Interactivity between the communicators and the audiences is a very welcome development and is the in thing especially between the mass media and their audiences in this day and age of media convergence.
This has the advantage of providing the necessary feedback the communicators need if they will not feel removed from the audiences. Musical programmes aired through the national broadcaster from time to time invite and receive the audiences’ opinions on the programmes. Sometimes listeners vote for certain musical pieces ratings on the top 40 or 20 are received and aired.
From this feedback, the broadcaster gets a confirmation that out there, there are some people listening to their programmes. On the other hand, the viewers/listeners feel that their participation on the radio or television programmes are taken into consideration.
However, I have wondered whether the presenters on ZBC TV newsnet are at all serious about their call for comments from news viewers. Presenters go to the extent of supplying telephone numbers, fax numbers and the e-mail address. Of course the presentation of this advert has been carefully done – the text of the telephone and fax numbers as well as the e-mail address being dramatically articulated in keeping with the screening of the figures or letters on the screen.
But if there are any people responding to the invitation for comments “to these and other stories” we are yet to hear of such views from audiences being reported on. Is it because there are no people sending their views/comments on news items? One can only wonder. If there are none why should not the invitation be either stopped altogether, or at least changed as it seems not to have any effect. If people have indeed sent in comments what happens to those comments.
By Elikana Shoko
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Sunday, June 17, 2007
Big Brother says ICU.
The Interception of Communications Bill (ICB) has now sailed through Zimbabwe's House of Assembly, going to the upper house will just be a formality reports Newzimbabwe.com. (see link):
The only hope left is that the good President will take his time to append his signature to it like he did with the NGO Bill. Meanwhile, we can continue with our harmless childish pranks on the President or even sellout to the country's ditractors through the Internet or the cellphone. Very soon the thought police will catch up with all thought criminals like Talkmedia and others in Zimbabwe.
What will be the possible implications of this new law on those of us who live by peddling juicy tit-bits on the unfolding tragedy and its main protagonists in Zimbabwe?
1, Imagine how we shall all miss the unsavoury SMSs cartooning our hitherto good natured President through our cellphones.
2, How we shall all be relieved to have no more silly little jokes lampooning His Excellency, spamming our e-mail boxes.
3, Rumour mongers bent on tarnishing the image of our beloved country, its leaders and its sacrosanct institutions by pretending they were privy to juicy details of scandals will be no longer at ease to pass on their blatant lies to journalists via SMSs, or e-mails since no journalists can guarantee their anonymity anymore.
4, Our media shall be sanitised of all unpatriotic confabs.
5, Critical blogsites like Talkmedia will have to tone down criticism especially if directed to government policies.
Isn't that double plus good in Orwellian Newspeak terms?
By the Oracle.
Monday, June 11, 2007
Was Ankomah doing it for the money?
The truth is not for consumption by those of a weak nervous disposition, otherwise people wouldn’t get paid to write it. That is not what journalism schools are there for, to train people to write it. The truth can be found anywhere else but in the news. Just as physicians live by the hypocritic oath so also journalism’s professional ethic enjoins them to avoid the truth like the plague. Just musing.
It is for this reason that anybody who reads the May edition of the New African magazine’s reporting of the March 11 civil disturbances in Zimbabwe should do so with extreme caution.
Running across the first two pages of the supplement is a three word banner headline “Zimbabwe The Truth” writ large and in bold typeface suggesting to the reader that what they are about to read in the next 73 pages is nothing but the truth about what is going on in a country so deep in political and economic turmoil. Two portrait pictures one of Mr Morgan Tsvangirai leader of the opposition party, Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), and the other of a female police officer both victims of the low keyed political conflict in the country. the one with a wounded scalp, the other with a scalded face, face each other across the page as if to accentuate the unbridgeable divide that separates the political parties they represent, the MDC and Zanu PF respectively.
The headline Ankomah pens for his intro to the supplement “When truth takes a holiday” immediately puts one on their guard never mind the assurances and protestations made about how this collection of stories is going to be different. The appellation ‘Sponsored Supplement’ that marks each of the 26 odd stories on Zimbabwe further reinforces the premonition that truth might be as absent from this collection as it is alleged to have been from the discredited reports by western media.
The reader becomes acutely aware that Baffour Ankomah, the magazine’s editor, was doing it for the money. What the reader has in front of him is not the simple truth but a ‘sponsored version of it’. The point Ankomah’s constructed truth tries to make, that western media has misrepresented the reality on the ground in Zimbabwe is itself much less convincing given the official sources he relies on.
A case in point is the interview with Mr Godwin Matanga the Deputy Police Commissioner whose rationalization of his charges' brutal assault on Mr Tsvangirai insults the reader’s intelligence. How a single man, unarmed, could possibly have attempted to overrun a whole police camp, ends up with a cracked scull without him inflicting a scratch on any policeman boggles the mind.
The truth probably lies in all that hasn’t been said or written about the Zimbabwean situation in general and the events of 11 March in particular. Is the truth so disquieting that no journalist dares write about it and no newspaper publish it?
One is reminded of John Pilger's remark that real truth is always subversive, that truth comes from the ground up, almost never from the top down.
How do Ankomah’s stories on Zimbabwe's disturbances of March 11 measure up to this standard of truthfulness?
By the Oracle
Saturday, June 2, 2007
Opinion: Zimbabwe government paranoid about private press
Government’s hard line stance against the private media smacks of paranoia. This unfortunate development, on close examination is a result of government’s excessive desire to control and influence the formulation of opinion. The private media on the other hand has responded by attacking government whenever they get the chance.
The privately owned media are accused of being western funded and the government believes that they are being used by the west to champion a regime change agenda in the country. This seems to be a lame excuse used by authorities to persecute the private media. The media are supposed to report truthfully and it is unfortunate that our government views alternative views as views of its enemy. Alternative views are treated with suspicion even if they are constructive.
The independent media has not helped either, some of the articles, especially on Internet based publications like Zimdaily and NewZimbabwe have probably given the government some reason to be paranoid and heavy handed. A case in point is a story published on Zimdaily a few weeks ago that dwelt on President Mugabe’s manhood. Although the editors defended the story arguing that the issue was of public interest the story seemed to be inspired more by malice and not by a genuine need to inform.
Furthermore, there seems to be a relentless attack on government by the private media. Snap surveys of most of the ‘independent’ papers show that most of the stories are blatantly anti-government. Whether this is so because government always fails or the private media has an ulterior motive is not clear. This polarization where we have pro government and anti-government media has all but sealed the fate of objectivity within our media.
There is also a situation where the media are now paying more and more attention to political issues and neglecting all other issues that maybe of equal if not of more importance to their audiences. This can be attributed to the prevailing situation where politics has penetrated all spheres of our social life. Instead of taking a different route to government, the private media also seem to have developed a habit of reporting mostly politics albeit with a biased tone.
The hostile legislation in the form of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (2002) was the beginning of a nasty crusade against press freedom in the country. This restrictive piece of legislation underlined government’s suspicion and paranoia against the private media. Shortly after AIPPA was passed into law, The Daily News and The Daily News on Sunday were closed down and other publications like The Tribune have been closed down mostly because they were perceived to be too critical of government.
The coming of AIPPA also brought the criminalization of journalism as well as sustained government brutality against journalists in the private media. Government has shown little or no remorse over these alarming levels of intolerance and recently the Minister of State Security Cde Didymus Mutasa was quoted in The Standard as saying that he wished that these pieces of legislation would be there forever. This arrogance from a government official just goes to show how low our leaders have stooped in their quest to restrict media freedom.
Access to public information is also restricted especially to the private media. Most government officials refuse to speak to journalists perceived to be working for the “opposition” press and this leaves the private media with no sources with which they can verify facts. This issue has led to disenchantment within the private media and it has further fueled the already rife suspicion of mismanagement on the part of government.
The detention and torture of journalists by state security agents is another pointer towards government’s intolerance. It has contributed to the frosty relations between the government and the private media. Journalists are not allowed to carry out their work freely unless they subscribe to government’s populist ideology.Consequently,freedom of expression is curtailed and there is a persistent threat of violence against journalists who portray views perceived to be detrimental to government policy. The inhuman treatment of media practitioners by the government is not doing any good to the government whose international human rights record is, to say the least, unimpressive.
Another blatant display of paranoia by the government is its desire to influence and control media training institutions. Recently, there was an unconfimed story in The Independent that alleged that prospective students in The School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the Harare Polytechnic needed to have undergone National Service Training. Due to the fact that national service training centres are said to be indoctrination bases, this initiative shows government’s desire to produce a journalist cddre devoid of objectivity.
Whether it is government paranoia or the private media’s recklessness that has led to the polarization of our media, one thing is certain. We need coorperation from both parties to build a vibrant and objective media whose agenda is to enhance the well being of the nation. There is an urgent need for the media to rise above trivial sectoral interests in order to play a truly informative role.
The privately owned media are accused of being western funded and the government believes that they are being used by the west to champion a regime change agenda in the country. This seems to be a lame excuse used by authorities to persecute the private media. The media are supposed to report truthfully and it is unfortunate that our government views alternative views as views of its enemy. Alternative views are treated with suspicion even if they are constructive.
The independent media has not helped either, some of the articles, especially on Internet based publications like Zimdaily and NewZimbabwe have probably given the government some reason to be paranoid and heavy handed. A case in point is a story published on Zimdaily a few weeks ago that dwelt on President Mugabe’s manhood. Although the editors defended the story arguing that the issue was of public interest the story seemed to be inspired more by malice and not by a genuine need to inform.
Furthermore, there seems to be a relentless attack on government by the private media. Snap surveys of most of the ‘independent’ papers show that most of the stories are blatantly anti-government. Whether this is so because government always fails or the private media has an ulterior motive is not clear. This polarization where we have pro government and anti-government media has all but sealed the fate of objectivity within our media.
There is also a situation where the media are now paying more and more attention to political issues and neglecting all other issues that maybe of equal if not of more importance to their audiences. This can be attributed to the prevailing situation where politics has penetrated all spheres of our social life. Instead of taking a different route to government, the private media also seem to have developed a habit of reporting mostly politics albeit with a biased tone.
The hostile legislation in the form of the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (2002) was the beginning of a nasty crusade against press freedom in the country. This restrictive piece of legislation underlined government’s suspicion and paranoia against the private media. Shortly after AIPPA was passed into law, The Daily News and The Daily News on Sunday were closed down and other publications like The Tribune have been closed down mostly because they were perceived to be too critical of government.
The coming of AIPPA also brought the criminalization of journalism as well as sustained government brutality against journalists in the private media. Government has shown little or no remorse over these alarming levels of intolerance and recently the Minister of State Security Cde Didymus Mutasa was quoted in The Standard as saying that he wished that these pieces of legislation would be there forever. This arrogance from a government official just goes to show how low our leaders have stooped in their quest to restrict media freedom.
Access to public information is also restricted especially to the private media. Most government officials refuse to speak to journalists perceived to be working for the “opposition” press and this leaves the private media with no sources with which they can verify facts. This issue has led to disenchantment within the private media and it has further fueled the already rife suspicion of mismanagement on the part of government.
The detention and torture of journalists by state security agents is another pointer towards government’s intolerance. It has contributed to the frosty relations between the government and the private media. Journalists are not allowed to carry out their work freely unless they subscribe to government’s populist ideology.Consequently,freedom of expression is curtailed and there is a persistent threat of violence against journalists who portray views perceived to be detrimental to government policy. The inhuman treatment of media practitioners by the government is not doing any good to the government whose international human rights record is, to say the least, unimpressive.
Another blatant display of paranoia by the government is its desire to influence and control media training institutions. Recently, there was an unconfimed story in The Independent that alleged that prospective students in The School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the Harare Polytechnic needed to have undergone National Service Training. Due to the fact that national service training centres are said to be indoctrination bases, this initiative shows government’s desire to produce a journalist cddre devoid of objectivity.
Whether it is government paranoia or the private media’s recklessness that has led to the polarization of our media, one thing is certain. We need coorperation from both parties to build a vibrant and objective media whose agenda is to enhance the well being of the nation. There is an urgent need for the media to rise above trivial sectoral interests in order to play a truly informative role.
By Innocent Yekeye,
Bsc Honours in Media and Society Studies Level 2.2
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