Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
Howard Thomas

Creator

Howard Thomas

Guest Author

Into the era of bastards

Howard Thomas says media education institutions need to be more realistic in their training.

Blogs and the single manager

Howard Thomas says citizen journalism poses little challenge to either the print or broadcast media.

The science of entertainment

Howard Thomas found a cute little mathematical formula for calculating whether a creative work is financially worthwhile. However, it might just be quicker and more accurate to…

Don’t reach for the Prozac

Give yourself just ten minutes to surf blogs on your favourite subject. What do you notice? There are masses to choose from but few have something interesting to contribute and…

Up to your eyeballs in media

Free-to-air television is often likened to a supermarket or corner café, while pay television is a boutique or shopping centre. But Howard Thomas believes none of these…

Crooking the quotas

The SABC is overloaded and its bureaucracy stretched. How could it be expected to police the affirmative action affairs of nearly 100 private companies, asks Howard Thomas.

Is TV going to become boring?

Howard Thomas wonders whether the explosion of new TV channels will make the world of broadcasting even more boring.

How to make unemployment worse

Howard Thomas says the television industry should wake up to the fact that at least three new broadcasters are starting up this year, and that they will need skilled staff.

There’s gold in thar hills (if you know how to mine)

Howard Thomas says "fresh, new, exciting, innovative" and "risk-free" are contradictions in terms when it comes to the production of local content.

Getting onto the ‘airwavy’ train

Howard Thomas suggests that the public broadcaster should offer free training to television producers, or at the very least develop a working relationship with TV and film schools.

The 2010 training hysteria

Howard Thomas says the media has no hope in hell of coping with the 2010 Soccer World Cup, unless training starts now.

Let’s get real about the future

Howard Thomas says dealing with the future of the media is a simple matter of knowing what the masses want – and that has not ever changed in the history of mankind.

The Tower of Babel

Howard Thomas considers the peculiarities around translating sub-titles.

The New Convergence

Broadcasters in South Africa will have to find new income streams and other ways of selling audiences to advertisers as viewers migrate to the internet and the new media, writes…

The REALLY small screen

Howard Thomas mulls the future of cellphone cinema.

Connected

There will be opportunities aplenty in local television in the coming years but this calls for ‘convergence’ in the industry, writes Howard Thomas.