Fuzzy reporting on fake fizzy drinks

The newspaper article authored by Josephine Mude entitled Fake Fizzy Drinks Flood Market appeared on page 2 of The Times of 23-29 March 2007.

The article was based on the making of fake fizzy drinks at Kudzanayi bus terminus in Gweru. A snap survey carried out by The Times shows that most fizzy drinks sold at the terminus are not originals as the bottle labelling might imply. Vendors are making fruit juice mixtures, which are made out of milk, fizzy drinks, water and orange juice. These fake mixtures are turning out to be a favourite for some who believe they taste better than the real fizzy drinks.

This report was newsworthy because it was about an illegal operation, which is flooding the market. It becomes a national issue because vendors are selling to the public whose health is at risk food staffs and mixtures, which are not properly prepared and bottled. This activity is of concern, since this juice making is being carried out at a terminus, which is a national road junction and a major meeting place for different people.

The readers would have benefited more from a balanced report that includes the response of the vendors who are said to be making the drinks and a comment from the street kids who have been implicated as suppliers of the empty bottles. A balanced presentation would have made the article more informative to the readers. This is of public interest since the government is making frantic efforts to curb illegal activities, which are rampant in country. The reporter also seems to take the “street kids” phenomenon that they are a nuisance, that they are vermin as a given, absolving society of any blame for making some people live on the streets.

The reporter has a social responsibility of presenting news, which should be truthful. For this reason the reporter should have made an effort to get comment from the vendors but the reporter seems to know what the drinks are made of and only states that the juices look and taste like originals. What if they were in fact originals?

Vendors have resorted to manufacturing and selling “fake” juices as a means of earning a living. Implied in the report is the view that this is criminal and that the government should do something to stop it. Poor government policies and the macro-economic environment resulting from them are conveniently elided in this story. It is the poor vendors who are to blame for their poverty – in “blame the victim style”.

By Siphiwe Pagiwa, PgDip Media and Society Studies - MSU.