Lecturer/Associate Lecturer – Journalism and Media Studies

The Department of Journalism in the School of Literature and Language Studies is seeking to employ a Lecturer/Associate Lecturer in Journalism on a three-year renewable contract. The successful candidate will teach all aspects of journalism to career-entry students. Applicants should be committed to excellence in both journalism and teaching, and have at least five years of newsroom experience. Preference will be given to those with multi-media skills, teaching experience and/or indigenous language fluency.

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Mayfair,Johannesburg

A project of the 2015 Wits Honours in Journalism class.

Mayfair.Joburg is a project of the full-time Wits Journalism Honours programme.

At the end of the year students explore a selected topic in depth. They roam a geographic region in Johannesburg, digging for dirt or gold. They strive to craft their long-form journalism into showpieces of writing and make their multimedia pieces shine.

This year we chose the historically rich and culturally diverse areas of Mayfair and Fordsburg, a few kilometres from the campus of Wits University.

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Bheki Makhubu’s 2015 Carlos Cardoso Lecture

In the early '90s, as a young reporter at The Times of Swaziland, I heard about a news sheet that was being published and distributed through the fax machine. While I could not get my head around this innovation, among the more senior journalists in Swaziland at the time the buzzword was that it was a brilliant idea, the latest trend in publishing technology. There was much excitement about it.

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Reporting with Power

Recently Wits University hosted a Power Reporting conference where investigative reporters from across the African continent gathered for a boot camp of sorts in investigative journalism. Power Reporting is part of a global network of investigative journalists who hold conferences across the world.

Tobore Ovuorie is a Senior Reporter from online investigation publication Premium Times. She travelled from West Africa to speak about herlast investigation where she exposed the world of human trafficking in Nigeria by going undercover, something no-one should take lightly.

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OPINION: A Twitter revolution in sub-Saharan Africa?

Crediting social media platforms for provoking “The Arab Spring” popular protests in 2010-11, commentators have been making unsubstantiated claims that the revolution would re-emerge.

This time further south. Indeed, it would be imprudent to ignore the social networks’ potential as platforms for social and political change.

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Exploring the gaps in legislation and policy frameworks for ICTs

The acronym ICTs (Information and Communications Technologies) can cover lots of things. In some contexts, it includes broadcasting; in others it is shorthand for the Internet (but not cellular telephony).

It spans lots of hardware types, for sending, storing or receiving data, and even more software systems which set the hardware in motion.

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The importance of an empowered African tech media

Organized in partnership with the Department of Communications of South Africa, development agencies and media associations, the conference was located within the marvelous campus of the Rhodes University School of Journalism. Close to 400 delegates, made up of academics, media professionals, students and activists, turned up to this year’s conference, demonstrating the continued popularity and pertinence of such a gathering.

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Key tools for journalists in the newsroom today

Journalists need to think differently about how they research the stories they tell, how they package their stories for an ever evolving audience and the best ways to mine data from the many platforms that exists out there. There are three key areas for journalists that tools exist to help make their news reporting lives easier. Research, tracking, and visualisation.

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Tech trends in the African news media space

Daily news consumption varies greatly based on location and access to technology. Indeed, changes in the media industry have also had a huge impact. Newspapers in most regions have seen a decline due to increased levels of television and radio penetration. But social media is also on the rise (AD27, 2015).

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Law Focus on Women in Revolution

Women have played a crucial role in protest and politics in South Africa, and this time on #LawFocus we discuss the complexity of their struggle.

We discuss this with Professor of Politics at Wits University, Shireen Hassim. Communications Manager for Oxfam South Africa, Simamkele Dlakavu gives us her experience of the women’s movement#Mbokodolead during the recent Fees Must Fall protests

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The Science Inside #32 – M1 Bridge Collapse

Following the bridge collapse on the M1 highway, we look at the science inside bridges and traffic.

Vick Wilson Tailor from UWP Consulting gives you the basics of building a bridge, before Prof Alex Elvin from Wits University explain how engineers try to prevent failures and react when they do happen.

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The Business Buzz – #Feesmustfall

Over recent weeks, the country has been plagued by protesting students demanding that the Department of Higher Education and Training suspend their proposed free increments across various Universities.

The outrage was sparked when the University of Witwatersrand announced plans to increase fees by 10, 5% – an increment higher than the current inflation rate.

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Economics Journalism Bursaries Available for Post-Grads 2016

Are you fascinated by economics? Are you passionate about having an impact on national debates? Then tune into the Rhodes University School of Journalism and Media Studies. In conjunction with the South African Reserve Bank Centre for Economics Journalism, we are offering bursaries for candidates with strong economic journalism interests wishing to pursue post-graduate studies in 2016.

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