Stop Sensationalising: Chronicle Readers Lament

Left: The Chronicle cover page of 03 April 2014

Right: The Chronicle cover page of 05 April 2014

Lead stories of the Chronicle newspaper of late are presenting women in bad light, readers have said.

On Wednesday (03 April 2014) the paper’s lead story had the headline “MAPHALA, LOVE RIVAL SOB IN COURT”; the one on Thursday (04 April 2014) was talking about a wife killer having been hanged and today (05 April) the headline went “FIGHT OVER WOMAN DEATH – Spanner blow cracks skull open.” One common aspect about these stories is that they are presenting women as always in the receiving end.

“Such stories should come out of the B-Metro because now it’s like they are now writing novels,” said one regular reader of the Chronicle who chose to be called Nkubunganyi.

“These stories are sensational. What are we teaching the society? Wasn’t there a better story than this? Isn’t there something developmental that happened somewhere that they can lead with?” Such stories do not only put man in the bad light but they suggest that most of the fights that erupt in society are somehow centred on women.

Another read also objected to the stories saying the paper is now using women to market the paper.

“They are using misfortune to attract people,” she said. One of the major benefits of journalism is that it is a business. In this discipline, ethical values indicate that moral values should be applied. Harm should minimised, truth should be told and matters are not to be taken out of context. Research has however shown that sex sales and therefore journalist find themselves confused in choosing between observing moral values and chasing after profits. These stories from the Chronicle show that they choose to pursue profits..

“The paper is now lacking priority. The Chronicle is now prioritising things that should not be prioritised, not that such stories are not important. But at least developmental issues should take precedence,” said Mandla, another regular reader of the Chronicle newspaper. Journalists are expected to posts matters of public interest. Sensationalist stories are to the Metros what serious news is to national papers like the Chronicle.