Earlier this year, in “Saturday Star silences children sometimes”, MAD OAT commented on howSaturday Star sometimes wrote about children without accessing the children themselves.The article in Saturday Star, “Teenager living out her dreams in chess”, by Bianca Capazorio (05/09/09, p. 10) is reason to be glad. The profile of 15-year old Melissa Greeff celebrates the teenager’s achievements, challenges stereotypes, and makes the child’s voice central to the story.
The article portrays the child as a heroine as she has achieved the title of the women’s grandmaster at the age of 15 and has become the first to do so in South Africa. This is an achievement for any child, and it is good for the article to recognise and celebrate this.
As a pupil, she is already partaking in the women’s tournaments, which is particularly good. The article breaks down misconceptions that girls cannot participate in a women’s tournament, thus encouraging children to reach for the sky.
The reporter describes the way Greeff first started learning to play chess, and asks her questions about her current and future ambitions. This gives the reader more insight and background on the child, and her experiences, likes and achievements add value to the story.
Most significantly, by giving the 15-year old the opportunity to speak for herself and to tell her own story, the reporter respects her rights to give her views on matters affecting her and to freedom of expression [1].
By profiling a female child chess player, the article challenges stereotypes as chess is perceived to be a male dominated sport. As the article says, Greeff “hardly fits the graying stereotype of the grandmaster”. This story talks about the amount of countries Greeff has played chess in and that one of her goals in life is to play in the men’s world championships.
The photograph published is a good one as it is a happy picture. It also challenges the stereotype of the player sitting in front of the chess board dressed in a uniform. This photograph still shows that she is a chess player as there is a big chess piece behind her.
The headline, “Teenager living out her dreams in chess”, is also encouraging to the child and other aspiring chess players, as Greeff is the perfect example that one may live out one’s dreams, whatever one’s age or gender.
While the article alludes to stereotypes and, by profiling the teenager, to some extent challenges these, it could have looked more at the gender issues involved. For example, the article could have looked at the challenges women chess players face and the reasons why there are separate male and female championships. It is also questionable whether it was necessary to describe Greeff’s appearance as “pretty” and whether a physical description would have been provided had the young person been male.
All in all, this story is the good example of how newspapers can report children’s stories, by celebrating and attributing their victories, and, most importantly, accessing their opinions.
Footnotes
- See Articles 12 and 13 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child which South Africa is a signatory to.
NB. An email was sent to Saturday Star to give them an opportunity to respond to the commentary and nomination, but no response was received.