Let’s talk about the front page of the Beeld newspaper today and the way journalists need to be held accountable for the kind of conversation they inspire. The cover story in the paper is about a father who was upset about the relationship his daughter was having — he then went ahead and shot his […]
Posted inTech
Facebook: A life laid out in linear form
Newborn babies have started appearing on my Facebook news feed, lovingly cradled by people that not too long ago (it seems) were holding bottles of cheap vodka with such tender care, playing disastrously drunken games of table tennis together, still in their first year of university, innocent and unaffected, with delusions of adulthood. I recently […]
Posted inEquality, Media
FHM to blame for corrective rape ‘joke’
Here are some simple rules, people of the world who have jobs. If you work for a food manufacturer, don’t post something about food hygiene. If you work for a media organisation, don’t post something prejudicial. If you work for a woman’s magazine, don’t post something sexist. It’s not brain surgery. Yet, for some people […]
Posted inEquality, Tech
Facebook’s ‘other’ gender problem
By Gcobani Qambela I have always kept the “About” me section on my Facebook very minimal. But recently I decided to update it and fill it up a little. I was shocked when I got to the icon on “gender” to find that it offered only two options for me to choose from and those […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media, Tech
The slow descent into social media’s superficiality
I think I know why social media is good for everyone. I just think I do, but don’t really. Besides being a vehicle for sparking Arab Springs, social media is first with the news and enhances your brand if you’re a journalist, editor, social commentator or political analyst. In fact if you’re none of these […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Prejudice, racism and entertainment
“South Africans here in New Zealand have a reputation for being aggressive — especially the Afrikaners,” groaned Mark, a fellow English-speaking South African, over a beer. “Why Afrikaners?” I asked. He shrugged his shoulders. “They arrive here with a huge chip on their shoulder, walk into our workshop demanding a WOF for their car and […]
Posted inGeneral, Lifestyle
There simply is no space
I find it odd that people today will log into various platforms of social networking to ”consume” new music yet you ask them what their favourite band is and they draw a blank. Look at your twitter timeline or go onto Facebook and just study for a day or so the amount of new music […]
Posted inLifestyle, Media, News/Politics
Don’t touch me on my Facebook!
It seems the revolution comes in many packages, as seen on Facebook in the form of scantily clad sexy babes who sell radical black revolutionary speak, along with perfectly trimmed stomachs, silicone breasts, voluptuous derrieres and overtly sexual profile pictures. Now I know anything to do with black radicalism is dangerous territory for a whitie […]
Posted inNews/Politics
Africa = Social + media + revolution
By Rick de Kock In the space of barely a year, our continent has injected a unique African meaning into the phrase “social media revolution”. Only in Africa has tangible meaning been attached to each of those words in such dramatic ways. In addition to social and political revolutions, Africa’s tremendous economic progress in recent […]
Posted inLifestyle
Has ‘friend’ become meaningless?
“Blah blah fishpaste,” a friend said to me the other day. It’s the sort of thing I write in this blog all the time, but it’s starting to worry me. Who gets to be a friend these days? Does saying that you are “friends” with somebody have any meaning now that you can have 5 000 […]