Let’s debate the state of radio journalism in SA

The South African National Editors Forum should be commended for taking the bold step of acknowledging the challenges facing newsrooms in post-apartheid South Africa. A few years ago it was easy to blame newsroom incompetence, particularly among black journalists on the legacy of apartheid. In fact, some editors still use this as an excuse for less than candid reporting in some newsrooms, as displayed in a recent edition of Sowetan, where the Editor blamed a reporting error by a journalist on the legacy of Bantu Education.

The South African media celebrated Media Freedom Day on the weekend of October 18-20, 2002. Newspapers were littered with articles on the challenges facing the new crop of South African journalists. In almost all the articles, there was a recurring theme of hopelessness, regarding the current quality of journalism. This is not surprising considering the findings of a Skills Audit conducted by the SA National Editors Forum early this year. The audit blamed the deteriorating standards on, among other things, what it termed the "juniorisation" of newsrooms. All sorts of reasons have been cited for this phenomenon. These include new opportunities for practicing senior journalists, to the elevation of senior journalists to executive management positions within the media houses.

ETV Editor in Chief Joe Thloloe wrote in a recent article - "The media were victims in the transition to democracy, with the exodus of many skilled journalists to the government and business... we cannot begrudge them for taking these opportunities." With all due respect I beg to disagree with Mr. Thloloe. While it is true that most journalists left the industry because of opportunities in business and government, it is an indictment on executive management within the media. They have simply failed to retain staff by rewarding talent.

A lot of the wealth and expertise within the media industry today is completely under-utilised. Nothing stops veterans like Mr. Thloloe, Aggrey Klaaste at NAP, John Qwelane at 702 Talk Radio and others of their generation from running training courses within their newsrooms with a view to expedite the process of skills development. Nothing stops this crop of veterans from offering themselves as mentors to budding journalists, starting in their own newsrooms. Some of these old hands are also media bosses, so why do they not ensure that their journalists are offered growth opportunities and properly rewarded in order to discourage the flight to the private sector and government? I think blaming the current shortage of skills on external opportunities is not only disingenuous as it is an indictment on those who have skills to impart.

Most journalists, who have left the industry for cushy jobs in government or business miss the passion, excitement and adrenalin associated with being in a newsroom. Journalism is after all a calling, at least that's what most of us were taught at Journalism Schools.

My disquiet about the debate on the quality of journalism in South Africa is that it is largely confined to the print media. The broadcast media has at best opted for superficial coverage on the subject, and at worst, as is the case with many radio stations, ignoring it all together. There is no meaningful debate within the radio news industry on the challenges that this sector is facing, and the quality of material broadcast to the public on a daily basis. This indifference has fed into perceptions that radio journalism is mediocre. There's a disturbing view in the mainstream media these days -that quality journalism is only associated with our colleagues in print. The broadcast media and particularly radio, has to take responsibility for this perception. Radio journalists and editors have largely excluded themselves from the broader journalistic fraternity. A statement at the end of the SANEF two-day conference on Skills Development noted the absence of top broadcasting management at the Indaba, and committed itself to engaging the National Association of Broadcasters in this regard.

One could be as bold as to say that journalism does not exist in most of our radio newsrooms. News bulletins are routinely loaded with unedited copy from newspapers and some local news websites. The culture of radio journalists generating their own stories is as good as dead. These days it has almost become the norm to unashamedly steal copy from newspapers and news websites (without attribution) or follow-up on the stories that our print colleagues have written. In the UK a phrase has been coined for this kind of "journalism", it is called "rip and read" except that in their case, it actually means taking copy from broadcast news agencies and reading it on air as is. In our case, it would therefore mean taking copy from print and literally editing for language and broadcasting the material as if it were your own. This is plagiarism.

This tendency is highly disturbing because radio is the most reachable medium for many South Africans who either cannot read, or live in rural areas where most newspapers are not circulated. If we are to stick to the principle that radio is there to inform, educate and entertain then we have to ask - "Is the South African radio sector doing justice to the public, or are we now electronic messengers for our colleagues in print?" What is the contribution of radio news to the development of the South African society?

A telling sign of this "dumbing-down" of radio news was reflected in the recent regional Vodacom Journalist of the Year Awards. Organisers have conceded that they had a tough time selecting winners in the radio news category. One reason being that less than 30 entries for this category were received from radio journalists nationwide, and the other being that even in cases where there were entrants the quality of some of the work was not deserving of any award. As a result only two regional awards were presented in the Radio News category. One went to John Perlman who is anchor of SAFM's AM Live, and the other to Christopher Motabogi of OFM.

One can almost forgive community radio stations for poor journalistic standards, because many suffer a serious lack of skills and resources. But the same cannot be said of commercial radio stations and the public broadcaster. The resources are there except for independent radio stations where news always receives the lowest budget. I can almost hear station managers saying "oh, but news is not our core business". Sure fair enough! But does this mean that we should dish out second hand, sub-standard content to the public because we are merely interested in profits? I do not believe that it is prudent to focus on the bottom line at the expense of a station's credibility.

Training programmes are frequently conducted by organisations like the Institute for the Advancement of Journalism. But how many commercial radio newsrooms actually take advantage of these opportunities? My guess would be that there are very few indeed, if any at all.

On any given day millions of South Africans tune into commercial, community and public radio stations for information, education and entertainment. They may be getting some entertainment, but as for quality news and information related programming, radio stations simply have to just clean up their act. Part of the problem is that the industry does not take itself seriously enough. As a result many junior radio journalists see the newsrooms as stepping-stones towards Television. The other problem is that radio station managers seem to believe that hiring "celebrities", and I use this term very loosely, as news presenters is the quickest way of drawing audiences. This is an affront to those radio journalists who worked hard to maintain the integrity of the sector, and it is also an insult to the public who have to listen to uninformed presenters masquerading as journalists on issues they can hardly grasp let alone understand.

Station managers cannot only focus on the bottom line, they also have to look at how news and information programming contributes towards shaping our society and advancing our democracy. Otherwise history will judge us very harshly. Radio stations also have to realise that credibility is always compromised when news bulletins are perceived as inaccurate and of sub-standard. The debate on the challenges facing the media in the 21st century should not be limited to the "more credible" print media. One would hope that in its attempts to raise the quality of journalism in the country, the SA National Editors Forum would pay particular attention to radio news; cultivate and galvanise the support of radio news editors and station managers. The medium is after all the most influential by virtue of its reach and accessibility.