Every year, the media reports on government and corporate sponsored initiatives such as Take a Girl Child to Work. But don’t we also have a responsibility to look into the implications of such well-meaning initiatives, asks Matebello Motloung.
The Afrikaans media has in the past demonstrated an uncanny ability to adapt to change while managing to retain a loyal following. Matebello Motloung considers some of the challenges faced by the strongest vernacular media in South Africa and its role in the democratic dispensation.
Nearly 80 percent of the world’s editors and senior newsroom managers view online journalism as a ”welcome addition”, according to the 2006 Newsroom Barometre released at the World Newspaper Congress.
South African broadcasting entered a new era in 1992 when the country’s first television talk show, The Felicia Mabuza-Suttle Show, premiered on SABC. However, 15 years later, local chat shows continue to be overshadowed by their more popular US counterparts in what must now be an old genre. Are the benchmarks set by the likes of The Oprah Winfrey Show too unattainable for local producers? Matebello Motloung finds out.
The outdoor industry is expected make more than R1.5-billion in ad revenue from the 2010 FIFA Soccer World Cup and BEE businessman Sandile Zungu is not planning on taking a back seat in this buoyant market. He recently purchased a controlling interest in Outdoor Network. Matebello Motloung and Tshepiso Seopa look at the man behind the billboards.
There is a lot that South African media practitioners, and the public in general, can learn from their African counterparts. If only we can get over ourselves, writes Matebello Motloung.
Custom magazines outshone the other categories in the first Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC) figures released for this year. This category showed a massive overall growth of 47.8 percent, according to circulation figures for the period between January and March 2007, which were released on Thursday.
Pressure is mounting on Johncom to announce a successor for its ousted chief executive officer Connie Molusi. Industry players believe his deputy, Prakash Desai, is the man for the job. But does he agree? Matebello Motloung talks to the man who many say has been running the show for a long time.
Sub-Saharan Africa’s first international business news channel goes on air in June. Matebello Motloung asks what impact CNBC Africa will have on business news broadcasting in South Africa.
The glaring success of the vernacular media should be proving sceptics wrong. The Media Diversity and Development Agency is now even considering reviving an old Xhosa-language newspaper. However, advertisers need to wake up to the fact that the affluent black market is not only interested in English media, writes Matebello Motloung.