The media have no space for the poor to raise their views, African National Congress president Jacob Zuma said on Wednesday.
He was addressing Leadership magazine’s ”Tomorrow’s Leaders” convention in Pretoria on the importance of developing excellence in strong and effective communication within the public and private sectors.
He said the recent xenophobic attacks in South Africa were about angry people who felt they had not been allowed space to communicate their concerns and grievances.
”Direct two-way communication is at times the most effective form of communication. Community media offer some hope for broadening access and representation within the media. It offers an opportunity to give practical meaning to the right of freedom of expression. But it is small, under-resourced and under-capacitated,” he said.
The ANC president said that communication is neither value-free nor neutral. ”It has a bias and an ideological underpinning — even though this may not be evident, even to the communicator.
”We all know that what we read or hear or see through the media will have a particular slant depending on the perspectives, preoccupations, prejudices or interests of the producer, presenter or editor,” said Zuma.
News may also have a slant based on class, race or region, he said.
Workers would argue that they do not see much of themselves in the media — print or electronic.
”They are usually mentioned in stories relating to labour disputes and rarely in articles that provide positive messages of contributing to the growth of the economy.”
He said in the past, the media were largely instruments of exclusion, designed to meet the needs of a small minority.
”Through a combination of factors like ownership patterns, state censorship and newsroom culture, the voices of black South Africans were absent from mainstream public discourse. They did not have a voice in Parliament, in the boardroom or the pages of the country’s newspapers or on its airwaves,” he said.
Zuma added that the situation had changed dramatically. ”Slowly, black South Africans are beginning to occupy a more prominent position within the economy, owning businesses, managing companies, and taking up professions that were previously closed to them.
”There is much that has taken place over the first 14 years of democracy to encourage us that the process of disempowerment is being corrected,” he said.
The establishment of the Izimbizo events is an important initiative. Rather than merely having one-way communication, the Izimbizo events create space for a dialogue.
”Hopefully, public representatives emerge from these events better informed about the concerns and problems of the people, and more empowered to address them,” he said.
Political leadership should be more visible, Zuma added. ”We need to see more of our political leadership such as ministers, MECs [provincial ministers] and mayors outlining policy, and less of spokespersons who should be facilitators.”
Political parties and liberation movements in Africa have become disconnected from their people, the ANC president said.
”Communication becomes an effective tool of ensuring that we narrow the gap, and that we all move at the same speed, on the same wavelength. The channels of communication should always remain open between the state and the people or ruling parties in particular and the people, to eliminate room for surprises,” he said. — Sapa