Mediastudiesblog

It may be Media Monitoring Week here in South Africa,  but in 12 host cities across the world, it is Social Media Week. 

Social Media Week was launched by Crowdcentric in 2009 as the world's first truly global conference designed to help increase understanding of the complex and integrated role social media plays in society. Unlike other conferences, Social Media Week is free to anyone, and those unable to attend in person can participate online to in many of the more than 450 events around the world.

The organisers have released a list of their top ten Social Media events:-

1.  Arab Spring and the uprisings in the Middle East

• The "Arab Spring" uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya, have proven that social media can transform society and politics on a global scale. Throughout the past several months, social media has been used to organize protests, highlight injustices and government crackdowns, and sway public opinion. Whether democracy will flourish remains to be seen, but social media's impact in the movement so far is indisputable.

2.  Japanese earthquake and tsunami

• Millions of people from around the world watched the aftermath of a 8.9-magnitude earthquake in Japan in real-time via social media. Tweets and videos from Japan were posted within minutes, and viewers across the globe witnessed what would have been impossible to document before the widespread use of social media and handheld devices.

3.  Wikileaks scandal

• Is Julian Assange a champion of transparency in democracy and freedom of speech? Or is he just a criminal? Wikileaks continues to spur controversy, but the fact is Wikileaks would not have been possible without the rapid advances in digital and social media.

4.  Charlie Sheen's meltdown/use of Twitter

• Charlie Sheen's public meltdown spawned the hashtag "#winning," which quickly became America's favorite new catch phrase. Sheen subsequently amassed one million Twitter followers, faster than anyone else in history, and proved that our cultural obsession with celebrity is only growing now that we have more ways to interact online.

5.  Anthony Weiner Twitter scandal

• This was America's first political scandal that unfolded – and then broke -- over social media, putting a spotlight on the way social media tools are utilized both publicly and privately and will undoubtedly impact the way politicians communicate with their constituents and the public for years to come.

6.  Rebecca Black's viral YouTube hit and subsequent backlash

• How is celebrity defined in the age of social media? Does Black's music video "Friday," which racked up hundreds of millions of views on YouTube earlier this year, count as a 'hit'? The answers are up for debate, but it's a fact that the traditional business models used by the entertainment and music industries are being upended by advances in new technology.

7.  Social media coverage of British royal wedding

• The royal wedding stole the social media show with upwards of nearly one million related Tweets in the month leading up to the nuptials. In the days leading up to the wedding, this single event accounted for more than 70% of all social media mentions.

8.  UK Riots

• After three nights of rioting in London, politicians blamed the violence on text and instant messaging on mobile devices. British police broke into smart phones to thwart planned attacks on local establishments, and even considered blocking access to social networking sites altogether.

9.  Hurricane Irene

• Storm chasers didn't need to leave their home to follow the path of Hurricane Irene, as it made its way up the East Coast in August, conjuring tweets on par with the traffic after the Japan earthquake.

10.  Social Media IPO's

• Successful startups like Pandora and LinkedIn have gone public and there is growing speculation Groupon, Xanga and Facebook will soon follow suit.

 

 19 – 23 September is MEDIA FREEDOM WEEK!

 

In conjunction with media partners, academic institutions, think-tank’s, activists, members of civil society and individuals across South Africa, Media Monitoring Africa is proud to launch a week-long dialogue on the role of media freedom in South Africa.

 In support of this initiative  a blog has been set up, where Media Monitoring Africa invites Media Studies and Journalism students from across South Africa to post their comments and feelings on the current issues surrounding questions of media freedom in our country. Please encourage your students to visit the blog, post their comments online and engage in the debate!

 

http://mediafreedomweek.blogspot.com/

Spotted this infographic showing the development of mobile phones from big clunky devices to what we have now.

 

 

Tuesday 3rd May is World Press Freedom Day.   

 World Press Freedom Day marks the anniversary of the 1991 Declaration of Windhoek, a statement of principles calling for a free, independent and pluralistic media throughout the world. The Declaration affirms that a free press is essential to the existence of democracy and a fundamental human goal. It has become a day to raise awareness of press freedom problems worldwide, and to recognise the sacrifices that independent media and journalists make to keep their societies informed.  The theme this year is "Silence kills democracy...But a free press talks".

 

The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) has made materials available on their webpage.

The Open Society of South Africa (OSF-SA) launched a guide  [link to updated pdf] for journalists to write in-depth, accurate and balanced stories on the day of Local Government Elections - 18 May.

The election resource for journalists titled "A touchpad to our future: local government elections manual" can also be used by civil society. It was launched by the OSF-SA and the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) in Johannesburg on Wednesday.

OSF-SA executive director, Zohra Dawood, said the manual aims to build capacity of journalists to effectively prepare for, monitor and report on the 2011 municipal elections, as well as educating voters on elections and democracy.

City Press (26 March 2011) reports that the government is launching its own newspaper and it will be published by the head of ­government communications, Jimmy Manyi.        The  government’s bi-monthly ­maga­zine, Vuk’uzenzele, will be turned into a monthly tabloid newspaper with a print run of two million from next month. And Manyi’s plan is to publish it fortnightly by March next year.

The newspaper will be edited by former Beeld journalist ­Tyrone Seale, who is currently the managing editor of Vuk’uzenzele magazine and the GCIS’s chief director of ­content and writing.

Here's a response from Shepherd Mpofu, of Wits University's School of Journalism published on Bizcommunity.com. 

 

Starting this month,  the Press Council of SA will be holding public hearings as part of its review.     They invite anyone who like to give oral input on ways to improve and strengthen the SA Press Code, the Press Ombudsman's complaints procedure and the Constitution of the Press Council.

The Cape Town hearings are scheduled for 24 - 25 February on 26th Floor, Naspers Building, Heerengracht Street.

Those wishing to make oral submissions, should let the Press Council know by contacting  Taryn Mackay  (Tarynm at ombudsman.org.za).  Anyone is welcome to observe,  but seating is limited.

 

Daily Maverick has set up launched Free Africa Media,  a dedicated website to track media and freedom of speech issues and "provide journalists – and citizens – of Africa with the analysis, insight and opinion that they need."

<snip>

" Whether you're a journalist on the front line in protecting freedom of expression, or a layperson who believes in your right to know what's happening in your country, we'll provide the tools"

<snip>

With free, quality media and freedom of expression under attack from just about every corner of African reality, it becomes more and more obvious that a concentrated, Africa-wide effort is needed to help the fight. Free African Media aims to be just that. The publication will function as a platform dedicated to freedom of expression throughout the continent, as well to helping improve the overall quality of reporting, analysis and opinion Africa-wide. We are anticipating that Free African Media's month-long trial will prove so successful that we'll be able to make it a permanent project.

 

 

Here is a list of selected articles from the latest issue of the Journal of African Media Studies (Vol 2, Issue 3, November 2010).    The fulltext is available from EBSCOhost's Communication & Mass Media Complete [only available to the UCT community].

Mobile interconnections: Reinterpreting distance, relating and difference in the Cameroonian Grassfields.Full Text Available By: de Bruijn, Mirjam; Nyamnjoh, Francis; Angwafo, Tseghama. Journal of African Media Studies, Nov2010, Vol. 2 Issue 3, p267-285, 19p; DOI: 10.1386/jams.2.3.267_1

Rethinking rugby and the rainbow nation.Full Text Available By: Vincent, Louise; Stevenson, Sasha. Journal of African Media Studies, Nov2010, Vol. 2 Issue 3, p287-296, 10p; DOI: 10.1386/jams.2.3.287_1

 The road to renaming - what's in a name? The changing of Durban's street names and its coverage in The Mercury.Full Text Available By: Orgeret, Kristin Skare. Journal of African Media Studies, Nov2010, Vol. 2 Issue 3, p297-320, 24p, 5 Color Photographs; DOI: 10.1386/jams.2.3.297_1

Nollywood on the Internet: A preliminary analysis of an online Nigerian video-film audience.Full Text Available By: Obiaya, Ikechukwu. Journal of African Media Studies, Nov2010, Vol. 2 Issue 3, p321-338, 18p; DOI: 10.1386/jams.2.3.321_1

Can the media in Africa shape Africa's political future?Full Text Available By: Mukhongo, Lusike Lynete. Journal of African Media Studies, Nov2010, Vol. 2 Issue 3, p339-352, 14p; DOI: 10.1386/jams.2.3.339_1

Earlier Table of Contents  (abstract and header only) are available from the journal's publishers, Intellect Books.  

The Internet is now the main national and international news source for people ages 18 to 29, a study from the Pew Research Center reports.

The internet is slowly closing in on television as Americans’ main source of national and international news. Currently, 41% say they get most of their news about national and international news from the internet, which is little changed over the past two years but up 17 points since 2007. Television remains the most widely used source for national and international news – 66% of Americans say it is their main source of news – but that is down from 74% three years ago and 82% as recently as 2002.

 

Spotted on Mashable.

Here's the draft programme for the Power Reporting 2010: The African Investigative Journalism Conference which started on Monday 1 November 2010 and ends today 3 November 2010.    

 Spotted on Bizcommunity.     Here's the link to the Press Council.

 

 

 

A student blog has been set up for all South African students to get involved in the debate surrounding the Media Appeals Tribunal and the Protection of Information Act.      The blog has been set up by UNISA's Department of Communication.  

 http://bigmediadebate.blogspot.com/

 

Mozilla, Hacks/Hackers, Medill School at Northwestern University, and The Media Consortium are collaborating to run a free online course for journalists and programmers on the Peer-to-peer University platform. This is an experimental six-week course exploring the ways that technology is changing news production and how professional journalists & programmers can work together to innovate around these changes.

 The topics that are currently in development are:

1. The fundamentals of journalism and coding: to help hacks and hackers understand each others' principles, processes, lexicons, etc. From your first "Hello, World" program to Freedom of Information (FOI) requests -- participants will work together, to learn together. 
2. Project management: How do you take an idea from the concept to launch? What are the processes that teams use to meet deadlines & project goals? Learn about project management from real-world examples of it in action.
3. Edit it. Fork it. The art of collaboration and journalism: What does collaboration mean in the context of digital journalism? What are the tools that can support collaboration online, i.e., programming collaboratively, collaborative video editing, collaborative funding, etc.
4. Big Ugly Datasets For Thumb-Fingered Journalists:  Somewhere out there is a file that ends in three letters: CSV. It will probably be so big, in fact, that it will be nearly impossible to navigate in Excel and not much easier in Access. But it has all kinds of useful information that will help you cover your beat -- if only you could load the file, get the data you want from it, and do analysis. (Or, you know what a CSV is and you can rock a database -- but where's the story in this data?). This course will try to answer these questions and more with hands-on assignments.
5. Maps. Maps. Everywhere: From Google Maps to Grassroots Mapping and back again. What are the different ways that maps are being used to provide context and information, etc. 
6. Data journalism and government: Exploring open sources: how to find them, how to work with them, etc. Timely topic given the recent release of data by Wikileaks.  

Spotted on BoingBoing.

The Cape Argus (24/08/2010) published a 1977 parliamentary speech made by Connie Mulder, the then Minister of Information.  Déjà vu?