Media Flaws

As I sat in the midst of a fear-gripped congregation of Media Tribunal/Protection of Information Bill dissidents at a South African National Editors Forum (SANEF) lunchtime gathering on Tuesday I knew from the get-go that this was going to be a bitch-and-moan session. Nothing constructive was going to emerge – from the Sunday Times’ Boyles uttering words such as “grave danger” to others muttering “post-Polokwane draconian laws” to the usual “people have a right to know!” arguments. I quite couldn’t see the whole point of this exercise as to me it seemed like ruminating within your own circles and hoping those outside it will acknowledge your gripe, hence I left a bit early-ish. I think the aim was to set-up some “Stop Government” campaign – which is heavily reminiscent of Helen Zille’s “Stop Zuma” campaign. Hint. Hint.

The gripe here is that South Africa’s media is about to get a dose of what exactly Public Interest means and in the process – Public is about to be redefined from their grand perceptions of it.

The practised concept of what sociologist, Gaye Tuchman, termed Symbolic Annihilation stands threatened for the media as reality dawns that South Africa’s public is not just a sex-scandals, leisure-struck-leaders, black-incompetence hungry minority market. This annihilation concept stands on the grounds that “media content offers a form of symbolic representation of society rather than any literal portrayal of society, and that to be represented in the media is in itself a form of power – social groups that are powerless can be relatively easily ignored, allowing the media to focus on the social groups that really matter [for them].” (Lind, 2010)

Now how does this relate to the whole Media Appeals Tribunal? It has to do with the manner in which the media alienates certain social groups or dare I say races – through condemnation and trivialisation – where black people and black leaders are generally devalued (via labels of incompetence, corrupt and so forth). All of which is masked under the guise that this is of public interest/right to know – only to prime schemas that reinforce expectations on black governance. Tell me: In your mind do you eagerly anticipate to hear of failures consistently? Is that what people consistently want to be fed? Or is that just a constructed appetite? Do we really feed off one another’s miseries? I’m not saying government comprises of saints; but the media’s obsession with proving their convenient biases is getting out of hand. You’d swear the definition of news was “Government”.

Thought Leader’s Jarred Cinman adds “...it is worth stopping and noticing the general tendency among the media — supported by a frankly disturbing lingering racism and afro-pessimism in its readership — to emphasise the failures…The net effect of this is serious. The two most important negatives are:
1. Slow down the country’s progress due to constant refocusing on failures; and
2. Feed the fires of malcontent and mistrust, weakening our national pride and spirit”

I’ll take this further, by adapting Lind's (2010) words from a different context and adding that South Africa is a racist, race-obsessed society whose media reflects deeply ingrained racism that stain our national psyche.

Anyway, a Media Tribunal has been tabled. It’ll come to fruition in September. At present it is being presented as a means to get the real public (not the media’s assumed public) actively involved in the governance of the media. Prevalent ideologies within the media at present are too Western-inclined for a South African context – they are simply not attuned to ways of telling for a black majority and what exactly news is for such a majority [I know I'm beginning to sound like a scratched CD on reiterating this point]. Ubuntu to South Africa’s media is merely a computer’s operating system, nothing else [Dee I stole this line from you]. Writing news for and by the majority of this country seems like a near-impossible task – just not the right market. Put simply this whole brouhaha is about money. Profits. Sales - Media sales plummeting because their ghoul market’s insatiable appetite for the worst in black will not be appeased.

Next up, I would wonder why the likes of Dr Mamphele Ramphele would even enter this fray by stating that the controlling of media is not the solution. Don’t sympathise with people who are merely crying foul for the sake of their sales. This is not an attempt to control the media, but an attempt to make the media accountable. How can we tolerate abantu abangenangqalelo for iindlela zethu zokuthethisana noku xhamlana? Ay’ hambi kanje xa izakulunga, nokuba sekusithwani, ayiyo le! Imbheko yabangumbeko ngexa yendlela ze-media ezibekelwa phez’ kwezithethe zethu as abantu bakwantu. Currently our media is like umntwana ozilawulayo ekhayeni. That is what I understand this to be. And that is why I align my beliefs to it. To undermine the media’s nonchalant ways on the greater scheme of events in South Africa would be a great oversight. Do not undermine the role of media in a developmental society. It can either break it or make it.

What’s even worse is that no-one in this entire debate is primarily focussed in assisting government with it’s plans – to perhaps ensure that the type of moderators/monitors put into place for this Media Appeals Tribunal will indeed mete out what the public deems acceptable. Even the ANC’s Jackson Mthembu extended an invitation to the media to actually partake in the formulation of such a Tribunal, and even went as far as clearly outlining that the need for a Media Tribunal stems from the ineffectiveness of the Press Ombudsman – offenders consistently do as they please with no measurable or effective means of recourse. But everyone is just obsessing about being controlled - like a teenager interpreting their parents “No!” as a means of controlling them. Grow Up.

The media has to be held accountable if it is to muck around with the public. The media cannot be held accountable only to itself. There needs to be an independent mechanism – not necessarily through government, but perhaps even via academia to ensure that we put this overgrown narcissistic beast in check, before it deems itself above the law.

Instead of assisting government, the media have through their very own channels created this “us” and “them” discourse. Has anyone thought as to why any government would be so concerned so as to channel all their energy to revising media policies in this country? Has anyone dug deeper to see that there are more factors at play here than a mere post-Polokwane gang gunning for the media because it mocked Zuma via Mbeki. Yes, the government does not like the media in this country. In fact, I doubt any media in any country is much-liked by their government. So let’s stop thinking were special.

The first step is to allow for a Media Appeals Tribunal; be involved in the process, paranoia-aside, and ensure that this panel is indeed objective. Hang on, trust that corrupt draconian government? No. Never.

As for the Protection of Information Bill – I have read the draft version and quite frankly think this is just a storm in a teacup based on misguided frames. Erving Goffman once argued that framing an event or story determines its meaning. Drawing parallels to what happened in Zimbabwe when a similar Bill was passed allows the reader to interpret such news against a backdrop of what they already understand – i.e: governments seek to muzzle. Yet, when looking at this Bill it all seems like theatrics around classifying materials worthy of public circulation – this is what gets the media in a tiff, that they can now be told what to get and what not to get. And to this effect I also do not necessarily agree with the draft version of this Bill. So in conclusion I am for a Media Appeals Tribunal, but not entirely certain about the Protection of Information Bill until such a point whereby in which I get to see the final version. As such I cannot complain on non-finalised trivialities. Media need to be more involved in this process bangakhwazi bengekaphumi ehlathini.

- Reference material available on request -