Elections 2009: How did the media fare?
So it is the evening after election day. Like millions of others, I am curious about the results – having queued at Home Affairs for three hours to get a temporary ID, then another two hours at the polling station to actually make my mark, I feel sort of part and parcel of the process. And I’m curious to know how it all turned out.
Today I’ve been working with the TV on, occasionally popping through to the lounge to see how things are progressing. While at my PC I’ve been checking a couple of websites regularly and in my car a couple of times I’ve listened to some radio news broadcasts.
All in all I have been disappointed with the way the media have handled the results release. Sure we all knew the ANC was going to win – but the other critical factors in the elections (that 2/3 majority everyone is obsessing about; the fate of the Western Cape; the overall impact of COPE; the final death throes of so many tiny parties) are all things that interest me. Having recently watched the unfolding American elections on CNN, Sky and BBC as well as online I had a fair idea of what worked for me, and had fairly high expectations that South Africa’s media would rise to the challenge.
Online was a major disappointment. IOL simply pulled their election stories into a single section of their website, but didn’t offer anything extra. Same too for the M&G (except for their, as always, ahem, exceptionally produced podcast, obviously). EWN.co.za (the online version of 702 and Cape Talk’s news) tried valiantly but have been let down by poor design that makes them look static, wordy and boring. Stick to radio guys, or call in the online experts to build the site for you. The online publication that seemed to “get” the potential of the web was The Times. A great online election section, and by pulling together news, multimedia, blogs, social media and community votes in one place, they managed to position themselves as “the only place you need to go” for election coverage – presumably the Holy Grail of the day.
The coolest feature I found online was News24′s interactive map, updated frequently throughout the day with the numbers. Easy to use and pretty effective, it became my default “numbers machine” during the day. But then it let me down. Right now it is 7:45pm, the last time the site was updated was 5:52pm. As a breaking news story with constantly shifting numbers, that just isn’t good enough, and News24 has squandered a massive opportunity. It also meant that my irritation levels were such that I can’t name them the best election site of the day despite the fact that the rest of their site was on a par with The Times – so I’ll give the Golden Lankester award (catchy, I might trademark it like that Oscar guy did) to The Times.
(And just in case Matt gives me a hard time about my News24 comments – here’s the screengrab to prove it.)
If News24 let a great opportunity slip through their fingered, the SABC didn’t even get their hands to the ball. This morning I switched the TV on around 10am wanting to get rolling results. The SABC was treating its viewers to a heady mix of Learning Channel, soapie repeats and Takalani Sesame. So much for the National Broadcaster. Fortunately the eNews channel could come to the rescue – not only on its dedicated channel but simulcast on its regular channel during the day.
The e presenters are generally pretty good. Today was the first time I’ve seen Dan Moyane on the channel. Dan is one of the nicest, most genuine and brightest guys in broadcasting, and I’ve always enjoyed him on both 702 and SAfm. But today he looked slightly uncomfortable. The peculiar seating arrangement didn’t help and at times he looked more like Debra Patta’s bodyguard than anything else.
The e coverage remained of a fairly high standard but the quality of their graphics left much to be desired. I wanted pie charts and graphs, a vote-o-meter on the left hand side of the screen throughout updating the latest figures, even when they felt it necessary to talk about weather or sport. Instead we got an occasional hard to read bar graph that didn’t offer much insight. And they perpetuated their ridiculous “have the presenters stand around” philosophy throughout, even when Jeremy and Redi came on and the difference in their height was ridiculously accentuated.
So back to the SABC it was and having dispatched the crappy daytime television and woken up to the fact thar there was in fact an election unfolding, Tim Modise appeared calm and in charge, as he always does. Even when breathless and largely amateurish field reporters went live to report on the fact that there wasn’t very much to report on. The SABC’s graphics were better than eTV’s – more readable and more useful.
Radio-wise I don’t have much to comment on because all I had to listen to was SAfm and Cape Talk. Both seemed to do ok, but as always the slickness of Cape Talk’s news operation and the intelligence and quality of their reporters put them head and shoulders above the rest.
My 2c worth – a rather incomplete overview of the media, I’m afraid, but some of us have a real job that needs to occupy some of our attention!
