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Is South Africa's media crazy?
21/04/2006 09:39 - (SA)
Lizette Rabe
The media makes the headlines; we don't just write them.
On Tuesday morning, the Cape's broadsheets and tabloids portrayed a gruesome murder of two young men displaying their naked corpses on their front pages.
Of course, the first question is: Why didn't the police cover up the bodies when they arrived at the scene? Weren't they supposed to do that? The scene with two bodies under grey police blankets could have - and should have - told the gruesome story of what is happening in our society.
But, the police did not do their job.
And, granted, the broadsheets may have had serious debate on the pros and cons of running with those images. The tabloids, I'm sure, could not believe their luck thanks to a negligent police force.
But stick to the broadsheets. Is it good enough to argue that "showing it as it is", to show the extent of what is wrong in our society makes it justifiable? Was it in the "public interest"?
In plain language: Showing the defenseless, naked bodies of the two victims was extremely disrespectful. The human rights of these two men were ignored. In fact, they were dehumanised.
We as the public are also dehumanised as a consequence. We didn't have a choice but to be confronted with the cover page. In movies you get an indication of what you could expose yourself to, and have a choice; in TV news you get a warning. With a newspaper, you don't. And one would hope that the paper would make ethical, responsible decisions.
Society as a whole, in fact, was dehumanised and desensitised. If this is becoming so "normal" that we show it on our front pages, what is the next barrier?
In the chapter titled "Stepping on toes: public sensitivities" in Black, white and grey. Ethics in South African journalism by Franz Krüger, the BBC is quoted: "With some news stories a sense of shock is part of a full understanding of what has happened. However, the more often the viewers are shocked, the more it will take to shock them."
One can say that by showing the detail of such horrible, terrible, nauseating misdeeds, the media contributes to a society already staggering under crime and violence, where such crime and such violence becomes "normal".
It is for "entertainment value" that these images are splashed on our front pages? We are all drawn into this spiral of violence.
Is the media, in fact, contributing to it instead of shocking us into action?
Our newspapers, it seems, are not only mirror-images of that terrible flaw in our society, but are also exacerbating the craziness of it all.
Lizette Rabe is head of the postgraduate Department of Journalism at the University of Stellenbosch, a Sanef council member and Sanef-convenor for the Western Cape. And she's addicted to news.
Send your comments to Lizette.
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