Who wouldn’t want to be friends with a hot, naked, friendly blonde who had recently lost her digital camera containing some very explicit photos? Thanks to Facebook’s relaxed (that is, non-existent) identity-verification process, anyone could. And did. She received, apparently, “tens of thousands” of offers to return her lost property. Property whose finding was aided […]
2007
Posted inGeneral
A country’s need to revise the past
A collection of 19 feature-length press articles was released in book-form last week in Argentina. One of the articles, El caso Poblete (The Poblete Case), tells the story of José Poblete, his wife Trudy Hlaczik and their daughter Claudia and specifically caught my eye because of the questions it sparks about a country’s need to […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Dali gets surreal
I’m beginning to think there’s something in the water at the SABC. Statements by Dali Mpofu, the chief executive and, ahem, editor-in-chief, make me wonder if it’s not lead. Mpofu’s latest letter breaking up with the South African National Editors’ Forum is a lesson in how to write with drama, emotion, exaggeration and delusion. So […]
Posted inGeneral
The Novel Life: whimsical observations on the everyday (welcome!)
Look, I’m just going to be honest here. I don’t know anything about politics, I don’t care for sport, I have the merest fleeting interest in entertainment (and then only if the stars are wearing pretty dresses) and I’m completely out of the loop when it comes to the news. In short, I’m a newspaper’s […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics, Tech
Trusting Wikipedia: a sea change
Here’s an interesting development. Long and acrimonious battles have been fought over the question, “Can you trust Wikipedia?” Now, at last, there’s a new answer to this question.
Posted inNews/Politics
Get off Mbeki’s back!
On Friday I watched a ton of tourists taking pictures of Madiba’s statue in Sandton City: an imposing tribute to the man British columnist John Carlin calls “the president of humanity”. I may also have noticed one or two stunning blondes but that was only because they were walking between me and the amateur photographers. […]
Posted inMedia
An open letter to Jawah Hassan — all the way from Dubai
Since I started blogging on http://silwanekanjila.amagama.com I have attached my email address ([email protected]) at the bottom of my blogs almost from day one. It proved to be a master stroke because of all the excellent feedback I’ve received from some of my readers. Granted, some of the feedback is of the “your blogs are dog […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics, Tech
Crowdsourcing the campaign
In 2004, the Howard Dean campaign in the United States blazed the way in taking the election campaign online. Dean not only raised more than anyone else online, but more importantly also pioneered the use of the internet to gather and mobilise support both online and in real life. Since then we’ve seen social media […]
Posted inMedia, Tech
Why newspapers and social media make a good fit
Since early 2005, when I started working with Colin Daniels at the New Media Lab, my thinking about the web has been saturated by the language, principles and ideals of Web 2.0 and specifically the sub-set of uses we call “social media”. So I had to laugh at the provocative piece written by Paul Jacobson […]
Posted inNews/Politics
The ‘unique relationship’
Turkey’s newly elected President, Abdullah Gul, has confirmed that he attaches the highest priority to forging even closer ties with Pakistan. Gul, whose Justice and Development Party has Islamist roots, is causing concern among secularists and the military, who for their part have in the past pushed democracy aside to defend Turkish secularism. While Gul […]
Posted inGeneral, Media, News/Politics
Curiouser and curiouser …
Curious report just out on Reuters: Johannesburg (Reuters) — South Africa has denied it blamed Britain for Zimbabwe’s isolation in a report prepared for a regional summit earlier this month. The office of President Thabo Mbeki denied that the government produced a report on Zimbabwe critical of Britain before Mbeki briefed leaders of the Southern […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
From the Prophet Muhammad to Manto Tshabalala-Msimang: some thoughts on press freedom
Eighteen months ago, Judge Mohammed Jajbhay ruled that the Prophet Muhammad’s right to privacy outweighed the right to freedom of expression, and interdicted the Sunday Times from publishing cartoons of the prophet. This week, the same judge delivered a ringing endorsement of media freedom, made a decisive statement against censorship, and rejected the health minister’s […]