2004-10-26
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VOICE ONE:
This is Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Steve Ember with Explorations in VOA Special English.
Today we tell about American children serving as news reporters to
explore the issues important to them.
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VOICE ONE:
The United States is holding a
general election on Tuesday. Politicians who are candidates often
like to be seen with their children. They believe this shows that
they support strong families. But children themselves do not often
have a chance to be news reporters writing their own stories about
politicians. That is exactly what happens at Children's Press Line,
an organization in New York City.
VOICE TWO:
Hundreds of news reporters from all over the world went to
Boston, Massachusetts and New York City this summer. They reported
about the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. These
conventions chose the candidates who are running for president in
the election next Tuesday –John Kerry and George W. Bush. Children
wearing bright yellow shirts also attended the conventions. They
were reporters for Children's Press Line.
VOICE ONE:
Young people make almost all the decisions at Children's Press
Line. One young reporter says: "The children do the work, while the
adults pay the bills and buy the pizza for us to eat."
Money to operate Children's Press Line comes from individuals and
big businesses. Children's Press Line reporters are eight to
eighteen years old. Most of them are not able to vote, but they are
able to ask difficult questions. One reporter is Emily Olfson, a
sixteen-year-old student at the United Nations International School
in New York City. Emily says the young reporters want to "question
adults who have power about issues that are important to kids."
VOICE TWO:
The young reporters wrote one
story about how they prepared for the national conventions. These
young people said they want to ask questions that will cause adults
to make changes. They also want to inform as many people as possible
about issues important to children. They wrote "if we do not know
something we will try to find it out, and if someone is stopping us
from finding out, that means trouble."
The young reporters decided to research five issues important to
children: Education. Homelessness. Children who do not have health
care. Young people who are in prison waiting to be executed for
committing murder. And the rights of young people who love other
young people of the same sex.
VOICE ONE:
The young reporters spent several months learning about these
issues. They talked to children who had no homes. They talked to
mothers who could not pay for health care for their children. They
talked to two young people in prison who were waiting to be
executed. All of these talks were written and published for adult
readers.
Then the young reporters wrote twenty questions about each issue.
They knew they wanted to ask these questions in discussions with
members of Congress and elected officials who would be at the
national conventions.
VOICE TWO:
Emily Olfson says many of the people being interviewed expected
the children to ask easy questions. However, Tarissa Whitely says it
is important to write good questions that will get good answers.
Tarissa is a sixteen-year-old reporter from New York City. She says
the young reporters must ask questions like "why?" or "why not?" She
says they should not ask questions that allow a politician to just
answer "yes" or "no".
"We want to go deeper. We want to make politicians think," says
Tarissa. "We do not want them to give us an answer from a speech
they give every day."
She says most politicians at the conventions did answer questions
from the young reporters as if they were adults.
VOICE ONE:
In one story, the young reporters wrote: "If the politicians
start giving us the same speech they give every day, we say that we
do not understand. We ask 'can you explain it in a different way?'
Or 'how can you solve this problem?' We want to make them agree to
fix the problem. We want to know exactly how they will help kids."
Tarissa says it is important to get people to look at you while
they answer your questions. She says: "If someone does not look you
in the eye, he may not be telling the truth. Or if someone plays
with his fingers, he may not be telling the truth." But Tarissa also
says she tries not to let her opinion about a person affect her
reporting.
VOICE TWO:
The Children's Press Line reporters do not always get the answers
they want. The children told about one experience at the Democratic
Convention in Boston. They were talking to Lieutenant Governor John
Moore of Kansas.
When they asked what children's issues were important to him,
Mister Moore said "education, education, education." The young
people said that is what politicians always say to children. When
they tried to ask more questions, a band began playing music. Mister
Moore said, "nice talking to you" and walked away. The young
reporters tried to find Mister Moore again but he was already lost
in the crowd.
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VOICE ONE:
Children's Press Line reporters write stories about many kinds of
issues. Every idea comes from a young person and must be an issue
that affects children. All the reporters together choose the stories
they find the most interesting.
They research the stories, write questions and find people who
can answer their questions. They write stories about what they
learn. The stories are published in the New Amsterdam News in New
York City. Some of the stories are published online and in other
newspapers in the United States. Children's Press Line says more
than sixty thousand adults read their stories.
Tarissa Whitely has written and
researched stories about hip hop songs that support fair treatment
for people who have the disease AIDS. She has written stories about
cuts in government money for programs helping young people. She says
Children's Press Line has given her a chance to meet many new people
and do things children do not usually do.
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VOICE TWO:
Sometimes Children's Press Line reporters talk about important
issues with young people from other countries. These talks are on
the Children's Press Line Internet Web site. The address is
www.cplmedia.org.
The Web site also has movies of the talks among young people from
different countries. In one movie, young people in the United States
talk with young people in Iraq about the war there.
Also on the Web site, young people from the United States,
Britain and Japan talked about differences in punishment when
students do something wrong in school. Now, Children's Press Line is
trying to open a high school in New York City for students who want
to study the media.
VOICE ONE:
Marie Ponsot (PON sott) is eleven years old and is in the fifth
grade in New York City. She has been a Children's Press Line
reporter since she was nine years old. Her first story is still the
one she likes best. The young reporters wrote about security cameras
in Greenwich Village, an area in New York City. Marie says the
cameras invade people's privacy.
Her stories reported about protestors who performed plays in
front of the security cameras. She said the protestors were using
the plays to tell other people what they thought about the security
cameras.
Marie says writing these stories helped her learn about issues
and problems in society that affected her.
Later, she talked to a student her age who could not read. Marie
said that concerned her because she felt it was not fair. Marie says
a society that has news reporters who are free to ask questions and
write stories helps people know what is happening where they live.
VOICE TWO:
Emily says she knows that the media have a very big influence on
what people know and think about issues and problems in society. She
attended an international meeting of students at her local school.
Students listened to news reporters from the British Broadcasting
Corporation and the Arabic news company Al Jazeera. The students
compared the same stories told by different media in different
countries.
Emily says the more people know about a problem, the more they
will want to know how they can help solve the problem. Children's
Press Line says twenty-five percent of the people in the United
States are younger than eighteen years old. But only ten percent of
the news stories are about issues important to children. Emily says
Children's Press Line gives children a voice since they do not have
a vote.
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VOICE ONE:
This program was written by Karen Leggett. It was produced by
Mario Ritter. This is Faith Lapidus.
VOICE TWO:
And this is Steve Ember. Join us again next week for Explorations
in VOA Special English.