ANN CROTTY: The public’s unrealistic expectation of gatekeepers
Gatekeepers have been found wanting by the public
My friend realised as soon as he said it that it probably wasn’t the best question to ask a journalist. He braced himself for a tirade. "Why hasn’t the media followed up on this supposed groundsman who owned R1bn worth of shares in Greenbay and Resilient?" was the seemingly straightforward question. My somewhat defensive answer included the words "expectation gap". Yes, it has come to this. Almost every institution — auditors, directors, the JSE, institutional investors — has failed to meet the public’s (often unrealistic) expectations. When it comes to expectations journalists are often at, or close to, the bottom of the pile. It is only when almost everything else fails that people tend to ask why there was no, or not sufficient, coverage in the media. It is an expectation borne of frustration and disempowerment. And given the challenge to the traditional media business model, it seems inevitable that the expectation gap is going to widen in the years ahead. Remarkably, even peopl...
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