by Greg Hall, Australia, BSc Eng (Civil) PrEng
Let’s go back a bit… 21 years ago I stood as a 19 year old beside my good friend, who was on life support following a near drowning whilst on his honeymoon. A reporter was interviewing his family in the hospital room, and upon completion presented his notes for the family to edit and agree to. A few days later my friend passed on, and the papers ran a story. The vivid memory remains of just how much the story had changed by the time it was put into print – names of family members and places misspelt, and a completely different, sensationalised story told to the world. I do not read the newspaper much, and from that day on I viewed news media articles from the perspective that the story will be written in order to sell it.
Life in South Africa from a news perspective changed dramatically in the 1990’s, whereby escalating crime and human suffering took on a proportion that flooded the news media, to the point that the nation seemed to become overwhelmed and numb – we could hardly tolerate the smallest pinch of what was truly happening, never mind contend with trumped-up, sensationalised versions of events. The news media became almost silent about the goings-on in society. Continue reading “Albert Einstein Once Said ‘The important thing is to not stop questioning.’” →