By Diana Chiyangwa
Johannesburg, South Africa: A recent media roundtable held in Johannesburg, South Africa insisted on changing the narrative in telling African stories.
The media round table is part of the 6th Nation Brand Forum, Brand SA which brought together a robust International Media discussion. They focused on exploring the enablers and disablers for building a winning South African brand and contributing to a broader positive African narrative. The roundtable comprised local, regional, and international correspondents.
Globally, the media face considerable challenges in providing regular and enlivening coverage of situations like the one faced by marginalized communities. News organizations are typically drawn more to investing in stories with the promise of a concentrated readership with its associated advertising revenue.
For South Africa, the role of the media is to shift the narrative from a South African perspective and to influence South Africa’s storytelling.
Despite the controversies that center South Africa as a country, there is a fascination with multilingualism associated with the spirit of “Ubuntu”, rich heritage, culture, and these inspirational stories that have helped to shape South Africa today.
“To position Africa’s national brands for global competitors and the role of South Africa in pushing a narrative that combines Africa, the media’s role is positioning, narrating, and influencing perceptions on South Africa and the continent.The stories we tell influence how people see us as Africans,” Ms. Thoko Modise Communications Manager Brand South Africa said.
How do we then shift the narrative without compromising the editorial content? Telling stories responsibly, and by balancing storytelling and reflecting on our reality is every journalist’s mandate.
“Media plays a massive role in reporting stories daily that impact the community and has the power to shape the perception, balancing negative and positive stories by giving hope and driving purpose. “Yolanda Palezweni a journalist from The Herald noted.
It was noted that as as a matter of urgency, platform matters, and the stories that journalists tell, are for their audiences, as a result, journalists need to go to the communities and give a voice to those who are not able to stand and speak for themselves.
Kat Katopodis Director at Newsroom Africa talked about South Africa’s scenario had faced as a Country and how it had impacted media coverage. “A country that has emerged from the horrors of apartheid, with hopes, prospects of future but which remains unequal played by poverty, crime and gender-based violence and politics of the stomach which has resulted in corruption”.
Brand SA’s goal is to partner with the media in bringing in solutions and mandates on the way forward on how to drive investment stories in South Africa. Setting the agenda for the stories we tell, while in the process of understanding the context, and being deliberate about the news we put out, were some of the important issues that correspondents believe can be achievable.
Validating and changing the perceptions, control over the content, having slots for inspirational stories on all digital platforms, giving human rights stories a platform, reporting fairness, for every problem story to bring a solution, and mainstream partnering with community media to bring solution-driven stories were concluding deliberations.
The discussion was facilitated by Moky Makura, the Executive Director of Africa No Filter, at Nelson Mandela Foundation in Houghton Estate Johannesburg.
