Primary school pupils are getting wind of the basic principles of journalism.
The latest development in the South African Press Association's schools' newspaper project, Learn the News, involves carrying news pages of stories written by children.
First, however, they take |a course in citizen journalism: |a term that was the focus of the most recent annual Highway Africa journalism conference at Rhodes University, Grahamstown.
It's to do with technological advances enabling citizens to submit news stories for publication, usually through cellphones.
"I tell them about accuracy, sourcing, getting the different sides of a story, developing a nose for news and becoming critical readers," said Learn the News editor Duncan Guy.
Stories that have appeared on the citizen journalism page of his e-mail publication, which is funded by the Open Society Foundation for SA, include one by Thando Khumalo and Kylie Bond of Solid Foundations Primary School in Kempton Park about two different problems relating to dogs.
The one case was about a dog that bit a jogger, the other involved a pet that was poisoned.
Ciara Flint of Holy Cross de la Salle College took her pen and paper to a party for a story to produce a timeline of "exactly what happens" at these events that parents may fear.
Orange Grove Primary School produced stories relating to bread-and-butter issues when Bonani Mafuna and Shael Bita gave an account of the effect of rising food prices.
"We all know that South Africa is going through a crisis called poverty, so I decided to go out on the streets and ask people how it has affected their daily lifestyles," wrote Bonani.
"It has affected us in a bad way, so that we have to eat bread every day. Because of the high cost, we have to pay a higher price than before, one of the affected people said."
Shane Ncube wrote a report on the floods in Soweto.
Chili Kier, of St James Preparatory School in Belgravia, the school that pioneered Learn the News four years ago, did |a report on a Midmar Mile trial at a dam in the Cradle of |Humankind while his classmate Kajal Morar gave an account of |a gala in Lenasia.
"He researched the broader topic of swimming on the internet and correctly quoted the exact website, instead of sourcing 'the internet'," added Guy.
Bhavishal Ramsammy pres-ented a profile of Fordsburg's market square.
At the time of going to press, Learn the News was eagerly awaiting the next batch of citizen journalism contributions from |St Teresa's Mercy Convent in Rosebank, Joburg.
"Sometimes contributors get exactly the right idea of how |a news story should be written, sometimes they get some idea. But it's a start," said Guy.
"The point is they've had an introduction to journalism. |I hope that down the line they will become better citizen journalists - or career journalists - and critical readers who create market demand for quality journalism."
l For further information on the newspaper, which goes out twice a week, free of charge, on e-mail and is partly translated into isiZulu and Afrikaans, visit www.learnthenews.com
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