UBUNTUISM AND THE MEDIA

Taking ubuntuism’s emphasis on the community as point of departure, Blankenberg (1999), Christians (2004), Okigbo (1996), Shutt (2001) and Wasserman and De Beer (2004) show how an ubuntu normative framework may emphasis a media and journalism whose primary role may be to provide a space for the concerns, ideas and opinions of the community. The overall purpose of the media may be to play a developmental role in the sense of stimulating citizens and community participation, and obtaining consensus based on widespread consultation with the community. Fourie (2008:13) argued that in the contexts of the needs of developing countries, it may encourage action towards civic transformation and community renewal. In the process, the media may need to ensure the well-being of the collective, rather than the protection of individual rights. In the study the researcher will examine the extent in which ubuntuism influences the manner in which journalist report children based stories. What is interesting is to assess whether journalist from mainstream media collectively protects the rights of children without breaching the media ethical norms that coincide with the African culture.

Freedom of expression may be interpreted firstly in terms of the freedom of the community to articulate, its opinions, questions, concerns and needs. In addition, freedom of expression may thus be measured and valued in terms of its relevancy only to the well-being of the community. Wasserman and De Beer (2004) suggest that to put differently, media freedom may be seen as a positive freedom that should contribute to the well-being of community and not only to the largest number of individuals. Ubuntu morality does not construct an apparatus of professional ethics. Rather, it works and provides an ethic of generally morality. It does not develop rules of professionals, but urges a sensitivity and preoccupation with the moral dimension of everyday life. Professionals occupy the same social and moral space as the citizens they report on. The ultimate standard for media professionals is not role specific ethical principles, but a general morality. This presupposes media workers knowledge and sharing of the community’s general morality. In the study it is important to establish hoe journalist from the mainstream media like the Sunday Mail, Sunday News, The Herald and The Chronicle occupies the same social and moral space as the citizens about the children’s rights they report on.

Nevertheless, in ubuntu journalism objectivity may neither be necessary nor desirable (Okigbo 1996). The journalist is seen to be involved member of the community and cannot remain a spectator. Through the journalist’s work, a voice must be given to the community. Active involvement and dialogue with the community rather than detachment in the name of objectivity and neutrality may be required (Blankenberg 1999). A journalist must enable people to come to terms with their everyday experiences. Acknowledge the historical and biographic complexity of a matter or an issue. In addition, Blankenberg (1999) suggest that a journalist must stimulate interaction amongst citizens, between citizens and reporters and between citizens and politicians. The study assesses whether the mainstream print media in Zimbabwe stimulate interaction among citizens about the children’s rights. Also to be examined in the study are the efforts made by the mainstream print media and civil society organization to engage citizens and politicians about the rights of the children. A journalist must enable people to come to terms with their everyday experiences. Acknowledge the historical and biographic complexity of a matter or an issue. Penetrate the moral dynamics underlying the issue and interpreting against the background of the community contexts, beliefs, values and needs.

On the other hand, the question crisis whether and how the above differ from what is perceived to be the functions and social responsibility of the media in Western normative theory. It appears that whereas western epistemological thinking about the media proceeds from a focus on the media primarily in terms of (i) information, surveillance, entertainment and educational role, (ii) the media’s freedom and right to protection in order to be able to fulfill its social responsibility, and (iii) the individual’s rights to information, surveillance, entertainment and education, the emphasis in ubuntuism may first and foremost be on the media’s role in community bonding and in dialogue towards reaching consensus based on the social values and morals of a community (Fourie 2008:15)

Kasoma (1993) argues that the world, and in particular the African Press, seem to be abandoning the noble objective of serving the people for selfish cause of serving self. He further postulate that the journalism of the North, which Africans have been imitating, can therefore, today be said to be characterized by an individualized and agitational approach to reportage. Traber (1989) suggest that, a person who has spent the greater part of his life working as a journalist in Africa or in activities connected with Africa-based media analysts who have made the same submission as Merrill which have largely been ignored by African journalists, has bemoaned the lack of Africanness in African journalism. Honesty and truthfulness are highly valued African virtues, and telling lies is utterly despicable. Now consider the half truths, misinformation, disinformation and lies contained in our press. That is not only wrong in itself, but in Africa it is culturally alienated (Traber 1989:93). It is however, important to examine how the element of half truth, misinformation, disinformation and lies by mainstream print media is exacerbated when reporting about the abuse of children.


The distinctiveness of ubuntuism as an African approach to normative theory
Fourie (2008:66) say that; how distinctive or uniquely African is ubuntuism as a paradigm for normative theory? Christians (2004) for example shows how ubuntuism can be described as a combination and extension of European and North American Communitarian philosophy. Christian (2004) further argued that it embraces the characteristics of political, feminist and dialogic communitarianism. Like western political communitarianism it emphasizes the politics of the common good, social fairness and participation guided not by social contracts but by social obligations. Ubuntuism’s moral rules are grounded in community care group understanding and group experiences (Fourie (2008:67). Like western communitarianism, as understood by Paolo Freire, Martin Buber and Levinas, ubuntuism emphasizes that only dialogue about what constitutes the common good do we become fully human; that restoring dialogue should be the primary aim of humanity; that interaction between self and the other should be the guiding principle in public life and of social ethics. It is pertinent in the study to examine how journalist from mainstream print media in Zimbabwe interacts with the community in their day to day children’s rights news coverage.
However, the journalism described above closely resembles North_American civic journalism, founded on the philosophy of communitarianism. Like ubuntuism, civic journalism seeks to emphasize a close relationship between the media and the community. Its purpose is to strengthen civil culture, to rejuvenate public life, to reach consensus rather than provoke conflict, to involve citizens, not as consumers (Dahlgren 1998, Schaffer and Miller 1995). The study seek to find out hoe The Sunday mail, Sunday News, The Herald and The Chronicle strengthens civil culture in the coverage about children’s rights. Again it is worth noting how the four print media rejuvenate public life to reach consensus with civil society organizations that deals with children’s rights. The study inquires the manner journalists in the mentioned above print media houses engage the citizens in an ongoing debate about the rights of children in Zimbabwe.

Moreover, even more so the question as to how do all of the above ideas about the relationship between a community and its public communication differ from the classic Greek ideas that the purpose of all public communication should be the promotion of knowledge about identity, belonging, sharing, ability and the survival of the community in terms of the community’s shared religious, political and civil values and responsibilities (Rosenfield and Mader 1984). Thus it can be argued that those considering ubuntuism as a distinctive African way of thinking about the role and social responsibility of the media should note that they may find well-established similar examples of such thinking and even journalistic genres subscribing to the ideas of communitarianism in both the west and the East.