Funding and support for the Wits Radio Academy has come from a number of organisations, primarily the Media Development and Diversity Agency and Kagiso Media.
The Media Development and Diversity Agency
Funding support focused on the academy’s training programmes comes from the MDDA, which was set up by an Act of Parliament (Act 14 of 2002) to enable “historically disadvantaged communities and persons not adequately served by the media” to gain access to the media. Its beneficiaries will be community media and small commercial media.
To achieve its objective, the MDDA will:
- Encourage ownership and control of, and access to, media by historically disadvantaged communities, historically diminished indigenous language and cultural groups;
- Encourage the channelling of resources to community and small commercial media;
- Encourage human resource development and capacity building in the media industry, especially amongst historically disadvantaged groups;
- Encourage research regarding media development and diversity
Click on the logo to visit the MDDA’s website.
Support for Voice of Wits 90.5 and for the Kagiso Media Training Centre comes from Kagiso Media, a black owned and managed investment holding company with interests in substantial media assets.
In broadcasting, the group’s interests include controlling investments in East Coast Radio and Jacaranda 94.2 and strategic stakes in OFM (Bloemfontein), Heart 104.9 (Cape Town) and iGagasi 99.5 (KwaZulu-Natal). The group has interests in Kaya FM (Johannesburg) and RadMark, a national radio advertising sales house. It is also active in the information services and solutions sector, through LexisNexis; in outdoor, through Clear Channel Merafe; and in a range of exhibitions and events.
Click on the logo to visit Kagiso Media’s website.
Wits University’s journalism programme
The Radio Academy is situated in Wits University’s department of journalism, a rich and exciting centre of teaching, training, research and public engagement for aspirant and working journalists.
The department is steeped in a tradition of independent, critical, quality journalism. Courses are taught by journalists with many years of experience and seniority in the profession.
Wits University’s journalism programme offers two streams: a career-entry route for graduates who want to become journalists; and a mid-career route for working journalists who wish to develop their skills and knowledge.
There are a range of scholarships and internships on offer.
The programme has a research arm, the Media Observatory, and projects include the HIV/Aids and the Media project, the Investigative Journalism Workshop, and the website journalism.co.za.
Click on the logo to read more about the programme.
