Howard Thomas

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

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

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 rely on your instinct.

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 the writing is atrocious. So why are newspapers, and increasingly radio and television too, so unnecessarily paranoid, asks Howard Thomas.

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.

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 old-fashioned analogies make sense anymore.

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

Ferial Haffajee says the lack of transformation in our magazine industry makes her resistant to purchase.

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.

Ferial Haffajee says there is a discernible trend toward pre-publication censorship and it is shameful.

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.

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

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.

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

Howard Thomas considers the peculiarities around translating sub-titles.

Howard Thomas mulls the future of cellphone cinema.

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 Howard Thomas.