As Professor Pink, lead narrator on the SABC educational programme, Knock Knock, explored Galileo’s confrontation with power, the SABC was engaged in its own tryst with changing power. President Thabo Mbeki appointed the board of the SABC in a move interpreted as incongruous with resolutions taken by the ANC at its Polokwane conference. In possibly […]
Media
Posted inMedia
The genius of Lee-Ann Liebenberg
If there is one thing I appreciate in marketing it’s Honesty. I can spot a sham at the subject line, the “I make art therefore buy this crap” stuff that’s force-fed onto us every day by C-listers the world over. So I find something refreshing in the honesty that Lee-Ann Liebenberg offers in her Twitter […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics, Sport
Caster’s revenge: The war on Australia
So, we’re at war with Australia again. As usual it is about sport. The conspiracy goes that it was Australian athletes who challenged Caster Semenya’s gender. They are the ones who accused her of being a man. Apparently after seeing the size of her shoe. Caster’s story has been hotly pursued by the Australian press, […]
Posted inMedia
The unbearable fiction of facts
Don’t you find it amazing that in a country where people’s feelings, sensitivities, moods, prejudices and perceptions are such a dominant social phenomenon so little study is done into emotion? We are constantly hearing politicians, media analysts and every kind of researcher chirping on and on about facts and, in the process, decrying perceptions. I […]
Posted inMedia
Privacy disappearing one status update at a time
By Adam Wakefield One of the most cherished notions of a liberal society is that privacy is seen as a secondary right. While it doesn’t hold the weight of a natural right — since privacy is a notion manufactured by the technological advancement of our society — it is pretty important in democratic societies. It […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Elevating black voices the Spike Lee way
This year marks the 20th anniversary of Spike Lee’s film-making career. To those who do not know him, he is the first African-American to make it big in Hollywood, if you like. Lee produced and directed films like School Daze, Do the Right Thing, Malcolm X and, my best movie, Bedazzled. Of course, he has […]
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Would you pay for online content?
Rupert Murdoch has announced plans to make users pay for online news content on websites owned by his companies. This is a major development for online news consumption. It also reflects just how bad things are for the print world when big media houses are considering milking revenue from what started as something of a […]
Posted inMedia
The enduring mystery of mascara ads
All right, I’ll admit it. I’m stumped. There’s a mascara ad on TV. Revlon or L’Oreal or Max Factor, I’m not sure, they all look the same, but it features that actress from Desperate Housewives, who tells us that this product gives lashes 12 times more volume. Twelve times! Imagine that. How do they measure […]
Posted inBusiness, Media, Tech
Meet Al Caphone, capo de tutti capi of SA’s telecommunications cartel
In the past six months Vodacom made more than R14 billion, 12.2% better than it performed previously. While millions of South Africans suffer the very worst of the global economic crisis, it seems counter-intuitive that a telecommunications company can bask in that kind of profitability. This should spark great admiration. Until you come face to face […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media
Do you have moments of shopping madness?
Have you ever bought something and wondered why? Ever known you are about to pay far too much for something and not cared? Found yourself reaching up to take something off the supermarket shelf despite yourself, as if trapped in a waking dream? I devote quite a large proportion of my time to understanding why […]
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Did Wayne Rooney earn his Brownwings?
If you believe Wikipedia, he did. According to them, Wayne Rooney played for a youth team called the Brownwings. After which he signed to Everton on a schoolboy contract. Now for our innocent readers, if you are unsure why this is a strange statement, you want to check out the definition of brown wings. The […]
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Social media: The unpaid salesforce
Looking back and reflecting on what exactly has kept me from contributing to the wonders that is Thought Leader over the past year, it becomes glaringly obvious that it is the equivalent of Thought Leader exactly, that has kept my contribution on my “to do” list for such a lengthy time. Call it what you […]