Breaking News On Monkey Business

One of my teachers in Primary school had the great idea of bringing in the frame of an old TV from home and, when it was time for our news, we'd stand behind the frame, all important and official, and read our news stories out to the rest of the class.

To this day, I still remember the pleasure we got from this simple exercise and the effort we put into our news stories as a result. When you're having that much fun, the learning comes effortlessly.

What A Scoop!

My old Primary school teacher would be smiling if she'd tuned into Kickstart Your Business this week. Our featured business Newzmonkey is an app and on-line game created by children's writer and entrepreneur Carmel Crawford to improve the editorial, reading and writing skills of budding young journalists.

Players are invited to take on the role of a monkey reporter in the virtual town of Scoopstown and are tasked with following leads to track down a story worth reporting on.

Keeping It Real

Carmel intends to create a dynamic newchannel that is accessible to children where they can listen to, share and report on the news. One way to attract and engage budding young reporters is to invite a respected storyteller or newsreporter to contribute news stories to the channel.

As Gerard suggested on the show last night, a renowned writer like Roddy Doyle (or even a news journalist like our George, as he was quick to remind us!), who knows how to write for children without talking down to them, is an ideal example of one such storyteller.

Over To You

What other well known writers or reporters would you suggest could help Carmel bring her offer to life? Listen back to the show on Kickstart Your Business and let us know what you think. 

We'd love to hear from you.

(Kickstart Your Business is broadcast live on The Right Hook on Newstalk106 in Ireland every Thursday at 6.40pm and is available on Playback)