Christian & Muslim Children Explore Faith in the Media

Christian and Muslim schoolchildren this week learned about the media and examined the way it portrays faith during an interactive conference at the BBC's Birmingham offices.

Forty pupils aged 10 to 11 from St Mary's and Birchfield Schools in Handsworth, Highfields School in Saltley and St Mary's School in Selly Oak were welcomed to the event by Anita Bhalla, head of BBC West Midlands' Political and Community Unit.

The conference was organised by the Christian Muslim Forum to explore the way in which faith issues, such as the wearing of the veil and terrorism and Muslims, have been reported on TV, radio, websites and in the newspapers.

It also gave pupils the opportunity to learn about how the media works, create their own reports, quiz journalists and examine the effect the media has on young people.

During an ice-breaking session, the children shared what it meant for them to be Christians and Muslims, while in another group the children compared the central figures of Muhammad and Jesus, the places mentioned in the Bible and the Qur'an, and the similarities between Lent and Ramadan.

Children in the radio group, meanwhile, took part in a recorded vox pop on religious symbols, which generated an exchange of views on the importance of seeing people's faces, using the veil as a means of avoiding passport security and use of religious symbols to boast about the superiority of one's religion.

The media professionals then guided the children through a mock press conference based on a fictitious crime in the city before the children were able to pose their own questions to the journalists.