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Attacking the media

Is it me, or has the media become everyone's scapegoat?
Kimberly Guest
By Kimberly Guest, ITWeb contributor
Johannesburg, 19 Jul 2007

To this day, my mother tells me to think before I speak. Although I know this is sage advice, I still manage to say things that perhaps I shouldn't - or wouldn't if I took 10 seconds to think about the repercussions.

It's a lesson, perhaps, that South African spokespeople should consider too.

It seems to me that every time I open a newspaper, tune into my favourite radio station, or turn on my telly, the media is being attacked. Some of these attacks no doubt are warranted, but others could do with a little thought before the rampage begins.

Cheap shots

Take for instance an e-mail two of my colleagues received yesterday from the Communication Workers Union (CWU).

Mfanafuthi Sithebe sent a release concerning the ongoing strike at Vodacom. One of my colleagues thoughtfully e-mailed back to say we didn't have the capacity to look at it for yesterday's news deadline, but we would most likely investigate for today.

The response that came back cut to the bone.

"'Likely'. Surely guys, you are not running for the Vodacom journalist awards," said Sithebe.

The insinuation was clear: we were being accused of not covering the story to improve our chances of winning at the Vodacom journalist awards.

No favour

It seems to me that every time I open a newspaper, tune into my favourite radio station, or turn on my telly, the media is being attacked.

Kimberly Guest, senior journalist, ITWeb

As I am not involved in this particular spitting match, I found the proceedings quite amusing. As I attend the morning news meetings, I am well aware the strike at Vodacom sits high on our agenda. What did this union hope to achieve by attacking the integrity of the people who are actively putting the topic in the spotlight?

To make sure I was right, I did a quick search on ITWeb. No less than 17 stories had been written about the proceedings since the beginning of the year. And another story is probably going up this morning. For ITWeb, that is above average coverage.

Another search found IOL.co.za had 16 stories on the matter between Vodacom and the CWU, Business Report had 15, News24 had two, Mail & Guardian had 15, Business Day had 2, and Fin24 had 13.

All in all, not bad coverage.

Award or reward?

Which brings me to the matter of the awards.

It's no secret that few journalists are in the industry for the money. Instead journalism is a bit of a calling to those who like to find the truth, no matter how unpopular that makes you.

Sure, there are upsides to the job: you get to interview interesting people and pretty much ask any question you like. And occasionally you may receive an award for the work that you do.

However, no journalist wants an award that isn't respected by his or her peers. In this industry, losing your peers' respect can limit employment opportunities, result in less than friendly teasing and make the work altogether a miserable experience.

In fact, I remember one high-profile business and ICT journalist telling me he was literally begged to enter a particular competition, but refused because it would be "embarrassing" and a condemnation of his integrity, rather than an accolade.

Awards proffered by companies are also viewed with scepticism. Take Telkom's ICT Journalist of Year Awards, as an example. It took several years for the company to convince journos that the award was not about bribery and more about promoting good journalism in the industry.

In fact, many of the winners of this competition were rewarded for work that was critical of the fixed-line giant.

As for the Vodacom awards, I don't know if any of ITWeb's journalists have entered. If one of the requirements of the competition - stated or suspected - was to provide positive coverage for the award-giver, I can promise you right now that scant few entries would be received.

If we wanted to be bullied into writing nice stuff, we would have gone into PR - at least we would have been paid more.

Oops! Did I just say that?

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