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ELECTRONIC NEWS GATHERING
The media has never been more powerful. Using live feeds and satellite links, it's possible to watch events as they unfold. The viewing public have never been closer to the action.
It wasn't always like this. In the old days news crews shot their stories on clunky film cameras. The film still had to be physically transported, developed and edited before it could be broadcast. It took ages.
Electronic news gathering changed all that. Using smaller, more portable, video cameras, news teams became more manoeuvrable. And since videotape did not require development, news stories reached our TV sets a lot faster.
Technology continues to evolve. The latest advances include even smaller digital cameras, laptop editing equipment, and of course, satellite transmission. Anyone who has watched news coverage of recent events is aware of how this technology has galvanized the power of the media.
The Gulf War showed that electronic news teams can gather and pass on information faster than military intelligence.
Modern journalists often have better access to the front-line than military observers. And because they use satellites to transmit their stories, there is simply no way to muzzle them
Buchizya Mseteka from Reuters shares is experience with us, "Recently I was in Matadi one of the most remote places in the Congo on the Atlantic ocean, you sit there and there is not a single land line that works in Matadi, half the people have never seen a telephone receiver and the only link to the outside world is a satellite phone and your laptop and it worked. Surrounded by people that are cut off from the rest of the world, you were in touch"
Technology has elevated the media to the role of a global conscience. Modern news teams are equipped with an array of high-tech apparatus, including mobile satellite vehicles that allow them to broadcast events as they unfold.
Melanie Gibb from Newsforce Africa explains, "We have a motorised satellite dish mounted on top of a Mercedes Sprinter and it takes us as long as as it takes to drive to a location and once we are there it takes us literally 10min to set up to provide the Broadcasting Company with live pictures".
Brendan Boyle says "Technology has completely revolutionised everything that we do. Ten years ago for television you had to put your tape on a aeroplane and fly it out to a major centre, if we were in a difficult situation we would even charter a Lear jet just to carry three or four tapes. Even more recently it is making it possible for us to get closer and closer to the news and deliver it in real time, particularly television because we can now broadcast, we can transmit television from any where in the world even from the middle of the dessert".
Not only has technology streamlined the process of news-gathering, it's also changing the nature of the job.
Leon Malherbe from Reuters Television comments, "Now with all the new technology that comes in, it is basically a one man band, that means you have to be a camera man, producer, technician and scriptwriter. We are using the Panasonic 800 digital camera. What makes it nice to travel with as one person, is the physical size of it, plus what the new technology means is that I don't have to have the adapters on the back of my camera, that makes it heavier. What I have know is that I can play sound and video straight out of my camera, I can link the pictures straight to my live wire, download, which takes about 10 minutes and send them straight to London".
Telkom South Africa provides the all important infastructure to transmit news, special events, emergencies and business television, to and from isolated locations within South Africa and the rest of the continent, making them a crucial link in providing broadcast news to the world.
Manny Coelho at SABC explains the satellite link, "As soon as we know there is a break in news we get the pictures and we put them onto our DSNG Truck, which goes up to satellite, normally we use Intel Sat 704, depending on which one is available, down link it to a earth station hartebeespoort. From there it goes to our main control room at SABC, from our main control room through our FCC, from our final control centre to our Brixton tower and from our Brixton tower it then goes country wide.
The speed of transmission means that journalists can direct the world's attention to events as they transpire. The media no longer simply records events to be broadcast later - by turning a high-tech spotlight to a breaking story, they effect its outcome.
Sarah Crowe who is self employed as a news anchor shares, " On a 24 hour service it is between the anchor man, the producers for the anchor and the person hearing. I think journalists have been known to be tempted by the thrill of analysing themselves and editorialising themselves and there roll has mushroomed if you like, the kind of situation would be where the anchor would say to the journalist in the field, where is this likely to leave the situation?"
By editing and packaging a story at its point-of-origin, several layers of interpretation are removed from the news gathering process. The journalist on the front line has more influence than ever.
But on the other hand, this kind of coverage means that there is less time for in-depth analysis, less time to place events in historical perspective or paint a picture that might help conceptualise the news. Newscasts risk becoming sensational rather than informative.
Censorship is likewise affected, it's more difficult to censor because the news is happening spontaneously, but it is also easier to overlook the potential bias of the news carrier.
The question of where to point the camera - what news to actually show - becomes the burning question.
News teams are the eyes of the world. Technology takes what they see and pipes it into our living rooms with such speed and expedience that their eyes quickly become our own. In this high-tech age, it's easier than ever to forget that there's still someone behind the camera, making the news.
CONTACTS
Buchizya Mseteka - Reuters - tel 482-1003 fax 482-1097 e-mail buchi@reuters.co.za
Melanie Gibb -NewsAfrica - tel 482-2790 Fax-482-2792 e mail mel@newsforce.co.za
Brendan Boyle - Reuters - tel 482-1003- fax-482-1097 e-mail newsroom@reuters co.za
Manny Coelho - SABC- tel 714-2698 -fax-714-3905 email coelhojm@sabc.co.za
Leon Malherbe - Reuters - 482-1003 fax 482-1097 e-mail leon@reuters.co.za
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