Analysis of Media Coverage of Children Using Traditional Initiation as a Case Study

8/12/2019 Analysis of Media Coverage of Children Using Traditional Initiation as a Case Study

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Name :Sifiso Nyembe

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 theannual traditional ritual of initiation (ulwalukoin 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 relationshipbetween 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 democraticparticipation. These two components form thebasis 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 toprotect 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 hasa 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 reportsmade up of images, news stories, editorials and opinion pieces appear

in the mediaplay 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,


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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?


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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 democracyapart 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).


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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, theDaily Nation, theEast African Standardand theKenya Timescovered

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


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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 theDaily Nationto 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 toexpress 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.


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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 notnecessarily 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.


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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 theDaily Nationsstory,

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


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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 childin 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


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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


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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


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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 ofpublic 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.


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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.


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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 thisit 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.


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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 initiationsearch yielded

several results of articles talking about the traditional initiation of children, but these were

problematic. A good number of them were not dated andas 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, andSowetanpublished from July 1 to August 31,

2009. The Star,CitizenandSowetanare daily newspapers whose coverage is nationwide

whereas the City Press andSunday 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


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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 becauselooking at the resources available at the time of

researchthey 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.


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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 contentonly 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.


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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


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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,

Citizenand 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 voicesThis 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 childThis 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 publicslife.

c) Stereotyping of the childThis 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.


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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


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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 deathtoll 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 participantsthe children. They did not even pretend to be speaking on


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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 alin 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


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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 Pressopinion 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


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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 Pressarticles 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 abovewhich 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


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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 3of 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 Presscarries 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


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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 Timescarries 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


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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 Timesarticle 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 Pressdrilled 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.


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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 childrensrelease.

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


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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

publicslife. 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.


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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 Starwere

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 Presscolumn, 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.


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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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Analysis of Media Coverage of Children Using Traditional Initiation as a Case Study

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