By Funmi Ajumobi
NGO admonished to partner with journalists on media for children
During the International Children’s Media Panel at the ongoing 6th World Summit on Media for Children and Youth, in Karlstad, Sweden, the young people made a case for an all inclusive journalism that would allow for better representation of youths and children. Speaking on behalf of children and youth, Uma Akther, a youth activist and member of the Global Youth Council from the United Kingdom says, “Children from all around the world came up with 6 major issues affecting young people and all the six relates to media”. This shows young people are expecting a lot from journalists, producers and everyone involved in creating media for young people.
It was interesting to note that while the young people on the panel believed that journalists have not done enough, the journalists in the audience were of the opinion that young people should show appreciation for the much that has been done and NGO’s should seek fresh partnerships; partnerships that seek to understand the constrains and challenges faced by journalists and find new ways to solve them. One of the ways suggested by Ms. Omolola Famuyiwa of the Cares Global Network (Nigeria) is for NGO’s to seek out journalists and producers who are passionate about working with children and use the funds at their disposal to train such journalists and producers. These journalists would in turn take ownership and go the extra mile for advocating for issues relating to youths and clamour for better media for children.
In the same vein, Mats Hemberg of the Newspaper in Education, Sweden shared experience of how his team positively affected the reading culture by generating content from children. In his session titled, “Mission Possible: What’s in the news for children”, he explained how they succeeded in making children and teachers more interested in global and societal issues especially those related to young people through the means of participatory involvement in newspaper publishing. According to Mr. Hemberg, “This newspaper project gives parents and families an opportunity to participate in school work and allows children to get more involved and interested in the world around them and at the same time make them realise that reading newspaper is fun.