Children to feature in news programme
Michele A’Court wants to turn children into news stories.
“People under the age of 20 do not make the news now unless they have killed or robbed someone,” she says, “but now I have taken over as presenter of ‘The Video Dispatch’ that is about to change. “One of the things I would like to do along with presenting national and international news, is stories about kids doing something important or special, something a bit out of the ordinary. Things network news could not cover as a new story but we on ‘The Video Dispatch’ can.” A’Court says she believes her past involvement with the popular Saturday morning children’s show, “What Now,” helps her to know “The Video Dispatch” audience.
“Kids are interested in music and fashion and while programmes like ‘3.45 Live’ and the new
show ‘Life’ will cover this we are interested too. If say a pop group arrives in the country it is a news story to us, and if a child wins some skateboarding championship that’s news too.”
But it will not only be these “softer” stories A’Court and her producer, Amanda Evans, will be chasing.
“We want to go out and find most of our own news stories rather than simply using material off the satellite and network news footage,” A’Court says. “In the past, ‘The Video Dispatch’ has not always revoiced network news footage: it simply used it as is — not really designed for the younger audience. Material or footage we take will be reworked and revoiced for children.”
A_manda Evans says, “Network news make the assumption people already have historical knowledge. ‘The Video
Dispatch’ audience is officially 10 to 12 years, but it will have a scattering effect taking in the eight to 14-year-olds. And children simply do not have this historical knowledge. We cannot refer to something which happened five years ago and assume our audience has any knowledge of it. They might only have been five years old at the time. To many David Lange has always been the Prime Minister: they do not know of anyone else.”
The move from Christchurch to Wellington has made this new brief of generating news stories possible by bringing “The Video Dispatch,” which begins this afternoon at 4.40 on Two, closer to the action.
“Wellington is a bigger news centre — it is close to the Beehive which means access to members of Parliament and Gov-ernmental-type people,” says A’Court.
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Press, 5 April 1989, Page 16
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410Children to feature in news programme Press, 5 April 1989, Page 16
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