Transform the media
17/03/2008 08:46  - (SA)  

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Jon Qwelane

One of the most pressing tasks that must be undertaken with great urgency is the transformation of the newsroom to reflect the "changes" we so very often hear about but do not see.

I worked on newspapers between 1972 and 1992, and edited magazines between 1992 and 2000; from 1994 to 2003 I hosted talk-shows on radio, and had brief stints at the news desk of a television station. That background, I believe, qualifies me eminently to comment and offer an informed viewpoint on the media in this country.

The most depressing factor about the media is that, despite the prevalence of black editors and new black "owners"? of titles and newspaper and television houses, the "traditional" trend in favour of news and advertising remains heavily skewed in the white's direction.

The managers on the financial side of the business remain white, hence the deliberately manipulated trends, such as advertising and fashion, appeal most to the "households and consumers with money" because, so the reasoning holds, the more the affluent households and suburbs buy the media products - television and newspapers - so higher will the sales and viewership figures grow, as well as the advertising rates. This is the creed set in stone at all media houses.

Juniorising beats

Of course, I will be among the first to grant that media enterprise are fundamentally businesses and need to generate profits to stay afloat. But to do that by "juniorising" beats such as labour, education, health, politics and even the city desk is a disastrous approach.

As an example, in my days as a reporter on the Rand Daily Mail, Carol Steyn was a court reporter who knew her beat thoroughly. A former prosecutor, she was often willing to assist cub reporters.

The well-known analyst of TV fame, Stephen Friedman, was at that time a labour reporter who did much to interpret the labour scenario and gave valuable insight into matters such as the Wiehahn Commission. And not surprisingly, political reporter Helen Zille is now a national leader of the Democratic Alliance.

What I'm saying is that black reporters of my day did not have the chance to obtain journalism degrees because, at the time, the "bush colleges" meant to be black universities did not offer mass communications or journalism as degrees; to enrol for such courses one had to be accepted via a quota system to the whites-only institutions. What we learnt was obtained by trial and error.

Today's journalists are a lot more read than their predecessors, but the practice of "fast-tracking" the juniors is self-destructive; there is no substitute for experience.

Then there is the trend of the advertising departments that do an allegedly "controversial and hard-line" writer will see things racially - circulation and advertising managers ganging up on him/her because that kind of writing "scares the readers" away!

No different

The black "editors" on mainstream newspapers are no different in outlook to the whites who preceded them: the continent of Africa does not seem to exist for these people! The only news about Africa is "Mad Bob" Mugabe and Zimbabwe, with an inflation rate of 100 000% - and you wonder when it was that 100% stopped meaning "totally"?!

All we get to read about are stories on the shenanigans of the drunken girls Britney Spears and Paris Hilton; Princess Diana has been dead and buried for 10 years, but the way the media go on about her you would think they are praying for her resurrection.

The sports coverage gets worse - we get to know chapter and verse if, say Manchester United woke up with a mild flu, yet we never read about Africa's giants such as Zamalek, Enyimba, Asec Mimosa, Al-Ahly or Asante Kotoko.

Black women do not feature on the covers of most white-read magazines because that would have a negative impact on the readers.

I blame Sanef squarely for this messy state of affairs.