Reflecting on Journalism’s evolution with Chris van Gass

My first mentor in journalism was Chris van Gass, at the time Pretoria bureau chief of The Star newspaper and former member of the respected Argus Africa News Service (AANS).

With AANS he was a so-called “fireman” who would be dispatched to hotspots throughout Southern Africa as his skills were needed.

Forty-something years later, Chris is correspondent extraordinaire at a weekly newspaper that serves the interests of the people of the Garden Route.

He investigates and reports – as the saying has it, without fear or favour – but on the day we got together a month ago, we spent a couple of hours at Barrington’s in Plettenberg Bay.

He’d been trying to twist my arm to pay a visit for quite some time and, when the readers of the newspaper chose Barrington’s as the best brewery and makers of the finest hamburgers in its readership area, the time seemed right.

As two old newspapermen, it wasn’t long before our conversation turned to the perceived deterioration of journalism standards and “imminent” demise of the printed media.

“I don’t think there’s widespread understanding any more of what a newspaper is supposed to be,” he mused, “but does that really matter? “Newspapers aren’t what they were when I became a journalist but, at that time, they weren’t the same as 50 years before that.”

It was less than a century ago that editors started putting news and pictures on the front page and moved the advertisements inside.

“But, in all that time, two things never changed,” said Chris, “the journalists’ integrity and their commitment to getting the story out on time.”

There will always be a story to be told, I responded. “Yes,” he said, “and hopefully there will be people to report as well as tell it.”

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The evolution of reporting

Over the decades, reporting has evolved as a highly specialised form of story-telling revolving around the so-called five Ws and an H: who, what, where, when, why and how, Codgers like myself and Chris sometimes mourn slipping “standards” and don’t get us started on “citizen journalism” as practised by those with little or no formal training but who are savvy with social media… bloggers, vloggers and vomits influencers.

However, I believe theirs is simply a nascent type of storytelling that is still developing its style and structure.

Yes, it’s often crass but – in its way – it’s as real and relevant as any other form of communication. There have been stories that have needed to be told since the dawn of man.

It started with gutteral grunts and, in many cases, that is to what it has reverted (with the addition of duck-face pouts).

The King’s English it might not be but then neither are Tagolog or Hopi.

For all we know, it might be the universal lingo by the time the Rolling Stones disband. Grunts became words that were spoken and then sung to increase their impact.

Pictograms on cave walls evolved into the visual arts, of which letters and numerals are but two types. If there is anything about which I am certain, I told Chris, is that users of new media will improve as long as there are stories to be shared or messages to be conveyed.

Those who are more proficient in their use will emerge from the pack of early adopters to become true trend-setters. Will this mean the end of print journalism?

Unlike The Buggles proclaimed in 1978, video didn’t kill the radio star. The medium adapted and so will newspapers and magazines.

They might become more “elitist” but that isn’t necessarily a bad thing, because good writing and photography are things to be savoured rather than devoured. It’s a bit like this, I said, gesturing to our table.

McDonald’s practically created the need for gourmet burgers and, as far as craft beer such as Barrington’s is concerned, Budweiser will always be cat piss.

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