A follow-up discussion on The Future of Journalism series took place at the Goethe Institut in Parkwood.
The discussion, courtesy of the German Embassy and Media Monitoring Africa, focused on the financing of journalism.
Facilitating the panel discussion, news anchor and journalist at SABC news, Francis Herd said without funds and money, there was no future for journalism and there was very little scope for quality journalism.
In giving the opening remarks, spokesperson of the German Embassy Kerstin Bittiger said everyone should be concerned about the future of journalism as it was the key factor in strengthening the country’s democracy.
Director at Media Monitoring Africa, William Bird said, “When we look at media sustainability, we look at finance and funding. While conducting research interviews, we found that if a person in a media outlet has a set of multi-skills, passion and a good relationship with the community, their media outlet will thrive.” However, he added that a lot of media entities were struggling.
Philipp Schworbel, the founder and CEO of German publication Steady, said their newspaper struggled with funding in their first year and they realised other publications had similar problems. “There is a big crisis in print media with advertising going down massively and in a majority of places, newspapers are shutting down. The crisis affects the online sector, as well as most online ads’ revenue, is going up. Most ads end up on google and Facebook,” Schworbel said.
He added that this had two significant consequences which were people losing their jobs and the advent of ‘clickbait journalism’ (content, especially that of a sensational or provocative nature, whose main purpose is to attract attention and draw visitors to a particular web page).
Head of news at SABC, Phathiswa Magopeni gave a brief reminder of the role of journalism which includes providing high-quality new, creating a platform for public dialogue and providing an opportunity for citizens to have informed conversations.
“We need to ensure that citizens are fully equipped to participate in developing and enhancing our democracy. Is there a commitment from the country to fund public content interest and deliver high-quality news? If there is no commitment to fund independent journalists then what is the cost to our democracy? What is the cost to our tranquillity?”.
Details: Goethe Institut is on 119 Jan Smut Avenue in Parkwood.
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