Hands up who thought I was being sarcastic. Sorry to disappoint. Eddie Funde and Dali Mpofu, respectively chairman and CEO of the South African public broadcaster, are right on the money with their latest statements.
Media
Posted inMedia
Ethics? Sold out
Imagine this: a news presenter is being offered a sponsorship deal worth half-a-million rand by one of the broadcaster’s advertisers. In exchange, one of the station’s DJs (not the news presenter) would read out the company’s ad during an entertainment feature shortly after the news bulletin. Kosher or not? The news presenter, perhaps understandably, finds […]
Posted inMedia
How does ubuntu rhyme with crime?
The role the media have played in forging a feeling of national unity after the rugby victory is commendable. And indeed, it must have been an inspiring change for editors to devote so much space to good-news stories. But imagine what change we can bring about if the same amount of space is devoted to […]
Posted inMedia
Media ethics and guerrilla warfare
It has been with some interest that I have followed the ongoing discourse over the “us versus them” (mainstream media versus the blogosphere) issue, and its potential impact on the media landscape. Vincent Maher has pretty exhaustively tackled some of the issues in his paper Towards a Critical Media Studies Approach to the Blogosphere, and […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Royal blackmailed in gay sex video’s name withheld — well, sort of
If you want to guarantee the identity of a high-profile individual being revealed, then please ensure you take the following steps: 1. Obtain a gagging order in their country of origin. 2. Warn the media and the internet community of dire consequences if they infringe it. 3. Inundate the British media with tidbits concerning the […]
Posted inMedia
The emergency anchor man
This tragic incident occurred in the Eighties live on the SABC’s TV1. It was the 8pm news and the newsreader, either Michael de Morgan or John Bishop, had called in sick. In a mad scramble to find someone to read the news with less than an hour to spare, the producers settled on an unassuming […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media
Festival of what, precisely?
Publicists Total Exposure have announced a “Festival of Festivals”, showing at Ster-Kinekor’s Cinema Nouveau theatres from November 2: “For two weeks in November, Johannesburg will be transformed into Cannes and Cape Town into Venice when some of the world’s most acclaimed new films will be screened at the first annual Festival of Festivals,” goes the […]
Posted inMedia
Who will tell the South African story?
For a while now I have been wondering who will rescue us from the scandalous and agenda-driven reportage of political and social developments in our country as we labour forward in search of a common national consensus and national identity. I have long concluded we will never be the people we aspire to be as […]
Posted inBusiness, Media
Facebook and Google: Who should worry?
Microsoft has invested $240-million in Facebook, resulting in a $15-billion evaluation for the social network. I fear that this might be the beginning of the end of the Facebook mania. Personally, I would have preferred to see an investment by Google. It is a company I admire, and one that I trust to have a […]
Posted inMedia, News/Politics
Amandla — the magazine
The broader left is seeing a revival in new forms of organisations, and in proposing alternatives in a complex world. A good reflection of this revival is Amandla — a new left South African magazine. As the website progresses I hope we will be able to claim the site as a “lefty” site that embraces […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media
‘My, Professor Dumbledore, what a big wand you have!’
So JK Rowling has outed Albus Dumbledore, wizard supreme and mentor of Harry Potter, as being gay. She admitted this last Friday at Carnegie Hall in New York City when a young fan asked her if the headmaster of the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardy had ever fallen in love. “My truthful answer to […]
Posted inMedia
You were wrong. Admit it!
Newspapers often get it wrong. These days, journalism faces as much of a threat from a lack of credibility as it does from a digital transformation. And, frankly, the way South African news operations handle their errors creates a gap of trust between them and their readers. Take the Sunday Times‘s recent story about Christine […]