MARCH-APRIL:
FEBRUARY: JANUARY: Also, visited journalism
programmes at University of Nairobi, Daystar, US International University,
and Makerere to pilot research for a Unesco
mapping of African potential centres of excellence. 2006
2007
JUNE:
Off to China, Singapore, Australia till 8 September!
Presentation in Cape Town at World Editors Forum on Reporting Africa
for Africans (document, ppt).
MAY:
Enjoying
being on sabbatical:
* Sweated on a multi-media bootcamp at UNC - Chapel Hill;
* Observed a media leadership course at the Poynter Institute;
* Delivered updated paper on SA
Comms policy at Yale University;
* Fundraised and finalised chapters for book on "50 Years of African media"
to be ready for World Newspaper Congress in Cape Town July 3-5. (Online version
coming in June).
* Completed UNESCO report on African journalism schools (for release in July)
* Peer reviewer for Open
Society of an MMP study of SABC (for eventual release);
* Presented a critical review
of MMP recent research on race;
* Keynote address at Texas University conference on new media - "Getting
the most global medium to live up to its global promise" (ppt). A written
paper will be finished by July;
* Trip to Ghana and Nigeria to visit j-schools there.
* Presentation: tips for Caxton community
paper editors (having judged their newspaper competition).
* Convenor judge in Mondi-Shanduka newspaper journalism awards, plus wrote
judges' statement
and remarks for the ceremony.
* Co-drafted submission for Sanef on need for media
literacy for Film & Publications Board, and another submission to
the Intelligence Ministry ("no
spying on journalists; no journalists as spies").
* Won 3rd prize for best paper
submitted to World Journalism Education Congress, scheduled for Singapore,
July.
Keynote speaker at Paris conference by World Press Freedom Committee and UNESCO
on press
freedom and the Internet. Judge in Telkom ICT journalism awards competition.
Drafted resolution for global newspaper congress in Cape Town in June.
Visited
Kenya for launch of BBC-WST research
on African media development (I oversaw the Rhodes co-ordination of five southern
African countries).
DECEMBER:
Article
on professionalism and training for Open Space journal.
NOVEMBER:
Did a paper
on Digital Migration and Public Broadcasting for Open Society, presented in
London.
Wrote three articles on SA's convergence law for Highway
Africa News Agency (1),
(2),
(3)
Visited Netherlands at the invitation of Niza, and presented on Civil
Society, Public Sphere and Democracy at: University of Amsterdam, Free University
of Amsterdam, University of Groningen. (3mb)
Presentation
to Reuters Fellows, Green College, Oxford University, on Contested Media Policy
in Post-Apartheid SA.
OCTOBER:
10 months sabbatical leave! Doing research on journalism schools around
Africa; learning online teaching software; hoping to travel to China!
Submission
to Parliament on proposed changes to the Film & Publications Act.
Launch of book (4mb) on the history of
the SA National Editors Forum (written by Liz Barratt, edited by me).
SABC report
on "blacklisting" (I was advisor to the Commission of Enquiry).
SEPTEMBER:
A chance
to punt the importance of a peer review
for African public broadcasters at PBI conference in Maputo, 21-22 September.
Days before, the Southern African Broadcasting Association also endorsed the
idea, which I'd put on the agenda at a SABA seminar - again in Maputo, in
mid-August. Will it progress further?
Put together my thinking with various research on African
Media Markets (ppt) for a presentation for a workshop in Germany, mid-month.
Text version here.
At
the 10th Highway Africa conference, launched two books: "What
the newsroom knows: managing knowledge within African newspapers" and
"From
the margins to the mainstream: African ICT reporting comes of age".
JUNE TO AUGUST:
Highlight of this period was receiving the Nat Nakasa award, one of the top
honours in SA. Conferred on journalists in the past, I was the first academic
to receive it. Presser;
column; pic of me (overwhelmed), with M&G
editor Ferial Haffejee;
Papers presented:
Contested media environments in SA: the making of communications policy since 1994. Conference "After Apartheid", Cape Town, 11-12 August.
Powerpoint presentations:
Thinking about media as a resource for integrity; 1 August; Media power and economic justice, Caux, Switzerland, 3 August.
Community
engagement: some issues. Mpekweni, 22 July.
Media in a multi-cultural society, FreeVoice
seminar, Johannesburg, 19-20 July.
Training to strengthen the African media circuit. Misa seminar, Johannesburg, 29 June.
Is self-regulation the answer to the lacunae in regulation? 28 May, AIBD, Kuala Lumpur.
Assessing
creative pedagogy. 25 May, Columbia University, NY.
Events attended:
FES brainstorming workshop on state-owned newsagencies, on 17-18 June, Magaliesberg;
BBC-WST seminar on Strengthening Africa's Private Media, 19-20 June.
SABA/MISA/FES Conference on broadcasting reforms, Maputo 13-16 August.
Hearings of Sisulu
commission into SABC inquiry into "blacklisting" allegations. (I was
an advisor to the commissioners).
APRIL:
This is teaching time: MAs and PostGrad diplomates, and the subject is media
policy. I also enjoyed hosting Peter
Magubane who came to Rhodes for an honorary doctorate, and Connie
Molusi who opened our new building.
MARCH:
Ok, I'm too old for rapping, but here's my rhyme on the student launch of the Africa Media Matrix building on 16th.
FEBRUARY:
Two days to Benin and two days back for a conference on Convergence and Regulation
organised by Panos Institute West Africa. My presentation, The
evolution of the media through convergence, (2MB) pulls together and updates
earlier work. The MA course I am planning for April will concentrate a lot
on the same topic.
JANUARY:
We have moved into the Africa Media Matrix! A dream of four years
has materialised, thanks to support from scores of people - particularly Connie
Molusi, CEO of Johncom, and Joe Alfers, Tech Manager in our School. It is
an inspiring building, and a major means to an end. That end? Raising the
societal value and impact of our resources.
Once our new media students are up to speed, they may create an online tour
of the facility in the next few months, so you can share the excitement then.
Else - come and visit! Especially on 1 July (alumni reunion party), or 11
September (Highway
Africa conference 10th anniversary).
2005
Summary of presentations & publiications from May - December:
Modernisation and Africa’s
emerging engagement with the Information Society. Paper
and presentation (7000KB) to conference
“AfroGEEKS: Global Blackness and the Digital Public Sphere”, University
of California, Santa Barbara. May 19 – 22, 2005.
Reconciling Editorial Independence and Public Accountability Issues in Public
Broadcasting Service: Editorial Policies at South African Broadcasting Corporation.
Presentation and paper,
Asia Media Summit 2005. May 9 - 11, 2005, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Position paper presentation for summit
of Editors-Owners-Managers, for SA National Editors Forum, July 2005.
Some tributes to the late Anthony Sampson - a great journalist: Mine,
his daughter Katie's,
Neil Ascherson's, John
Battersby's.
The Media are a Mess: why South African journalism is not doing its job. Speech, Winter School, National Arts Festival, Grahamstown, 5 July 2005.
Bananas, mangoes and Mrs Kabaki. Presentation at Media Debate, organised by MultiChoice, Norfolk Hotel, Nairobi, June 23, 2005
Media’s missing morals? It’s mostly a matter of skill. Presentation at “Media Ethics and Professionalism: Towards an Ethical African Media.” Conference organised by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), August 22-24, 2005. Windhoek.
Media and policy. Presentation at Highway Africa conference, Reinforcing Journalism in the Information Society, Grahamstown. 13 Sept 2005
How does the Internet change journalism? (6MB) Presentation at panel discussion, Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), World Summit on the Information Society, Tunis, November 15.
Values, the media and poverty. Presentation at annual conference of Caux initiatives for business and International Communications Forum, Panchgani, India. 18-22 November.
King Content and the Journalism Curriculum. Presentation at Experts Consultative Meeting on Journalism Education, Unesco, Paris. 14 - 16 December 2005
Current Challenges. Chapter in Changing the Fourth Estate: essays on South Africa journalism. Edited by Adrian Hadland, Pretoria: HSRC press.
Harnessing Newsroom Knowledge. Rhodes Journalism Review, No 25, p22.
“Fit for purpose” – towards tracking the quality of university education of entry-level journalists in South Africa (presentation). Original paper. A version is in Ecquid Novi, 2005 26(2) (forthcoming)
SA Media Freedom Day 2005: Coming soon is the anniversary of the dark day when apartheid Justice Minister Jimmy Kruger’s outlawed three newspapers. Daily Dispatch 5 October.
Media
missing the Convergence Bill. Presentation to Convergence South Africa
conference, 19-20 October 2005, Indaba Hotel, Johannesburg.
Tunis, WSIS: articles for Highway Africa News Agency on new
media, world electronic media forum, and
Intellectual Property.
Review, Francis Nyamnjoh. Africa’s Media: Democracy and the Politics of Belonging. (London & New York, Zed Books; Pretoria, Unisa Press). Forthcoming in Journal of Southern African Studies.
Berger, G. (editor). Media Legislation in selected African Countries: a research study for Unesco. Major Programme V, Communication and Information (CI) for 2004-2005, and under the supervision of the Division for Freedom of Expression, Democracy and Peace (CI/FED). (unpublished report).
Doing Digital Journalism:
a compilation of MA research, supported by Acacia.
Absent Voices, Missed Opportunities. Media silence on ICT policy issues in
six African countries. Research commissioned by Catia.
Other:
Conducted evaluation for Thompson Foundation of training they did for Botswana
Broadcasting Corporation.
Attended workshop: What to do with state-controlled print media - a brainstorming
exercise, 27-29 May, Stellenbosch, arranged by Fredreich Ebert Stiftung.
Attended CNN-MultiChoice African Journalism Awards, 25 June, Nairobi, Kenya.
Ideology, race, media, democracy and society - what role for the Media in
Society? Participation as a panel discussant at conference Media in Society:
transformation of the Media in a society in transition, organised by SABC,
SA National Editors Forum, and University of Limpopo, October 18-19, Johannesburg.
Defended myself from Sowetan article "The Nutty Professor" -
on tabloids!
Served on a two-person probe into SABC's failure to transmit coverage of disruption
of Deputy President at a rally in August in KZN.
Collaborated with Robert Brand on an affadavit supporting the Mail&Guardian
in a case brought by Imvume seeking to have the paper disclose its sources.
Co-wrote chapter on Broadcasting in SA with Anne Taylor, for new edition of
Panos book: "Up in the Air".
--------
April:
Speech at Mondi-Shanduka Newspaper Journalism Awards ceremony. Submission
to Parliament on the Convergence Bill.
Presentation on research to Panos
Seminar, Dakar.
Jan-March: Whew! Lots on the boil this year. Judging in the Telkom
ICT Journalism competition, the Caxton journalism competition, and the
Mondi-Shanduka Newspaper Journalism competition. Updated a paper on journalism
education over the past decade, which I gave to the SA National Editors
Forum in December. Two
powerpoints to Workshops organised by Panos Roundtable in Daka, 21-22 March,
Dakar: Representing Africa; Research
February saw me gave a presentation
and paper on policy
to media executives in Mozambique, and deliver, in Germany, a presentation
(based on a report)
on the state of media freedom in SA.
I also wrote a submission
to ICASA on its draft licence conditions for SABC.
