Despite the media’s wish for a neat story, the African continent’s response to Covid-19 is all over the map
Live TV broadcasts of political rallies, funerals and press conferences, may be more decisive than social media in shaping mass debate in South Africa
Winnie Madikizela-Mandela’s legacy should not be reduced to the uncomplicated heroism that exemplifies today’s personality politics
In 1990, a few months after his release from jail, Nelson Mandela toured the United States and helped cement Americans’ popular associations with SA.
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…
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…
<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…
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?
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.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
