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Beyond Broadcasting: The Future of State-Owned Broadcasters in Southern Africa

Guy Berger

Fackson Banda; Jane Duncan; Rashweat Mukundu; Zenaida Machado (contrib.)

Grahamstown: Highway Africa, School of Journalism & Media Studies, Rhodes University;Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) (2009), 65 pp.

"Digital communications technology does many new things. Its spread means that it is no longer a case of a tiny minority of professionals and politicians having a monopoly on mass communication. Implicit in the observations of this report, is the recognition that - amongst other things - digitisatio ... n also disrupts old boundaries between inter-personal and mass communication. What used to be the subject of, or product of, communication between a few individuals, can increasingly be put into the public sphere. Much of this content remains personal in quality, despite it being public in availability. But there is also much that is of public interest. In some ways, this therefore threatens those institutions supposed to be specialising in public interest information. In other ways, it can help them not only reinforce this mission, but to also take a step towards expanding their role into becoming wider public interest content and commun-ications agencies. They can, in short, be the motive force that pulls personal conversations into focussing on journalism that is of common public interest. That image of leading the transformation of mass communication is, however, just one of the scenarios outlined in this report. The others point to lesser roles, even including extinction. It should be noted that scenarios are not predictions of the future, but attempts to highlight a range of possible options. They help guide action in one or other direction. The complication is that digitisation and all that comes with it can deal a surprise to even the best-considered scenario possibilities. Who would have thought that a search engine company (Google) could become such an effective player in the advertising arena? Or that newspaper newsrooms would start hiring video-capable staffers, or that some cell-phone companies would move into distributing content? Could anyone have guessed that a company like Twitter could attract and burn millions of dollars of investment without even a proper business plan about how it intends to make money? The digital revolution, if it is to succeed, needs to have top quality cadres in the newsrooms. In the face of these kinds of developments, it is tempting to throw up one’s hands and take a come-what-may approach. That’s preferable to the illusion of controlling and managing the process. At the same time, between these two extremes of paralysis and over-planning, there is a broad direction that can be identified and pursued. We may not know exactly where we are going, but - as this Report seeks to do - we can look at where we are and what’s immediately ahead. More fundamentally, however, there’s worth in remembering from whence we come. In other words, while looking at the present and near-present, and keeping an eye on what future scenarios we can imagine, we can hold onto our values. In the context of public broadcasting, these values are - in a nutshell - to focus mass communications on deepening democracy and development. These public interest values remain all the more valid in a time when the historical informational “service” model is being expanded to also function as a public interest communicational mode. Keeping these ideals aloft helps state-owned broadcasters steer a course between delivering government-interest and commercial-interest content. They help to define the meaning of universal access in the face of financial pressures and socio-economic divides. They empower people to see the big picture and to bring concerted action to bear on it. In sum, they help us reinvent “public service broadcasting” in a fashion appropriate to its contemporary possibilities. Roll on digitisation in Southern Africa - and the transformation of at least some state-owned broadcasters to become leaders in this process." ("Summing up", page 53-54) more

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Contemporary Issues in South Africa: A Toolkit for Journalists

Tanya Farber

Open Society Foundation for South Africa (2009), 60 pp.

"In today’s climate in the media industry, reporters are expected to cover a broad range of issues. They no longer have the luxury of concentrating on a small piece of a larger puzzle, and at times, they may feel as if they need a better understanding of the background information before moving fo ... more

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Untold: Stories in a Time of HIV & AIDS. Audience Reception and Capacity Building Report

Soul City (2009), 24 pp.

"The Untold films bear testimony to the success of the skills development element of this Regional Programme initiative. The fact that these television dramas were developed, written, directed and produced in Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabw ... more

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Cartooning in Africa
Top Insights

John A. Lent (ed.)

Cresskill: Hampton Press (2009), xi, 383 pp.

"This volume documents from historical and contemporary perspectives, the situations, trends and issues of cartooning in a number of African countries, and profiles the individuals, forms and phenomena that stand out. All types of cartooning are covered, including comic books, comic strips, gag and ... more

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Children's Views Not in the News: Portrayal of Children in South African Print Media 2009

Ronell Naidoo

Melissa Meyer; William Bird (eds.)

Johannesburg: Media Monitoring Africa (2009), 32 pp.

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Global Information Society Watch 2009: Focus on Access to Online Information and Knowledge – Advancing Human Rights and Democracy

Alan Finlay (ed.)

Association for Progressive Communications (APC);Hivos (2009), 231 pp.

"GISWatch has three interrelated goals: surveying the state of the field of information and communications technology (ICT) policy at local and global levels; encouraging critical debate; strengthening networking and advocacy for a just, inclusive information society. Each year the report focuses on ... more

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Manual sobre periodismo y justicia transicional: Oportunidades y desafíos para el periodismo regional en Colombia

José Barbeito

Bogotá: Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa (FLIP) (2009), 67 pp.

"Las desmovilizaciones de los grupos paramilitares y la implementación de la Ley de Justicia y Paz, en medio de condiciones muy complejas, han puesto sobre la mesa – nuevamente – la pregunta sobre el papel que juegan los medios de comunicación en Colombia. Y en este punto es importante hacer u ... more

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Learning to Live Together: Using Distance Education for Community Peacebuilding
Inspiring Practice

Rawwida Baksh, Tanyss Munro (eds.)

Vancouver: Commonwealth of Learning (COL) (2009), viii, 244 pp.

"The book brings together a range of community peacebuilding experiences that apply open and distance learning. The emphasis on community requires distance educators to change focus. The book addresses how to help a community articulate its own purposes for learning and then support it in achieving ... more

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Understanding Film and Video as Tools for Change: Applying Participatory Video and Video Advocacy in South Africa

Julia Cain

Stellenbosch: Stellenbosch University, Thesis (2009), v, 240 pp.

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The South African Trade Book Industry. 2008 Book Sales Yearbook

Woking, Surrey; Cape Town: Nielsen Book Services UK;Nielsen Book Scan South Africa (2009), 155 pp.

"This is the third annual sales analysis issued by Nielsen Bookscan SA, the purpose of which is to obtain an overview of the trade sector of the South African book industry over the twelve months of 2008 compared to the twelve months of 2007, in order to identify the areas of growth during this peri ... more

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Opening Scholarship Project. Case Study 4: UCT Press

Eve Gray, Michelle Willmers

Cape Town: Centre of Educational Technology, University of Cape Town;Shuttleworth Foundation (2009), 20 pp.

"The University of Cape Town (UCT) Press was established in 1994 and is one of four university presses currently operating in South Africa. The modern-day university press presents an interesting mix of challenges and conflicting agendas, and the OpeningScholarship project chose UCT Press as a subje ... more

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Sword and Shield: Self-Regulation and International Media: A Report

Bill Ristow

Washington, DC: Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA) (2009), 33 pp.

"1. The media development community should work within individual media houses to create in-house, publicly reported complaint systems rather than relying solely on outside press councils to do the job. 2. Funding groups should encourage media criticism, in forms such as local journalism reviews. 3. ... more

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Doing Digital Media in Africa: Prospects, Promises and Problems

Francis Mdlongwa (ed.)

Johannesburg: Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung (KAS) (2009), 117 pp.

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Südafrikas Medien - zwischen freier Wahlberichterstattung und politischer Beeinflussung

Frank Windeck

KAS Auslandsinformationen, issue 4 (2009), pp. 75-89

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Dealing with the Past, Reaching the Future: Historical Memory and Social Transformation in (South) Africa and Germany after 1989. International Conference, 29. – 31.10.2009

Berlin: Haus der Kulturen der Welt (2009), 4 pp.

"The role of historical memory and of cultural remembrance in societies dealing with dramatic transformations and, at times, traumatic pasts are numerous. In this conference, we will look at post-apartheid South Africa and reunified German society, how each country views itself, as well as the diffe ... more

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La caricature et le dessin de presse en Afrique

Paris: L'Harmattan (2009), 239 pp.

Google Scholar (9)

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The Power of Communication: Changes and Challenges in African Media

Kristin Skare Orgeret, Helge Rønning (eds.)

Oslo: Oslo Academic Press (2009), 362 pp.

"This book examines how the media in different parts of Africa plays an important role in the continent's political and social processes of change. The perspective of the book is comparative. It contains overviews of the role of communication, as well as case studies, of the situation in individual ... more

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Formative Target Audience Research: A Case Study of Five Community Radio Stations in South Africa
Inspiring Practice

Johanna Mavhungu

Grahamstown: Sol Plaatje Institute for Media Leadership (2009), x, 127 pp.

"This report aims to 'assist radio stations to understand formative target audience research and enable them to conduct such research'. The report is primarily based on the experiences with Focus Group Discussions (FGD's) of five South African community radio stations. The publication contains an in ... more

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Sustainability Challenges Facing Community Radio: A Comparative Study of Three Community Radio Stations in Limpopo Province

Muswede Tavhiso

Limpopo: University of Limpopo, Master Thesis (2009), xii, 193 pp.

"This is a qualitative comparative study on sustainability challenges facing the community radio sector in Limpopo Province, South Africa. The study explores and determines community radio’s social acceptance to target communities, identifies its fundraising and marketing strategies, and evaluates ... more

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Training Needs Assessment of Independent Newspaper Managers in South Africa

Tiffany Tracey, Johanna Mavhungu, Peter du Toit, Francis Mdlongwa

Media Development & Diversity Agency (MDDA);Sol Plaatjie Institute for Media Leadership (SPI) (2009), 86 pp.

"The findings of the research reflect two overarching concerns: training content and training delivery. It is a central finding of the research that financial skills are required by the sector. Related to this is the need to encourage professional attitudes, processes, and systems within the sector. ... more

Cartooning in Africa Top Insights

Learning to Live Together: Using Distance Education for Community Peacebuilding Inspiring Practice

Formative Target Audience Research: A Case Study of Five Community Radio Stations in South Africa Inspiring Practice

Cartooning in Africa
Top Insights

Learning to Live Together: Using Distance Education for Community Peacebuilding
Inspiring Practice

Formative Target Audience Research: A Case Study of Five Community Radio Stations in South Africa
Inspiring Practice