September 15th, 2009
Asked to comment on the latest stories on Caster Semenya, I said: I can see no justification for this terrible and hurtful intrusion into the personal life of Semenya.
There are times when public interest may justify an invasion of privacy, but these should be the exception rather than the rule. I cannot see that the public interest is served in getting such hurtful information out quickly rather than letting it come out in an appropriate and sensitive way. The Australian paper that carried this story has only added pain onto an already painful story, and seems to have no regard for the individual who is a victim of such unwanted attention.
Once the information is out, however, the rest of the media would look foolish if they did not follow the story, though we can still be careful about treating the story with care and try to minimise the hurt. If journalists are going to do good as well as harm, then they will at least use this story to increase public understanding of complex contemporary ideas of gender and sexual identity. Some good might then come out of this tragic tale.
Entry Filed under: Anton Harber, Journalism
Anton Harber: Media
Professor Anton Harber directs the Journalism and Media Studies Programme at Wits University. He is former editor of the Mail & Guardian.
Full bio
Among the main results from the World Association of Newspaper’s Newsroom Barometer (a survey of 700 editors and senior news execs in 120 countries) for this year:
- 86% believe integrated print and online newsrooms will become the norm, and 83% believe journalists will be expected to be able to produce content for all media within five years.
- Two-thirds believe some editorial functions will be outsourced, despite frequent newsroom opposition to the practice.
- A plurality - 44% - believe on-line will be the most common platform for reading news in the future, compared with 41% last year. Thirty-one cited print (down from 35% last year), 12% mobile and 7% e-paper. The rest were unsure.
- A majority of editors - 56%- believe news in the future will be free, up from 48% from last year’s survey. Only one-third believe the news will remain paid for, while 11% were unsure. - From Editors’ Weblog
There is a crisis in trust and communication between the British public and the mainstream media, a new report has concluded. The gulf between public expectations of news provision and the actual nature of articles, which oscillate between esoteric or irresponsible, leaves readers feeling confused and excluded.
The report, entitled ‘Public Trust In The News’ was conducted by researchers from Manchester and Leeds Universities and was published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. - From Editors Weblog
Reflections on Journalism in the Transition to Democracy - Ethics & International Affairs 18, no. 3 (2004).
Journalism in the Age of the Market
- Harold Wolpe Memorial Lecture, Centre for Civil Society, University of KZN, Aug 2002
The Untimely Death of SA’s Finest Daily - Sunday Times, May 2005
“Two Newspapers, Two Nations? The Media and the Xenophobic Violence” from Go Home or Die Here, edited by Shireen Hassim Tawana Kupe and Eric Worby (WUP, 2008)
Remarks at Goedgedacht Forum, October 2008
The rise of social network journalism - From The 2009 Flux Trend Review (Macmillan, 2008)
A recent piece by me on the Zapiro cartoon row which appeared in Comment is Free, a Guardian blog.
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2 Comments Add your own
1. More on the media and Cas&hellip | September 15th, 2009 at 10:40 am
[...] and her family. But both GenderLinks’ Colleen Lowe Morna and Wits University’s Professor Anton Harber believe the media unjustifiably invaded the athlete’s [...]
2. zwischengeschlecht.org | September 17th, 2009 at 4:07 am
dear anton harbinger
thanks for outlining the ethical side of this global field day for bad journalism. and also for asking to try to do good as well.
however, the core problem obviously isn’t “public understanding of complex contemporary ideas of gender and sexual identity”, but the taboo, discrimination and massive human rights violations of the people who are or - like semenya, are suspected of - being intersexed.
the semenya “case” is only the latest in a long row in the sports world of unfair, harmful and and hurtful treatments of actual/suspected intersexed athletes, see e.g. maria patino, santhi soundarajan or sarah gronert.
also, their plight goes far beyond sports, e.g the genital surgery (many call it mutilation) which is forced on many of them while they’re still toddlers.
as far as i know, up to now the only south african journal which rose to the challenge was the witness, which brought some articles by/about sally gross.
basic information on intersex and human rights abuses can be found at http://isna.org and http://intersex.shadowreport.org (see e.g. 3.3)
see also http://intersex.org.za/
thanks for your consideration
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