Two new PhD graduates from the School of Journalism and Media Studies received their degrees at the recent graduation ceremony.
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Media outlets, part of the flow of capital between africa and china, helping to present a new picture
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Pretoria - South Africa will host the 5th BRICS Summit in Durban next month - with the aim of harnessing the country’s membership to benefit the entire African continent.
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Newspapers have always been part of my life, says Pretoria News editor Val Boje, whose parents are long-time subscribers to the newspaper she edits.
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La Femme's Neo Bodumela took Ongama Mtimka of the Ubuntu Education Fund to lunch at Ocean Basket in Humewood NGAMA Mtimka's job as external relations manager at the Ubuntu Education Fund entails raising funds to finance programmes for less privileged children
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In November 2012, the South African public sphere was awash with tales of the upgrade to President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla residence.
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Watchdog organisation Freedom House last month released its 2012 report Freedom on the Net and its report is more alarming for its dearth of data on African countries than for its actual rankings.
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The formal invitation extended to South Africa by China late in 2010 to join the BRIC formation of emerging economies (Brazil, Russia, India and China) is a confirmation of the growing economic ties between China and South Africa.
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The excitement at JMS is palpable as another academic year begins!
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After an outstanding 2012, JMS is closed for the end of year break until 7 Jan 2013
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Nelson Mandela is a national treasure for South Africans. Our government recently issued new banknotes with Mandela’s face on it, a daily reminder of the social, cultural and political capital that the country’s first democratic president created.
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Information on former president Nelson Mandela's admission to hospital is being made available quicker than previously, a Rhodes University academic said on Monday.
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Government media officers became journalists for five days at the Government Media Course of the Sol Plaatje Media Leadership Institute (SPI) in October 2012. This year’s programme placed an emphasis on understanding the contexts of the journalism profession and the media industry as a means of bridging the gap between
government and media.
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As one of SA’s leading law practices, and leader in Media Law, Webber Wentzel is not only a valued consultant to JMS, but also the creator of the annual Legal Journalist of the Year awards, which were recently handed out at their offices in Illovo.
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Taking stock of the media since the onset of democracy, Prof Jane Duncan of the School of Journalism and Media Studies critiqued the established systems of news in South Africa, examining specifically, the coverage of Marikana -- one of the media’s most glaring failures.
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A former Umkhonto we-Sizwe (MK) soldier, Barry Gilder launched his latest book in Grahamstown entitled From Rebellion to Governance: The Songs and Secrets of Barry Gilder.
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Created by the 2012 second year JMS2 students, the Unearthed broadcast series examines the place of research within the core pillar of Community Engagement at Rhodes University - in a series of broadcast pieces that can be accessed directly via this story.
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2012 marks the 4th consecutive win for JMS students in the Student Journalism category of the Pan-African Siemens Profile Awards – winning the category every year since its inception.
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The changing face of South African media took centre stage on Tuesday evening as Primedia Broadcasting’s Kate Katopodis descended on Rhodes University‘s Africa Media Matrix to deliver a presentation.
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In a rare visit to the Eastern Cape, Primedia Broadcasting Group Editor-in-Chief and Head of Eyewitness News, Kate Katopodis, took time out from a frenetic schedule to address JMS staff and students on new models of integrated content provision being pioneered today, within which multimedia and multi-platform content creation play a key role.
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JMS is hosting a screening of short films on the issues that bother young people in Grahamstown. The programme called SPEAKING OUR MINDS consists of24 short films - each a collaboration between the 24 third-year TV students and the 24 school learners from Grahamstown township high schools to tackle issues that "tick off" the learner.
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Thirty communication officers from every SANDF infantry battalion in South Africa, as well key personnel of Grahamstown's First City Regiment and 6th SA Infantry Battalion, visited JMS as part of their weeklong media workshop at the 6 SAI military base in Grahamstown – meeting with various JMS and SPI members of staff to discuss potential synergies, followed by a tour of the AMM building.
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In her book - "Fight for Democracy" - Daniels, a South African journalist for over 20 years, provides a critical insight into the ANC’s treatment of print media since the country’s transition to democracy. The BOOK launch took place at JMS as part of the Highway Africa Conference, and the story below first appeared in "Open Source" - the conference's own daily newspaper, staffed by personnel and students of JMS.
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Highway Africa (HA) has added a twist to the 16th installment of the conference. For the first time in the history of the event, delegates have the chance to keep in touch with its day to day happenings through mobile phones – partnering with local newspaper Grocotts Mail; one of the oldest Newspapers in South Africa which also serves as an experiential student training ground for JMS.
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With "Africa Rising" as this year’s overarching conference theme, the continent’s largest annual media conference takes place in Grahamstown from 8 -10 September; and this 16th edition of Highway Africa will feature an amazing array of activities from talks by distinguished speakers, training workshops, book launches and networking opportunities. This is also the first year that Highway Africa partners with partners with the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD), while Highway Africa sponsors Telkom and MTN will present amazing material on broadband and Africa.
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The Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) is a voluntary affiliation of media development organisations set up at world and at regional level to highlight the importance to human and economic development of free, independent, pluralistic and viable media. In this story, GFMD Director, Bettina Peters explains the relationship between the two organisations and the decision to partner up for the 2012 summit.
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From September 5-7, 2012, to kickstart the 2012 Highway Africa Global Journalism & Media Summit at JMS, an international consortium comprising the World Bank Institute, the African Media Initiative, and Rhodes University will inaugurate South Africa's first ever Data Journalism Bootcamp.It is inspired by central and local governments around the world having ‘opened' data, for free, including the Open Government Partnership. But while this has resulted in intense excitement from software developers, hackers, development practitioners, and government sponsors, much of the public has been left behind - with the level of informed public debate on data-related issues across ‘opened’ sectors remains variable at best.
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Health Journalism lecturer, project manager of the JMS Discovery Health Journalism Centre and regular newspaper contributor on health issues, Mia Malan has just added another feather in her cap, by winning the Sikuvile Newspaper Journalism Award in the 'Analysis, Commentary and Background' category for her M&G piece 'Abduction'.
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Edited by JMS Deputy Head Prof Herman Wasserman, and considered the definitive journal of African Journalism Studies, this latest edition - #33 - is brimming with pan-African media content. As Prof Wasserman says in his editor's note, "This edition examines journalism in all four corners of the continent ... (and) a wide range of issues is also covered, from tabloids in South Africa, to the extractive sector in Ghana and Nigeria, and from the elections in Kenya to the Arab Spring uprisings."
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The youth of today have forgotten the struggles of their forefathers. So says Prof Robert Mattes of UCT, who recently presented a range of his groundbreaking research findings to JMS as part of the ‘Media and Citizenship’ initiative of the Mellon Humanities Focus Area at JMS. The most interesting and frightening finding of all? - Only one third of South Africans support democracy as a form of government. PG Dip student Nontsikelelo Mpulo, wrote the following about the matter, in JMS' own publicly distributed biweekly newspaper, Grocott's Mail.
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Academic, author and editor of some of the key texts in the debates around childhood and digital media, London University’s Prof David Buckingham discusses whether technology creates a 'toxic childhood' leading to dispersed attention and cyberbullying; or whether the new 'thumb generation' is empowered as never before through digital and mobile marvels – and how these arguments relate to the construction of childhood?
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July was an important month for the Mellon Focus Area at JMS, with four members of the project attending the International Association of Media and Communications Research (IAMCR) Conference and three of them presenting at the Conference. Another wonderful conference spinoff was meeting global media academic Dr Katrin Voltmer and convincing her to take a short detour from Durban to Grahamstown to visit JMS.
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Final year BJourn television student Aimee Caulfield was awarded the prestigious Carte Blanche Scholarship for her final year of study, after an exhaustive selection process that included in depth interviews by, and presentations to, Carte Blanche Executive Producer Georg Mazerakis.
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With the holistic and multifaceted study of issues pertaining to media and citizenship as its raison d’etre, the JMS Mellon Humanities Focus Area has fast become a prolific generator of relevant discourse spanning the complete audio-visual spectrum, from international discussion and global dialogue, to dynamic exhibitions, public lectures, podcasts and a blossoming online presence.
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Verashni Pillay, Demelza Bush and Craig McKune have won the CNN Multichoice Africa Journalism Award for digital journalism; and received their award at a gala event in Lusaka, Zambia for the video "Leasing Scams: A Dummy's Guide.", which was created to explain the complex leasing scam investigation done by McKune.
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Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Communications Studies at Leeds University in the UK, Dr Katrin Voltmer, is currently visiting JMS as guest of school’s Mellon Research Group, which focuses on media, citizenship and democracy – presenting various seminars to staff and postgraduate students on Media and Democratisation.
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LINUS GITAHI, Group Chief Executive Officer of Nation Media which owns thriving newspapers, radio and television stations across East Africa, was in South Africa recently to attend the inaugural meeting of the Board of Advisers of Rhodes University’s Sol Plaatje Institute (SPI) for Media Leadership, of which he is the chairperson. The meeting, held in Johannesburg, discussed a range of issues which impact the future of the SPI and African media businesses. Gitahi took time off to share some of his insights on the future of African media at a time of rapid change with FRANCIS MDLONGWA, Director of the SPI since 2004. The full interview follows below.
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This year, DDW will be held in Dayton, Ohio from July 23-27, 2012; and will introduce participants to the concept of deliberative democracy, by providing a space for them to explore the organization of citizens’ political efforts in their home communities. And both Amner and Ponono are delighted at their invitation to attend.
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Prof Herman Wasserman, Deputy Head of the School of Journalism and Media Studies, Rhodes University and Head of the Research Unit for Media in the Global South, is delighted that ongoing international collaborative research, which the unit actively participates in, has received a recent boost, with several grants being awarded.
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From its daily festival print newspaper, to its online site, radio podcasts and updates, and television programming, Cue generated an immense amount of wonderful material on the “11 Days of Amazing” that was the Grahamstown National Arts Festival 2012 – staffed by JMS staff and students.
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Running for the duration of the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, 28th June to the 8th July 2012, the Rhodes University School of Journalism and Media Studies research project into citizenship and media (funded by the Mellon Foundation) will host an exhibition, a series of lectures, panel discussions, and films in which citizenship and democracy are explored, opened up and debated by a range of experts in both media and activism.
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JMS Photography lecturer Paul Greenway has been photographing the trailblazing Eastern Cape theatre company, UBOM, for years – capturing the evocative imagery of this vital contributor to community upliftment through the power of performance. Now, a decade of UBOM is celebrated in Greenway’s photographic exhibition “UBOM – Stage to Paper” at the Grahamstown National Arts Festival.
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Running from 27 to 29 June, the conference examines 'Identity, changes and challenges of the profession in the 21st century' - with six JMS academics involved in co-authoring and presenting papers on the role of journalism education in meeting these challenges .
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It’s not often that a Media School 1000km away from the executive and legislative capitals, and financial and media centres of South Africa, can boast that its recent guests include the ruling party’s national spokesperson, the official opposition’s shadow minister of communication, the winner of the International Press Institute’s prestigious World Press Hero Award and one of the country’s leading media lawyers – just in the last month. And yet, Mr Jackson Mthembu, Ms Marian Shinn MP, Dr Raymond Louw and Dr. Dario Milo respectively, all played a magnificent role from mid-April to mid-May at JMS.
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Two recent Rhodes University School of Journalism graduates won prestigious Journalism Excellence awards at a ceremony in Sandton on Monday 7 May.
Fatima Simjee (BJourn class of 2009) won the inaugural 'LoveLife young upcoming Health Journalist of the year' award and Siphosethu Stuurman (BJourn class of 2010) won the Discovery Health 'Best radio health journalism' award.
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JMS was strongly represented by staff and students presenting papers at an international conference on everyday media culture in Africa
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Rhodes University,
School of Journalism and Media Studies (JMS)
For 41 years, the School has been one of the leading providers of Journalism and Media Studies education in South Africa and on the African continent.
Everyone will have a voice on TV' THE queen of radio is going to tackle big issues on the small screen again! SAfm presenter Siki Mgabadeli will present a 10-episode current affairs show called The Big Debate.
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THERE is little doubt that South Africa, as host country of the Brics summit in Durban today and tomorrow, will grasp the opportunity to project itself as an emerging economy and take pride in its association with this prestigious club.
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