Registration for The Media School is open!

The Media School is officially open for business! Both the Facebook and email campaigns are going great guns - we've had a lot of responses, and interestingly many working people are enquring about our part-time courses, showing that there really is a need out there for the upgrading or learning of new skills. Thank you to everyone out there who is helping to promote our school by word of mouth/email/Facebook! 

Media Freedom Week

It's National Media Freedom Week, and the Right2Know campaign is springboarding its Week of Action from 19-27 October, urging citizens to send a clear message to the South African government to "Stop the Secrecy Bill! Let the Truth Be Told!"

On the bizcommunity.com site, it states that the Secrecy Bill (the Protection of Information Bill) currently before Parliament threatens the gains of South Africans' struggle for freedom and a responsive and accountable democracy that can meet the basic needs of people is built upon transparency and the free flow of information. This bill fundamentally undermines the struggle for whistleblower protection and access to information. It is one of a number of proposed measures, which could have the combined effect of fundamentally undermining the right to access information and the freedom of expression enshrined in the Constitution.

Action steps

• Show your support for the Right2Know. Sign the statement at www.right2know.org.za or SMS "R2K", followed by your name and town/city to 32759;
• Organise public meetings, workshops, pickets or protests during the Week of Action. Invite a representative of the Right2Know to speak at your event;
• Contact a Member of Parliament and tell them your concerns. The chair of the committee is Cecil Burgess - you can call him on +27 (0)21 403 2911 or email him at cburgess@parliament.gov.za
• Write a letter to your local paper or call into talk radio explaining your concerns about the bill;
• Stay in touch:
• Facebook: Right 2 Know Campaign
• Twitter: @r2kcampaign
• Campaign's discussion group: http://groups.google.com/group/InfoAccessNow
• Website: www.right2know.org.za

So what is the Protection of Information Bill? Do some research and find out what it's all about. What do you think? What happens to the power of the media if access to information is restricted? 

Media Tribunal - we're the watchdog of the government, but does the media also need one?



The proposal that a Media Tribunal be established to keep checks on the media has been met with indignation by many sectors of society. Would this mean a curtailment of the public's right to know? Or simply a method to slap the media on the wrist when they cross the line? Read what the CEO of the Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business (PCB), Andrew Layman, has to say on the issue, as he tries to look at the topic from both sides.

 

"The Government’s Protection of Information Bill and the ANC’s proposal for the establishment of a Media Tribunal have brought the matters of the freedom of the press and the right of the public to know right into the foreground. People within the media have reacted with righteous indignation at the suggestion that their exposés might be curtailed.    My view is that the public’s right to know, which is one of the rights enshrined in the constitution by the way, needs as much protection as possible, even if the media, on whom we rely to pass on information, is often less responsible than it should be.      

Recently, for example, poster headlines proclaimed that “Mayor owes council R277 000”.    This seemed to me to be a very unfortunate choice of headline.   We have two mayors in the city and it would be a reasonable assumption on the part of local people who saw the headline on posters that either Mr Tarr or Mr Bhamjee was the one who had failed to pay his dues.     Those who bought the newspaper would have discovered, on about page four, that it was the Mayor of Umngeni, in fact, who had been fingered.    It is likely that people who didn’t read the paper are still of the view that one of our first citizens is the debtor.     Such is the influence of the print media.    It is interesting to reflect that the majority of the population does not read a newspaper.    We think that if we “put something in the paper”, everyone will know about it.  This is very far from the truth.  

I don’t believe for a moment that the crafting of this headline was done with any intent to embarrass the Mayor.   It was designed to sell papers.    Headlines titillate the insatiable taste that the public has for sensationalism, so the publicity creates a desire-to-know which results in sales.    As one who writes articles regularly, I am often astonished by the headlines that are attached by the sub-editors; sometimes they misrepresent badly what I have written.   In one headline I remember, the view that I had expressed in the article was totally contradicted, but not because the person responsible was looking for the right selling pitch, but because he or she hadn’t read the article carefully enough.

In the last week, the Chamber has suffered some embarrassment by announcing to its members and others that COSATU was to engage in an illegal strike on Thursday 7^th October.     This was not true, but the source of the information was thought to be impeccable.    What had happened was that someone had misinterpreted a sentence in a speech made by Zwelinzima Vavi who had said COSATU would “take to the streets” on the 7^th to protest against labour brokers and the casualisation of labour.   This was not the announcement of a strike, but a demonstration.    I have learnt over the years that it is worth checking sources and the information that is relayed.  

Many contemporary journalists, it seems, do not check.   They publish information they are fed, often by people who use the media to pursue factional agendas of their own.    Such is the extent of political back-stabbing that the media offers a wonderful opportunity for unscrupulous people to hit at their enemies.    I’m not sure that all journalists want to check.   After all, the truth is never quite so sensational.    I don’t know that we want journalists to check either.   We represent the market, after all, and we delight in scandals, celebrity trivia and any information, true or false, that brings some prominent person down.   So, between us, we have compromised media integrity.   

But whatever the negative effects of this may be, they are still infinitely preferable to a media that is unable to publish information that might expose corruption, fraud or incompetence because the leaders concerned would prefer this to be obscured."

This is an issue that we're going to follow closely next , and students will have to regularly debate this topic .               

• Do research into the background of the issue of the establishment of a media tribunal and discuss this issue.
• What do YOU think the importance is of freedom of expression? 
• Checking facts is vital to journalism. Discuss how this highlights the difference between real journalists and citizen journalists. (Do a search for a definition of citizen journalism and compile your own definition - ensure your sources are valid.)

One of the subjects at The Media School is Social Media, where we'll be looking at how to use applications such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and blogs, amongst others, in journalism and public relations.

Facebook launched a new feature this week under Groups where users can create private havens for co-workers or family members, for example, to get together. It will be interesting to see if businesses start using these to hold meeetings or conferences, or for like-minded people to find a place to chat in peace.

Another new feature that is going to be rolled out is one that will let Facebook users see and manage what information in their accounts is accessed by third-party applications. It's a tough one for businesses - on the one hand, you want as many people as possible to view your site, but on the other hand, you have no control over who these people are and what they do with your information. With this new feature, it looks like you'll have more power to manage this.

Countdown begins!

So we're nearly there! Our website at www.themediaschool.co.za is just about ready to go live - have had to realise that it can never be perfect - every time I log onto it, I end up adding something new to it! Feels like it will never end... But it's been loads of fun playing around with Joomla - what an awesome content management system. You do need to know a little about html, but even with the most basic knowledge you can design your own website and load it up with content and images. I can't wait to teach my students how to use html and Joomla and watch them sink their teeth into it!

Our marketing strategy begins tomorrow - we've joined forces with Brenda Horner from the Gap Academy and Decor School and Catherine da Costa from Cookalooks so we're all going to do our marketing with each other, using our network of contacts. So it will just be word of mouth to start off with - or is that word of mail?? - and is going to be a very interesting marketing experiment - will post results to this blog!