Is South African journalism becoming irrelevant?

Is journalism becoming irrelevant?

Sipho Ngcobo worries about the profession and the business of media.

AMEN

My thoughts exactly.They brought this mess on themselves.

I didn't know that local journalism exist anymore, as it seems "news" is either written by some PR poppie or copied verbatim from a Murdock "news" reel.

Stopped buying Business Day for exactly this reason; as you can go to the PR Company’s website and read the same article and the real writer’s name is displayed and it is not a BEE candidate. Pick up any local “news”-paper and search a paragraph on the Internet and you can find who actually is responsible for the “news” you are paying for.

The time of traditional newspapers has long ended; they are clinging to a past fantasy of inflated advertising circulation figures that has never been credible.

How any person / “corporate” could still be willing to pay for space in a daily local paper, astounds me.

The only entities that buy this crap are the advertising and PR industry and some “market analysts” that can type, but doesn't have access to a decent Internet search engine (Google excluded).

@ who.is.michael, +1

How can the media become relevant when they can be detained? or forced to hand over their sources for good investigative journalism? or barred from reporting information deemed "classified" since it may highlight corruption?

The government refuses to be accountable for anything... why should the media? The government is full of nonsense... and so is the media. The government acts corrupt... so why shouldn't the media? "Shoddy" is a reflection of South Africa and our government. When the people at the top become irrelevant(its been happening slowly for the past decade), so do the press.

He may as well have asked if South African political opposition was becoming irrelevant.

I'm with Pierre de Vos on this one. There is plenty of shoddy journalism, and most of it takes place in tabloids and has nothing to do with politicians.

And, instead of a Media Tribunal, how about a Political Tribunal? Where people can come and lay cases against politicians who have lied, cheated and stolen public funds? With 5-25 year jail sentences for those found guilty?

How about, every time a child falls down an manhole the Tshwane Metro forgot to close, we charge the Metro with culpable homicide? How about, every time a crime isn't investigated, we charge the Dept. of Safety and Security with negligence of duty? How about, every time a politician is caught out in a lie, we charge that politician with treason? What could be wrong with that?

We're coming for you politicians. You going down!

In what was a flagrant contempt of court, the media quoted Judge Squires as having said Shaik had "a generally corrupt relationship" with President Zuma during the trial. That was in fact the prosecution that had alleged that and not Judge Squires. The judge even wrote a letter to the editor complaining about this.

Click to expand...

OK now I am not a lawyer but I have always understood contempt of court to be declared with a court order by the actual court and not by a random journalist.

Contempt of Court also only applies within the context of the trial or hearing and not outside of it. Am I missing something?

"Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both"
Benjamin Franklin

Tho I do agree with the writer, who decides who is wrong and who is right? Frankly this with other news stinks of the government trying to keep the people uninformed