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Abortion rights; getting boys to read; author Jeff Kinney; female sports presenters

Abortion rights; getting boys to read; author Jeff Kinney; female sports presenters

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58 minutes

Chapters

  • Abortion

    Abby Johnson is a US anti-abortion campaigner. Lisa Hallgarten is of UK Voice for Choice.

    Duration: 10:40

  • Female sport presenters

    Why are young women being put off sport journalism?

    Duration: 08:21

  • Jeff Kinney

    Author of The Diary of a Wimpy Kid, which has sold 115m copies.

    Duration: 08:07

  • Getting boys to read

    How we can encourage boys to enjoy reading?

    Duration: 10:58

Abortion

Abby Johnson is the former director of a Planned Parenthood clinic in Texas providing family planning and abortion services but in 2009 she left her job and became ÌýÌýÌý‘poacher turned gamekeeper’ . Today sheÌýÌý campaigns against abortion leading her own organisation, ÌýAnd Then there were none, which provides Ìýsupport to other employees Ìýwishing to leave the ‘abortion industry’. Jenni talks to Abby about her dramatic reversal of views and to Lisa Hallgarten, who sits on Voice for Choice, a coalition working to defend and extend women’s choice on abortion in the UK.Ìý

Jeff Kinney

Jeff Kinney is the author of , which has sold 115 million books worldwide. He has been an advisor on children and reading to the last three US Presidents and he was asked to give a speech to the most recent Davos meeting. He is widely credited with getting ‘reluctant readers’ to read…..although he says that when people say ‘reluctant readers’ they really mean boys. There is no doubt that boys love Kinney’s Greg Heffley character - a hapless, wimpy, self-obsessed 12 year old. Jenni asks him why.Ìý

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Getting boys to read

The 2012 Boys’ Reading Commission report, set up by the All-Party Parliamentary Literacy Group and the National Literacy Trust, found that boys were falling behind in reading.Ìý Why?Ìý Because many felt it was an activity ‘for girls’. ÌýThe report warned that this ‘gender gap’ in reading was widening. ÌýIt found that by the time they start school, many boys are already lagging behind in literacy - Ìýand by the time they reach GCSE level they are falling behind girls in English by 14%. To discuss some of the reasons for this and how we can encourage boys to enjoy reading Jenni is joined by Jeff Kinney and Abigail Moss, Deputy Director of the National Literacy Trust.

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Female sport presenters

On Tuesday the Commons culture, media and sport select committee quizzed sport bosses from the Ö÷²¥´óÐã, Sky, Channel 4 and BT. One of the subjects up for debate was the lack of women presenting and reporting on sports programmes, and MPs said that even those women who we do see on screen are generally young and attractive.

But, over the last two years, numbers of women studying for the NCTJ qualification in sport journalism has been significantly lower than their male counterparts – just 16% of those who take the course are women. So why are young women being put off sport journalism? Jenni is joined by Ö÷²¥´óÐã sport reporter Tanya Arnold and Ö÷²¥´óÐã Sports news presenter Katherine Downes.

Credit

Role Contributor
Presenter Jenni Murray

Broadcast

  • Fri 6 Dec 2013 10:00

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