Writers In Glass Houses – iDiski Times

In the latest edition of iDiski Times, our journalist Rob Delport penned a column about some of the issues that are troubling him in the football media industry…

Apart from being an iDiski Times journalist and leading the editorial team, the veteran journalist is the Western Cape Provincial Representative of Safja, and is also the South African Head Researcher for Football Manager, and Rob had to get something off his chest…

Recently there has been a spate of criticism about the state of football in the country, and while much of it is certainly valid, I am beginning to wonder if coming from the media, it isn’t a bit like that old ‘people in glass houses’ saying? After all, it is not exactly like the football journalism industry in South Africa is at the highest echelon.

Being a member of football’s Fourth Estate has been difficult, especially where only recently we were actually allowed to return to fixtures for the first time, following 25 months of exclusion, due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

I do not claim to be the greatest journalist out there, but one thing I can tell you is that I love my career, anyone in the industry who has interacted with me can attest to that. It is not just a job, it is a life, a passion, and I am proud to be a part of the field.

But the football media landscape has grown a lot, and while the traditional coverage of newspapers, magazines, radio shows and television productions still exists, it has diversified with online platforms, from websites to blogs, to podcasts, to social media accounts, to YouTube shows, and while this has brought a fantastic diversity, and some great new voices in the coverage, it has also brought a lot less oversight.

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And perhaps the biggest problem that has come with new media, is the chase-for-clicks over the accuracy of content. We are all victims of this, we want our product to be popular, and online it’s a numbers game, a popularity contest, which is not what news is supposed to be about. There is a reason news and entertainment have always been considered separate divisions, but as we have seen in popular culture, that line has become blurred, and with sports news, it always has been blurry.

There’s a big difference between a PUNDIT and a JOURNALIST. Pundits, many of whom are ex-players, are there for analysis and opinion. An example of punditry is over at our sister company, iDiskiTV, where Nkululeko Nkewu chats to Junior Khanye and Benedict Vilakazi. Journalists, such as those who work for iDiski Times, are there for the news, to report on club and player updates, conduct interviews, and on the odd occasion, like for this column, we do get opportunities to share opinions.

We’re a mixed bag in Mzansi, while we certainly have many first-class football journalists, we also have those who do not respect the industry they are in, and sometimes the industry doesn’t respect them either.

In fairness some of our most popular football sites and accounts to follow aren’t exactly ‘news sites’, even if that is how they are portrayed. Just like how many of our football clubs have popped up from nowhere, so have many of our football media companies. Many clubs have been started by people with no football background, and many media companies have been formed by those with no journalism history, and what they have done is dilute the coverage, and obscured those lines even more.

So, perhaps that’s why the basic principles of journalism – truth & accuracy; independence; fairness & impartiality; humanity and accountability – are not the basic principles in our game. 

It is hard to follow those principles if you work for a site that just scours any other ‘news sources’ and re-writes those stories for your audience. Look, in the media landscape, you should expect to find similar news on competing sites. All news houses are trying to cover everything, and so as a reader when you find out about a transfer story, you should be able to go to a variety of different sources to hear their version. The problem is, however, when you visit another site only to find exactly the same story with no indication of sources!

We have one site in South Africa that re-writes almost every second iDiskiTimes.co.za story, much to the annoyance of our web team. Their ‘writers’ aren’t seen at press conferences, training, or matches, but their very popular site has almost every football story on it.

On many occasions they simply don’t credit the source, be it the official media officers, or another publication. And even when they do, their stories are sometimes so distorted from the original, that the context of the source’s quotes are lost.

We have social media accounts that are doing the same thing, and while there is nothing stopping them from doing this, the problem is they perpetuate the idea that they are the ones breaking the news, rather than sourcing the original content.

Well-respected radio shows have in the past invited these ‘click-bait journalists’ from both inside and outside the country, and this gives those guests a bigger audience and makes them seem relevant. But I am not just picking on those who cover football despite having no direct contact with the football community, there are also those who work for established media houses who treat football like a Monday to Friday 9 to 5 job, despite the fact that most fixtures do not happen during that time period.

Having attended 98% of professional football games in Cape Town in the decade prior to the lockdown, I can confidently say that I have been the only football journalist doing this in the Western Cape. 

There have been far too many games over the years where I have actually been the ONLY journalist in attendance, especially in the GladAfrica Championship, where it was often the case, or at most two or three others would be there. I should add that those other journalists didn’t work for big companies, and were independent freelancers specialising in the league, someone like Stevlin Malgas, who for many years was my constant companion at games. There are a few folks like Stevlin, who have a special interest in the second tier, and cover matches for the love of the game.

I would love to say that it was only in the second tier, but there have been a handful of top-flight games where that was the case too. In fairness, apart from the ‘big team’ visits, most DStv Premiership fixtures only attract about four to eight journalists in the media tribune on a good day.

Surely, if you write about football or cover football, attending games should be a prerequisite? And surely as a company covering football, having your employees attend games should be key? Not all matches are televised, but even then, there are huge benefits from watching the game live and interacting with those at the stadium.

When football resumed after the hard lockdown, many football journalists cried foul when they weren’t allowed to attend PSL matches. It got noisier as restrictions were reduced, but still, we couldn’t attend to cover. So when we finally were able to return in April, I expected to see large numbers return to the grounds. But journalists have been as scarce as the big crowds. For the most part, it’s been those same familiar faces from before, and maybe one or two new faces. Recently I had to miss a match at Athlone due to being ill, and despite being bed-ridden, I felt guilty not attending, because I feel a responsibility to be there.

What is also disturbing is then when I see pundits or journalists expressing opinions about football teams or matches that they haven’t watched. I have read, seen and heard ‘expert opinions’, knowing full well that the person delivering it was not in attendance for games, and in GladAfrica cases, with most games not televised, they didn’t see them on the small screen either.

A silver lining in the past two years was that journalists from around the country were able to band together and form the South African Football Journalists Association (Safja). What started out as a Whatsapp group of 20 has grown to almost 200 in the two years of its existence, and we have created a platform to address many of the problems I have highlighted. However, it should be noted that this is an organisation for journalists, and while we are striving for ethical journalism, we cannot control the editorial decisions made by media house bosses.

While we are far from perfect, iDiski Times is proud that all of our journalists are members of Safja, and in fact, three of us – Velile Mnyandu, Lethabo Kganyago and me – are founding members and have been exco members. Our web team of David Kappel and our newcomers, Sinethemba Makonco and Joshua Hendricks are also members, while Lorenz Köhler was just named the Safja 2022 Journalist of the Year.

The majority of us are also on-the-ground field reporters, and we hope to be up to the challenge to improve the standard of football journalism in the country. We will make mistakes, we will slip, but we will also rise up and take responsibility when we do, and continue to push the competition so that perhaps we all take that step up together. 

It is what we are asking the football clubs to do, that is to improve the standard of competition, and we should ask the same of those who cover the beautiful game in the country…

Till  the next time,

Rob

Click below to read the FREE digital version of the iDiski Times newspaper, with interviews with Daniel Akpeyi, Ria Ledwaba chatting about her SAFA Presidential campaign, Desiree Ellis on Banyana Banyana ahead of the AWCON, plus features on CAF Licenses and Shawn Bishop’s trip to Portugal and the latest transfer rumours!