ARTICLES / CHILDREN'S TV: Revisiting African Content In Children Television Programming

It is easy to recall one’s childhood: Those days of running around the neighbourhood bare feet, with the sun beating down one’s back? Back then when there were no television or radio sets, children would run around playing and laughing loudly without a care in the world. And when their mothers would call out to them, arms akimbo with a befitting scowl in place, the children would run back home fervently hoping that they would not get a lashing for not completing their house chores before running out to play. (The fear of mama was the beginning of wisdom).

Today, the scenario is completely different; children are not as care free as they used to be. Children are now aware of things that are beyond their age. This is largely because they spend most of their time in front of the television set. The resulting effect is that these kids are psychologically swamped with western ideas that these TV programs feed them. Programs like Tom and Jerry, Ben 10 and Mickey mouse which are all western in content, are a constant favourite to many Nigerian children.

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PROJECTS: Sesame Street Nigeria

With the goal of supporting Nigeria's basic education needs, Sesame Workshop developed the children's television series Sesame Square, broadcast on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA).

The first season, which debuted in May 2011, consists of 26 thirty-minute episodes that focus on curricular goals tailored to the developmental needs of Nigerian children. Season 2 broadcast is scheduled to begin in May 2012.

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PRINT / TRAINING: UNICEF trains journalists (NIGERIA)

Thanks to a workshop, many Nigerian journalists can now practice better. The workshop, which held in Kano, helped them to make better use of data obtained in the line of duty.

They confessed they had been shying away from data-driven story-writing. Reason: they lacked the skills to humanise data, a situation Dr. Ayobami Ojebode of the University of Ibadan described in his paper as “numerophobia” –the phobia for numbers or figures.

He said: “one of our big goals in the storytelling process is to humanise the statistics. It’s hard for people to care about numbers, especially large numbers”.

Ojebode quoted Westbrook (2010) to define data-driven news reporting as “journalism in its truest essence: uncovering what the public do not have enough time to do themselves, interrogating it, and making sense of it before sharing it with the audience”.

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RADIO / PROJECTS: UNICEF radio project gives voice to young Nigerians

LAGOS, Nigeria, 1 June 2011 – Disenfranchised children in Nigeria have been given a unique opportunity to exercise their right to expression through a UNICEF-supported youth radio project.

AUDIO: Listen now

Some of the country’s most vulnerable groups – from children living on the streets and those accused of being witches, to ‘almajiri’ children (those sent to Islamic teachers for education who have to beg for food and money on the streets for survival) – are living witnesses to the violation of children’s rights.

Inspired by the International Children’s Day of Broadcasting and Articles 12 and 13 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, these young people produced thirteen 15-minute episodes about their lives.

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NEWS: Minister Tasks Media Houses On Child-Friendly Programmes (NIGERIA / AFRICA)

Minister of Women Affairs and Social development Iyom Josephine Anenih has called on media houses to be more discrete in the use of contents that are not child-friendly.

She made the call at the 2nd Child and Youth multimedia Conference in Abuja.Iyom Anenih said the media plays vital roles in influencing children adding, 'this is one role that we have seen to increase significantly over the years.'

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NEWS: UNICEF trains journalists for defense of children (NIGERIA)

Periscope Aug 22, 2010

By Dennis Agbo, Abakaliki

The ‘A’ field office of the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, has commenced moves aimed at mobilising journalists in the 10 states of its coverage area in the South East, some states in South-South and Benue towards using their media for advocacy and defence of the children.

In a workshop at Uyo, Akwa Ibom state, the UN agency gathered 20 journalists selected across the coverage area in a three-day intensive workshop to sharpen their skills in the best practice of reporting activities that concern the abuse, welfare and promotion of children’s well being in Nigeria.

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NEWS / ICDB: UNICEF pledges to collaborate with Nigerian media to promote children’s rights (NIGERIA/AFRICA)

APA - Lagos (Nigeria) UNICEF says it will continue to work in collaboration with broadcast media organisations to ensure that children's views are known.

In a statement on Sunday in Lagos to commemorate the International Children's Day of Broadcasting, UNICEF's Country Representative in Nigeria, Dr Suomi Sakai, said that Articles 12 and 14 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child empowered children to form their own opinions and express them.

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NEWS. Nigeria set for 'Green Big Brother' show

Nigeria's most celebrated environmental campaigner is about to launch a reality TV show to highlight the dangers of global warming for Africans.

At almost 72 years of age it is a wonder he still has the energy, but with three crossings of the barren wastes of the Sahara desert already behind him, Newton Jibunoh is preparing for the most ambitious desert adventure of his life.

For his final trek across the desert, planned for the new year, he will be taking a band of 15 young men and women from Nigeria and neighbouring Niger with him.

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