The applications begin to pour into Time for Kids every year, starting in April, even as news organizations navigate an uncertain future.
Since 2000, the classroom edition of Time magazine has held a contest that allows kids to report on local and national news for its magazines and website.
Elsie Owolo, a lawyer in the Washington, D.C., area, knew about the program from her time working as a social studies teacher. Her daughter, Audrey, is strong in spelling, writing and reading. Owolo thought she should be introduced to the world of journalism.
“My mom showed me the Kid Reporter competition online, and I decided I wanted to do it because it looked really fun,” said Audrey Owolo, a 13-year-old from Maryland. “And I also wanted to interview interesting people. So I decided to apply.”
Through the TFK Kid Reporter program, budding journalists spend a school year covering movies, sports, current events and more. Audrey became part of the 2023-2024 team. She was granted access to the White House, where she interviewed then-White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and then-second gentleman Doug Emhoff.
“I learned that you have to ask good questions, and then you have to be a good listener,” Audrey said. “I also learned that I have to make sure all my facts are correct, and I also have to remain curious about the world.”
(Courtesy: Time for Kids, Penguin Young Readers)
Only about eight to 10 kids are chosen annually for the program. Way more than that are interested in journalism, noted Allison Singer, executive editor of Time for Kids. That, in part, formed the genesis behind “Time for Kids: Kid Reporter Field Guide,” a how-to book about journalism for children. Written by Hannah Holzer, op-ed editor for all five of McClatchy’s California papers, the guide is filled with tips, vocab words and explainers on five different types of journalism: news coverage, opinion writing, reviews, sports coverage, and features writing.
Singer said the Time for Kids staff wanted a way to get the “basic tenets of journalism” out to kids. Through the publication’s new partnership with Penguin Young Readers, she said her team knew they wanted one of their first books to be about the profession.
“It’s near and dear to our hearts, and we want to teach kids the importance of journalism and also the importance of asking a good question, being curious, investigating a story that interests you,” she said. “There’s lots of tenets of journalism that apply to just being curious and living your life, and wondering about the world around you.”
In the introduction, Holzer describes a journalist as “someone who attempts to answer a question or explore an issue by gathering research, interviewing experts, and looking at it from all sides.” She later stresses that whether a journalist’s work reaches one person or a million people, their work matters. Furthermore, pursuing the truth is the common goal among all journalists, Holzer writes.
The tips sprinkled throughout include:
- Journalists should aim to interview at least three people for every story they write.
- Journalists must ask their source for permission to record their interview. Holzer points out that, in some places, it’s the law.
- When conducting research, the author writes, it’s important to choose highly credible sources. “Trustworthy sources included the official website of museums, universities, government agencies, and highly reputable news organizations.”
Singer said many people on her team played a role in making the book, which features tips used daily by working journalists. She added that this advice guides her career, and those of her writers and colleagues. “We try to be fair. We try to be accurate. We try to do our research thoroughly. We try to get as many voices in a story as possible. We try to pick a topic that we think is important, or will engage our readers. We think about what our readers want to know. We think about what they need to know.”
(Courtesy: Time for Kids, Penguin Young Readers)
“Time for Kids: Kid Reporter Field Guide” has chapters on different types of journalism: news, opinion, reviews, sports coverage and features writing. Singer said many conversations and research led to the focus on these five.
Trust in the media is at a record low. According to Gallup’s annual update on trust in the media and other civic and political entities in the U.S., more U.S. adults have no trust at all in the media (36%) than trust it a great deal or fair amount — for the third consecutive year.
Singer kept this issue of distrust in mind when approaching the guide. News literacy is a big focus.
“We really believe that it’s important that kids learn how to read a news story, learn how to check that a story is accurate, learn how to suss out if something seems fishy or if a headline seems grandiose — maybe isn’t fully accurate,” she said. “News literacy is just another form of literacy, and it’s a skill that needs to be taught and that kids have to learn as they get older. It is a tricky moment, but it’s always going to be important for kids to know about current events and to know what’s going on in the world.”
Audrey Owolo is featured in the book alongside other young journalists. There’s a 2024 photo of her beaming in the White House press room.
(Courtesy: Time for Kids, Penguin Young Readers)
Audrey said visiting the White House was “really fun” because she had the chance to meet Jean-Pierre, who made history in 2022 as the first Black woman to be tapped to the role of White House press secretary. She was also the first openly gay person to take this position. Audrey got to ask Jean-Pierre questions about how she got the role.
“What stood out to me was how many people she speaks to every day,” she said. “And like that every day she gives them more information about what the president is doing.”
Audrey said the most difficult part of being a reporter is having to catch every detail, and having to pay attention to every single word a source says. She usually records her interviews with her phone.
She has an idea of what she’d like to pursue as a career when she’s older. She wants to be a journalist and a lawyer, “because I want to inform the public about current events, and I also want to help people with their problems.”
Elsie Owolo watched her daughter’s confidence grow during the program. Their family was also excited to see Audrey featured in the book, which Elsie described as a great tool for introducing kids to the reporting world.
“How lucky is she to be introduced at 11 to journalism.”
