Election coverage shows SABC's stunning lack of sophistication

So it was interesting to see how our TV and online rose to the challenge of covering the day of the local government elections on Wednesday, 18 May 2011, and the first results coming afterwards on the day after, today, Thursday 19 May.

Covering elections can be quite tricky.

Although there's a great appetite for the latest news on the public's part, if you've ever been a journalist covering an election, you'll know that everything that comes before and after election day is exciting - the day itself is deathly dull. There's plenty of hanging around polling stations getting glib sound bites from members of the public and until the results start coming in the next day, there's nothing really concrete to report on.

Separates the hounds from the puppies

How you deal with problems and logistics of covering an election day is, to me, always an interesting litmus test - it separates the hounds from the puppies, so to speak.

Mail & Guardian Online: 'Top of the Pops'.

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Round about 11am on Wednesday - election day - I noodled my way across South Africa's main news websites and, to my mind, the Mail & Guardian Online got the "Top of the Pops" award.

There was clearly a lot of thought and pre-planning put into having good content up early on election day, and its special multimedia election page was compelling and interesting. There was a lekker gallery of pictures of the various parties' final campaign pushes and lots of intelligent video packages.

One video of interviews with Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University students, on whom they were planning to vote for and why, caught my eye - some excellent news judgment there as it tapped into our interest in this election hot spot, with the DA seriously challenging for the Nelson Mandela Bay area for the very first time.
"Total Wasted Opportunity" award

Speaking of which, the award for "Total Wasted Opportunity" must go to Port Elizabeth's local newspaper, The Herald.

The Herald: 'Total Wasted Opportunity'.

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Besides Cape Town, PE was the most hotly contested city in the country but The Herald's website had no special election zone, little more than a handful of very short election stories on its front page (a combination of own stories and SAPA wire copy) and absolutely no election packages in its picture-gallery page. The latter, in fact, was topped by a gallery of Rastas celebrating Earth Day in PE. Ja well, no fine.

Of the other major news websites, most did a solid job, with lots of news from around the country up early, although I thought the special election zones of Times Live, Eyewitness News and the SABC a tad listless because they lacked lively pictures, while IOL did seem a bit thin on elections news upfront, compared to its rivals.

However, it was television - and the contrasts between SABC2's special election coverage on Wednesday and that of eNews - that was most instructive.

SABC2: realm of farce

SABC2 was plagued by technical glitches in the crossovers between the studio and reporters on the scene. At first, I was merely amused at seeing yet another reporter staring gormlessly at the camera, waiting for word that he or she was live but when a crossover to the reporter in Polokwane was met by a desperate voice pleading: "Wait, wait" from our woman on the scene, it entered the realm of farce.

Unexpected moments of mirth aside, I was struck by the stunning lack of sophistication in the SABC's coverage. Reporters and anchors alike seemed incapable of providing context or intelligent reflection - they did little more than hold a mirror up to the events of the day.

I understand that the logistics of covering such an election are challenging - and certainly the SABC had every province covered - but let's not forget that this is the state broadcaster. It is funded by taxpayers' money, has vast resources on its side and is one of the biggest news organisations on the continent.

This was a damn poor showing and a painful reminder that the new head of news, Jimi Matthews, has his work cut out for him.

e.tv: slicker, more nimble, targeted

By contrast, e.tv had far fewer reporters on the ground and, although it was repeating inserts pretty much on the hour, the channel was slicker, more nimble and more targeted with its news coverage, compared to the SABC. I caught one 10-minute conversation between chief anchor Debora Patta and the very knowledgeable political analyst Karima Brown, and found it both thought-provoking and informative.

As for whether the SABC is guilty of bias towards the ANC, as charged by opposition parties, I detected little of that, though the peculiar non-story "De Lille mum on possible ANC victory in Cape Town" (which I also saw on the website of the openly-ANC friendly The New Age) struck me as odd.

And then veteran journalist and columnist Marianne Thamm tweeted this morning: "political analyst on SABC 'unfortunately it looks like the DA has retained control of Cape Town' Slip showing methinks."

A respected political journalist who left the employ of the SABC a few years back once told me that there was never a directive that one should favour the ANC but that it was implicitly understood.

SABC anchors did improve

In any event, it did seem that the quality of SABC's anchors improved with Wednesday's evening's coverage and Thursday morning's AM Live lot, though they sure got smarmy down pat. With results coming in this morning (Thursday), the online world was bubbling with good stuff - news and analysis (except of course the snoozers at The Herald's website).

My personal favourite was News24's election map of South Africa, at which you can zoom in on municipalities and get updated election results stats! Lovely! Now that's using the medium to its best advantage and providing news you can use.

I also caught Loyiso Gola show on eNews on Wednesday night and thought it was a hoot. Good satire is hard to come by, and he hit the nail on the head with this election more than once. More of that, please!

Note: At the time of filing, the election zones of both the SABC and Eyewitness News websites were down, so links are to the home pages.

For more:

• Bizcommunity: Matthews, Siluma in SABC News den, but what about revising editorial policies? February 2011
  
• Free African Media (Daily Maverick initiative): South Africa: Jimi Matthews and his gargantuan SABC TV News challenge, February 2011

See also:

• Marklives.com: Read all about it: Post election newspaper front pages
  
• Charles Apple: Municipal election day coverage from South Africa

Updated at 1.1pm on 19 May 2011.