I was looking at how some pictures land up in our discussion forum and one recently was the one about the school girl and a boy making out wearing school uniforms. My question when I saw the Picture was of mixed feelings. One part of me was saying how can these children behave this way, probably they never used condoms. The other side of me was saying how can we publish this and discuss it without asking questions like who got these picture and how did they get it? Did the person who got the picture tried to help the students by talking to them or even their parents? How is this different to cheap journalism, i.e. tabloid journalism. ? The journalism I am talking of relates to stories about celebrities like Diana the late princess and stories about Manto Tshabalala Msimang drinking habits, the Caster Semenya furore, etc. How far can we go to create havoc in the name of news? Do we care about the welfare of the people involved in the pictures we take and publish? If these children were ours, would we gladly look at this pictures and say our education system has gone to the dogs? Would we call them and seek counselling for them or just let it be what it is?
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The pictures that you are referring to is very disturbing and I think that if the teacher who took it because it was taken at school premises I believe, had never counseled those learners it is not fair to post it to the discussion forum .I don't think those learners have consented that the picture be taken and not to mention publishing them.The parents of this learners Id don't think they can also consent to the photographer to publish the photo of their kids in that fashion.So it qualifies to be tabloid journalism.My experience as an elder of a church in situation like this is, I once had I youth girl who is alleged to do it publicly where some community people complained. It reach my attention , I call upon the girl , I went to the parent and seek permission to have a private discussion with the girl.The parent consented and I continue with my conversation about the girl's behavior.The girl was free to relate to me everything and I was able to help her and even took her to my pastor for further cousseling where she receive help.Thou out the conversation I was recording the conversation because I had to protect myself and the girl. I have a family and she is young and the parent had to know. I gave the parent report about the discussion and I think this are benefits that the parent acknowledged that she will able to help the child. I think this way one is helping to develop a child morals in the community. With this particular girl she confessed having unprotected sex and I was able to remind her about the danger thereof. So the issue is not what they are doing but how are contributing to their well being in the society like a school or church to mention few .I applaud your concerns about the ethics in our discussion forum.
ReplyDeleteDisplaying pics & immoral acts like that aren't aimed at sensationalising, but to raise awareness of the actual happenings in our society. There is a tendency of apathy amongst our communities to pretend that such incident aren't common features. SA isn't making any meaningful & visible strides with regard to effective dealing with HIV&AIDS, because we are not comfortable to openly talk about coital issues as they are perceive sacred. If HIV was contracted in any other manner other than sexually, we wouldn't have stagnated the way we are doing as a country.
ReplyDeleteFurthermore, I believe that the anomalies that are displayed are symptoms of the social ills engulfing our communities. If you peruse my publication on Lost Generation - http://moavus.blogspot.com/2009/07/lost-generation.html - you will be exposed to my elucidation on the matter. It is easy for the parent folk to label the youth as lost, least forgetting that "Children Live What They Learn".
When the tree is producing rotten fruits, do we blame the fruits for coming out rotten or do we scrutinize the source, which in this case is the tree? Let us intensively dissect the leadership or parenting that produce young people who will do things without even considering ramifications.
I am also grapling with the idea of whether to draw the line of what is moral or immoral. The picture that was posted on the net causes a person to think hard and even ten times. What would you have done it you recognise these learners. To me it now a problem of ethics? to publish ( creating news sensation) or not to publish.
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