Sean Otoole

Nowadays, South Africa’s media training institutions all agree that students should be trained to think critically about the broad forces shaping a post-apartheid society. Sean O’Toole compares the curriculums and asks whether tuition is succeeding.

Is private television’s role as an instrument of nation building in Africa being challenged by the profit motive of multinational broadcasters? Sean O’Toole investigates the arguments, with a focus on MultiChoice Africa. The local conglomerate also has a chance to respond.

The "quality" debate in local television production is essentially a standoff between economic pragmatists and nation-building ideologues. Sean O’Toole unpacks the quota quagmire, and gets views from top dogs like Franz Marx and Greg Marinovich.

Where once even the pictures were politically problematic, Afrikaans magazines are unburdening themselves of their historical legacy. Sean O’Toole writes that this sector reflects how the ideological purity of the language is splintering.

‘It is not very nice being white in South Africa if you’re young, even though I’m not a racist and had nothing to do with apartheid ever," reads an anonymous comment posted on the www.southafrica.com website. It is by no means a lone assertion. Ten years into democracy, Sean O’Toole wonders if white South Africans are ready to transform their collective identity.

This month <i>The Media</i> goes out on a thin limb to suggest the ten most influential media bosses on the African continent. The list is compiled by Sean O’Toole and Kevin Bloom, in consultation with Professor Tawana Kupe, and is based on criteria including economic muscle, political authority and cultural clout.