You can accuse Jon Qwelane of many things, but never of being diplomatic. He has made a life’s work of being rambunctious, otherwise, outspoken, contrary, troublesome and sharp-tongued. And that’s just the polite part. Now there is talk of this journalist being made an Ambassador.
Continue Reading Add comment January 20th, 2010
On the eTV controversy, I think there are two separate questions to ask and answer: was eTV wise to run this interview; and are the police wise to react so sternly?
Continue Reading 3 comments January 18th, 2010
The police are wrong to accuse eTV of promoting criminality or harbouring criminals with their interview of two unidentified men who promised violence and murder during the 2010 World Cup. They are also foolish to subpoena the station.
Continue Reading 1 comment January 18th, 2010
Two adverts caught my eye: Sunday Time’s giant front pages on buildings across Joburg and a mysterious bottle of whisky in the middle of a page in The Times.
Continue Reading 2 comments November 27th, 2009
Probing behind the Nasper’s results shows some interesting things: how bad things are in newspapers, how our TV market is changing quietly, and just how big and powerful Naspers is.
Continue Reading 2 comments November 27th, 2009
Last week’s newspaper circulation figures indicate that we may have joined the many countries seeing a rapid decline of the industry. Only one daily and one Sunday newspaper were the exception as sales plunged. Usually there are some that go up and some down, but this time it plummeted across the board.
Continue Reading 1 comment November 25th, 2009
In California, you can be your own virtual news editor, getting journalists to cover stories you think are important. If, that is, enough people agree with you that it is worth paying a few dollars for the story. Through the website www.spot.us, you can deal directly with journalists looking for work.
Continue Reading Add comment November 25th, 2009
It is a sad day when any newspaper closes, and the Weekender, whose last edition came today, was a paper that had enriched my Saturday reading considerably and had found a definite place in my home. There are two questions one must ask: why did it fail, and does this mean there is no place for such a serious newspaper in this big city of ours?
Continue Reading 2 comments November 7th, 2009
Communication Minister Siphiwe Nyanda’s response to my criticism of the new Public Service Broadcasting Bill is a disappointment, to say the very least. He resorts to the tired old cliches of declaring those who criticise his Bill to be resistant to change and unpatriotic.
Continue Reading 1 comment November 6th, 2009
Here are two interesting new forms of “collaborative” reporting, based on entirely new internet funding models: www.spot.us and www.demandmedia.com
Continue Reading Add comment November 2nd, 2009
The Public Broadcasting Bill published this week contains some good things, some bad things and some very bad things. If it is adopted in its current form, it will take us a away from public broadcasting and back towards state broadcasting again.
Continue Reading 1 comment October 31st, 2009
Great journalism comes from those who are prepared to swim against the tide, tirelessly and fearlessly. A few of them were in town this week.
Continue Reading Add comment October 31st, 2009
Sundays could become interesting again, at least for those of us who like our weekend newspapers. There is nothing like an infusion of new energy into the Sunday newspaper market, and hints of a circulation battle, to liven things up.
Continue Reading Add comment October 31st, 2009
Professor Anton Harber directs the Journalism and Media Studies Programme at Wits University. He is former editor of the Mail & Guardian.
Full bio
Among the main results from the World Association of Newspaper’s Newsroom Barometer (a survey of 700 editors and senior news execs in 120 countries) for this year:
- 86% believe integrated print and online newsrooms will become the norm, and 83% believe journalists will be expected to be able to produce content for all media within five years.
- Two-thirds believe some editorial functions will be outsourced, despite frequent newsroom opposition to the practice.
- A plurality - 44% - believe on-line will be the most common platform for reading news in the future, compared with 41% last year. Thirty-one cited print (down from 35% last year), 12% mobile and 7% e-paper. The rest were unsure.
- A majority of editors - 56%- believe news in the future will be free, up from 48% from last year’s survey. Only one-third believe the news will remain paid for, while 11% were unsure. - From Editors’ Weblog
There is a crisis in trust and communication between the British public and the mainstream media, a new report has concluded. The gulf between public expectations of news provision and the actual nature of articles, which oscillate between esoteric or irresponsible, leaves readers feeling confused and excluded.
The report, entitled ‘Public Trust In The News’ was conducted by researchers from Manchester and Leeds Universities and was published by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. - From Editors Weblog
Reflections on Journalism in the Transition to Democracy - Ethics & International Affairs 18, no. 3 (2004).
Journalism in the Age of the Market
- Harold Wolpe Memorial Lecture, Centre for Civil Society, University of KZN, Aug 2002
The Untimely Death of SA’s Finest Daily - Sunday Times, May 2005
“Two Newspapers, Two Nations? The Media and the Xenophobic Violence” from Go Home or Die Here, edited by Shireen Hassim Tawana Kupe and Eric Worby (WUP, 2008)
Remarks at Goedgedacht Forum, October 2008
The rise of social network journalism - From The 2009 Flux Trend Review (Macmillan, 2008)
A recent piece by me on the Zapiro cartoon row which appeared in Comment is Free, a Guardian blog.
