There is a need for more reporting on developmental issues regarding the 2010 Soccer World Cup, Wits University’s investigative journalism coordinator Birgit Schwartz said on Wednesday.
The topics currently being covered are predictable and journalists need to start looking at topics that editors don’t like.
She said coverage within South Africa has become more positive over the past year, with the media reiterating assurances of officials. However, the media should not be engaging in public-relations exercises.
The only unilateral criticisms from the media are of the national team, whose performances are so bad ”that even the president now wants them branded differently”, she said.
Now the more critical and sceptical voices are coming from the foreign media with pessimism over public transport, construction workers’ working conditions, cost overruns and violence.
Also, crimes like the murder of musician Lucky Dube do not make negative perceptions of crime go away. In the run-up to the previous World Cup in Germany, there was much criticism about security measures, and ticketing and trainers were criticised.
”When it comes to the event there will always be a lot of scrutiny and that is not always bad,” said Schwartz, advising that officials need to deal with these questions with sensitivity.
Social scientist Margot Rubin said the media perpetuate gender stereotypes in events of this nature and should be aware of how they use ”honey shots” of women, selecting only women wearing scanty clothing, and portraying women as ”soccer widows” who ”suffer” through the tournament, while portraying men as sweaty and showered in glory.
She said that, like the German event, media reports are beginning to focus on a flood of prostitutes and trafficked women. The same predictions were made for Germany but turned out to be baseless, and there is no reason to think the same will happen in South Africa, she said.
”Granted, it is the World Cup, a men’s event, I get that. But the media is entrenching a series of stereotypical notions of gender,” said Rubin. — Sapa