Too young to wed; end child marriage
Introduction
Who is a Child? Childhood ends at age eighteen according to international norms but many communities consider adulthood to start much earlier. Crossette (2012) noted, “It is estimated that 10 million girls a year worldwide, the majority in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, are married under the age of 18, some as young as 7 or 8(p. 20). Several international legal conventions outlaw child marriage, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. These conventions, however, have minimal enforceability on the ground, as they largely defer to signatory countries to take action. Nevertheless, the language of these conventions establishes an international standard against child marriage.
Despite ratification of international conventions protecting children’s rights by many national governments, there are still many supporters of child marriage in South Sudan, a lot of them women who cite tradition as well as economic and social concerns. According to Crossette (2012), “arranging the marriage of a young girl may lighten a family’s expenses if she is not likely to contribute to its income and a “good” husband can be found, usually meaning one who will support her (p. 22). This Ending child marriage campaign will encompass strategies for raising community awareness and understanding the consequences of child marriage through increment of knowledge, change of attitude and behavior of both parents and girls. According to UNICEF (2013):
“Africa has the highest incidence rates of child marriage, with over 70% of girls marrying under the age of 18, in three nations. This UNICEF report is based on data that is derived from a small sample survey between 1995 and 2004, and the current rate is unknown given lack of infrastructure and in some cases, regional violence.”
African countries have enacted marriageable age laws to limit marriage to a minimum age of 16 to 18, depending on jurisdiction. In Ethiopia, Chad and Niger, the legal marriage age is 15, but local customs and religious courts have the power to allow marriages below 12 years of age. Child marriages of girls in West Africa and Northeast Africa are widespread. Additionally, poverty, religion, tradition, and conflict make the rate of child marriage in Sub-Saharan Africa very high in some regions.
In many tribal systems a man pays a bride price to the girl’s family in order to marry her (comparable to the customs of dowry and dower). In many parts of Africa, this payment, in cash, cattle, or other valuables, decreases as a girl gets older. Even before a girl reaches puberty, it is common for a married girl to leave her parents to be with her husband. Many marriages are related to poverty, with parents needing the bride price of a daughter to feed, clothe, educate, and house the rest of the family. Although the general marriageable age is 18 in the majority of countries, most jurisdictions allow for exceptions for underage youth with parental and/or judicial consent. Such laws are neither limited to developing countries, nor to state religion. In some countries a religious marriage by itself has legal validity, while in others it does not, as civil marriage is obligatory.
In Europe, the Catholic canon law sets 14 as the minimum age for the marriage of girls, as does Spain with a legal guardian’s permission. In Mexico, marriage under 18 is allowed with parental consent, from age 14 for girls and age 16 for boys. Canada and many states in the USA permit child marriages, with court’s permission. In the UK, marriage is allowed for 16–17 years old with parental consent in England and Wales as well as in Northern Ireland, and even without parental consent in Scotland. However, a marriage of a person under 16 is void under the Matrimonial Causes Act 1973. The United Nations Population Fund (2012) stated the following:
“In 2010, 158 countries reported that 18 years was the minimum legal age for marriage for women without parental consent or approval by a pertinent authority. However, in 146 countries, state or customary law allows girls younger than 18 to marry with the consent of parents or other authorities; in 52 countries, girls under age 15 can marry with parental consent. In contrast, 18 is the legal age for marriage without consent among males in 180 countries. Additionally, in 105 countries, boys can marry with the consent of a parent or a pertinent authority, and in 23 countries, boys under age 15 can marry with parental consent.”
Lower legally allowed marriage age does not necessarily cause high rates of child marriages. However, there is a correlation between restrictions placed by laws and the average age of first marriage. Nasrullah (2014) note that raising awareness of the negative health outcomes of child marriage, implementing and enforcing strict laws against child marriage practice, promoting civil, sexual and reproductive health rights for women, can help eliminate child marriages in Pakistan.
Motivation for the campaign
The main intent and purpose of this prosocial campaign is to sensitize the communities on the demerits of marrying off underage girls. Much campaign has been done in an effort to curb child marriage but it never took roots. However, a majority of that campaign focused on targeting the audience to stop child marriage without educating them on the disadvantages. Therefore, as a boy from a community in which child marriage is practiced, I am motivated to do this study due to what happened to my sister Ayor Makur when she got forced into marriage and her delivery became complicated and the baby died. Worst of all, she became childless. I am going to carry out my campaign as outlined in the subsequent pages.
The campaign
Target group
The campaign is designed to raise community awareness and understanding of the consequences of child marriage in Lakes state, South Sudan. It is also envisioned to increase awareness on legal child Act and expansion of educational activities and retention of girls in schools.
The campaign will achieve its desired projections in three segments of groups. The first target audience will be the community such as the elders, mothers, uncles, brothers, aunts who actively take lead in marrying off children. The second target audience will be the law makers and law enforcers such as parliamentarians, judges, police and all civil servants. The third target group community will be girls of school going age.
The goal
The campaign attempts to curb social and cultural influence on child marriage or wedding of teenagers. Such social and cultural influences entirely involve parental expectations on girl child, clan pressure on parents, inherent value of many children, utilization of wealth through marriage, parental blessing, and socialization, lack of education and avoidance of social and cultural sanctioned violence.
On the other hand, the campaigns will explore the legal requirements in curbing child marriage in the country.
The message
The community will be sensitized that girls married at a marriageable age have lower chances of falling into any health and social consequences. The audience will be educated that the girls married while already mature do not suffer from cervical cancer, poor infant, STIs and delivery complications. Correspondingly, in a social context, the audience will be educated that such mature girls are advantageous in that they have small spousal age gaps, unlimited social support, unlimited education, no risk of vulnerability and maternal death among others. Also, perceived taboos surrounding child marriages will be explained by experts in a better way than the audiences know.
The Content
The radio presenter will organize live shows with in-calls to people from institutions of learning and P.T.As (Parent Teachers Association) so that they educate the audiences on the benefits of girl child education and the importance of marrying off a girl while mature enough. The schools will also be encouraged to have some sessions for enlightening girls on the importance of not wedding while too young. The school will be encouraged to invite successful women in the society to share their success stories with young girls.
Pro-social activities the target group will be involved in
There will be designed Awards to any community leader or mother who calls and present their positive views on the program during the live call-in shows.
The approach
The communication will be done mainly through interactive radio live shows, jingles/spots and short dramas on giving girls a chance to mature in order to end child marriage. However, the campaign messages will be loaded to the station’s online channels of communication like Facebook page, twitter page and website among others. Moreover, the station will print stations T-shirts with the campaign messages written on their backs.
Perceived Benefits
Elders who take the central role of marrying off girls while still tender will understand the dangers of child marriage and the advantages of marrying off a girl at a mature age. The law makers and enforcers will be aware of their roles in making and implementing Child Act on regulating child marriage. School going age girls will understand the importance of waiting to get married at the right age.
Conclusion
Almost everyone in the society is to blame for the cases of child marriages across South Sudan and may be in the whole world. This is because the practice occurs under the influence of the global unending poverty. In South Sudan, fathers, uncles, brothers and mothers all celebrate marrying off a young girl of below 18. On the other hands, the girls themselves never see early marriage as an issue for it has become a normal practice and it demerits are taken lightly.
This campaign will act as an eye opener to the members of the public and the authority figures who make and implement laws.
References
Crossette B., (2012). ‘The Elders’ Against Child Marriage
Nasrullah M., (2014). Knowledge and attitude towards child marriage practice among women married as children-a qualitative study in urban slums of Lahore, Pakistan
The United Nations Population Fund (2012)
UNICEF (2013). Religion and civil law
DISCUSS WHETHER GIVING EVERYONE MORE MONEY BY THE GOVERNMENT COULD SOLVE THE PROBLEM OF SCARCITY
If surely scarcity means short supply of certain things relative to demand at any given price, then, giving everyone more money will not solve the problem of scarcity.
Why? Miller (1991) defined scarcity as the condition of human wants and needs exceeding production possibilities. If resources were great enough to produce more than anyone desired, there would also be no scarcity. In other words, society does not have sufficient productive resources to fulfill those wants and needs. Alternatively, scarcity implies that not all of society’s goals can be fully attained at the same time.
As a matter of fact, goods and services mostly derive their value from their scarcity. Hence, that value of commodities is the one stored in form of money. If money is given to everyone by the government, individuals will begin creating projections that use the money that they have. The availability of money makes them think of ways to spend it, so there’s less emphasis on doing the right things the right way. This will immediately bring general increase in prices of all commodities, more specifically demand-pull inflation and therefore reducing the efficiency of money as a store of value. This is because there will be too much money chasing too few resources. Next, being a constitutional government duty and responsibility to redistribute income, the same government will raise taxes on the ‘Pay as You Earn’ (P.A.Y.E.) terms and conditions. Also, the government stands chances of failing to stabilize the economy by controlling an inflation it created.
Scarcity as function of the inability to comprehend the nature of the universe as a triadic harmony of body, mind and spirit capable of creating and recreating everything in it in abundance must have been a challenge for minds that were limited (Kawasaki 2010). The premise here is that we live on the shoulders of those who went before us (the powerful & the rich) who set the stage for the one act play we call life.
Life struggles between scarcity and abundance (Wilson & Clark 1993). Let’s try to picture these situations. What do traffic jams, obesity and spam have in common? They are all problems caused by abundance. For instance, the obese person doesn’t over-eat because of fear of scarcity but out of the pleasure of indulging themselves. Traffic congestion cannot be solved by artificially reducing the speed of traffic, or increasing the cost of driving – through taxation. Obesity cannot be reduced by making food more expensive or less available. Spam cannot be eliminated by making it difficult and costly to send e-mail. The ratios of abundance are too great to be overcome by artificial restrictions.
According to Miller (1991), “The government affects business activity in two ways: through its policies on taxing and spending and through its control over the supply of money available in the economy (p. 362). Anything which creates abundance poses problems for any process which existed to benefit from scarcity. Scarcity occurs mostly out of our selfish desire for comfort, more stimulation. If somehow people desired nothing, there would be no scarcity.
Finally, since much money chasing few resources increases prices of goods and services, it also shows an inconsistency in the relation between demand and supply. In demand and supply, though other price determinants are held constant, having everyone owns money, will render buyers to have the same willingness and ability to pay and sellers with willingness and ability to produce and sell. Nevertheless, the quantity of goods demanded will fall and the quantity of goods supplied will rise. In that shift, therefore, the economy will undergo both demand-pull inflation and cost push inflation. Hence, giving everyone more money by the government will not solve the problem of scarcity.
References
Kawasaki G. (2010). Why Too Much Money is worse than too little. Available from: http://www.americanexpress.com, retrieved March 2015.
Miller, R. (1991). Economics today and tomorrow 3rd Edition. Macmillan/McGraw – Hill.
Wilson & Clark (1993). Economics, the science of cost, benefit and choice 3rd Edition. South Western Publishing Company.
Conducting a Research on Media use and effects
Research Proposal
Topic: Mass Media influence on body image of younger males and females.
Background: For the purpose of this research, body image will mean an individual perception of one’s own body. Meanwhile, mass media will mean any sources of information and news such as newspapers, magazines, radio and television, that reach and influence large numbers of people. Mass media are commonly known to produce, create and promote a multitude of ideas and theories with enormous influence on adolescent population and their perceptions of themselves. They are similarly believed to change how people think, feel, act and relate with the world around them.
Related studies done on this topic noted that generally, men and women are not affected similarly by the media, it appears that sociocultural factors may affect female and male adolescents differently; whilst exposure to the muscular ideal has been associated with greater body dissatisfaction in male adolescents, females have reported the desire to be thinner (Farquhar & Wasylkiw, 2007).
Regardless of the researches conducted, the researchers failed to find out why the mass media present the body images that are perceived as “ideal” by the viewers. On the other hand, those studies on mass media influence were conducted in the Western nations and not in Kenya. The research will find out whether findings will be similar or dissimilar.
Problem statement: Mass Media influence on body image of younger males and females. Mass Media influence has made both males and females not to be more accepting of their bodies and deny that their shape is not satisfactorily biologically and genetically determined.
Aesthetic standards based on the ideal stereotype of thin women and muscular men, may lead to conform idealized cultural values considered as possible determinants of body image dissatisfaction.
The Aim of the study: Based on the problem stated above, the purpose of this study is to find out how Mass Media influence body image of younger males and females of Marist International University College students in Nairobi.
Objectives:
1. To find out whether younger males and females acquire the concepts of their body images from the mass media.
2. To find out what perceptions younger males and females have about their body images, based on body size and dressing styles.
3. To find out what images of younger males and females that the mass media presents/advertises.
4. To find out the effects images have on the younger males and females
Methodology: The researcher is going to get findings through a scientific approach by distributing questionnaires to every back and front benches in different classes. Questionnaires are a good research design for the target audience of this study because the respondents are able to read and write. The random sample will constitute of one hundred gender-mixed respondents from a population of approximately two thousand students.
Hypothesis: Mass Media influences the body images of younger males and females therefore most of these young people imitate models as presented by the media.
Media tends to manipulate young people therefore causing stress and anxiety. For instance, biological features.
Theoretical background: One maximalist approach that better explains this topic – Mass Media influence on body image of younger males and females – is the magic bullet or hypodermic theory that assumed people (audience) as ‘vegetables’ that do not think about the logic behind the message sent. The theory suggests that message is directly received and wholly accepted by the receiver. The concept simply claims that audiences are passive and are directly affected by the media. The objectives of the study in question are related to this theory because it attributes power to the media and renders people passive.
Place/Area of Study: Marist International University College of the Catholic University of Eastern Africa-Nairobi
Significance of study
• Not only will the study make the youngsters understand and learn to be comfortable with their body images that are biologically and genetically determined but also will it be an “ice breaker” to the upcoming social communicators for it shall alert them on the impact of what they communicate to the masses through the mass media.
• Also, communication students and scholars will find this research important for their comparative analysis with other studies conducted on the same topic with different people in different areas of the world.
Justification
• To understand from young people if indeed the mass media pressurizes them on what body image they should have.
Motivation
• To know whether people alter their biological and genetically body images in an effort to adjust to media messages.
Proverbs, Riddles and Tongue twisters in a vernacular with literal translations
A. Proverbs
1) Original language – Ke ye rendit ting eci nyuc, aci ye rienythi ting ece kuol tuel. (Dinka Language)
Literal translation – What an old man sees while sitting down cannot be seen by a young man while tip-toeing.
Literal meaning –It means that old people know a lot about many things than the young people. This proverb warns youngsters against ignorance, pride and arrogance in acquiring knowledge from the old men in the society.
2) Original language – Apath ba ke reecdu cam cieng pathic tene ba ke path cam ee cieng reecic.(Dinka Language)
Literal translation – It is better to eat unpleasant food in a pleasant relationship than to eat a pleasant food in an unpleasant relationship.
Literal meaning – This is a cautionary proverb on relationships. Thematically: It’s a proverb on human relations/co-operation. Functionally: it’s a reflective proverb; it mirrors the reality of our lives as we interact with others especially friends. Literally, it means that friendship or rather relationship is not measured in material forms but in how much people care for one another. It’s relevant in the context of wedding ceremonies and others.
B. Riddles
3) Original language – Reen tueng: Qen anong meek
Reen rou: Luel
Reen tueng : Reel dien nong qor ka dhorou
Reen rou : Ee nhom
Literal translation – challenger: I have a riddle
Respondent: Toss it
Challenger: A hill with seven openings
Respondent: A head
Social function – It’s to entertain people as it’s a riddle on people.
4) Original language – Reen tueng: Qen anong meek
Reen rou: Luel
Reen tueng : Weer dien nong thok apaac
Reen rou : Ee nyin
Literal translation – Challenger: I have a riddle
Respondent: Toss it
Challenger: A lake surrounded by reeds
Respondent: An eye
Social function – Commentary on human body
C. Tongue twister
5) Original language – Ee yen kuac e kac e kuany ee yen e kac e kuany ee.
Literal translation – It is the tiger that bit that tiger which bit the other tiger
Reconciliation Rites among the Dinka in South Sudan
Conflict is a part of life. But it is also destructive and evil in nature. Therefore it should be overcome. The Dinka view of the conflict-reconciliation resolution is an important event in Dinka society. It has four components:
• Separation (tir)
• Arbitration (luk)
• Compensation (apuk)
• Reconciliation (acuil)
1. Separation (tir)
Tir, means blood feud, an unparalleled violence between two groups or clans with revenge involved for decades.
Once a conflict has erupted, mediators will try to stop the fight. Usually they are elders who will be respected and obeyed. Procedures towards peace making will not start immediately but time will be given for the wounds of those affected to heal. The purpose of it is double: on one side to give time for people to cool down, and on the other side to estimate the extent of the injuries in order to fix the fine.
If the person is dead and therefore the conflict is considerable, both communities/groups will avoid any type of relationship until a cleansing ceremony is performed. (Taboos: it is strongly believed that if a person of the clan of the aggressor enters the hut of a person directly related to the victim, will get leprosy. But also there is a religious dimension geared towards the setting of the conflict. It is believed that if the communities do not reconcile a curse may fall upon the whole society, in the form of lack of rain). The elders will take the initiative towards a sound resolution of the conflict.
They will consult among themselves and will send a messenger to the opposite group to ask for reconciliation. When there is a positive response, the two sides will come together to negotiate peace (call door in Dinka language). The need for reconciliation also arises from a spiritual perspective. Conflict is not the normal state of life, but peace and harmony.
God defined a set of rules to help people to live in peace. If they are broken, then the relationship with God and the ancestors, who are guardians of human behavior is also broken and must be restored.
2. Arbitration (luk)
The word ‘luk’ has two meanings: as a verb it means to persuade; as a noun it means ‘court’ or ‘trial’. The court is chaired by a chief or judge (beny luk) who is supposed to emphasize persuasion rather than coercion. (Dinka customary Law: fear of God, custodian of justice and law; fear of supernatural powers; public criticism; fear of revenge).
3. Compensation (Apuk)
Apuk is the payment of a fine in form of cattle to the relatives of the victim as compensation for the loss. The main reason of ‘Apuk’ is to make people happy as far as possible. But it has also an important role within the spiritual world, to appease God’s anger for the shedding of blood and thus avoid punishment.
4. Reconciliation (acuil)
When a final settlement is agreed upon in cases of murder, a ceremony of reconciliation (acuil) follows, which means that the case is fully resolved and harmony restored.
There are different rites performed through Dinka land for peace-making but all of them share one thing in common. An important characteristic: the sacrifice of a white bull. Rituals for small conflicts make use of other sacrificial objects (goats or chicken). Water is also an important element as symbol of purification.
A witness: each group will come along with two bulls, Mabor (white) and Malual (red) symbolizing peace and blood. The elders strongly summon the people not to fight again. Then both groups make a firm resolution to abide by the peace-agreement. The four bulls are slaughtered from head to tail and split equally. These eight pieces of meat are exchanged between the two groups in dispute. The meat of the red bull is roasted and eaten where the ceremony is taking place, while the meat of the white bull will be taken back to the community, symbolizing, in this way, that peace goes home. “The people are put together as a bull is put together”, said a Dinka chief.
Article Review on Youth, Facebook and Politics in South Africa
I. Reference Heading
Author’s Name: Tanja Bosch
Title of the Article: Youth, Facebook and politics in South Africa
Source’s Name: Journal of African Media Studies
Date of Publication: 2013, Volume 5 Number 2
II. Personal Heading
Name of Reviewer: Peter Mapuor Makur
Date of Submission: October 1, 2014
Course Title and Code: Introduction to Social Communication 1 & 2, SCC 105 & 106
Submitted to: Fr. Narciso Cellan, SVD
III. Summary of the Article
In this article, Tanja Bosch explored the links between Facebook use and political participation by the youth of South Africa. The author referred to several notable examples of how the new media has been used for political action in Philippines’ political upheaval (by use of sms), uprising in Tunisia and Egypt (mobile, Facebook & Twitter) and dismantling Mubarak’s 30-year regime among others. In the light of this background, the argument was that youth engage with alternative forms of political sub-activism working at the margins of the dominant public sphere rather than physical involvement.
To substantiate this argument, Tanja Bosch conducted a national survey in Cape Town University and four other populated provinces of Eastern Cape, Gauteng, KwaZulu Natal and the Western Cape. The quantitative survey data were collected and the findings were significant. First, the youth interest in news was discovered to have moved from mainstream media like televisions, radios and newspapers to the social network sites (SNS). Tanja described that higher levels of engagement with SNS was recorded to access internet using smartphones, with more active on Facebook (68.7%) than Twitter (44.6%) or Youtube and Flickr (39.3%).
Secondly, youth have been found disinterested in and mistrustful of political institutions because they suspect them to have implications for their participation and involvement in mainstream political activities. They are highly interested in entertainment and popular culture (86.3%) and lowly interested in politics (37.9%).
Thirdly, mainstream news institutions lack content to serve the needs of the audience despite a high level trust. For that reason, Tanja acknowledged that audience have turned to Facebook, online blogs, discussion groups, focus groups and Twitter status updates for political news.
Fourthly, Tanja identified that respondents engaged with political organizations on Facebook in the form of ‘liking’ a page or group, or a politician’s profile page as opposed to engaging in online discussions with others about political issues. Moreover, some youth were reported to have indicated mainstream online political activity such as ‘liking’ a Facebook page of a political party, but the action ended there and did not engage further with the party. Mostly, those who indicated ‘liked’ on Facebook page and followed on Twitter were rarely involved with that political party in the offline world. Unfortunately, associating with a political party on SNS was usually linked to an older family member’s political affiliations and not one’s own independent acquired political view(s). The Facebook pages of two main political parties (ANC & DA) in South Africa revealed that the ANC Youth League Facebook page had 17,517 ‘likes’ while the DA Youth had 6,791 ‘likes’. Tanja noted that youth who were bona fide members of political parties did not wish to express their allegiance to a political party via Facebook because of how they would subsequently be perceived by their online friends. Thus, they were cautious to engage in mainstream politics via SNS by engaging directly with political parties’ online social media presences.
Finally, Tanja found out that those that did not appear to be engaging in mainstream political activities on or offline had other forms of activity interpreted as activism. Those forms of activism are a form referred to as sub-activism, not about political power in the strict sense, but about personal empowerment seen as the power of the subject to be the person that they want to be in accordance with their chosen moral and political standards.
The question that remains open to study is whether Facebook connections complement offline network. In my view, it is both a maintenance and extension of existing offline network as well as initiating new relationships. However, offline relations seem more common than initiated ones. Hence, there is a need to magnify the scope of making friends online using purposeful networking. The major challenge of the internet for activism by social movements is that access can be stopped on a national scale in case it is identified as a threat to the ruling government policies. The immediate solution to such a problem is logging in using cellphones and third-party applications such as TweetDeck to send out tweets. Another is a Google-based system called ‘Speak to Tweet’ for dialing international numbers and sending voice messages as tweets.
IV. Personal Response to the Article
With Facebook having become a frequent site for youthful audience, I can use it as an avenue for changing societal attitude. I can achieve this by posting thought provocative questions on new trends in order to bring to the front how our societies should function. By doing so, it will influence what the society will see as important issue and finds its way for a public debate, hence helping in agenda setting.
Besides, as a Facebook user, not only will I be at ease to using it for entertainment purposes but also for educative purposes by checking and perfecting imperfect updates posted on different areas of life.
As well, I am informed by the article that youth abandoned news mainstream just because they felt left out. Therefore, as a dream press officer, apart from composing good news content, I will try by hooks and crooks to make my report(s) inclusive of all audience of different ages, gender, race and ethnicity to get them involved in public discourses such as democracy or systems of governance.
Generally, Tanja Bosch is not far from the reality surrounding the Facebook, politics and youth of South Africa, because co-authors Musawenkosi Ndlovu and Chilombo Mbenga (volume 5 number 2 2013, page 170) concurred that if conventional forms of participation and what ought to qualify as political knowledge are considered, there are clear signs of declining levels of political knowledge in South Africa especially among the youth. The same authors in the same article see the potential of SNS and acknowledged that Facebook pages are platforms where youth ‘assemble’ to discuss political issues (volume 5 number 2 2013, page 174). Conversely, in the research project by South Africa Netherlands Research Programme on Alternatives in Development (SANPAD 2013), it is reported that South African youth favour radio more than television and SNS. Interestingly, the top three media most relevant to respondents were radio (37.7%), social media (34.1%), and Google or other search engines (33.8%).
In Social communication, the ultimate goal of communication is a shared meaning. However, in the Tanja’s article, the mainstream news media have not achieved that goal of communication through the youth readership, listenership and viewership. In that case, failure to address youth in the coverage renders the news institutions to talking to themselves and not the receivers. Of which according to Berlo, in any communication situation, the source and the receiver are interdependent. What enticed me into reading this article was to understand the interconnectedness of Facebook, youth and politics. This is because in my country South Sudan, majority of the youth have turned into beating the ‘drum of injustice’ on Facebook walls. In an attempt to answer the Facebook question, ‘What is on your mind?’ They mostly spread messages that amount to widening tribal gaps among warring political parties and ethnic communities.
In the midst of many facts I had liked in this article, I valued the fact that Facebook can be used for social and political development and not just for chatting and uploading entertaining photos. And so, Tanja has attempted to shape the reasons that steered me into reading this article.
However, I would argue that Tanja’s qualitative study falls short of presenting the importance and significance of SNS and how it has aided the youth’s political participation to an extent of altering the voter turnout that primarily undermined the central pillars of citizenship in South Africa. Although, Tanja did indicate the practice of ‘liking’ or ‘disliking’ statuses on the Facebook walls of politicians and political parties, he neglected to mention why this is important. Amazingly, for other Facebook users, ‘like’ status merely means ‘seen’ and do not necessarily communicate anything. Furthermore, the generalizability that South African youth have lost interest in politics is not a fair judgment because not all the urban youth afford the technological devices of accessing the internet.
V. Conclusion
In the field of communication and media, this article is a wakeup call for the perfection of popular news media like televisions, radios and newspapers. It alerts communicators to introduce substantial and pervasive changes to communication between societies, organizations, communities, and individuals. There is need to move towards greater information convergence by integrating what appears in the social network sites in the mainstream news media. On the other hand, this article has become an eye opener that the social networking sites have advanced into other alternative channels for self-expression. It is also a call upon the news media to be inclusive by engaging and involving youth in their coverage. There is need to build upon integrating the SNS with the mainstream news media in order to place youth and all audiences at the Centre of societal change.
REFLECTION OF PAPER IN THE FIRST WEEKS AT TANGAZA UNIVERSITY COLLEGE IN JANUARY 2014
Some terms in a language exist and might be known by definition especially in English language but their real meanings are never internalized by people until proved emotionally or socially. In that case dear reader, I had known defining egotism and pride for the near past years of my earthly existence but never assessed the emotional consequences of feeling proud and egotistic in a wrong time at a wrong place and context.
In writing to talk about myself Peter Mapuor, I am going to focus on my state of mind before entrance to Tangaza College, first day in Tangaza and the weeks later in Tangaza. Kindly read to learn and enjoy reading for leisure and remembrance.
BEFORE ENTRANCE TO TANGAZA COLLEGE
Since my secondary completion, I have somehow been living a celebrity’s life. Before I entered Tangaza’s gate, I held my chest high as a popular South Sudanese Radio Presenter. This is because back home in my state, Icould not miss being acknowledged in a group where more than five people gathers. I was always showered with praises on my good work almost at every corridor of the town. Certainly, I was a hill in a valley.
Apart from that, I also thought Sr. Paola Moggi, the ISC former Directress, had told the school about my terrorization by the Lakes state government for resisting programs and news censorship as being the reason for my prompt scholarship to Tangaza. And due to such a feeling, I was expecting to find more sympathizers or counsellors for me in Tangaza. I really needed counselling on the traumatic events in which some were personal and others national especially the recent rebellion in Juba were shooting was staged near our residence.
FIRST DAY IN TANGAZA
On my first day at Tangaza, the most common greetings by the people from the gate to the inside was a three-sentenced statement said in a tender voice full of pity i.e.Happy New Year. Sisters and sisters, priests and priests, sisters and priests and other lay people were exchanging hugs as they converged around the compound after a long break. That made me almost condense because in my area you stay for months or years without seeing people hug themselves in public. The worst was that no one could even say hello or wished me a happy new year 2014. People couldn’t see my eye but stole seeing me only with the tales of their eyes. Several questions scrambled my mind. Have the Kenyans started hating South Sudanese because of the fighting going on? Do they see me as a South Sudanese trouble-maker? Are they amazed and dazed to see a South Sudanese in a Godly place? Am I appearing too rude? Have I not met the dressing code emphasized at the gate? Do they fear strangers? I was totally feeling small and isolated from the Tangazians or students and teachers of Tangaza. I was bitter for unspecific reasons. I was shy to ask for a directive to the Institute of Social Communication (ISC) because I was the only one looking confused and the rest appeared confident in walking and talking. I was just being proud and did not want to embarrass myself to ask people, except to follow the earlier instructions from the receptionist. I committed myself to move up and down without finding the institute’s office. After duration of good 30 minutes, I came across a puzzled priest asking a certain sister the classrooms for the Youth Ministry. That was when I automatically got relieved from the fear of unknown and learned that asking was normal in Tangaza. And without wasting time, I approached that same sister who directed the men she addressed as father. She willingly directed me to the ISC office.
After finding the ISC office, my mind was clouded with other worries again. I wasn’t truly sure whether Social Communication course really did mean Mass Communication. I thought Sister Paola Moggi had mistakenly sent me for a spiritual course in order to recover from the government’s threats against me back home. I did not see any mention of Mass Communication in my mails. All mentioned was Social Communication. I was impatient to see the course modules so that I can inform my sponsor that I do not need a spiritual course but a Journalism course. I do not want to be a priest anyway.
Dear reader, my other terrifying challenge was the titles for addressing people in the college and more so in a Christian setting like Tangaza. I did not know who to address as a Sir, a Reverend or My lord. Seeing many sisters around made me pre-judged that most men could be priests. I was absolutely disordered, mainly at the time I was waiting to see the person in charge of admissions. My intestines almost got burnt when a lady abruptly opened the door and introduced herself as Madam Anne. What strengthened me was when she asked whether I am Mapuor from South Sudan. She was excited to know that I was the one. I was excited too that she was expecting me. My intestines were liberated from the fire of fear. At that time, I had a will to narrate freely how the chaos in our country started and how I managed coming to Nairobi. I felt welcomed in the Admission offices.
Even though I believed that most of the people climbing stairs were students, I wasn’t at ease to speak English for I felt that they might not understand my accent or rather grammar. While still engulfed in fear till lunch hour, I kept to myself and moved to the cafeteria where I encountered another drama. Had I not pocketed some cash, I would have only ended eating the delicious aroma diffusing from the kitchen; I thought it was a school free provision. After encroachment into a different budget for the day and took my order of food, Idid not know where or who to sit with because most conversations at the reach of my ear were subject related. I sat alone and it was not easy moving my jaws up and down for I presumed everyone to be watching at me. I struggled to munch it but it did not satisfy me at all.
Lucky enough, I came across a classmate who was willing to show me around and teach me some basic words in Kiswahili like Habari gani, Karibu and many more. At least on the second part of the first day, I knew Diana but I feared asking her where the washrooms were in the building. I did not trust her too for I thought she had a hidden agenda in her kindness. I was told that most college girls are problematic. I also didn’t want Diana to take me as uncivilized. Above all, my paternal instinct blocked openness to my new friend, Diana. I managed to ask for washrooms from a Zambian theology student who introduced himself to me as Malembe. I was at ease to ask him what I didn’t know for he is a man and also from a different institute. On the other hand, some of my classmates feared to see me straight in the eye. I did not know why. I did not know whether I was looking too old, too black or too serious. I thought it wise to be greeting them and ask their names so that they can prove my harmlessness. I showed them that I am a born again Dinka.
Another deadly worry was meeting the lecturers and how to interact with them in and out of class. In a few weeks, I saw all my lecturers and I am yet to learn how I’ll help them to help me excel academically.
THE WEEKS LATER IN TANGAZA
Dear reader, you’ve heard me in this reflection about how I lived these few days at Tangaza College. You’ll agree with me that I have somehow been handling myself egocentrically and proud on the first day. I have now understood the emotional consequences of feeling proud and egotistic in a wrong time at a wrong place and context. From here on, I am optimistic and committed to a cordial interaction with students and teachers of Tangaza community and beyond. I have also learned that Mass Communication means Social Communication. I have also learned that it’s not always people to approach me but me also to approach them. People fear me when I fear them. People are proud when I am proud. People are egocentric when I am egocentric.
History of Film
In order to take you briefly through the history of film, I will commence way back from the Invention of Photography up to the contemporary Motion Picture industry.
The Invention of Photography
Before the invention of photography, a German Physicist, Johann H. Schulze discovered in 1727 that silver salts turn dark when exposed to light. Later on, Carl Scheele, a Swedish chemist, showed in 1780s that the changes in the color of the silver salts could be made permanent through the use of chemicals.
And in 1826, a French inventor, Nicephore Niepce, produced a permanent image by coating a metal plate with a light-sensitive chemical and exposing the plate to light for about eight hours. In 1830s, another French inventor Louis Daguerre, developed the first practical method of photography by placing a sheet of silver-coated copper treated with crystals of iodine inside a camera and exposing it to an image for 5 to 40 minutes. Besides, Josef M. Petzval, a Hungarian mathematician, developed lenses for portrait and landscape photographs, which produce sharper images and admit more light, thus reducing exposure time.
In 1851, a British photographer Frederick S. Archer developed a photographic process using a glass plate coated with a mixture of silver salts and an emulsion made of collodion. Later, George Eastman in 1888 introduced the lightweight, inexpensive Kodak camera, using film wound on rollers. Around 1890s, the combination of a flexible transparent film base, fast exposure time, mechanical to pull the film to camera, an intermittent device to stop the film and a charter to block off light was achieved.
The Invention of Celluloid Film
In 1839, a British inventor William H. Fox Talbot, an English classical archaeologist, made paper sensitive to light by bathing it in a solution of salt and silver nitrate. However, George Eastman, in 1885, introduced film made on a paper base instead of glass, wound in a roll, eliminating the need for glass plates. By developing films in its own processing plants, Eastman Kodak in 1888 eliminated the need for amateur photographers to process their own pictures.
The Emergence and rise of the Motion Picture industry
In 1878, a British photographer Eadweard Muybridge took the first successful photographs of motion, showing how people and animals move. Etienne Marey in France developed in 1882 a camera, shaped like a gun, which can take twelve pictures per second. Thomas Edison and W.K. Dickson develop the Kinetoscope, a peep-show device in which film is moved past a light.
In 1895, two French brothers, Louis and August Lumiere patent a combination movie camera and projector, capable of projecting an image that can be seen by many people. In 1906, the first animated cartoon was produced and about 9,000 movie theaters in the United States appeared in 1909.
Here, Edison was determined to exploit the money-making potential of his company’s invention. He tried to force competing filmmakers out of the business by bringing patent-violation suits against them. In 1908, Edison cooperated with Biograph to bring other companies under their control by forming the Motion Picture Patents Company (MPPC). MPPC was a group of ten firms based primarily in Chicago, New York and New Jersey. The MPPC never succeeded in eliminating its competitors. The United States government brought suit against the MPPC in 1912, and in 1915 it was declared a monopoly. Other filmmakers formed their own companies with Biograph’s long serving Director D. W Griffith forming his own in 1913.
Film companies begun moving permanently to California around 1910 due to its great variety of terrains and adequate climate that permitted shooting year-round. Gradually, through the 1910s and late 1920s that marked the end of the silent-era, the smaller studios merged to form the large firms that still exist today. The classical Hollywood cinema had developed into a sophisticated movement, but Hollywood product was remarkably standardized.
Famous players joined with Jesse L. Lasky and formed a distribution wing, Paramount. By the late 1920s, most of the major companies like merger of Metro, Goldwyn, and Mayer (MGM), Fox Film cooperation and so on, had been created. By 1925, the first inflight movie, a black & white, silent film called The Lost World, was shown in a WWI converted Handley-Page bomber during a 30-minute flight near London.
In the late 1918, with the end of the First World War, the German film industry concentrated on the popular adventure serial, featuring spy rings, clever detectives and exotic settings through Expressionism. German had then learned to support their local industries in order to ban imports from America and France. Later, as Expressionism became an accepted style, filmmakers didn’t motivate Expressionist style as the narrative point of view of mad characters. Instead, Expressionism functioned to create stylized situations for fantasy and horror stories or historical epics. As a style, Expressionism disappeared by 1927 and was replaced by expressionism which influences a film noir and horrors.
During the silent-era, a number of film movements in France posed major alternatives to classical Hollywood forms. Some of the alternatives, such as abstract cinema and Dada filmmaking, were not specifically French and constituted instead a part of the growing international avant-garde. Impressionism was an avant-garde style that operated largely within the film industry in France.
References
David Bordwell / Kristin Thompson Film Art, an Introduction, Ninth Edition
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu
History of Media, Course Essay
INTRODUCTION
Dear reader, before I commence telling you a historical record of one of the sister stations of the Catholic Radio Network (CRN) in South Sudan, I would like to inform you that CRN is a media project constituted by Community-based Radio Stations broadcasting in Frequency Modulation from Juba, Yei, Torit, Yambio, Rumbek, Tonj, Wau, Malakal and Nuba Mountains, a contested region between South and North Sudan.
Due to diverse realities of South Sudan, each station of the nine in the state headquarters is rooted in its locality and broadcasts locally produced culture-sensitive programs in the languages which are understood by the local people.
In the light of that, it’s my pleasure to educate you more on one radio station of the Sudan Catholic Radio Networks called Bakhita Radio which is situated in the capital Juba.
THE BEGINNING OF BAKHITA
Bakhita Radio FM 91 is a social enterprise belonging to the Catholic Archdiocese of Juba. Bakhita FM was established in 2006 and it is the first station of the Sudan Catholic Radio Network or SCRN. It broadcasts about 33 programs systematically. The programs which I will tell you in fuller details later are comprehensive as they touch every single aspect of people’s lives and social fabric. Bakhita radio provides a forum where accurate information and opinions can be aired by all, empowering marginalized groups to actively participate in community development. It serves as a platform to raise awareness and promote behavior change in Juba and surrounding territories.
THE OWNER & THE STAKEHOLDERS OF BAKHITA RADIO
Bakhita Radio (together with the other stations in the Catholic Radio Network) is a community support by the Comboni Missionaries through the Catholic Church in the Sudan before South Sudan’s secession in 2011. It is now owned by the Sudan Catholic Bishops’ Conference or SCBC and is under the leadership of the Archdiocese of Juba.
The station has no specific stakeholders but it gets its financial support from short term partnered programs with the Non-governmental Organization. United Nations Children Fund or UNICEF and BBC Media Action have been there continued sponsors of the short programs.
ORGANIZATIONAL STRUCTURE OF ITS ESTABLISHMENT
Bakhita Radio commenced as a small-sized institution with the departments below:
a) Board of Directors
The board of Directors for the smooth running of Bakhita is headed by the Bishop of Juba Archdiocese and is deputized by the director of Bakhita Radio. Some members of the board include some sisters and other elder lay men in Diocese.
b) Station Director
The first director of the station Albino Tokwaro Fabian is not a professional in journalism but has been put there on managerial purposes.
c) Program Manager
The Program Manager Josephine Achiro is a journalist by training.
d) News Editor
At Bakhita Radio, the news department is held by John Achieng. Meanwhile, Fr. Joe De Viera is the Chief Editor for the whole network. Every news item is sent to the Chief Editor at the CRN Coordination office before it is broadcast on Radio Bakhita.
However, there are other departments such as Production and Finance.
VISION-MISSION STATEMENTS
The vision of Bakhita Radio is “A reconciled society built on human and spiritual values, rooted in justice and honesty.”
However, its mission is “To reach out to the people of South Sudan with a means of communication and information that builds peace through reconciliation and healing of trauma. To contribute to the spiritual welfare of the people through good information and civic education, which foster integral human development and respect for human rights and paying special attention to all the vulnerable groups (women, children, youth, the illiterates….)
Bakhita Radio or 91 FM offers room for a constructive dialogue with those who own different perspectives. It is open to cooperation with associations and groups in activities geared to the promotion and full development of the human being in the fields of education, health, peace and justice, reconciliation, civic education and nation building. It stands as an apolitical body and doesn’t side with any political group or party. Its aim is to help the listeners form a mature civic conscience.
LISTENER-SHIP
According to the 2012 research, Bakhita Radio serves a potential audience of 1,100,000 people. Its transmission covers an area of about 110 Km in radius. The target audiences are the speakers of English, Arabic Juba, Bari, Mahdi, Acholi, Lolubo and Lokoya.
OUTLINE OF ITS PROGRAMS
As I mentioned earlier in the introductory part that Bakhita Radio broadcasts about 33 programs systematically, here below is a segmented schedule of ten major programs in which incorporation of the other minor programs fall.
I. Women in the shade of peace
This is a two-hour live program that discusses women issues in South Sudan. It’s a live program where listeners call and contribute in the topic of discussion. The aim of the program is for women to bring out issues affecting them in the society and be part of nation building in South Sudan.
II. Healing of broken soul
It is a trauma healing technique and reflection. It allows audience interactions on topics of healing and reconciliation with oneself, others and God. Issues such as self-awareness, stress, trauma healing and many more are brought on air.
III. Daily bread
The content of this night pre-recorded program is mostly based on spiritual retreats given by renowned retreat masters and spiritual books. It addresses insight and reflections for one’s life daily.
IV. Echoes of the night
It’s a soft music and inspirational thoughts. It’s for night hours aimed at reflection and self-awareness at the end of the day.
V. Catholic Answers
This is purely a catechetical session. Pastoral agents present topics and answers to questions and doubts audiences may have on key issues regarding the catholic faith.
VI. Gospel Countdown
It is a time for playing of the best gospel songs in South Sudan, a selection of Christian songs are played along with bible quizzes and Christian inputs.
VII. Sunday Liturgy
Sunday liturgy and commentary, Sunday pre-recorded readings and reflections are aired every Sunday night in preparation to the Sunday’s liturgy. On Sunday, there is a liturgy of the Word in the morning and readings and homily collected from a parish in the afternoon.
VIII. God’s Word for you Today
Here, daily liturgy and readings of the liturgical calendar are broadcast. Pastoral agents offer a 5 min reflection on the liturgy of the day.
IX. Life Witnessing
This is a time for broadcast of pre-recorded stories worthy to be shared. Life stories of people in the church (saints) and society who made or a making a difference.
X. Know Your Faith
The program develops catechesis on Christian faith and basic theological truths and principles.
HISTORICAL CONTRIBUTION OF BAKHITA TO THE SOCIETY
Since its beginning in 2006, Radio Bakhita is credited of having extensively educated the public, especially the illiterate population:
a) On the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA).
b) On the democratic process
c) On the Sudan Elections 2010 and
d) On the Southern Sudan Referendum 2011
From July 9 2011, Bakhita Radio has been promoting nation building and the rule of law. Even now that the country is in a terrible conflict that took ethnic dimension, Bakhita continues to promote its vision and mission of inculcating sustainable peace into the people.
A challenge Radio Bakhita faces is getting local media professionals to do the job commendably and competently in sensitive departments like live talk shows, news presentation and editorial departments.
On the other hand, Bakhita faces financial setbacks as it runs itself through sponsored programs by the community, governmental institutions and Non-Governmental Organizations.
CONCLUSION
With the services delivered by Radio Bakhita amid extreme political threats in a young military nation, South Sudan, I have come to learn that Bakhita Radio is liked and hated equally in the capital Juba. It has been respected due to church moral authority than other commercial and governmental media houses. It is also through the moral authority of the church that made audiences trust Bakhita than other media houses in the capital Juba. Being a Christian radio gave it ground for bridging social and political gaps on important movements of South Sudan’s history especially during the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) era, on the democratic process, on the Sudan Elections 2010, on the Southern Sudan Referendum 2011 and till independence.
Reflection papers on Introduction to journalism
Analysis on the video
I was not only frightened but also disheartened by the video on the Ethiopian famine of 1984.
In my observation, it was as if none of the people therein was sure of living the next minute or day. I also wondered how the camera person managed to capture such videos in an extreme death engulfed zone. There was no much difference between the dead and the emaciated living. In fact, before the video ended, my mind was clouded with many questions. I thought it was a fictitious video until I learned later that it was shot by Mohamed, a journalist from Ethiopia.
Dear reader, I can never fail to confess that Mr. Mohamed did his job with love and commitment otherwise he wouldn’t have faithfully presented such facts underground. I am sure he underwent hardships in getting story shots but what kept him doing his job was possibly his journalistic conscience. It’s indeed an inspiration to me seeing a success story that uncovered information known to few. If it was not for such a journalistic curiosity, how could others and I have known and felt what happened 30 years ago. I believe such a report made an impact during its real time. I still wonder why reporters are not granted qualified privilege in such disastrous moments that are not human made.
With such coverage out of the Ethiopian government’s will, is it inappropriate to define journalism as an independent monitor of power? For sure, I was frightened and also disheartened.
Reflection 2
Future of the newspaper
A newspaper consists of bulky sheets of papers on which information is printed whereas internet is an easy, cheap and fast medium for sharing information with others.
If ask a question whether Newspaper industry will have a test of time or not, I believe there is no firm prediction to it because it’s hard to predict what happens in the near future without a proper research on it like the USA media experts did.
Truly, the evolving media technology has a negative impact on the newspaper. Internet as I understand is an accessible medium with information availed on one’s finger tips and in my opinion the newspaper has got its own unique advantage that can extend its lifetime in Africa.
As history tells, our primitive ancestors did use unsophisticated necessities for communication but their evolution to the present era was progressive till newspaper invention. In the same way, the abandonment of the newspaper in Africa will be progressive unlike that of the United States due to the slow response to the digital era of internet in this developing continent.
I feel that most people do not commit knowledge to memory as they see it in the internet, hear on radio or view in the television. For that reason(s), most people always want to use pieces of writing which they can revisit afterwards. In spite of youngsters being digital citizens, newspaper will still take time to fade out of system because of access by old-fashioned citizens attached to reading hard materials.
Reflection 3
My life story
In writing about myself, Peter Mapuor Makur, I was born to Makur Malith and Mary Ding on 23 August 1987 in Yirol, South Sudan. I am a seventh born child of four brothers and four sisters, three and three of whom are alive respectively. Meanwhile, a brother called Majier and a sister Ajak perished in situations blamed on war. May their souls rest in eternal peace!
However, I finished my Kenya Certificate of Primary Education (K.C.P.E.) in Kakuma Refugee Camp in 2005 and later completed Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (K.C.S.E.) in 2009 in Riruta Central School in Nairobi, Kenya.
I was recruited in 2011 by 89fm of the Catholic Radio Network (CRN) in South Sudan as a Reporter and a Presenter.
In June 2013, the Lakes state government was discomforted by my live program called “The Morning Basket.” The state Minister for Information shutdown the radio conditioning the management to dismiss me or else the radio remains shutdown. CRN declined to dismiss me but decided to offer me a scholarship and study in Tangaza to pursue my degree in Communication.
Worth to know is my village life years ago. Had I not left Amethic village for school, my possible occupation would have been a soloist, an occultist or a designer for traditional theatre because I was a rising star in mimicking magical dances of ritualism. In fact, the magicians did admire my voice and desired me to join them. In my village too, I remained remembered as a nice boy by my mother and siblings for artistic designation of beautiful traditional gourds.
What kept me happy-going over the years is a Scottish novelist and dramatist J. M. Barrie quote, “The secret of being happy is not doing what one likes but liking what one does”.
And this, my dear reader, is where I continue to write my story.
Reflection 4
Work related fears in my profession
Before I begin confessing in this piece of writing dear reader, I would like to inform you that the hardest part of life is not only living itself but also identifying one’s weakness or weaknesses. Truly, in my experience, among the easiest things to sense is fear of both known and unknown personal limitations.
One of my work related disability as a journalist is inability to control anger at any slightest provocation. I am afraid to disclose to you that I once lost my mind and became a donkey by kicking and hand-biting a security personnel who caught my neck while recording a statement from a Police Inspector who was addressing a crowd mourning for a businessman shot by a soldier. I was lucky for there were no TV journalists to embarrass me in the headlines.
Additionally, computer is another devil I came across just the other year and I fear typing under editor’s pressure for I am not speedy. I am very slow in keyboarding and now the media world is turning digital when I am still handital or rather fingetal. In the two years I spent at work, gathering news from the field and audio digital editing was stress-free but typing the news items for broadcast drew hell near when meeting deadlines.
On the other hand, I hate following and persuading people to give statements for reports especially when such people deserve giving official statement to the press. For example, asking the Minister for Health to say a word on the World AIDS Day.
Another worry that brings threats to the world of my profession is getting to know when a journalist becomes a citizen especially when he/she witnesses a scene of people killing themselves? I am always tempted of abandoning my work tools to either separate people ensued in a physical combat or support the weak person. One microphone got broken in my hands last year due to such a citizenry responsibility on the roadside.
Dear reader, having listened to my fears in this reading, I welcome your solid prayer in brightening my future world so that it appears better than my past.
Reflection 5
Important Professional Principle
Everyone wants to be trusted in the job they perform including you but did you know that it takes a longer time to gain trust and a shorter time to lose it?
Most experts say that apart from enjoying one’s profession, a person should evaluate whether what he/she does serves the community in any way. To both the powerful and the powerless, journalism is considered a social good. In the light of that, I have got reasons as a journalist to pronounce that journalists’ principle of social responsibility is far much important than all other principles of journalism.
First, social responsibility aid journalists to do their job with prudence and maintain a social contract with the public in the messages they transmit. Moreover, it makes journalists to carry out their tasks with forces of their own conscience and not with manipulated approach.
Secondly, a journalist that centralized social responsibility wins the hearts and minds of the public for his or her integrity. This doesn’t happen on spot but during the life experience. In my opinion, the community weighs the importance of such journalists from their social products of news and programs or the likes.
Finally, social responsibility helps a journalist to fight a bitter truth in a soft manner. It’s a success to avoid conflict by passing through a soft way with a hard issue in order to liberate a hand-tied society.
Dear reader, the five-lettered trust is not something you can wait for five minutes with your five fingers closed but a product of a transparent and accountable over a period of time.
Literature Review
INTRODUCTION
It’s true that children need a suitable environment for growth but who else cares for the children if adults don’t? No one on earth denies giving love to children including you dear reader. Think of spouses who have even fallen out of love with their loved husbands and wives. They both still offer cute smiles to their own children. There’s something that many people don’t know about youngsters and it’s important that you know about it today. Youngsters cannot judge what is metaphorical and what is literal; anything that they receive into their mind at the early stage is likely to become fixed and unalterable; and therefore it is most important that the tales which the children first hear should be models of normal thoughts.
Early instructions of youngsters most commonly begin with parents or care-givers but other channels of communication like the televisions have occupied mysterious positions of instructors. Apart from informative, educative and entertainment services that televisions show, it’s thought to negatively instill a transformation into youngsters’ sexual behavior change such as random sibling incest, rape, sexual orientation and early pregnancies. In considering youngsters’ sexual behavior, one hypothesis worth investigating might be, ‘Children aged 6-18 play sex based on their knowledge learned from viewing Television romantic Programs.’
PROBLEM STATEMENT
The main focus here is to understand how television messages on romance prepare children aged 6-18 either psychologically or socially. In the view of the majority, the most educative and enjoyable part of a Romantic Movie is the scene in which sexual intercourse is clearly depicted. Very few people think about children’s intellectual ability to comprehend sex patterns as early as age six.
Nevertheless, communication is conventionally known as power only when it is effective and directed to the right receiver. If the hypothesis proves that children get sex appeal from romantic movies, it will be of significance to the media institutions especially the televisions to broadcast a material(s) that doesn’t interfere with the social and psychological growth of children.
Conversely, like mentioned earlier, most people think that children do not comprehend films’ actions such as kissing and sexual intercourse. How true is this principle? If a baby boy persuades to kiss a mother just because he saw it on TV, how hard is it for such baby boy to kiss a baby girl in the same house or at the neighborhood? The research is much interested in knowing what the television tells the children and what the children understand from romance on TV.
There is a mass cry of girl child education as being hindered by early pregnancies. In the light of that, this research struggles to fill the gaps in the works of art which didn’t adequately summarize this essential matter.
SUMMARY OF LITERATURE
Dear reader, look at the below findings of the previous researchers’ opinions that slightly explore the same concern.
1. Early pregnancies
Early pregnancies occur mostly out of wed locks for those girls that are too young to wed.
Rand Corp (http://content.time.com) found that teens exposed to the most sexual content on TV are twice as likely as teens watching less of this material to become pregnant before they reach age of 20. Someone would see a relationship between the hypothesis in question and this finding by Rand Corp but the report did not find a solution to the matter.
This gap worth investigating if teens closely connected to their parents are likely to abstain from sex, wait until they are older to have sex or have fewer sexual parents.
The link (http://www.education.com) presented six out of ten teens (59%) believe that teen boys often receive the message that sex and pregnancy are no big deal. Where do they receive the message? Is it sex and pregnancy of the older ones or the young?
Not in front of the children (2001 by Marjorie Heins, p.17), described virginity of girls as being tightly guarded and a commodity for advantageous marriages; it ensured the legitimacy of offspring as well as the husbands’ ownership of his wife. Children of the middle ages and early modern Europe were thus bargaining chips in the business of economic alliance building through marriage, not the coddled innocents of later western imaginations. The author did not provide how and why importance of virginity disappeared in the western imagination. What factors brought the change as such? In Africa, what was common was force marriage of the unwilling girls. Now, it’s underage girls rushing into marriage through early pregnancies. This gap needs more information from the field in the Africa context.
Fighting for girls (2001, p.20), a study of girls and violence by university of Pittsburg, showed pregnancy per 1000 female teens by age group between 15-19 years as 70.6% in 2005.
The report indicated other culture-warriors’ claims of pornographic, misogynist imagery pervading popular culture and corrupting young people of both sexes, surely rape and other sexual violence against young women skyrocketed in recent years. This is contradicted on P.21 of the same book that rape and other sexual violence against females declined sharply over the last 35 years. The line of difference needs to be drawn whether it is declining or increasing and why?
Fighting for girls (p.20) also contradicted without specification that teens getting pregnant and having babies and abortions at younger ages today isn’t true.
2. Rape
The four classification of sexual violence were fore-sexual contact, coercive sex, attempted rape and completed rape. When people think of rape, what comes straight to mind are the adults preying on young women.
Jama Pediatrics in the guideline (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013 on 11/2/14) noted that nearly 10% of survey respondents reported perpetrating some form of sexual violence in their lifetime, with 4% reporting attempted or completed rape.
The report observed teenage boys and girls increasingly instigating sexual violence and many convicted perpetrators of sexual crimes beginning at young ages. Jama extended that today’s adult rapist may have once been a teenage perpetrator of sexual violence. The report did not finish telling us whether it’s all teenagers that possessed such behaviors or children from a certain transitional life.
If that is the case that children begin sex at early ages, the study is incomplete. It failed to investigate why they do it too, where do they get the concept as early as teen. How did they know it can be taken using force?
2010 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/nwes/2013 on 11/2/14), identified more than 75 percentof women who have been raped as being raped before age 25, with 42.2% of this group being raped before their 18th birthday. It also assumed sexual violence being fairly common in teenage years both from a victim and perpetrator standpoint. Researchers are not sure if this pattern is because of differences in developmental lines between males and females or teen age is a compulsory age for forceful sex. The authors point to video games and X-rated media contents as factors, concluding they are cautious about linking violence to an increasing violence media (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013 on 11/2/14). I am notsatisfied by the study because it assumes the factors as being caused by video games, X-rated media contents and developmental lines between males and females without investigating a specific pattern. If this is true, then why is it mostly common in urban setting and rare in the rural areas? We heard earlier in the first part of this document that sexual behavior is under a progressive growth. We need to know why.
According to the same source above, nearly ¾ of those who experienced sexual violence are explained to have done so at the hands of a romantic partner. The remaining ¼ were victims of someone they knew. In other words, all victims in the study had some sort of relationship with the perpetrator. In my opinion, rape that happens between romantic partners might be due to proximity at the time sexual desires heightened but why youngsters do this hasn’t been explained in fuller details. The question you and I should answer is whether children also have romantic partners.
(UN Study Looks at High Rate of Rape)showed that females and males had carried out sexual violence at nearly equal levels by the age of 18. Of the survey respondents who reported being perpetrators, 48% were females and 52% were males. Interestingly, females tend to assault older victims, while males are more likely to choose younger victims. Is that vertical behavior natural or provoked by something else?
Females are also more likely to engage in “gang rape” types of activity and act in groups or teams (1 to 5 females reported this type of activity, compared with 1 to 39 males). This is a very clear report but it failed to investigate what force is behind such unusual behaviors.
In the first place, this researcher isn’t sure if this pattern is because of differences in developmental trajectories between males and females or there is something more than that.
Although the authors point to video games and X-rated media content as factors, they are cautious about linking sexual violence to an increasingly violent media. The report did not specify very well how violence media is connected with sexual violence or rape.
3. Sibling incest
It’s universally understood that sibling incest or kin sexual intercourse may take the forms of brother sister, brother-brother and sister-sister relationship or interactions.
Carlos M. Loredoin the Lexington books titled (HANDBOOK OF CLINICAL INTERVENTION IN CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE BY SUZANE M. SGROI, M.D OF 1982, PG 177); thought of much having been written about sibling incest but doesn’t elaborate the findings of Santiago of 1973 which it quoted as reference (Santiago, 1973).
Clinically, however, it is agreed that relatively little is unknown about incest (Poznanski and Blos, 1975; Sagarin, 1977) the results aren’t satisfactory or rather detailed because if little is known about incest, is it how it happens or why it happens? It has been suggested that although the most frequently reported type of incest is typically father-daughter (Justice and Justice, 1979; Lester, 1972), the most common form of incest that occurs is between brother and sister (Weeks, 1976; Weiner, 1962). The above related findings or researches failed to indicate why and what make fathers, brothers and others take part in incestuous relationships. It did not say whether daughters also do have own sexual desires for fathers. I can see an assumption of fathers being thought as perpetrators.
Handbook of clinical intervention in child sexual abuse by Suzanne M. Sgroi, M.D. (1982, PG 179), reported that sexual behavior and exploration between siblings is a difficult one. Due to cultural, ethnic, geographic and individual differences, the notion of typical sexual behavior among siblings becomes a relative issue. Dear reader, if we are to go by that study, others would wonder if incestuous practices are in line with culture, ethnicity, geographical location or individual differences. There seem to be a gap in the study that needs filling in order to get the youngers’ notion.
Majority of clinical cases showed that parents and other people in authority within the home were aware that incestuous behavior took place within the home (HANDBOOK OF CLINICAL INTERVENTION IN CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE BY SUZANNE M. SGROI, M.D. OF 1982, PG 183). In some instances, parental figures witnessed the interaction. At times, parents were told by the victims that they were being molested but parents disregarded all allegations. In my view, the study confirms to us that incestuous relations happen in a home but doesn’t say what intrigues the youngsters to do it. Where do they get the hint? It would make sense if what surrounds the children’s environment is investigated and analyzed if they have links with their behavior.
Although those people who commit sex offences against minors are described as ‘pedophiles’ or ‘predators’ and thought of as adult, it’s vital to note that substantial portion of this offenses are committed by other minors who do not fit the image of such terms.
Guideline (https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/ojjdp/227763.pdf on 11/2/2014), the National Incident –Based Reporting System (NIBRS) offered perspective on the characteristics of the juvenile sex offender population coming to the attention of law enforcement. Key findings from this bulletin defined that Juveniles account for more than one-third (35.6%) of those known to actively take part in early sex. It reported that interest in youth who commit sexual offenses has grown in recent years, along with specialized treatment and management programs, but relatively little population-based epidemiological information about the characteristics of this group of offenders and their offenses has been available.
The controversial phrase here is the growth of sexual offenses in recent years, someone would love to know why sexual offenses happen to grow in recent and from creation. Is the growth attached to technology? That phrase alone requires investigation.
Scholar John A. O’brien believed (Sex-character education, p. 87)that with children learning alone, sex is played more common among them than most people think. The author recognized that youngsters go into bathroom with friends and discuss bad words or giggle about toilet functions. Boys and girls ask to see each other’s genital or to touch and stimulate each other and begin to gratify their pleasures. In this study, you and I agree that children do have pleasures as early as possible but personally I would have been satisfied more if how they know about sexual intercourse was studied and explained.
The same book (Sex-character Education p. 194), mentioned that boys urging sex experience often say, ‘why not?’ and treat it as a matter of light concern. But it is revealing that no reputation physician who has handled thousands of cases and thousands of confidences is equally casual. No psychologist who has seriously investigated the problems of sexual relations outside marriage treats them as trivial. It’s interesting to note that even the psychologists haven’t known the mystery behind incestuous relations. The author would have further informed us of the cause of incest by youngsters in the mentioned age bracket. In my argument of investigating this linkage of television viewing, and sexual behavior change in youngsters, the book Sex-character Education (p. 153) explained that the new feelings and emotions which burst in upon teen-agers quicken their interest in the other sex and gently remind them that they must prepare themselves for the important roles of fatherhood and motherhood involving making social acquaintance of young people of their sex and learning how to be friendly, interesting and agreeable.
I am left with a question here, if they are to prepare for parenthood while seeing how sexual intercourse is done, what will they do? Is preparation for parenthood only based on sex?
Sex-character Education (p. 91), explained that few boys have received proper sex education by the time they reach puberty. This disastrous state of affairs is due mainly to belief of parents that giving sex instruction is too difficult for them.
Hence, Therefore, if sex education is not being done by parents to their kids, who else educate the children on sex matters? The author did not clarify what this sex education is, is it how to play sex or when to have sex? The place of sex in the general plan of life according to the book (Sex-character Education p. 93), if a boy is to understand that sex has social and racial, as well as personal significance, it is essential to show him that sex is not universal in the organic world, but that is a development in evolution for the sake of better progress. What’s applied in educating kids is always a dialogue. But how important is Television viewing of romantic movies by children when there is no one to answer their questions that come to mind? In all these researches, what stimulates the youngsters as fast as 6-18 of age hasn’t emerged?
The link (http://mediasmart.ca/television/televisions-impact-kids), explained that kids today are bombarded with sexual messages and images in all media televisions, magazines, advertisements, music, movies and the Internet. Agreed! But if children are bombarded with sexual messages, how can they be helped then? There should be a way forward.
Adults are often concerned about whether these messages are healthy. While television can be a powerful tool for educating young people about the responsibilities and risks of sexual behavior, such issues are seldom mentioned or dealt with in a meaningful way in programs containing sexual content. Which area of the communicated message is thought unhealthy by adults? The report did not talk about it.
2011 study (http://mediasmarts.ca/television/televisions-impact-kids) indicated that TV was the medium where youth were most likely to encounter sexual content, with three-quarters of kids saying they had seen sexual material there. Sex and sexuality are frequent major plot features of many TV shows aimed at youth – not just the self-consciously racy episodes of Gossip Girland the earnest storylines of Glee and Degrassi, but tween shows such as Hannah Montana, which communicate their messages in a way that is more implicit but no less clear. There is a gap in the study because the report did not inform us of what parents’ roles as their children receive frequent sex and sexuality shows from TV. Is this case true in your vicinity and if yes, what’s the way forward?
Research (http://mediasmarts.ca/television/televisions-impact-kidsshowed that without parental guidance, kids often take away inaccurate messages about sex: an episode of the sitcom Friends, for instance, in which a character became pregnant despite using a condom, left kids with the impression that condoms failed more often than not. What many people need to know is not that the children know the condom’s failure but to know that sex is not for their ages. There is more to tell the children than informing them of the condom’s failure.
As broadcast networks have been forced to compete with cable channels, questionable language and sexual references have become more and more common, and not just in the late evening: one study found that viewers were actually more likely to hear offensive language between 8 and 10 P.M. Is this schedule the same over the globe? How does competition lead to increment in questionable language and sexual references?
Sex Character Education (p. 147), reasoned that if the impressions which the children get are not interpreted for them in terms of wholesomeness and high values, they’ll piece together an interpretation of their own, in most cases vulgarized and sensualized through the sources from which, and the atmosphere in which, their impressions have been received. The author would have further informed the readers of the interpretation(s) that children do on their own. What comes to children’s minds after viewing such information?
How true is such impression in the Kenya Televisions? Do we have such programs that mislead kids?
4. Sexual orientation(gay or lesbianism)
It leaves people wonder why some youngsters are sexually attracted to people of the same sex. Gay marriage is something never heard or thought of in the near African past, but it’s now being heard and seen randomly in some African settings.
Brian Camenker (http://www.massresistance.org/doc/, 10/2/14 ) on October 2008 Updated June 2012, reported it’s become a hammer to force the acceptance and normalization of homosexuality on everyone. It explained that the slippery slope is real and that new radical demands never cease. It cited that what happened in the last several years was truly frightening in Massachusetts. On November 18, 2003, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court announced its Goodridge opinion, declaring that it was unconstitutional not to allow same-sex “marriage.” Six months later, despite public outrage, homosexual “weddings” began to take place.
In the widest analysis, the research talked of the insistence to permit gay marriages void of where they learnt that it’s kind of recommendable companionship. There seems to be unwillingness from the researcher’s approach in knowing why same-sex marriages happen. Generally, people are much more interested in knowing why it happens, not where it happens.
The link (http://www.nobomagazine.com/2012/06/27), Boston media, reported it regularly featured articles and news stories using homosexual “married” couples where regular married couples are normally used. Its “equal,” they insist, so there must be no difference in how marriage is portrayed. It’s wise to know why they are much happier with it. Where did they get such a concept of same sex marriages when our primitive ancestors never did it so?
Also, the newspaper advice columns now deal with homosexual “marriage” issues and how to properly accept it. I feel it’s not only necessary to report about what the media does on same-sex, but also how gays and lesbians learn this practice. If reports are only on gay’s activities, then, someone might be accused of encouraging same-sex marriage without considering why gays are gays and lesbians are lesbians.
The same article concluded that same-sex “marriage” hangs over society, hammering citizens with the force of law. Once it gets a position, society becomes more oppressive. Unfortunately, the conclusion did not say where society imported such a practice from.
In the book Homosexuality (1965, p. 82), the author believed that most fixed homosexuals are psychotic but sizable minority of exclusive homophiles are reasonably integrated individuals classified among neurotics of societies. Is this homosexual fixation at birth or afterbirth? How did it take time to explore the world? The author’s belief is not satisfactory in the majority view.
Homosexuality (p.88) again explained homosexuality as a vice that’s partly created by own social proscriptions against it. It says it has led to less self-defeatism and disturbance in ancient Greece, where it is largely prohibited. Very few would agree with this statement because in the USA where it’s been legally accepted, people would have halted from doing.
I am concern in the case of the current behavior in the African context for say, it never used to be there but now some African boys and/or girls want to try at early and later ages.
Critical Evaluation
Dear reader, you and I, are now aware about what researchers have so far addressed in matters relating to incest, rape, early pregnancies and general sexual orientation.
I am discontented with the way some surveys were conducted in addressing this topic(s). Most researchers failed to investigate why perpetrators behave the way they are. In addition, it is not clarified whether the behavior is acquired, cultural or an in born character. Next, the researches seem imbalance for it collected views from either adults or children alone while excluding one side. Furthermore, no research has linked the behavior of the sexual patterns with the environs in which children or perpetrators live.
Besides, the impact of romantic movies on children did not independently emerge in the reports above. Apart from the report being void of a way forward, it only contains a western viewpoint.
In the light of the above, I suggest that the research on this topic be focused on:
Investigating the impact of romantic television movies on children
Children’s behavior in relation to their environment e.g. school, home etc.
Whether sexual behavior is acquired, cultural or in born character
General behavior of perpetrators
Both adults and youngsters
Growth of sexual offenses
Children without television can think of romantic partners
Bibliography
Not in front of the children by Marjorie Heins, 2001
Sex-character education by John A. Obrien
Handbook of clinical intervention in child sexual abuse by Suzanne M. Sgroi 1982
Fighting for girls 2010
Homosexuality 1965
http://content.time.com
http://www.education.com
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/nwes/2013
http://mediasmart.ca/television/televisions-impact-kids
http://www.massresistance.org/doc/
http://www.nobomagazine.com/2012
The Guiding Star - For Uncommon Commonsense 