest of children and as a result, they falter in their quest to achieve the goals of the IFJ. This therefore renders media inefficient in the discharge of public duty. Unless media change, the prevailing state of the children will remain grim.
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