'Smartest Event of the Year' showcases media deficiencies

"Lot of gaps in our media industry"

"There are a lot of gaps in our media industry," Abramjee said, adding that editors and journalists need to be very careful about what they report on their platforms.

"When 29 miners die in New Zealand, it makes big news and front page in our newspapers, but when five miners die in Rustenburg, the story is printed in page 10 of the Daily Sun for instance. This can easily boil down to the argument that it is all about race.
"The print media industry has a serious problem. We have to take a look at what we are doing. If we are wrong, we are wrong," he said, fuming.

But, Barry Sayer, CEO of Continental Outdoor Media, disagreed, saying: "No it is not about race. The story made headlines on most of the major global news networks, which builds some kind of drama around it. Perhaps our newspapers just followed suit."

"We should not be dictated to"

An incensed Abramjee quickly intervened: "We are South Africans and we should not be dictated to in what to watch, read or hear. Why should we follow everything [that] CNN or Sky News does?"

This discussion about the standards of SA media comes against the backdrop of concerns and complaints that continue to mar the industry, as the ruling ANC considers enacting a media appeals tribunal to curb what it calls 'wayward' and 'ignorant' journalists who publish untruths.

Gordon Patterson, ABC VP and Starcom MediaVest Group MD, said: "We must recognise that we have a serious problem in our media industry. Skills shortage is affecting our print journalism. "Maybe that could be one of the reasons why circulation keeps declining. I believe race is just one way of moving attention somewhere else.

"Sometimes to get a story from a foreign network, and use it as it is, is not always right. We have no more investigative journalism here. Why don't we go there physically and do some serious investigative work by using different angles? Besides, we have even a bigger problem when headlines are written by people who write articles."

"Juniorisation and lack of professionalism"

A local journalist present at the conference said on condition of anonymity: "I am really concerned about the juniorisation and lack of professionalism in our newsrooms."

Andy Rice, Yellowwood Future Archives chairman, deplored the way all SA newspapers look the same - look and format, but also copy (stories/content) [perhaps this is why Media24 has once again invested in the services of American visual editor and trainer Charles Apple, who is once again in the country working mostly with Media24 newspapers - managing ed], which he said mostly comes from SAPA.

"Our media fails to learn and understand brand differentiation. We may deride Sky News, but they are doing a fantastic job out there by taking water and delivering it to various houses. Look at the William and Kate engagement story; they were the first to come out and break it down in different angles."

"Hire strategy companies"

Asked how he expects the media to understand brand differentiation, he said: "They must hire strategy companies to do that for them."

The Smartest Event of the Year, facilitated by Jeremy Maggs and Chris Gibbons, is being organised by Future Publishing in association with e.tv, Absa and research partner TNS Research Surveys.