Media Involvement in the Issue of Child Soldiers

Examining how the media has covered the issue of child soldiers poses some major methodological restrictions. How can you search what CNN was covering in 1992? How do we know what NBS and ABC were doing specials on in 1984? Without a central repository for researching all types of media publications, I was limited in my search to LexisNexis of major publications and relying on what other researchers had reported. I limited my LexisNexis searches to three major U.S. sources- The New York Times, The Economist, and Newsweek. I am convinced by Ron, Ramos and Rodgers that The Economist and Newsweek are good measures of what news is reaching both the elite and non-elite public (at least as far as LexisNexis abilities go). I added the New York Times because I beleive (without evidence) that it may act as somewhat of a gatekeeper in the media world, letting other forms of media know what they should be researching and talking about. From the limited trends shown in the coverage these major news sources provide on the issue of child soldiers, in time and with careful analysis I may be able to draw some links to action in the child soldiers campaign.


It appears as though activists were successful in two basic ways. The first method is publishing reports on the issue of child soldiers; both the New York Times and The Economist wrote articles based on research done by the Quakers. Also it seems that letter to the editors may result in some extra coverage of the story. By far the biggest jump in coverage was when an international organization was debating the issue, lending some credence to the argument that catalytic events can be crucial for movement momentum.


I have two sources that talk about times when the media picked up the issue of child soldiers. As NGO advocacy built in the early 1980s around the drafting of the CRC, the Iran-Iraq war and NGO documentation of child soldiers in the conflict began to draw media attention (Heckel, 2005). Also, in the late 1990s there was a media push with pictures and statistics. Snyder reports that in 1998 and 1999 the media picked up the problem of war affected children and graphic and disturbing images of child soldiers from Uganda, Sierra Leone, Burma, Cambodia, etc., appear on TV and garner the public’s attention. Snyder doesn’t explain or reference this statement, I assume he was alive and aware at the time and observed it.


These two media upturns can somewhat be seen in my Lexis-Nexis searches but I am not entirely empirically convinced. There is some coverage in the New York Times of child soldiers in the Iran-Iraq war, and The Economist does an article on it. The articles do pick up in frequency in 1998 and 1999. At this time you also start seeing the emotionally charged personal stories of former child soldiers, which may have been a push from the campaign/coalition.


In summary, it appears to me that media has not had a crucial role in getting the attention of NGOs and intergovernmental organizations (the issue already had their attention), but the media may indeed have had an impact on popular support for the issue. For example, an article in Newsweek is followed by multiple letters to the editor thanking Newsweek for printing an article on such an under-covered issue. It does not seem that media has played a harmful role, if it has played any role at all it would be helpful. I have no way to empirically say that media activism affected the progress of the issue of child soldiers. I don’t believe that success of the campaign was contingent upon the media, but I feel like I would need to develop a more thorough methodology for being certain of that. I also wish that I could track changes in funding to the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, to see if donations went up significantly after major news coverage.


Following is my search methodology:


A LexisNexis search for “child soldier*” in the New York Times shows the first topically accurate article to be a letter to the editor in 1982 discussing child soldiers in Latin America. In 1983 they report the U.N. asking Iran to stop recruiting children. In 1986 they publish their first Section A (page 2) article on child soldiers in Uganda. In August 1988 the NYT has a short front page article on the global issue of child soldiers. The article seems to have been written after the Times received a report written by the London Friends World Committee (Quakers). That December there was a flurry of articles reporting on the child soldier’s debate during the convention on the rights of the child. On October 29, 1994 Lois Whitman as the new Director of the Children’s Rights Project at HRW has her letter to the editor published on child soldiers in Liberia. Eleven days later the NYT runs a 1132 word story on Child soldiers. In September 1995 there is another 1400+ word story on the front page about Liberia’s child soldiers.


In May 1996 another story on Liberia’s child soldiers is run, but in section 4. More big stories follow: November 1996, December 1997, July 5, 1998, January 1999, August 1999. Things pick up in 2000 as the optional protocol proceedings are published. More front page stories in 2000 and then onward. The issue seems to be consistently covered as a front page story or at least a big story in section A once a year from 1994-1998. 1999 sees two major stories, 2000 sees 3, 2001 has 2. Somehow this does not feel like the “media blitz” that my sources have suggested.


A LexisNexis search for “child soldier*” in The Economist shows on article on the Iran-Iraq war and child soldiers in September, 1983 (from our Geneva correspondent”). The issue is not discussed again until August 1995 (Sri Lanka’s child soldiers), followed by a July 1996 short report on child soldiers. One article is published in 1997 and one in 1998. Then there is a break until September 2003 when a HRW report on child soldiers in Columbia inspires The Economist to print their largest article yet on child soldiers (889 words). Since September 2003 there are no articles that have the issue of child soldiers as their main topic.


Newsweek searches on LexisNexis shows the first big story on child soldiers to be printed in an August 1995 Newsweek. July 2000 has another, July 2001 has one, and then in May 2002 Newsweek publishes a large story on child soldiers filled with touching testimonials from former child soldiers.


Sources:

Heckel, Heather. “Transnational Activism without the hegemon: The cases of child soldiers and child sexual exploitation.” (February 2005) unpublished manuscript

Snyder, Ross. "The Optional Protocol on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict." Human security and the new diplomacy / ed. by Rob McRae & Don Hubert (2001), p. 152-160