A Newshound's Reflections: Experiences, responsibilities and challenges of a sleuth

Jameson Maluleke

A presentation for the Communication Students Association Conference
Unisa Learning Centre, Johannesburg, April 29/2004

I would like to greet you in the language of my people, the language of our ancestors - XEWANI VARIKWERHU, Molweni makwethu, Lotshani, Dumelang, Ndi Matsheloni, Sanibonani, Thobela.

Ladies and gentlemen

I have been asked by your Association to make a presentation on "The future of students in the media after ten years of democracy".

From the outset, I must confess that it would be indiscreet of me in my position as a newshound to attempt a prophetic thesis concerning the future of media students. However, I would be lacking in chivalry if I failed to stand up to the challenge and exercise my right to speak my thoughts freely on the subject.

The unambiguous nature of the topic of our discussion tempts me to choose a clear-cut answer, to say in one sentence either "yes, there is a bright future for media students", or "no, the future is bleak". But the eagerness and curiosity displayed in your faces tell me that you will only be satisfied with a full loaf of bread rather than a mere half.

You will agree with me that concepts such as media tend to have a maze of definitions that are confusing to many. This is so because theorists are not satisfied with one definition of a concept. According to the linguistic origin of the word, media is a plural form of medium - a physical means to transmit communication between the source and the recipient. We can talk of examples such as radio, television, satellite, compact discs, newspapers and magazines.

However, in recent years the term has been used interchangeably to connote both the media and communication. As communication, media may be conceptualised as a daily report which chronicles the struggle of man's survival on earth. Such a report includes news articles in both the print and the electronic media.

Burke perceived the media or the press to be exact - as the Fourth Estate. He said there are three estates in the Parliament, "but in the reporters' gallery yonder, there sits a fourth estate more important far than them all" (quoted by Thomas Carlyle 1995-1881). Like Burke, I see the media as a powerful and therefore sacred profession, able to mete out public justice and, like a weapon of mass destruction, bring about destruction. With such power comes the responsibility of being unimpeachable, reliable and impartial, because the public is not necessarily gullible.

The media have been reputed to have pulled down the Berlin Wall - the so-called Iron Curtain which divided East and West Germany from the early 1940s, the phasing out of Communism in what used to be called the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). In our country the media did play a role in the downfall of apartheid political structures by exposing atrocities committed by the regime, and it helped chip away at the apartheid edifice, supporting other forces that were also opposing the systems.

Former President Nelson Mandela would have received the death penalty during the famous Rivonia trial in the early sixties had it not been for the crucial role of the media in publishing his plight in the hands of stolid judges. The media did not stop there, it continued to campaign for his release and played the role of a midwife when the baby that was later to be christened Democracy was being born in the 1990s. The murder of South Africa's two greatest sons, Steve Biko and Chris Hani, would have gone unnoticed were it not for the watchful eye of the media, which alerted the public. It also forced the courts to investigate the doctors in the Biko case after the Medical and Dental Council had cleared them. The list is long ...

There are so many achievements by the media in the past that time and space do not allow us to mention them all, the more so because the media is likely to continue with its sanctified calling until the world is no more.

Now back to our topic. What is the future of media students likely to be ten years from now? What sort of impact would the present media students make in a decade? Are they going to be different from the present media practitioners and if so, in what way? I am convinced that the future of communication students will depend on various factors such as training, the dominant profession in the global village, informing the public, and the maintenance of democracy.

• The need to train future media practitioners
  As communication students at one of South Africa's finest universities, Unisa, the above phrase may sound ridiculous to you. Speaking from my own experience, embarking on this profession without proper training would present prospective media practitioners with a great deal of mental and emotional challenges. The role of the watchdog will remain, but the technical aspects will undergo a continuous, radical change. Besides, recipients of information are becoming more astute by the day - they are no longer satisfied with simple factual reports, but are developing a need for analytical news. De Beer (1998:61) advises that "media practitioners in Africa need to be trained to become professionals, not mere craftsmen and craftswomen".
• A dominant profession
  The dynamic nature of the media as a profession that influences opinions and behaviour of a given society presents a formidable challenge to media workers. Harris et al (1985:01) contends that "the increasingly pervasive power of the press (read media) to influence massive numbers of individuals means that journalists have a far greater responsibility than ever before to produce news that meets the need and demand of their readers". Sharing this view is De Beer (1998), who holds that the media cannot be separated from the individual and the society since it is a pervasive social force which is part of everyday life.
• Passion to discover what is happening around us
  Living in the age of information as we do, we have become more and more inquisitive - overwhelmed by the passion to discover what is happening around us. Media practitioners are supposed to satisfy this passion by means of news production in the newsroom. The media practitioner has to have a well-rounded education and a desire to become more and more knowledgeable. There is a need to become specialised in a particular field, for instance, business, medical or environmental.
• Guarding the South African democracy
  The media can be rightly perceived as an arbiter of social life, which ensures that decisions affecting the whole take place in the public arena. Justice must be seen to be done, as we say in English. The media has a huge responsibility of being a watchdog - to guard jealously the rights and freedoms given under a democracy - of speech, of religion, of association, of choice … the list goes on - and to prevent the government from sliding into despotism. Media practitioners have a singular task - to commit themselves to their sacred profession to be the true voice of the voiceless, rather than mere propagandists of government policies. Well, some of us in the field are fascinated by partisan politics. But involvement in partisan politics means that a media worker is likely to be a mere propagandist, thus tarnishing the image of our divine profession.
• Relationship between the media and the state
  The relationship between the government and the media is sometimes one of mistrust because the government knows very well that it operates under the watchful eye of an independent media. However, this does not mean that the media's convictions are unpatriotic or subversive. The constant mud-slinging between the two institutions is as a result of differences in ideologies and policies. The government is often inclined to exploit the masses, and without the presence of an independent press the government excels in this undertaking.
• Powerful countries
  In their bid to keep the entire African continent in a state of subjugation, powerful Western countries continue to use the media as an instrument of oppression for their selfish gain. They portray Africa as a basket case, a continent constantly ravaged by hunger, incurable diseases and abject poverty. Again, it is up to the present media students to obtain their qualifications as soon as possible so that they can work together with old media practitioners in presenting a balanced picture of Africa rather than a distorted one. Future media practitioners should help carry the burden to prevent the continued rape of mother Africa.

I have devoted my paper to the responsibilities of media practitioners without explicitly telling you where you fit in. The motivation behind my approach is this: I want you to understand that these are the responsibilities you are supposed to carry once you have finished your studies.

May I end my discussion by impressing upon you that we, the media workers, wish you well in your academic endeavours and look forward to seeing future media practitioners, scholars and intellectuals from your class. I for one would be proud to see rigorously-trained media workers who are ready and willing to fight for socio-economic justice in our motherland.

Madam Chairperson, ladies and gentlemen, I thank you sincerely for offering me an opportunity to share my thoughts with you.

References
De Beer, A.S. (ed.). 1998. Mass Media. Towards The Millennium: The South African Handbook of Mass Communication. Pretoria: J.L. Van Schaik.
Harris, Julian et al. 1985. The Complete Reporter: Fundamentals of News Gathering, Writing and Editing, Complete with Exercises. New York: MacMillan Publishing Company.
McLuhan, M. 1994. Understanding Media: The Extensions of Man. New York: Signet.
Meyer, Philip. 1975. Precision Journalism: A Reporter's Introduction to Social Science Methods. Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana State University Press.
Rivers, William L. 1975. Writing: Crafts and Art. Eaglewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Steinberg, Sheila. 1978. Communication Studies: An Introduction. Cape Town: Juta & Co. Ltd.
The Citizen Newspaper. Johannesburg: Caxton Publishers.



LitNet: 25 August 2004

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