Sean Jacobs

Experience of low power FM technology in the United States could show the way for greater media diversity in South Africa. Sean Jacobs reports.

Does black-owned media in the US offer better coverage of minority issues than its mainstream counterparts? Sean Jacobs says not, which explains why shaking up the racial make-up of South African journalism is not enough.

In a look back at media coverage of the Cape’s "Manenberg Tornado", Sean Jacobs remembers that the local press can be as dismissive of citizens’ socio-economic right as US media were during and after Hurricane Katrina.

<i>New York Times</i> reporter Judith Miller abetted the illegal activities of White House officials in a campaign to smear a whistle-blower. Sean Jacobs writes that her jail sentence was more a statement on the sorry state of journalism than a heroic protection of her sources.

Was Hurricane Katrina a "perfect storm" for the US mainstream media or signs of a sea change in the country’s journalism? Sean Jacobs considers the coverage.

In South Africa there’s no broadsheet snobbery of the type David Bullard remembers as a kid in the UK. So why doesn’t the <i>Sunday Times</i> come out in tabloid form?

Who hasn’t David Bullard had a go at in the last three years? The column has not been what one would call balanced journalism, but it has upset some important people and raised a few smiles.

US consumers see political campaigns as no different to any other product-based advert, so the last three years has seen the emergence of new media forms that challenge the inclination to tune out. Sean Jacobs reflects on the successes.

South Africa is sorely missing a real journal of opinion, of the ilk of the US’s <i>The Nation</i>. Sean Jacobs looks at the lessons held in the memoirs of <i>The Nation</i>’s publisher, Victor Navasky.

David Bullard argues that, just like the era of the niche bank, the era of the niche magazine will be a short one. Is there a similar smell to the hype?

US TV news has a fondness for covering the disappearances of white women, the more attractive and middle-class the better. Sean Jacobs asks what this says about coverage of women in general.

A Latin American regional television news network is due to be launched in Venezuela this month. Sean Jacobs says SABC Africa could learn from the station’s strategy for challenging Western media’s hegemony.

The SABC is in good company when it takes heat for being an ANC instrument. Sean Jacobs writes that public broadcasting in the US is buckling under the weight of Republican influence.

It’s ludicrous that recourse in a defamation action should only be available to those with deep pockets. David Bullard suggests a cheaper alternative for both defamed and alleged defamer.

Local labour voices have moved up from community initiatives to a slot on national SABC station SAfm. Sean Jacobs analyses this development in the context of the relationship between labour unions and media in the US.

If it’s true that life imitates art, will the rival TV dramas <i>Scandal</i> and <i>Hard Copy</i> change life in the newsroom? David Bullard wonders if his editor is about to buy a white three-piece suit.

Is there a common thread to the recent resignations of SABC chief executive Peter Matlare and FCC chairman Michael Powell? Sean Jacobs draws the parallels?

"Usually I am consumed by what is wrong with US media, but this time around, I thought it might be appropriate to celebrate what is occasionally right with the media here, especially television," writes <i>The Media</i> columnist Sean Jacobs. An HBO show called <i>The Wire</i> is breaking all the rules of TV police drama.

The cultural conservatives seem to be winning US media’s "moral wars". They have perfected the art of expressing their displeasure about programming through blast emails and weblogs. Sean Jacobs looks at how the dirty-word police keep films like <i>Saving Private Ryan</i> off the air.

US media coverage of Africa may be scant, shallow and sensationalist, but there’s more to it than racism and lack of interest. Sean Jacobs picks apart the forces at play.

For the last twenty years television network news in the United States (US) has been dominated by three well-paid, white males. Each of whom, have developed unparalleled levels of trust and visibility amongst the American TV-watching public. But the US could now be witnessing the end of the network television news anchor.

The documentary film has a newfound importance in the US political and news process, writes Sean Jacobs. Not only do they offer a potentially big upside off small budgets, they play outside the rules of the major news outlets.

TS Elliot once wrote "And so each venture is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate with shabby equipment always deteriorating…" David Bullard likens the tools available to journos in local newsrooms to mining for gold with a teaspoon.

Americans won’t have much to go on when it comes to casting their ballots in November, unless of course you count the revelation that John Kerry once rescued his daughters’ drowning hamster. Sean Jacobs considers the triviality of U.S. presidential race coverage.