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Well Manto certainly has manged to stir things up in the South African media landscape. She has received very little support from the South African media. This post is not to comment on what I think of Dr Beetroot, as she’s been affectionately termed, but rather to showcase how she has been dealt with in the media.
The battle between Manto and the Sunday Times was ended with a resounding draw in which the Times were forced to hand back her medical records but were still allowed to report on her escapades in a certain Cape Town hospital.
The Times, Sunday Times new media offspring, has constructed a time-line which details their coverage of the Manto saga. This is the first stop for any new comer to the story. The time-line ends with the court order handed to the Sunday Times.
Robert Brand, media ethics lecturer, discusses issues in press freedom using the manto case as an example in his blog hosted by the Mail and Guardian website. His conclusion notes “Measured criticism of the media, based on an understanding of the fundamental importance of media freedom, is an essential part of the democratic debate. A bit more introspection in the media would not be bad thing either.”
For M&G’s own coverage of Manto visit their website and do a search for Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
Another media blog, from Andrew Trench - deputy editor of the Daily Dispatch, the paper that drew attention to problems at Frere hospital in East London – raises questions of muzzling in parliament regarding the treatment of DA MP Mike Waters. Waters was ejected from parliament after he tabled a question asking whether Health Minister Manto-Tshabalala-Msimang had been convicted of theft in Botswana and whether this had been disclosed prior to her appointment.
The Harbinger , Anton Harber’s blog, challenges the minister of health to provide evidence against theft charges in Botswana. Although this is little out of date since Mbeki aknowledged the ANC knew about the theft charges.
To wrap up, and provide a few smiles, take a look at Trashmedia’s caustic post about Manto’s ‘alleged’ drinking habits.
The interactivity of a blog refers to interface and the manner in which a web user is able to interact with the sight. It will take into account how easy it is for a person to navigate the sight and access its different components. Bad interactivity will lead to user frustration and cause people to stop visiting the sight.
Hypertextuality is the way a site, in this instance a blog, connects to other information around the net. As an example, if there is a post in the blog which refers to a newspaper or a piece of information it should link to the home site of the newspaper or a site which deals with the information which has been discussed. A blog should monitor and make sure all hyperlinks in its recent posts are still up to date.
How good the multimediality of a blog depends on what content is present in the blog. A basic blog may be nothing more than text while more advanced blogs or users will have pictures, slideshows, videos or music as a part of their site.
With these basic terms explained we will move on to the news blog I have chosen to review: Oddly Enough, located at http://blogs.reuters.com/category/themes/oddly-enough, a blog by Bob Basler in the Reuters blog stable.
This blog focuses on the weirder stories making the headlines around the world. It carries posts dealing with stories from every continent. It loads pictures and videos as companions to its stories.
Working at Reuters puts Basler in an easy position to correlate and find the weirder stories coming. The news content is not hard but rather concerns the bizarre and funny.
Its basic interface is similar to most blogs: new posts are entered on the right side of the page. On the left are hyperlinks to recent posts and sites of interest to the blogs readers. Clicking on a link will bring you to the content very quickly; in this sense the interactivity is good. There is space to post comments on any of the stories.
The hypertextuality of the site is fair, most posts carry hyperlinks to videos, pictures or slideshows related to the story.
In terms of multimediality the blog is very good, a picture uploaded with most posts with a further link to a video or slideshow. One aspect of multimedia which is missing is audio clips. Although there is audio with the videos, there could still be space for pure audio clips.
This is a decent blog which is entertaining and informative, however lightheartedly. It carries links to other reuters blogs if someone wishes to look for harder news.
