Mediastudiesblog

 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.

 

 

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.

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."

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" 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"

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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.

 

 

 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?

Idasa has expressed concern that the Protection of Information Bill and the proposed Media Appeals Tribunal are not the same,  as their interchangeable use in the media has led many to believe. 

PIMS manager Judith February says: “The Protection of Information Bill will, if passed in its current form, have serious consequences for all ordinary citizens, not only journalists.”

Here's the link to the media statement.

 

The Harold Wolpe Memorial Trust takes pleasure in announcing its 91st Open Dialogue.

  The aim of these dialogues is to create a space for open and informed dialogue and debate around key local and global political, social and economic issues facing South Africa.

  Everyone is welcome and entrance is free. Please feel free to circulate this notice.



MEDIA CENSORSHIP

Speaker:

Prof Pierre de Vos
University of Cape Town
Respondent:

Dr. Laurie Nathan
University of Cape Town

Tuesday 17 August 2010
17h30 for 18h00
Venue: Zoology, LT2, UCT

RSVP: wolpeforums at mweb.co.za / 021-6740361

The Trust acknowledges the support of our donors, particularly the
Rosa Luxemburg Foundation and the National Lottery Distribution Trust
Fund

A link to an article posted on IOL which is an overview of the Protection of Information Bill, which as the article points out, has tended to get conflated with the proposed Media Appeals Tribunal.   

Here's a round up of editorials from various newspapers as coverage on Media in South Africa from bizcommunity.com.

A presentation for students doing the "Online Media Production course" was created by Travis Noakes,  aimed at the importance of students using their practical internet work to improve their online reputation.    He has amended the presentation for a wider audience.   This is not only important for those students, but all of us who have an online presence. 

 

New Media, Old Media is a new report from the Pew Research Center's Excellence in Journalism.

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While most original reporting still comes from traditional journalists, technology makes it increasingly possible for the actions of citizens to influence a story’s total impact.

What types of news stories do consumers share and discuss the most? What issues do they have less interest in? What is the interplay of the various new media platforms? And how do their agendas compare with that of the mainstream press?

To answer these questions, the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism has gathered a year of data on the top news stories discussed and linked to on blogs and social media pages and seven months’ worth on Twitter. We also have analyzed a year of the most viewed news-related videos on YouTube. Several clear trends emerge.

To read more about those trends, here's a link to the fulltext pdf. 

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Across all three social platforms, though, attention spans are brief. Just as news consumers don’t stay long on any website, social media doesn’t stay long on any one story. On blogs, 53% of the lead stories in a given week stay on the list no more than three days. On Twitter that is true of 72% of lead stories, and more than half (52%) are on the list for just 24 hours.

 

 

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.

The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) has made available a range of materials,  free of charge,  for publication on or around 3 May.  Check out www.worldpressfreedomday.org.

 

 

Spotted on Memeburn, six examples of how the social media took the starring role in the news.

Until Twitter came along and blew the lid off news coverage of the Iranian elections last year, many of us were scratching our heads wondering just how social media could help journalism be more interesting, writes columnist Gill Moodie.