The Drum Beat 176: ANDI - News Agency for Children's Rights
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Agência de Notícias dos Direitos da Infância - News Agency for Children’s Rights - ANDI is an NGO created by Brazilian journalists in 1992 to support the media in its coverage of issues related to children and adolescents. ANDI offers suggestions for news guidelines, encouraging the media to denounce or praise social projects. ANDI also helps the media by researching facts and personalities, coordinating surveys and collecting data and statistics relevant to the protection of children's and adolescents' rights. Click here for the ANDI web site. Contact andi@andi.org.br
See also a presentation by Veet Vivarta, Editorial Director, ANDI, Nov 2001.
This issue of The Drum Beat will focus on ANDI's strategies and activities.
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ANDI
"The Agency´s mission is to co-operate with the Brazilian mass media to promote a new system of investigative journalism - based on the idea that once the press pays more attention to the reality of how children and adolescents are living, the more it can get to the visible and invisible reasons for the current social injustice....
Our aim was, and still is, to create a culture in which the press prioritizes children and adolescents as a strategic issue, both...for the development of the country and also to take the press to the heart of social issues.
With this in mind we are encouraging the idea that the media must publish stories about...projects which can promote the changes that have to be made...
The paradigm we have been trying to build with the Brazilian press is that by publishing problems and solutions they will draw attention to the lack of political action.
...after 8 years of hard work, the Brazilian press now dedicates more attention to the themes of children's rights than to any other social challenges. 3 years ago, the newspaper world that we are analysing was publishing something like 1,200 stories on children and adolescents every 3 months.
In our latest study, we registered more than 6,000 stories in 3 months. And each day, the coverage increases and improve in quality.
...almost 40 percent of these stories are reporting the social problems and their possible solutions..."
- Geraldinho Vieira, Former Executive Director of ANDI, 2000
STRATEGY
- Work to respond daily to the needs of journalists, communication students, researchers and information sources (governmental and non-governmental organisations, social leaders and Third Sector partners)
- Develop methodologies for research, analysis and interaction with the media.
- Host seminars and workshops that bring together communicators and information sources to prepare the press to cover themes related to childhood and adolescence.
- Contribute to the training of socially responsible journalists.
- Reproduce methodologies for mobilisation and qualification of the media, on both national and international levels.
Media Analysis - ANDI monitors and analyses major Brazilian newspapers and magasines to provide journalists with background for their reports on issues concerning children and adolescents, as well as to make participants in the Third Sector more aware of the strategic importance of the media in confronting the social challenges currently affecting Brazil. Themes analysed include:
- Childhood education (0 to 6 years)
- Sexual abuse & exploitation of children & adolescents
- Violence with the child or adolescent as a victim or agent
- Teenage tobacco or alcohol consumption
- Children's health
- Adolescents' health
ANDI periodically holds meetings to allow journalists and others to discuss ways to broaden/enrich coverage of a particular theme. Discussions revolve around study results and development of proposals for the implementation of a more consistent editorial approach.
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PULSE POLL
Do you agree or disagree? - Development focused organisations should never pay for radio or television air time.
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INITIATIVES & ACTIONS
Data Collection & Analysis
Childhood in the Media Survey - Annual report of collected data from the Brazilian print media concerning coverage of 20 themes related to children and adolescents. Offers numbers and qualitative analyses based on 50 newspapers and 10 magasines to map out activities and identify strengths and limitations. Released each March, with data from the previous year, the report is distributed to newspaper and magasine editors, TV programme producers, NGOs, government representatives, Children's Friends Journalists, universities, educators and researchers. Results are also available on the ANDI website.
The Youth Media Project - Initiated by ANDI in March 1997, this project is designed to support and train journalists who work with media that give voice to adolescents or at least address them directly. ANDI monitors and analyses 21 social issues covered by 25 weekly newspaper supplements and 5 monthly magasines for adolescents from all over Brazil. The project aims to: 1) Support journalists in recogising that they need to start to see themselves not just as communicators, but also as educators; 2) Increase and improve the coverage of 'socially relevant issues' that help build life skills; 3) Stimulate journalists to develop coverage that supports youth involvement in Brazil.
Youth Media Survey - Annual report that offers a quanti-qualitative analysis of the editorial behaviour of 24 newspaper supplements and 4 magasines designed for adolescents. Emphasising the influence of reporters and editors, the report evaluates treatment of 22 themes including education, drugs, sexuality, the environment and work. Available on the ANDI website and distributed to editors, educators, information sources, and others.
Publications [all are in Portuguese, unless otherwise noted]
Childhood in the Media (Infância na Mídia) - Daily. Selections of news stories from Brazilian print media that highlight childhood and adolescence.
Children in the Media (Niños y Jóvenes en Línea) - Weekly. Bulletins in Spanish and English that offer a general view of Brazilian media coverage on themes related to childhood and adolescence. Available on the ANDI site and via email. To subscribe, contact andi@andi.org.br
A Clipping Analysis (Análise do Clipping) - Weekly. Distributed to subscribers, this 20-page document contains a complete summary of the news carried by more than 60 newspapers and magasines and by national TV news programmes. To subscribe, contact adm@andi.org.br
Journalism and Youth (Jornalismo e Juventude) - Every two months. Examines issues related to teenage pregnancy and the prevention of STD/AIDS in order that these themes may be approached with sensitivity, creativity and commitment in publications and programmes aimed at adolescents. Offers statistics on these themes and indicates sources, innovative approaches and contact information.
Radio for Children (Rádio pela Infância) - Monthly. Offers news and suggestions for radio programmes for and about children.
Free Radicals (Radicais Livres) - Weekly. Contains summaries of socially relevant news carried by the youth media.
Sharp Talk (Conversa Afiada) - Every 3 months. Source of information and news guidelines for journalists writing for youth media.
Networks
The ANDI Network - initiated in March, 2000 by 6 regional communication organisations that defend and promote the rights of the child and adolescent. Coordinated by ANDI.
Journalists' Friends of Children - a network of media professionals across the country that produces a newsletter (Straight to the Subject - Direto ao Assunto) with an account of the actions, events and articles that members have featured on the issues of the rights of children and youth.
Training
Department of Articulation & Mediation (Setor de Articulação e Facilitação) - aims to optimise the number of qualified professionals by training members of NGOs in cooperation techniques and skills.
Universities - Training programme in communication and social mobilisation for university students. The programme is guided by the idea of on-the-job training and based on work-study scholarships to students in the final 4 semesters of Communications coursework for universities in Brasília and in the capitals with regional ANDI offices. ANDI's programmes introduce participants to the key social issues relating to childhood and adolescence through workshops that include hands-on techniques for sourcing out information, appropriate guidelines for text writing, and quantitative and qualitative analysis.
Periodic Meetings - In order to bring together journalists and information sources, ANDI and its partners hold meetings that aim to broaden/enrich coverage of a particular theme - childhood education, violence, and the educational role of children's supplements in newspapers - focused on by Media Analysis Groups. Project groups discuss study results and develop proposals for the implementation of a more consistent editorial approach.
Special Projects
Social Projects Bank - a database of over 3,000 projects from NGOs, businesses and governments (municipal, state and federal) related to childhood, adolescence, human rights, and the Third Sector. Offers a summary of activities and the objectives of each project. Contact Ana Cláudia projetos@andi.org.br
ANDI Award - Cinema for Children - for short and full feature films appearing in the "Brazilian Movie Festival of Brasilia" that entertain young views or that are focused on childhood and adolescence in Brazil.
"Socio-ducation" Award - created in 1998 with the objective of emphasising and providing visibility for projects that have been successful in applying socio-educational measures to adolescents who are having problems with the law.
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Subscribe to a Discussion Forum on HIV Communication
Co-moderated by The Panos Institute and The Communication Initiative, this forum will further explore issues raised in Panos' "Critical Challenges in HIV Communication"
Discussion will begin January 6, 2003.
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LESSONS LEARNED
Universities usually don’t teach journalists about adolescence.
A good strategy is to invite journalists to discuss prevention and life skills while covering other themes.
Journalists don’t like to be told what they should be doing.
The best results are reached when workshops are structured so that the journalists themselves are invited to do the work, finding out how to create more efficient coverage of adolescence-related issues. In this process, it’s important that they have the support of adolescents and experts.
A good story needs a good journalist. But it also needs one or more good sources of information.
If we want to support the strengthening of socially responsible journalism, we need to have social actors capable of understanding and facilitating the work of the press.
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Sources for this issue included email communication with ANDI, a brochure describing ANDI's strategies and activities, and the ANDI website.
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