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A shot in the arm for journalism education
Can journalism be taught? Some hardened journos say no -- that it's all about talent and time on the job. Journalism teachers, of course, believe their work does produce results. And, to underline this, about 450 from some 50 countries met in Singapore last week at the first-ever World Journalism Education Congress. |
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Go, Ivy, go! Communications gets cracking
Commentators have often called for Dr Ivy Matsepe-Casaburri to go, meaning that she should exit her position as Minister of Communications. It hasn't happened. Instead, she's got going in a different way. Her Department of Communications is now trotting along at a respectable pace that can only be good news for the internet and associated media growth in South Africa. |
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Black editor negotiates race and audience
It's been a remarkable turn of the tables as Henry Jeffreys recently notched up one year as the first black editor of Die Burger. The paper historically was at the heart of Afrikaner nationalism. His position at the publication is a measure of the immensity of change in South Africa. So, how has it been working out? |
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World newspaper congress comes to Cape Town
South African newspaper editors came home from Moscow last year all fired up to take their online editions more seriously. They had been delegates to the World Newspaper Congress and become enthused by colleagues from developed countries who could talk about little else. |
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New tools to crack your media consumption
Last week was World Press Freedom Day on May 3 -- a good occasion to create and share some cool online research tools about South African media. There are 10 listed below, ranging in complexity as you read. But spending 30 minutes on getting to grips with them now could save you days' worth of online search time in the future. True. |
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Revealing race: Is anyone interested?
Harsh emotion, raw trauma and intense politics erupted in the wake of the Media Monitoring Project's (MMP) study of racism in the media in 1999. Last week, a new report by the MMP in association with the Human Rights Commission (HRC) barely made the news. The lack of attention is partly a sign that we have transcended the original problems. |
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Old media have a chance to prepare, but will they?
The digital divide just got much deeper. This disruptive update comes from a recent conference in Texas that underlined how fast the information environment is changing abroad. For a start, and similar to the way TV became the killer attraction for audiences in the old media world, video is now conquering the web where there is a critical mass of broadband users. |
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Delaying pay TV is OK, the bigger problem is in the policy
Business and commentators are condemning the government's plan to suspend licensing for subscription TV till year end. But there's belated logic in the controversial move. Yes, the decision does delay competition to MultiChoice and M-Net. It also postpones anticipated profits amongst those -- like the South African Broadcasting Corporation and Telkom -- who hoped to get a pay-TV licence. |
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ANC doesn't get it about the media
Shortly before this past weekend's world summit on children's media in Johannesburg, the African National Congress (ANC) released a policy discussion document on media. This coincidence turned out to be a contrast -- high hopes from the summit; a real let-down by the ruling party. |
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Where the press adds spice to the polls
The papers are plump with stories on the continuing contest between the president and the popular figure he once chose as his number two. Some articles accuse the country's boss of abusing state organs to stop this man from filling his shoes. Column inches debate whether the "victim" has made irresponsible utterances and assess his chances against a protégé of the president. |
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Uncovering the coverage of crime
Have the media been riding a crime wave, or have they been creating it? And what part should the press play? In the government's view, crime coverage is either misplaced or making mischief (akin to First National Bank). Officials believe the press is playing up perceptions that the state is unwilling or unable to stop the scourge. |
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Ten tips for AM Live newcomers
People say it will be a hard act to follow John Perlman and Nikiwe Bikitsha, the departing hosts of AM Live -- probably South Africa's most influential radio programme. I'll especially miss Nikiwe's easy calm and John's earnest passion (though not the latter's "fahn and mald" pronunciation when reading the weather!). |
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Testimony of our time
If being a journalist is a species of voyeurism, then reading books about the exploits of journalists isn't much different. But in the coincidence of two recent books by different South African journalists, you feel relieved that yours is only a second-hand taste of what they've seen. |
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Building towards a big bang for Africa's media
Nigeria's proscriptive broadcast policy means that Africa's most populous country has only one community radio station. By contrast, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has 192. These are some of the facts in what is probably the most comprehensive study done to date of the African media. |
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What does Borat mean for 'true' journalism?
Borat, the movie, so provocatively foregrounds prejudice that you can easily overlook that it's also a portrayal of journalism. True, this is not a film you go to see because it is about a reporter. That Borat is a fictitious Kazakhstan journalist is incidental to filmmaker Sacha Baron Cohen who created and acted the boorish character. |
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The not-so-frank media
The European Union recently gave the go-ahead for paid-for content in its movies. Already, however, James Bond had switched his martini for Heineken. And far from being subtle about this, the new beverage has been boasting about its (paid-for) part in Casino Royale with an extra advert in cinemas. |
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Digging the foundations for digital TV
A glimpse was given last week of South Africa's digital broadcast future -- and of the wrangles about who might control it. The somewhat fuzzy picture came in via a 350-page report by a task force set up by the government and called the digital broadcasting migration working group (WG). |
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Suckers for the sound bite
For once, Jacob Zuma was able to hit back at the media. It was when he spoke to the South African National Editors' Forum (Sanef) earlier this week, and referred -- repeatedly and with relish -- to the now-infamous blapse around the "generally corrupt relationship". |
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| MORE ARTICLES |
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| Bring in peer review for broadcasters |
| Sanef's decade of debate |
| Networking is today's need, but access still needs attention |
| Forget Murdoch, let's focus on Modoux |
| Highway to the future |
| Love, race, rage and small-minded thinking |
| Three steps backwards in communications |
| It's taken time, but finally the press 'gets' online |
| The legacy of Nat Nakasa |
| How SA can gain from SABC 'blacklist' |
| More news, but does it make a difference? |
| Take the pulse of South Africa's media |
| Essop's fable has to deal with the Zuma reality |
| Free media, free speech and a free Zuma |
| Democracy and the Icasa Bill |
| Political style and gender power |
| Sea change at the SABC |
| Identifying people in rape cases needs good reasons |
| Media should keep public consciousness crackling |
| Tiptoeing around taboos |
| SA's tabloids rise in the ranks of journalism |
| On the road to a single future media market |
