Children's PressLine

By relying on the spoken word rather than the written word, CPL's journalism methodology is designed to facilitate the participation of children of all ages and literacy levels. Participants use a form of oral journalism to conduct peer-to-peer interviews on issues that directly affect them.

Here is a brief summary of the process. Journalist training sessions for new members are held every other month on Saturday afternoons. Once kids have completed training, they are guided through the reporting process. To begin, reporters, editors, staff, parents, or readers submit an idea on a CPL RAP sheet. The idea should be current, have a point, give kids leverage with decision makers, be relevant, have appeal, and be a topic CPL journalists are passionate about. Kids research the idea through online and primary sources. With the help of staff and volunteers, the journalists identify key individuals or groups to interview. The story is placed on the schedule for the monthly newsletter - presented on the Home Page of the CPL website - and journalists call to sign up for the story or they come in to the monthly bureau meeting. The news team, made up of two or three reporters (ages 8 to 13) and one or two editors (ages 14 to 18), meets at the office to brief for the story. This is when the team, led by the editors, read through background material, discuss their own experiences with the topic, and write at least 20 questions. The questions delve into personal experiences and how the issue at hand affects kids of all backgrounds.

Next, the team comes together for the interview. Some interviews are in-person at either CPL's Manhattan (New York, USA) office or at the interviewee's home or meeting space. Others take place over the phone. All are recorded using minidisc or tape recorders. During the interviews, the young reporters ask questions and gather the necessary information. The editors' main job is handling the recording equipment, taking notes, and guiding the reporters during the interview. Finally, during the debriefings, which are recorded, the reporters and editors discuss the interview and provide their opinions and experiences on the topic. For print stories, the team discusses what the interviewee said and then verbally builds the story. For radio pieces - heard on CPL's Loud & Clear programme - reporters transcribe and edit the interview, finding the most powerful and revealing statements for the 'VOICE' portion. In the 60-second spots, CPL journalists aim to personalise statistics and research on young people. (For example, the audience not only hears a fact - say, that 1 in 10 kids are homeless - but they also hear the story of a young person who is experiencing that reality on a daily basis).

The stories appear on the CPL site, as well as in printed format. CPL has launched a new bi-weekly column for 400 USA newspapers via the Scripps Howard News Service. Here are a few examples of some article titles: "Young immigrants participate in South Carolina politics", "Democratic candidates questioned on child labor and juvenile death penalty", "Marriage is about respect, kids say", and "Teen girls become obsessive over dieting".

Motivated by the conviction that youth coverage of major political events is vital in a democracy, CPL, together with its predecessor organisation Children's Express, has a legacy of political coverage and has reported from every major political convention since 1976. For example, in January 2009, 13 of its youth journalists covered the Inaugural celebrations of President Barack Obama. The team travelled to Washington, DC, as part of this immersion-learning experience in which reporters assumed real responsibilities in a professional environment and competed for interviews with adult reporters. Each team member executed all facets of journalistic work, including story development, research, reporting, interviewing, and writing articles for CPL's media partners. The idea of this real-world learning was to give the children "a true sense of their capabilities as journalists and their responsibility to cover youth issues for an adult audience." Their work will be published in newspapers across the country.

Children, Youth.

Here is an excerpt from CPL's invitation to interested youth: "As a member of Children's PressLine, you get the power to tell the world what you think. All CPL stories present the youth perspective to tens of thousands of readers. CPL journalists ask kids and adults the hard questions and get their stories published in the mainstream media thereby compelling decision-makers, educators and ordinary citizens to pay attention."

At the 2008 Republican and Democratic National conventions, the CPL team interviewed more than 200 elected officials, delegates and local youth, producing 73 pieces of content in print, video, and audio formats. This work was published in major newspapers and featured on popular television shows, reaching approximately 4 million adults and youth. Since 2001, CPL has trained 1,142 youth in journalism, interviewed 1,665 kids in need on issues that affect their lives, conducted 350 interviews with policymakers, and published 700 articles in mainstream media.

CPL was founded in 1975 as "Children's Express", the flagship for the international non-profit media organisation Children's Express WorldWide. CPL is now a locally managed organisation.