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Newsletter 1 - A Culture of Childhood
28 Mar 2006
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By Larry Hannan
A Global Vision of Childhood
Probably the most significant aspect of the message of the Convention Of the rights of the Child was that it provides a global image of childhood. The Convention is global in the sense that it describes children's rights as invisible and mutually supportive. The global vision of the child must be defended, because it is the only way it can protect the rights of the least favoured and most vulnerable. Not just the most needy. It must help the needy but maintain its holistic approach. It is better to speak of promotion than protection (although the former does not exclude the latter) - it is a more positive attitude.
Spiritual dimension
The spiritual aspect cannot be ignored. Not because of denominational conviction, but because it is convinced that the root of most problems go far deeper than immediate material needs.
The right of participation
Indifference - and even perhaps sometimes fear - causes people to shy away from the right of participation. So we do not unfortunately benefit from the enrichment which children could provide us with if we listened to them. There are, of course, exceptions. "Children are immortal," wrote Hoderlin, well-known children's rights advocate, in his book Hyperion, "because they know nothing about death. Riches dwell within them. This is what men cannot bear." The right to participate was proposed by western countries and yet many of these same countries do not want anything to have anything to do with it.
Towards a new childhood culture
The Convention is not a legal text. This is taken up at the national level. All have a special responsibility for disseminating the Convention. The way it does so must be based on a global vision of childhood. It must use the Convention not only to denounce -although this is sometimes necessary - but rather to create a children's culture. The Convention has an important educational component.
It is an instrument of dialogue between adults, any adults, and children. "Implementing the Convention implies knowledge of physical and psychological needs of children". Malfrid Flekkoy in Children Worldwide 1995 ICCB Annual Report. And we could add spiritual needs as well!
The alternative
Neil Postman, media education pioneer, has this to say about the attitudes of so-called developed countries' to childhood: "If it can be said to exist at all, is now an economic category. There is very little the culture wants to do for children except make them into consumers. A child is someone who has money to buy things. An adult is someone who has more money to buy things." Neil Postman, Building Bridges to the 18th century.
A simple symsopsis
The child is entitled to respect
The child is entitled to live in the present
The child is entitled to make mistakes
The child is entitled to be taken seriously
The child is entitled to have secrets
The child is entitled to have his sorrows respected.
The child is entitled to converse intimately with God
The child is entitled not to die prematurely
Janusz Korczak
Editorial
The care and development needs of children and youth have been in the news a lot of late. On the negative side there were the almost daily reports of the growing prevalence of sexual and physical abuse of the young and the increasing crime rate among youth.
On the positive side, there was the completion of the Children's Coordinating Committee (CCC) National Report on the implementation of the Convention on the Rights and more recently ECREA's report on youth by youth.
Then, there was the successful Youth Forum organised by Save the Children's Fund, and, perhaps the most popular, the Youth Parliament.
The initiators of these activities are to be commended and they deserved to be followed up consistently. Participation by children and youth in the affairs of society is vital. It helps them break out of the deadening syndrome of unquestioning silence and the feeling they have nothing to give.
More important than what they have to say is the fact that they are saying it and being paid attention to - a new experience for many of them.
In this issue of Media Awareness, the article by Simon O'Connor Developing a Critical Mind addresses the need to grow in critical thinking as a media user, so one is enabled to sift out what is worthwhile from the vast amount of information we are bombarded with daily, which will hopefully lead to the making of informed choices.
How to protect the young from excesses and abuses associated with the Internet is being hotly debated the world over.
We in Fiji have something to learn from experiences of older countries, as recounted in pages 5 and 6, as access to cyberspace becomes more affordable.
New Media Lab for USP Journalism Students
"We need an independent media with well trained journalists who can provide analytical and investigative reporting."
Those were the comments of the Vice-Chancellor of the University of the South Pacific, Savenaca Siwatibau, while officially opening the new USP journalism multimedia laboratory in April.
United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) and Canada Fund funded the facilities, which give a further boost to the regional programme founded in 1994. The new lab gives the students the opportunity to produce broadcast standard digital editing on their video productions course and is a significant step forward in the programme's production capacity.
The Vice-Chancellor emphasised the importance of preparing journalism graduates for future developments in the industry. He added that social, economic and political unrest in Pacific countries made all the more important for journalists to realise the importance of their role in society.
"Good governance is a key factor to a good economy and nation building and this is where the media plays an important role. Our graduates must be provided with good grounding in all major news technologies and techniques, and also in ethics", said Siwatibau.
Students have made several short current affairs programmes that have been televised on Pacific television stations in the past. The journalism programme started in 1994 and has 45 full-time and five part-time students studying at undergraduate and post-graduate level. The programme offers courses in print, on-line, television and radio broadcast journalism.
Developing a Critical Mind
by Simon O'Connor SM
Each and every one of us has opinions and particular ways of thinking. When we debate issues there are always different points of view. The same is true of those who run the media - they too have opinions. The news media however, has become so much a part of our daily lives that it can often go unquestioned - we tend to just accept what we see and hear.
Because of this, there is a need for each of us to develop a critical mind in relation to the news media. We need to be aware that every person who writes an article, produces a TV or radio programme or creates a web page is expressing a particular opinion. Even with advertising, the words and images used will reflect a certain set of values or opinions.
Critical awareness begins by acknowledging three sources that underlie opinions expressed in any particular news media - the author, the owner and space.
The first source of any opinion is naturally, the author. The opinions they have on the topic will often figure in the report or programme. The attitude of the author is often indicated by the tone of the words they choose - aggressive, emotive, neutral and so on.
A second source of an opinion is that of the owner or editor of that particular media. Owners often have a say in what may or may not be presented, simply because they pay the bills. In some cases this is may done explicitly, where an owner or editor may simply encourage emphasis to be placed on one aspect of a report and not another. This is rarely due to the freedom of the press, yet the owner deciding whom they will employ according to the views usually expressed by that reporter also creates influence.
The third source of opinion arises because all media has a limited space to get its message across. A newspaper, for example, has limited space and therefore writers must be selective in what they choose to report. Similarly, a television news segment has only a limited time to present its message.
We, the recipients of media need to be aware of these opinions because they influence our perception of issues. Without a critical awareness we can easily be mislead by what we read and hear. The cliché 'don't believe everything you read' is very true of the news media.
Analyzing sources is only part of developing critical awareness. We must become people who ask questions of what we read, see and hear. Questions like: Who created this report? What have they said on this topic before? Are the words or images used overly positive or negative? Is this particular news organisation known to be sympathetic to any particular groups or political party?
Another task in becoming critically aware is to read and listen widely. Never accept the facts from just one source. Instead check what other news outlets are saying. This is particularly true of the Internet. Just because it is online doesn't make it true.
The third task is to discuss what you read with others. Discussing doesn't mean getting into fights, but rather debating issues so that you can see more clearly the strengths and weaknesses of a report.
Critical awareness therefore is about interacting with the media. The recent release of Media - The Pacific Way is an excellent means of actively developing our media awareness. Created for peoples of the Pacific, Media- The Pacific Way addresses contemporary topics such as news reporting, advertising, violence and the portrayal of women in the media. Along with a helpful guidebook, this video will be very useful in developing the media awareness of individuals, schools and groups.
Children and Youth not Always Wise and Responsible Online
The Media Awareness Network (MNet) has known for a long time that Canadian kids are among the biggest users of media, particularly the Internet. Last year MNet conducted a survey of 5,600 students aged 9 to 17 in schools across the country, and in June released findings that focused on the gap between parent perceptions of their kids' online activities and what young people say they are actually doing online.
On October 24, 2001, MNet released a second phase of findings from Young Canadians In A Weird World: The Students' View which examined the extent to which Canadian youth are putting themselves at risk as they explore the Internet, often very little or no, supervision.
This latest analysis focuses on specific areas, of risky activity - such as exploring private and adult-only chat rooms, meeting Internet acquaintances in person, being exposed to sexually explicit and hateful material and sharing personal information.
The findings reveal the extent to which kids have claimed the Internet as their own world, separate from their parents' reach and knowledge. They may be technically savvy but are they safe, wise and responsible Internet users? Not always.
Nearly six in ten Canadian kids use chat rooms and twice as many secondary students as elementary students enjoy chatting online. The survey identified two high-risk chat behaviours - going into private chat areas to engage in one-on-one conversations and visiting adult chat rooms, which are designed for adults 18 years, and over. Of the 56% of kids who use chat-rooms, one-third visit adult chat areas that often contain conversations of a sexually explicit nature. The likelihood of this happening increases with age, but MNet sees a special problem, with younger children who often lack the necessary judgment to safeguard themselves in these situations. Anne Taylor, Co Director of MNet explains, "During focus group research, we asked twelve and thirteen year old girls if they'd give their personal information to someone in a chat room. They replied that would only if they trusted that person. When we probed how long it might take to develop that trust, answers ranged anywhere from 15 minutes to two weeks!"
Eighty five per cent of the children and youth who go into adult chat rooms and private areas of chat reveal that they are at home but unsupervised when they use the Internet. Eighty-two per cent of this- group say they have no household rule relating to this practice (this compares to 39% of the overall sample who say they do have a rule about talking to strangers in chat rooms).
A key area of potential risk relates to kids meeting Internet friends in person. One quarter of all the young Internet users surveyed have been asked by someone they've met online to get together face-to-face. Approximately 15% (839 respondents of the total sample of nearly 6,000) indicated that they'd taken that next step and actually gone to meet an Internet acquaintance. Of those 800 odd students, 129 went by themselves to meet their Internet friend. Only 6% asked a parent or other adult to accompany them.
MNet acknowledges that these in-person meetings cover a wide range of scenarios and that some of these meetings were well supervised and positive, however, 100 of these young people characterized, their meeting as a "bad experience." In response to an open-ended question, kids described these "bad experiences" in their own words, ranging from; "didn't like the-person " to person was "fat", "ugly", "stupid" or "mean.
Some of the more serious responses, which came from 18 young people, included "person wanted/or made sexual contact', person used vulgar / sexual language' and "person was violent" MNet hopes to broaden this initial research by further study into these troubling and potentially dangerous behaviours.
The survey probed the extent to which children and young people are exposed to Pornography. Almost a quarter of students have received pornography from someone they have met online and over half have received pornographic junk- mail. The vast majority (78%) of recipients did not tell their parents.
While a quarter, of young people say they look, online for pornography, 53% say they: ended up on a porn site by accident. Most say they got to the site by doing a search for something else, or typing in the wrong address. Others got to the site by clicking on a link given to them in a chat room or sent by email. Only 24% told a teacher or parent about it. The kids' replies indicate that they rely on their friends or their own ingenuity rather than adults, when dealing with, sexually explicit material.
Almost half of students at the secondary level say someone has made unwanted sexual comments to them on the Internet. Girls are more likely than boys to have received these kinds of comments. Over a quarter of respondents of all ages report encountering hateful comments online and sixteen percent of young Internet users say they have posted comments themselves that were hateful toward a person or group of people.
The survey also gave clear evidence that Canadian children and youth don't understand the importance of safeguarding their personal information. Almost one quarter of the youth surveyed indicated they would give out both their name and address to win a prize in an online contest. Most said they've got their own e-mail account, the majority of which are free Web-based accounts. When registering for these free accounts, 86% of youth indicated their gender, 68% provided their real name, 29% their address and 20% their phone number.
"We are concerned about the way that Canadian children and youth are putting themselves at risk, " says Jan D'Arcy, Co-Director of MNet. "At the same time, -we're heartened -by the fact that parental involvement, supervision and rules around the Internet appears to have an impact on how kids conduct themselves online."
The findings gleaned from the survey will play an integral role in shaping public policy on safe, wise and responsible lnternet use.
The Media Awareness Network (MNet) is a not-for-profit education organization whose mandate is to support and encourage media and information literacy in Canadian homes, schools and communities. MNet hosts a large web site (www.media_awareness.ca) and licenses professional development workshops for teachers to raise awareness about Internet issues that are emerging as children and young people go online.
Internet Regulation
Once considered unthinkable, the idea of regulating the Internet is increasingly seen as the only sure means of closing the gap between the "info rich" and the vast majority of "info poor".
The digital divide separating the connected industrialised countries from unconnected developing nations is deepening. The "info rich" have never been further from the "info poor". This is why the question of access to the 'net is more important than ever. And it must first be addressed in economic terms. In industrialised countries, a month's connection to the Internet costs about one hour's wage. In certain African countries, the situation is exactly the reverse: a university professor's monthly salary hardly covers the expense of a high speed internet connection Today most of the world's communication traffic, including the majority of African and European inter-regional connections, is routed via the United States. A few American companies thus control an oligopoly, which gives them unlimited scope for imposing their tariffs.
There are certainly mechanisms in place, which monitor competition. The INFO ethics 2000 Congress, which took place at UNESCO headquarters in Paris last November 13-15, focused on defining the terms of debate for the World Summit of the Information Society in 2003. The stakes are enormous because this entails nothing less than defining a model for communications development. Could we not imagine that today, profits made by some of the big internet providers between the developed and developing countries; it could also function between the public and private sectors, taking the form, for example, of special tariff for public schools, universities and libraries.
The debate is not just about connection information highways; it also involved the availability of content. The trend today is towards a strengthening of intellectual property rights. A good illustration of development in this domain concerns copyright exceptions. Technical measures such as cryptology aim to control illegal copying, but they increasingly menace legal copyright exceptions, which traditionally recognise a "fair use" right to information, particularly in the fields of education and science. We must watch closely to ensure that the defence of intellectual property does not disadvantage the majority.
UNESCO has a central role to play in the construction of a coordinated political effort by member states to pool public domain information. One end-result might be a global server specialising in general interest subjects, such as education, heritage and science. In these three domains, UNESCO could take the lead in defining a global development policy on Internet access.
As a global media, the Internet should respond to global regulation. If not, it may be answerable to one law only, that of the most powerful.
The above article has been reproduced from UNESCO Sources, the monthly information magazine of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation. (Www.unescosources.org)
Church Document on the Internet
Pope John Paul II's message for World Communications Day 2002 is on the Internet. He links the Internet to the ancient Roman forum in the sense that it was a "public space where politics and business were transacted, where religious duties were fulfilled, where much of the social life of the city took place and where the best and the worst of human nature was on display."
He says that this is no less true of cyberspace. He cautions that "like the new frontiers of other times, this one too is full of the interplay of danger and promise, and not without the sense of adventure which marked other great periods of change."
He goes on to say that in a culture, which feeds on the ephemeral there can easily be a risk of believing that it is facts that matter, rather than values. The Internet offers extensive knowledge, but it does not teach values; and when values are disregarded, our very humanity is demeaned and man easily loses sight of his transcendent dignity.
Furthermore, the Internet radically redefines a person's psychological relationship to time and space. Attention is riveted on what is tangible, useful, and instantly available; the stimulus for deeper thought and reflection may be lacking. Yet human beings have a vital need for time and inner quiet to ponder and examine life and its mysteries, and to grow gradually into a mature dominion of themselves and of the world around them. Understanding and wisdom are the fruit of a contemplative eye upon the world, and do not come from a mere accumulation of facts, no matter how interesting.
They are the result of an insight, which penetrates the deeper meaning of things in relation to one another and to the whole of reality. Moreover, as a forum in which practically everything is acceptable and almost nothing is lasting, the Internet favours a relativistic way of thinking and sometimes feeds the flight from personal responsibility and commitment.
There is no doubt that the electronic revolution holds out the promise of great positive breakthroughs for the developing world- but there is also the possibility that it will in fact aggravate existing inequalities as the information and communications gap widens. How can we ensure that the information and communications revolution, which has the Internet as its prime engine, will work in favour of the globalization of human development and solidarity
Finally, in these troubled times, let me ask: "how can we ensure that this wondrous instrument first conceived in the context of military operations can now serve the cause of peace? Can it favour that culture of dialogue, participation, solidarity and reconciliation without which peace cannot flourish? "
Democracy and The Media
The following is part I of a two part series on an address by Dr. Essop Pahad, Minister in the Presidency and the Minister responsible for the Government Communication and Information System, at the Indian Ocean rim conference on " Parliament and the Media: Securing an Effective Relationship" in Cape Town on the 15th April, 2002.
The relationship between the legislature of any democracy and the media has engaged much attention down the years.
The two institutions, Parliament and media, though independent in any democracy are complementary in their activities and effects. Neither can do without the other. They are, in this sense, collaborators in the same cause - the cause of enlightenment and good governance of citizens. The relationship of these two institutions with one another, and their interaction with those other great institutions found in any democracy, the executive and the judiciary, are crucial to the cause of good governance. And we in South Africa must not lose sight of the fact that good governance is central to the success of the New Partnership for Africa's Development, on which so much in our continent and country depends as the 21" century unfolds.
The members of the legislature are the chief generators of news in the context of Parliament. They make laws and they make speeches, and the media are free to report and comment accordingly. As members of the renowned Fourth Estate, journalists are free to use their wit, conviction and humour to make their points. They easily get under the skin of members of Parliament. But they can, as easily, indulge them with praise: Politicians are acutely conscious of the media, whose members can hand out bouquets or brick-a-bracks at random - and indeed be absolutely charming or terribly tiresome depending on how they view things.
That is how it is, and democratic governments and legislatures should not expect anything different. It is seldom the media which generate the news in Parliament, except for the odd recorded case of fracas in the Press Gallery or the Lobby, or celebrated Budget leaks leading to inquiry and even summoning of- journalists as has happened in years gone by in South Africa, Britain and elsewhere. In a democracy it is the free choice of the media to report and comment as they wish, within the bounds of good taste and Parliamentary and legal rules. But it is up to the legislature to ensure that its own activities are newsworthy and properly communicated, if it wishes to have an impactful public profile.
And there is little value in just blaming the media (or, might I suggest, the executive?) when the legislature gets critical or scant public attention, as does happen in some countries. This situation, if it exists, should be seen not as a matter of complaint but as a spur to legislators to sharpen their performance, to look closely at their relationship with the media with a view to improvement. They must become good communicators, and get their message across effectively. They must foster a culture not of secrecy but of disclosure. They must work intimately with the media to sort out the myriad administrative and other problems that inevitably exist in the Parliamentary environment. That done, they might then look around for others to blame, if this can be justified.
On the other hand, media with any pretensions to seriousness should seek to report honestly and fairly on events in Parliament, and have a special responsibility to maintain the highest standard of reporting and comment. Editors, and editors alone in law and practice, are the upholders of these norms, and when journalists depart from them, it is the editors who should be bold enough to curb the excesses, and to make amends in public through adequate and spontaneous correction and, where warranted, frank apology. (Those newspapers that run regular services correcting facts are to be complimented, and I notice that a South African business daily has recently extended this concept, and now commits itself to correct errors where they occur and not in an omnibus, and sometimes rather obscure, correction box.) On the other hand, people in public life should recognise the legitimate place of the media in doing their job in the public interest, and should avoid making generalisations and at hominem attacks on journalists as a breed.
When they, that is people in public life, commit error, and it is human to err, they should be prepared to offer adequate correction and due apology. It is not really the province of MPs or ministers to give lecturers on media ethics. So I tend very warily, for the media are understandably highly sensitive to criticism from public figures.
But we are entitled to ask some questions and make observations. Editors, in order to edit, should, surely, have intimate knowledge of the journalist's sources and the exercise some judgment about their veracity. Do they? Do they all? They should surely insist on sound professional standards, as, for instance marked the Washington Post coverage of Watergates in such exemplary fashion, always relying on more than just one source for important disclosure.
They might also take note of the groundswell of public opinion-reflected also in some recent court judgments abroad-against gratuitous invasion of privacy in blatant cases where the public interest clearly does not justify intrusion. And so on. Editors should, moreover, boost the status of their Parliamentary journalists if they wish to have a sound relationship with the institution of parliament. They should pay due heed to what their parliamentary reporters say and write. They should appreciate the special position press gallery journalists occupy among those elected by citizens to serve the country in Parliament. The journalists are the eyes and ears of editors at the coalface of legislation.
If editors do not do all they can to elevate the status of particular corps of journalists, they will see them regularly playing second fiddle to the versatile and convincing new breeds of reporters who compete increasingly for space and time in the media - e.g. the financial and environmental journalists, to name but two, not to mention those who now so extensively and interestingly cover the fields of leisure and information technology.
NEWS ITEMS
Pacific Media Education Video Launch
A video named 'Media - The Pacific Way', on media awareness was launched on 10th April in Suva. Bill Falekaono, Pacific President of SIGNIS and also President of WACC Pacific, was the chief guest. The video is being distributed throughout the Pacific. Produced by Peter Thomas secretary of SIGNIS Pacific was shot in Fiji but edited in Melbourne, Australia. The 35 minutes video is available for a price of $10 from the Family Video Library (7 Thurston St, Suva, Tel: 330 3158) and also at the Fiji Media Watch office (256 Waimanu Rd, Tel: 330 8605).
Fiji Human Rights Media Awards
The Fiji Human Rights Commission held an 'Open House' for media recently to show their appreciation for the excellent work done by the media in terms of advocating human rights. The Human Rights Commission also called for submissions for the annual Human Rights Media Awards.
The annual media awards recognized the efforts of journalists and media personnel in helping the people of Fiji become aware of human rights issues in the country. The awards were presented at a gala event on May 3rd World Media Freedom Day and were divided into three categories; Print, Radio, Television. The three winners, Seru Waqanikalou of Viti FM won the award for radio, Imraz Iqbal and Riyaz Kayum took the award for TV while John Kamea of Sun Fiji News won the award for print media. They each won prize money of $2000. The awards were presented by Janet McIntyre, who is a New Zealand based TV journalist and also a familiar face on the 60 Minutes television programme.
Ministers Get Media Training
A media training awareness workshop for government ministers was recently held at the Mocambo Hotel in Nadi. The workshop, funded by AusAID Pacific Media Initiative and conducted by PIBA resource personnel, was to train ministers to deal with and better understand the media. This is the outcome of a recommendation of the Thompson Report (1998). A few eyebrows were raised when the media was locked out from covering the workshop.
TOM THUMB'S COLUMN...
Thumbs Up!!
To Jocelyn Narayan and Anish Chand for winning the Ossie Awards at the 2001 awards. Narayan won the best television news story and was the first Pacific Islander to win an individual award. Chand on the other hand won an award for in-depth reporting in the coverage of the Fiji 2001 Elections. (Fiji Times 9th March)
To Aisake Verebasage, Raiwai, for his thought provoking Letter to the Editor on 'Hard Work' (Fiji Times 4th April, 2002)
To the Fiji Sun newspaper for reducing its sale price for its newspaper, even on Saturdays to 50 cents in line with the reduction of newspaper prints prices. (Fiji Sun April 7th)
To the US State department report on human right in Fiji. This report raises serious concerns on Media freedom in Fiji and the attempted control of media by the government.
Thumbs Down!!
There have been numerous examples recently of poor use of headlines in the local dailies.
- Sensationalism - "Message of Hate"
- Poor taste - "Solider loses testicle"
- Misleading and irrelevant sub headlines - "Villagers rob accident victim" not related to the story at all. (Daily Post)
- Misleading front-page headline. One had to wait for second paragraph to realize it happened in Australia. (Fiji Times 7th April.)
To the CID Director who tried to censor the work of a senior Daily Post reporter. Reporting on issues such as the Lt. Col. Tarakinikini case are rightfully matters of public interest. The alleged police harassment and threatening of two senior Daily Post journalists raises the question of how free is the press in Fiji. This action by the CID has been condemned not only by local media organizations but also by the International media. (Daily Post April 11th)
To the organizers of the AusAID funded Media workshop for Ministers for barring media coverage of the workshop and in turn raising suspicion as to what was going on behind the closed doors at Mocambo Hotel.
To Fiji Television for not airing more local based vernacular and educational programs for wider consumption.
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