by Thinus Ferreira
MultiChoice and M-Net claim that the South African pay-TV service is doing Covid-19 safe TV productions; broadcast Covid-19 education and vaccination public service announcements; and say that social distancing and mask-wearing are important ...
... yet MultiChoice is constantly undoing and undercutting those very messages by showing DStv subscribers morally wrong, so-called "aspirational" entertainment content in which South Africans are seen doing the exact opposite of what is being preached.
What does MultiChoice and M-Net channels like kykNET (DStv 144) and Mzansi Magic (DStv 166) think DStv subscribers are more likely to do?
Social distance and mask-up like MultiChoice says should happen in its PSAs, or going to mingle during Covid-19, partying it up and having a great time in close proximity to each other like MultiChoice and M-Net show them that the rich and famous are doing?
It's really beyond shocking that MultiChoice can't even bother in the slightest to even pretend to do masks and social distancing at it's own media events in South Africa and in other African countries where MultiChoice Africa does press events.
On Tuesday' at MultiChoice's atrocious media launch event for its DStv Internet service, people posed for photos, drank, laughed and apparently had a good time during Covid in Soweto - without masks and without any evident social distancing from the invited social influencers and others.
As shocking, is that this is what MultiChoice wants the public to see.
There's no Covid in Soweto, people, just DStv Internet!
On Sunday night M-Net's kykNET channel once again covered a lovely white wedding on its Afrikaans Top Billing-esque Bravo! show produced by Homebrew Films - this time with presenter Willem Botha attending the oh-so-lovely "second" wedding and vow renewal ceremony of Kwêla presenter Pieter Koen.
Looking at the prism through which MultiChoice, M-Net and kykNET presented this wedding, you'd think it took place in a Covid-free alternate reality instead of Sasolburg. Apparently none of these lovely people at the wedding has Covid, could get Covid-19, or could give it to anyone else. It's a lovely white wedding, after all.
Broadcast and television executives at MultiChoice, M-Net, kykNET and Mzansi Magic are not stupid.
They've smart, extremely experienced people, very well versed in media theory. They know that when you create and broadcast aspirational content like Top Billing-type shows, that viewers watch those for entertainment but that viewers also emulate the behaviour, styles and the zeitgeist on display that is being shown to them.
DStv subscribers not only see Pieter Koen's wedding - they remember it and it influences their behaviour.
If the rich Afrikaans white people from Pretoria are wedding it up en masse without masks or social distancing on kykNET, it is not just signalling that masks and social distancing are apparently not important, it is signalling that when I have a party with my people or my family members that we don't need to take any of that stuff seriously either.
A wedding, and attending a wedding, now becomes a place to show that you're not wearing a mask and don't have to social distance because as a DStv subscriber you've seen that that is how the people on TV apparently does it whom you aspire to.
The DStv subscriber is being influenced to behave in the same highly irresponsible way - instead of being told that any wedding at this time in South Africa is a potential super-spreader event.
Unfortunately, MultiChoice doesn't seem to do more than lip-service about Covid-19 when it comes to what is actually shown on DStv screens or at its events.
It looks like a case of "We want you to do what we say, but meanwhile we're going to actually show you something completely different on TV".
This is wrong. It's irresponsible.
There can't apparently be one set of rules for "people on TV" - those who get to live and conspicuously show off a carefree Covid-less existence - and the rest of the the TV watching consumers who should please wear masks, keep their distance and not get together in big numbers for gatherings and group photos.
If you're wondering why Covid isn't ending - look no further than ourselves and media companies like MultiChoice.
Nobody thinks they're the problem. Nobody thinks they contributing to the spread of Covid. Nobody thinks they need to change their behaviour, change what they're doing, or to be much more mindful about what is being shown on television if you run a TV channel, or how.
Wear a mask! Keep your social distance from people who you are not living with. Please, PLEASE get a Covid vaccination.
Yes, even if MultiChoice or M-Net or whatever TV channel shows you "inspirational" and "aspirational" entertainment content where you're not seeing people actually doing it or keeping to the rules.
Why on earth is MultiChoice doing media events where people are hanging on each other without masks and without social distancing as medical experts are warning about a looming fourth Covid-wave?
What on earth happened to @MultiChoiceGRP being a responsible corporate company and its policy of Covid-19 safety protocols? Where are the masks? Where are the social distancing? Shocking #DStvInternet media event. What message does this send? @DStv staff Died from Covid. https://t.co/SY6A0jhrno
— TVwithThinus (@TVwithThinus) September 28, 2021
MultiChoice couldn't bother to tell a lot of media that it would be doing a DStv Internet media launch on Tuesday in Soweto, but those who were invited had so much fun posing for pictures with social media influencers, without masks and without any social distancing observed.
These images were then posted for public consumption for their adoring masses. How selfish, when DStv staff and executives have literally died from Covid over the past year and a half. It's misguided, bad and sends a very bad message.
As a powerful medium, South African television and MultiChoice can and should be way more mindful - not just about what it's communicating around Covid-19 safe messages, but also how it's actively actually sabotaging its own Covid-safety messaging.
Wrongly depicting a fantasy-like, post-Covid lifestyle in lifestyle magazine and reality shows when we're all definitely still very far from really living that, is the wrong television to make and show.
