The craft of journalism has been devalued and it is shocking how unskilled some journalists are.

These remarks by Professor Adam Habib, vice-chancellor of the University of Johannesburg, at a reporting elections workshop hosted by frayintermedia on March 4, highlighted that journalists needed critical skills in order to report with credibility on the upcoming general election.

Habib said that the essence of democracy was its substantive uncertainty. “This is the uncertainty politicians have around whether they’ll be back in office after an election. You can’t get accountability without it. In the South African context, our weakness is that we’ve never had a viable opposition.”

Habib said the media’s role in facilitating this substantive uncertainty was four-fold. “You have to be vigorously independent, but don’t be oppositional for the sake of it. The media has to reflect the plurality of voices, and we so often see poor voices marginalised. Additionally media ownership has to be pluralised as much as possible. And lastly, the craft of journalism has been devalued. It is frightening how unskilled some journalists are.”

He said journalists are not born, they’re mentored, and that this process didn’t happen overnight.

Habib was joined by independent political analyst Dr Frederik van Zyl Slabbert and senior research associate for the Centre of Policy Studies Aubrey Matshiqi on a panel that looked at the political landscape on the eve of the 2009 Election.

Matshiqi said the media had come under attack in recent weeks. “There is media bias, but not in a crude fashion. We think middle- class sentiment constitutes the totality of South Africans. The chattering classes are not necessarily voicing the sentiments of the other citizens of this country. We must always be conscious of this, especially in an election year.”

In a seminar on generating election story ideas to reflect diversity, Paula Fray, Inter Press Service regional director for Africa, highlighted the importance of stories having a balance of male and female sources.

“The questions you need to ask yourself include: ‘Do the sources interviewed provide a diversity of views and perspectives on the coverage issue?’, Does the story only include politicians and political analysts as sources?’ Your readers, listeners and viewers as well as civil society should also have a voice.”

Chairperson of the SA National Editors Forum (SANEF) Jovial Rantao spoke to journalists about managing election coverage. “Identify the battle grounds, the Western Cape, Eastern Cape, Limpopo, Gauteng, then drill down into each region and its dynamics.”

Included in the skills and knowledge-building line-up was Belinda Musanhu of the Electoral Institute of Southern Africa, who gave a presentation on how journalists could understand the rules of the election game, and Business Report editor Jabulani Sikhakhane, who looked at how journalists could go about costing election promises.

The day-long series of workshops and seminars included coverage of  hate speech, xenophobia and migration and culminated with a political party policy debate on whether South Africa is a xenophobic nation.

In a panel discussion, Daily Dispatch Editor Andrew Trench said the media has to take an advocacy role.  “A lot of our readers couldn’t care less about the issues around xenophobia and foreigners, some even harbour a deep resentment towards them. This is when you need to hold up a mirror to our society.”

William Bird, director of Media Monitoring Africa, called for the media to adopt an agenda. “Even if it’s a citizens’ agenda. We need to hold politicians accountable and expect more from them. I have no clue about any parties’ policies regarding xenophobia and migration.”

Political party policy debate participants included Home Affairs deputy minister Malusi Gigaba, Home Affairs spokesperson for the Democratic Alliance Sandy Kalyan, Independent Democrats chief whip Lance Greyling, former ministerial adviser to the Inkatha Freedom Party Dr Mario Oriani-Ambrosini and head of foreign affairs for the Congress of the People (COPE), Lyndall Shope-Mafole. It concluded with each political party’s representative making a commitment that their election ticket would not rest on an anti-foreigner platform.