Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom
Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom
Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom
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Journalism to give Africans health<br />
informati<strong>on</strong>: here’s how<br />
By Harry Dugmore<br />
Harry Dugmore is currently<br />
associate Professor and Director<br />
of <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> Discovery Centre for Health<br />
Journalism at Rhodes University’s<br />
School of Journalism and Media<br />
Studies (JMS). In 2009 and 2010,<br />
he was <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> MTN Chair of Media and<br />
Mobile Communicati<strong>on</strong> at <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> JMS.<br />
184 | Media in Africa - 2011<br />
Health is <strong>on</strong>e of those areas of life<br />
where individuals can take a lot of<br />
resp<strong>on</strong>sibility for <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>ir own choices,<br />
but it is also <strong>on</strong>e where social<br />
circumstances powerfully shape<br />
<str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>se choices.<br />
A stark example, all around <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g><br />
world, is that average nati<strong>on</strong>al<br />
waistline of populati<strong>on</strong>s is expanding.<br />
Many people are getting fatter.<br />
This is not <strong>on</strong>ly about individual<br />
choice, but also about <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> rise of<br />
envir<strong>on</strong>ments where multinati<strong>on</strong>al<br />
food corporati<strong>on</strong>s increasingly<br />
shape our food choices.<br />
From Japan to Brazil to Kenya,<br />
indigenous eating patterns that<br />
have been refined over generati<strong>on</strong>s<br />
are fast shifting towards fast-food<br />
and fad-foods. Combined with<br />
satellite TV, a surge in mobile ph<strong>on</strong>e<br />
social media use, and urbanisati<strong>on</strong><br />
more generally, <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>se factors are<br />
producing profound shifts in both<br />
c<strong>on</strong>sumpti<strong>on</strong> and <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> creati<strong>on</strong> of<br />
more sedentary lifestyles.<br />
Good health journalism needs to<br />
empower people by acknowledging<br />
<str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>se c<strong>on</strong>texts. Milli<strong>on</strong>s of people<br />
are ei<str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>r unaware of just how<br />
dangerous weight gain is to <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>ir<br />
l<strong>on</strong>g-term life-expectancy and<br />
overall current health. Or <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>y<br />
are made to feel inadequate and<br />
guilty about <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>ir lack of willpower,<br />
although <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> reality is much<br />
complicated than that. Journalists<br />
working <strong>on</strong> <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>se areas need great<br />
skill to bring social, scientific and<br />
individual dimensi<strong>on</strong>s into <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>ir<br />
stories.<br />
In many countries in Africa, <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g><br />
big health stories have l<strong>on</strong>g been<br />
diseases of poverty, malaria and<br />
AIDS. All too often journalism<br />
covering <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>se issues, especially in<br />
terms of <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> transmissi<strong>on</strong> of HIV,<br />
places a great emphasis individual<br />
agency. While this is important —<br />
people do of course have choices<br />
— too many stories overtly or<br />
unc<strong>on</strong>sciously blame those who<br />
become HIV positive and, more<br />
generally, disempower people from<br />
making better sexual health choices.<br />
C<strong>on</strong>servative moralities play out in<br />
media all too often when people<br />
are crying out for straight talk and<br />
informati<strong>on</strong> <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>y can use.<br />
“Journalists working<br />
<strong>on</strong> <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>se areas need<br />
great skill to bring<br />
social, scientific and<br />
individual dimensi<strong>on</strong>s<br />
into <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>ir stories.”<br />
In coverage of HIV, while <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g>re<br />
has been a shift from <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> overt<br />
moralising that appeared in <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g><br />
1980s, more recent coverage has<br />
(as a very broad generalisati<strong>on</strong>), still<br />
not provided enough understanding<br />
of <str<strong>on</strong>g>the</str<strong>on</strong>g> forces that help propel HIV