Comments on: Of aliens and mobs http://www.theharbinger.co.za/wordpress/2008/06/13/of-aliens-and-mobs/ Sat, 04 Feb 2012 15:00:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6.3 By: Unathi http://www.theharbinger.co.za/wordpress/2008/06/13/of-aliens-and-mobs/#comment-183254 Unathi Tue, 17 Jun 2008 08:24:03 +0000 http://www.theharbinger.co.za/wordpress/2008/06/13/of-aliens-and-mobs/#comment-183254 But is the media's role to condemn the xenophobic attacks? the Daily Sun in it's approach and Deon du Plessis's response put the SOuth AFrican reader. Terming foreign national aliens is in sync with what their readers call these people. The Daily Sun is a classic example of a traditional media form that still abides to what the reader wants and how they want it - in their lingo and point of view. Not today's media that mistakes the reader for a consumer and even goes as far as saying "you are what you eat" by prescribing what you must read and why. In contrast the Daily Sun says you are what "you eat what you ordered" The Star's consumers on the other hand would want to read more on the human, level-headed narrative becasue they are that kind of an audience. The Star knows that it's readers are thinking a long those lines and have the buying power to support and show sympathy. Daily Sun's readers - are the perpetrators, as also pointed out here, of the xeno-vio and they would probably stop buying the Sun if it dared humanise their alien threat. I guess this is all a simple food chain. Of one supplier feeding it's main market what they want to eat (abd know they want to eat). The media's role should not really be to evoke this or that emotion but to report the events as they unfold in the relevant jargon of their paper. In which case both papers did a great job in delivering these xeno-vio news. But is the media’s role to condemn the xenophobic attacks? the Daily Sun in it’s approach and Deon du Plessis’s response put the SOuth AFrican reader. Terming foreign national aliens is in sync with what their readers call these people. The Daily Sun is a classic example of a traditional media form that still abides to what the reader wants and how they want it - in their lingo and point of view. Not today’s media that mistakes the reader for a consumer and even goes as far as saying “you are what you eat” by prescribing what you must read and why. In contrast the Daily Sun says you are what “you eat what you ordered”

The Star’s consumers on the other hand would want to read more on the human, level-headed narrative becasue they are that kind of an audience. The Star knows that it’s readers are thinking a long those lines and have the buying power to support and show sympathy. Daily Sun’s readers - are the perpetrators, as also pointed out here, of the xeno-vio and they would probably stop buying the Sun if it dared humanise their alien threat.

I guess this is all a simple food chain. Of one supplier feeding it’s main market what they want to eat (abd know they want to eat). The media’s role should not really be to evoke this or that emotion but to report the events as they unfold in the relevant jargon of their paper. In which case both papers did a great job in delivering these xeno-vio news.

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