Clive Caines Cultural Contributor
In other Jamaica news, is it Bolt, Campbell or Jamaica that the finger is pointed at.
Those of us that have been trained to think about news values understand the importance of proximity: where the importance of an event is determined by how close a community is to that event.
But what has always fascinated me about proximity is where the media reports a story on the basis of how close a well-known personality is, especially when the link between the two appears to be tenuous.
Take for instance the reports on Jamaican athlete Veronica Campbell-Brown testing positive for drugs, which UK newspaper, The Independent, reported using the headline ‘Usain Bolt’s Jamaica team-mate Veronica Campbell-Brown fails drug test.’
Earlier in the year the headline ‘Footballers Gary and Phil Neville’s father faces sexual assault charges’ appeared in the Daily Express. Continuing the theme of the child being punished for the sins of the father there can be found a whole rash of newspapers with the headline ‘Beyonce’s dad’s tax bill: Mathew Knowles owes .2M in unpaid taxes.’
When it comes to reporting of the family misdemeanors of the rich, the powerful or the famous like it or not it is clear to see why the link is emphasized but is the issue the same when it comes to a colleague.
In the Campbell-Brown case there is the suggestion that the issue of drug use goes beyond the actions of an individual: The Daily Mail reports the case thus: ‘Jamaica’s drug shame: Sprinter Campbell-Brown tests positive for banned substance’ while two online publications, among others, Euro Sport online and Rueters U.S. both used the headline ‘Sunny Jamaica cast into shadow after new drugs bust.’
Veronica Campbell-Brown. Photo courtesy www.bbc.co.uk
Usain Bolt’s position as a national icon has long since been assured but I’ve always said that none of us should be too carried away with the idea of the hero figure and this is just as true when it comes to believing in the sanctity of the nation state. Yet I totally get why we all need something to believe in and why we have to have icons to define who we are as a set of people.
So does the linking of Bolt’s name with a colleague who has failed a drugs test have an effect on his hero status?
Well it has to be acknowledged that it will feed suspicions; he clearly recognizes this when setting out his position on drug taking: “My attitude towards drugs has always been to stay away from them, whether performance-enhancing or recreational.
I don’t even like supplements because of my fear one might show up on the banned list … Yet, however many times I’m tested — and I’ve probably been tested more than any other sportsman on the planet since breaking the world record — that is still not enough to satisfy some people…
The testers can form a queue outside my house if they want. The more often they test me and other athletes and show we are clean the better it is for the sport.”
But what of the effect of Campbell’s drug failure on – Jamaicans – and in a wider sense the Caribbean? Is it fair to judge the image of the state by the behaviour of its citizens…?
