ABSTRACT
News coverage of vulnerable subjects raise fundamental ethical questions. This is because such stories tend to be exploitive and selective. Most stories about children in poverty are stigmatizing, making headlines only in contexts of man-bites-dog. Hence, kids experiencing poverty are not regularly prioritized as part of the media agenda. Moreover, children experiencing poverty are used to appeal to, and win, donors’ hearts and wallets, as well as audiences’ clicks and ad revenue. In this regard, the frames that news media use to cover children in poverty function to move people emotionally for the mobilization of financial or other material support that does not necessarily change conditions for the children themselves. Using a qualitative approach, this chapter conducts a critical discourse analysis informed by classic news theories and Michel Foucault’s concept of discourses. The chapter examines two newspaper articles and a TV documentary from Kenya’s mainstream media to study the news framing of children experiencing poverty. The study limits itself to children in care homes.
