with reference to the “AdR reveals startling details about Medupi” the only line that triggered the “article” is the bottom line. It is an excerpt from chapter 19 of AdR’s book (at least they do mention it is from the book) - and there is NOTHING new in what they posted, so why post months old information titled like new information now? The most innocent interpretation is likely that they are able to serve you advertisements and/or increase their site hits to be able to improve chances of others buying their advertising service.
How the media deals with this is interesting. If you listen to her speak (1, 2, 3 ) there are five things that she seems to repeat as the crux of the matter.
- she received a death threat because she is involved with investigations of corruption at Eskom.
- the death threat is possibly initiated by a superior at Eskom.
- she is not receiving support from Eskom/Hawks.
- she is treated different from another case where the COO was threatened and his case resolved in days.
- she reported corruption to AdR and he ignored her/took credit for her investigation findings.
Majority of the media headlines mainly appeared to run with 1 and 2. I bet if 4 and 5 made the bulk of the headline it will reduce the chances of many consumers taking an interest in the story. If 4 and 5 are included in the story it might influence how we will judge the credibility of 1-3. Can we believe her on 1+2 because we know there is nothing good in Eskom and at the same time discount 4+5 because we know Jan and AdR were the last remaining true fighters of corruption and incompetence? Maybe the EFF will still pick up on 4 and 5 and take up her cause on 1-3?
So, what is excluded from articles are just as important as what is included. The media heavily informs our perception of the world and the fast turnover of mobile consumption of content means that there is very little time/space to include much detail/analysis which makes it near impossible to have a closer to realistic picture of what is happening and why. There are more avenues to the R400 000 hitman story than 1-5 but by the time that is properly researched the frenzy for new content would have moved somewhere else.
Headlines can be powerful. Case in point: a post with a video title “anti-white racism” leads to basically everyone be blind to TTT saying very clearly:
…and turn the thread somewhere else (that else not being a trivial matter at all).