Death and social media
Thalefang Charles | Friday August 8, 2014 11:15
Despite all the confirmations, some of the reporters regarded the news as too insensitive because it was “too early to report it”. There was an argument that, “family members might not be aware of the incident,” and so the newspaper should be decent and wait for relatives to be informed or for an official announcement to be made, before they could break the “news”. Most of the journalists who held this view argued that it was only human to withhold the announcement, adding that this discretion was also in line with Setswana/African cultural norms where close relatives are informed of deaths before the wider public.
Others, however, opined that Motswaledi was not an ordinary human being and his death could not be held like that of an ordinary mortal. Notwithstanding the debate on whether public figures have a right to private, this section of the newsroom felt that if authoritative confirmation had been secured, then social media constituents could be informed.
Before the latter could win the argument which would have resulted in a “BREAKING NEWS” alert being published on Mmegi’s social media, a question no one had considered before arose. What if the death confirmations were wrong and he was actually injured or comatose?
We had no word from the police or doctors and so it was ultimately deemed too premature to go to social media with the news piece. However, social media had already picked the story and was alive with updates. The story was going viral! Some social media users were already mourning and sending condolences, while others found it insensitive. In Setswana tradition, when a family member died, people would travel long distance to inform relatives. The next of kin would usually be asked to sit down before the bad news could be delivered.
Then radio burst onto the scene. Even today, Radio Botswana is still the only national radio station with a 15-munite (it used to be 10 minute) programme specifically for death announcements. Known as Ditatolo, the programme allows the death notice to be directed to a maximum of three specific people.
Batswana were now able to hear the deaths of their loves ones via radio. However, sending a death announcement to radio was a lengthy process that involved travelling to the Post Office and securing a signature from the local chief. Enter era of telecommunications which have revolutionised the way people communicate. Death announcements were much faster. Relatives were called on the phone and notified immediately after the loss. And then the telecommunications evolved and birthed social media. Social media is word of mouth on steroids. It revolutionised social interactions. It has taken citizen journalism to a whole new chapter. Anyone can report to the world what is exactly happening at a specific place during a particular time.
With over half a billion on Facebook alone, and 230 million on Twitter, news organisations saw it proper to enter these digital platforms and publish their news through them. Although the same ethics used on traditional media are supposed to be applied on social media, there are loopholes where news organisations have erred on their social media. It should however be noted that errors are not alien to traditional platforms.
Social media has enhanced the accessibility of news. People no longer search news. The news finds them. Social media has become a crucial tool for sourcing news by reporters around the world. It has also allowed news to travel quicker than before. All this has had a serious implications on culture.
Our cultural practices, which stayed the same mainly due to lack of anything better, were destined to change. Many things formerly regarded as taboo are now easily available online. For instance children and men can watch videos of childbirth on the Internet. Fathers see their new children first on Twitter as their pictures are tweeted from hospital maternity wards. Young children are exposed to sex at an early stage through billions of free explicit porn online.
People learn of their loved one’s deaths on social media. It is the status quo presented to us by technological progression. Culture has to shift for it to be relevant.