Graeme Addison

Ensuring that clients get value for money from outdoor advertising has always been a headache. Now a key innovation in research technology could draw more adspend to outdoor. Graeme Addison looks at how innovators in the media are embracing "creative destruction" of the old by the new.

News and sport don’t really mix in the new South Africa, argues Graeme Addison. Politics, corruption, crime and uneasy questions are ruled out of sports coverage because that would spoil the game.

Why has the number of business broadcasters taken off so rapidly in the first ten years of democracy? Ten years ago, business broadcasting was a pretty dreary affair, confined to the business slot at the end of the news. Graeme Addison suggests that Bizotainment and money madness attract South Africans to the honeypot — even if they have no money to invest.

Media training in South Africa has been tasked with the job of turning out communicators who understand the country’s changing lifestyles. But are trainees equipped to reflect critically on social ills and developmental needs? There’s hardly a dilemma because the choice is easy, reckons Graeme Addison.

Reality TV is the fantasy theatre of pop culture, writes Graeme Addison. People watch it to confirm their moral outlook on life and prepare for disasters, natural or man-made. It may not be real, but it’s sure riveting.

Far from being purely escapist, television soap operas tap into elemental human hopes, hatreds and fears – and in South Africa they directly confront social issues, writes Graeme Addison. Look on their works, ye mighty, and tremble.

"After its "annus horribilis" last year, what South African journalism could do with now is some colonic irrigation." Our newspapers and magazines may be chock-full of mediocre dross, but there is some shine. David Bullard gives a run down of his personal favourites.

Business acumen and shrewd editorial insight on black tabloids have combined to pioneer new markets. Graeme Addison looks at how the daily newspaper scene is opening hidden facets of South African life.

Election year 2004 promises to be a tough test for radio. Independent SABC news and current affairs commentary has the "philosophical" backing of senior management. Graeme Addison inspects what this could mean in the race to elect the third democratic government in South Africa.

It should be the mantra of the money media: No anarchists please, we’re business writers. Financial journalism is about money, stupid, not about people with no money! Graeme Addison sets out to raise the hackles of the financial press.

Recently the editor of Business Report, Alide Dasnois, criticised Reserve Bank governor Tito Mboweni for his arrogance and rudeness in dealing with journalists’ questions. This incident got Graeme Addison asking journalists their experiences of how senior officials and politicians treat them.

Hard-hitting current affairs shows are the very best of South African television, writes Graeme Addison. They may not show the country in the best light, but they are best at lighting up the country.

How many journalists actually attend events before writing their reviews? Unless astral projection is the explanation, David Bullard has the dirt on more than one offender.

Remember the heady days when SABC radio was officially His Masters Voice and the volk hung on every word from on high? Those days are long gone but, argues Graeme Addison, an intense battle for the hearts and minds of Afrikaners is being fought on radio.

A kind of hijack is under way in the press, with new tabloids drawing new readers from the Kwaito generation. Graeme Addison reflects on the challenges to mainstream newspapers.

Afrikaans magazines have outgrown the early political origins of Huisgenoot to become diverse, niched and commercially competitive but still ethnic in content and spirit. Nothing wrong with that, writes Graeme Addison.

A new upbeat spirit is driving the Afrikaans press in spite of apparently stagnant readerships. Graeme Addison argues that there is plenty of slack to be taken up as Afrikaans publishers go after black readers and seek to recapture the youth.

Sidebar to ‘Volk in search of a common frequency’

Sports sponsorship is not just big business it may be THE business of media today. Graeme Addison looks at sports TV and reports on the growing, and worrying, trend to lock up spectator value and keep out the competition.