An assessment of level of prominence given to children's rights in the daily nation and standard online newspapers in Kenya

Abstract

This study sought to assess the level of prominence given to children's rights stories in two major newspapers with extensive reach in Kenya and the East Africa region: The Daily Nation and The Standard. Specifically, the study conducted a content analysis to explore the volume of coverage dedicated to children’s stories between January and December 2020. The study further examined the prominence given to children’s rights to education, health, and protection from child labour in the selected newspapers. Agenda-setting theory was utilized, and a purposive sampling technique was adopted to select the two newspapers, as well as stratified random sampling for selecting the newspaper articles. Additionally, eight editors and reporters who write and report about children’s issues for the selected media organizations were purposively sampled to participate in Key Informant Interviews. The study found 303 online articles which had general stories featuring children’s issues but analyzed 93 articles (55 in The Daily Nation and 38 in The Standard) with relevant content where children were the main focus. The research findings revealed that most articles about children (72%) were presented as news reports, and there was generally low coverage of child rights issues. However, the media provided opportunities for children to comment on their issues without violating the ethical principles of journalism. Based on these findings, the study concludes that there was low coverage of child rights issues in the media. It recommends that media organizations hire and retain specialist journalists who write and report about children’s issues, media stakeholders use awards to motivate and inspire outstanding child rights journalists, and that academia incorporate children reporting as a unit into journalism education curricula.