News Annual Reports 2001 Annual Report | 2001 Annual Report |
| Written by Keyan Tomaselli | |
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1. RESEARCH HIGHLIGHTS FOR THE PROGRAMME: Research Overview CMS continued with a number of international research projects. Political Economy of the Southern African Media - involved collaborators from most SA Development Community states, as well as from Norway, the Carribean, the UK and the USA. This ongoing National Research Foundation (NRF) sponsored project seeks to establish a network of graduate students and academics exploring new ways of understanding globalisation within the SADC region. Co-ordinators of this project are Professors Keyan Tomaselli and Ruth Teer-Tomaselli. An edited anthology, Media, Democracy and Renewal in South Africa, will appear from this project, as has a theme issue of Media Development. Semiotics of the Encounter - a comparative analysis, led by Tomaselli, of cultural tourism and visual anthropology of San and Zulu developed into a dialogue with our San informants on issues of methodology, identity and human rights. Sponsored by the NRF and URF, the project aims to rethink the way that indigenous peoples have been represented in the Western media, and to understand the ways in which they represent themselves, and what happens when observers and observed meet and engage. A theme issue of Cultural Studies <--> Critical Methodologies will publish staff and student studies from this project in 2003. State of the Discipline: Communication Studies - involved a discussion of disciplinary, methodological and paradigmatic issues impacting teaching and research - researched by Tomaselli and Arnold Shepperson, This NRF project connected to an intersecting one on Semiotics, in which Shepperson sought to develop a pragmatic vision of the social origins and grounding of media and journalism. Human Resources and the Media - Towards Affirmative Action: Issues of Race and Gender in Media Organisations conducted by Farhana Goga and managed by the Tomasellis. The final report of this UNESCO-sponsored project was launched nationally. Media Memories - The media memories study group is an informal group of fourteen international scholars. The objective is to produce a cross-country, cross generation study of what people remember about the media. The participating countries are Austria, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, Chile, China, Czech Republic, Germany, India, Japan, Mexico, South Africa and the USA. The overall goal of the project is to contribute to the understanding of the 20th century by bringing to the fore media events -i.e. news stories, of one century, not as historical ‘facts’ but as substantial elements of a new global collective memory, across different generations and geographical world regions. Teer-Tomaselli’s contribution to the project is two-fold: to provide the South African context, and to write one of the framing papers on media markers and collective memory. Intended outcomes includes two chapters in the book under the auspices “Global Media Generations”, (working title) edited by Ingrid Volkmer, team leader (to be published by Peter Lang Publishing, Frankfurt, Bern, Oxford and New York. The book will be part of the Popular Culture and Everyday Life series, edited by Toby Miller), as well as a paper to be delivered at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, USA. Media in Transition: Globalization and convergence, and international conference. 10-12 May 2002. Women In Research Discovering The Audience: Media Consumption Among South African Youth - South Africa has a predominantly youthful population. Approximately one quarter of the population, just over nine million persons, are between the ages of 10-20. Youth and media, and more specifically, youth and television, has been identified as an area of concern internationally. No research exists focussing directly on the consumption and cultural meanings of television within the 15-20 year old age group. This study aims to provide a starting point to such a qualitative research attempt. Participants were drawn from across the racial, gender and class demographics, both in school, and those who are outside the school experience. The project attempts to map out, in a preliminary fashion, the ways in which South African youth ‘make sense’ of their world in the light of the television programming they watch. The research concentrates on an audience reception analysis. Attention has been paid to the way in which messages are constructed, consumed and internalised, as well as the ways in which they are integrated into, or conflict with the norms and conventions of ‘everyday’ South African youth life. Two master’s theses have already been completed under the auspices of the project (Powers 2001; Smith 2001), while a further has been completed in 2002 and is presently under examination (Donnelly 2002). Two doctoral theses are expected to be completed in 2002 (Ivala forthcoming and Tager forthcoming). Community Radio Project: Representations Of Community: A Comparative Study of Five Community Radio Stations in the Durban Area [With particular reference to their interaction with their target communities] - Community radio is usually considered complementary to traditional media operations and as a participatory model for media management and production. Community radio stations are tasked with the provision of local programming and the encouragement of maximum participation by the community in this programming, as well as in the ownerships, management, and control of the radio station. The project entails a comparative study of five community radio stations within the greater Durban area. The primary purpose is to explore the radio stations’ relation to, and representation of, their self-defined ‘communities’. At the start of the project, five community radio stations in the greater Durban area were identified, and make up the corps of the study. As the study draws to a close, only two are still on-air. The study, therefore, is a rare survey of some of the factors, which allow for viability within the community media sector. Outcomes of this project include: Teer-Tomaselli R E Who is the community in community radio?. In K G Tomaselli and H Dunn, Media, democracy and renewal in Southern Africa, 2002 (forthcoming). [The chapter provides a comparative overview of three radio stations: Radio Khwezi, Durban Youth Radio and Radio Phoenix.] Completed theses and assignments.
UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, Professor Abdul W Khan outlined UNESCO’s objectives in calling for a consultation as an effort to revive UNESCO’s human-centred development focus and to improve collaboration with the existing community of scholars and researchers despite limited resources. The mission of UNESCO was cited as: to promote the free-flow of information, knowledge and data;to encourage the creation of diversified contents; and to facilitate equitable access to information and to the means of sharing knowledge while at the same time giving attention to institutional capacity building.’ Short Term Objectives. 1. A UNESCO position paper to be presented to the World Summit on the Information Society in 2003. This was necessary in order for UNESCO to regain an influential role in global policy making, and for ethical concerns to be raised alongside discussions on the application of technology. The meeting agreed that participants’ concerns should be conflated under the broad headings of: availability, access and affordability. 2. A UNESCO-led dialogue to develop between all levels of the global society to encourage inclusion and the creation of interlinkages, underpinned by the promotion of a community approach Peace University Initiative - On April 20-21, 2001, the University for Peace brought together in Paris 50 international experts on the media, education, training and peace-keeping to assess and improve the three-year development plan of the university's planned Media and Peace Institute. The Institute - "an intellectual tool for preventive diplomacy" - aims to educate people in the many ways the media interact with issues of war, peace and security. It is aimed at two kinds of participants: persons from areas of recent, current or potential conflict; and persons from countries strongly concerned with international peace and security. It also plans a research programme targeting urgent international peace-related questions in which the media play a role. By its education and research programmes, and by its day-to-day contacts with UN and regional peacekeeping bodies, the Institute will contribute to new thinking about how free media can help prevent conflict and alert decision-makers, as well as the general public, to looming risks of war. Programme: Complementary operational areas: Training: Likely about 75% of total effort (mainly in the field, co-developed with local experts and reputable international training organizations, and with input from peace-keeping clients, media NGOs and media organizations). University-level education in conjunction with the main UPEACE campus and with major international universities or high-level professional training centers.Research: Participants made many suggestions, while usually emphasizing the highly desirable link between research and the classroom. MPI should be committed, they said, to doing research that makes a difference, that has a strong impact. They said research reports should be readily accessible to, and understood by, policy-makers and the general public, as well as being of practical value to journalists, editors and publishers involved in conflict reporting. It should target practical issues that have been insufficiently studied to date but which concern the role of the media in pre-conflict, conflict or post-conflict situations. DramAidE Activities: January -December 2001 [Professor Lynn Dalrymple, Director: DramAidE] Summary of Major Projects 2001 Primary Schools Life Skills Project [funded by Richards Bay Minerals] - The project is sponsored by RBM as part of their social responsibility programme, in previously disadvantaged schools, where the majority of their employees live. The project began in 1999 and is ongoing. A Life skills programme and HIV/ AIDS education is offered to approximately 800 grade 7 learners in 8 primary schools. In one year the programme reaches +/-5000 learners in their respective schools. Health promoting clubs have been recently launched in all schools. The clubs have responded very well to the concept of health promotion (and) in schools and have initiated a number of projects. One of the clubs has started making AIDS bead pins and others have been involved in gardening, and sanitation. Some clubs have raised funds to start a club account. The spirit of these young learners is very encouraging and they are demonstrating that they are committed to making a success of their health-promoting clubs. Mobilising Young Men to Care [Phase 2] - Workshops were offered in Tertiary Institutions and to NGOs on the theme of gender responsibility. Copies of the video ‘See You at Seven’ and the accompanying Guide were given to all participants. An evaluation undertaken by CADRE [Centre for AIDS Development, Research and Evaluation] is available. The evaluation showed that the DramAidE methodology made an important impact on students and NGO staff and that students were stimulated to organise activities on their campuses and in their local communities relating to issues of gender and HIV/AIDS. Life Skills Training Workshops - Department of Education - The Department of Education invited service providers to tender week by week for a four day Life Skills training programme for primary school educators. DramaidE was selected as a suitable service provider because of its experience, expertise and research in training in this field. DramaidE has been a very active role player and in fact a trend-setter in life skills education. DramaidE’s training style is characterised by a unique yet popular methodology that is interactive and participatory. DramAidE has so far trained approximately 1300 educators throughout the province of KwaZulu-Natal. These educators were mainly from primary schools, grade 5 to 7. Within this programme DramAidE was able to influence educators to use drama-based techniques that promote learner-centred activities instead of rote learning methods. The advantage of the methodology is that it can be used without expensive resources and most schools benefit from a methodology rooted in the oral tradition. [a] Gender responsibility project for the Department of Education [UND] - This project was run over the month of March 2001 in the two schools selected by the University of Natal. School principals and organising teachers were consulted beforehand and they were very co-operative and supportive of the project. Each group had thirty to forty participants. The project consisted of the following activities: A series of workshops around issues relating to HIV/AIDS and gender responsibility;A series of workshops on playmaking, The making and presenting of a play in both schools, and A teachers workshop in both schools. The project was evaluated and deemed to have made an impact on learners. [b] Educator Development in the Escourt Region - This project was run from August 2001- December 2001 in Escourt. The Department of Education [UND] has identified a number of barriers to learning. Among these barriers are the socio-economic barriers that place learners at risk such as child abuse, the HIV/AIDS epidemic, violence, crime, substance abuse and poverty. This project focused on HIV/AIDS and related issues as barriers to learning. DramAidE worked in partnership with teachers in schools to develop appropriate Life Orientation learning programmes and materials to address barriers to learning as identified above. A play made by out-of-school youth was presented as a discussion starter. Valley Trust - The HIV/AIDS Epidemic: Re-negotiating The Reality: Creating A Community Training Forum - DramAidE is assisting the Valley Trust’s AIDS Unit with a community project in the Ngcolosi area. The project is being funded by the Canada Fund, and began in April 2001. The aim of the project is to attempt to renegotiate the attitudes and risk behaviour dominant in the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the Ngcolosi area, by presenting workshops to as many groups of people within this one community as possible. The methodology used will be a combination of drama techniques and narrative therapy practices. Peer Life Skills Training Courses In HIVAIDS [Funded by the British Consulate] - A series of 4x 4 day workshops with out-of-school youth was offered in Mtubatuba, Empangeni, Escourt and Ndwedwe. DramAidE has established youth clubs in these regions and the training of out-of-school youth provided links between youth attending school and those out of school. Young people who leave school and remain in the area were able to join clubs formed by out-of-school youth and continue their role as peer educators. Unemployed young people provide a service to the community by offering health education to their peers and develop leadership and other skills that could lead to job opportunities. The aim of the project is to integrate and link health-promoting activities in rural areas. 1.2 LARGE RESEARCH FUNDING GRANTS (OVER R0.25M) THAT THE PROGRAMME HAS ATTRACTED Semiotics of the Encounter [NRF large project funding] R178 000.00Political Economy of Southern African Media [NRF & WACC] R213 270.00 Grants / Tenders awarded to DramAidE in 2001 A consortium consisting of Comutanet, CADRE, DramAidE and NAPWA have been awarded a tender to offer an HIV/AIDS communications campaign for commuters from October 2001 - 2002. Value of contract for DramAidE is R440 000.Life Skills Training for Teachers and Peer Educators for KZN Department of Education. Series of 4 day workshops. R400 000. Donor and Funds Committed:
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA, Centre for Communication Programmes 33 National Workshops on Mobilising Young Men to Care: R750 000 January - Dec 2001 1.3 INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH LINKAGES THAT HAVE BEEN ESTABLISHED CMS's previous link with the Central College, Pella, Iowa, was complemented with a five year link with the Caribbean Institute for Media and Communication (CARIMAC), University of West Indies, Kingston. CARIMAC is a key player in the Southern African and South-South Working Group on Media, Culture and Communication, established at the 2000 Political Economy Seminar. Other major participants in this project are the NRF's International Science Liaison Office, the Department of Media and Communication, University of Oslo and the World Association for Christian Communication (London). In public health communication, CMS connected with the Centre for Communication, Johns Hopkins University, a teaching research programme which also includes DramAidE and CADRE, with research students working for a UNAIDS and a variety of African health agencies.CMS continued with its joint construction of a web site on African cinema with the Michigan State University African Media Program, and forged links with Southern African Communiations for Development, a development and policy NGO representing 50+ film and video producers in the region. 1.4 IMPORTANT INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH COLLABORATORS WHO HAVE SPENT TIME IN THE PROGRAMME
1. CURRENT HONOURS RESEARCH PROJECTS - 2001 Delate R Beyond awareness: A critical evaluation of the LoveLife campaign and the ‘beyond awareness campaign’ in South Africa. 2. CURRENT MASTERS RESEARCH PROJECTS - 2001
3. CURRENT DOCTORAL RESEARCH PROJECTS - 2001 Bi Niba M: An evaluation of the effectiveness and appropriateness of health promotion interventions with particular reference to HIV/AIDS.Boloka G: Globalization and the Restructuring of the Post-Apartheid Media, 1994-1999. Caldwell M: Making the Newsmakers: Reconceptualizing democratic or creative process in news writing as discursive resistance in the public sphere. Heuva W: The Namibian broadcasting and telecommunications policy and practice in a changing regional and global political economy: 1990-2000. Ivala E: The uses of television broadcast based distance education. A case study of the Liberty Life Learning Channel programme. Makore S: An analysis of future challenges in information and communication technologies in Southern Africa: A case study of Zimbabwean tertiary education systems. Mhiripiri N: The tourist viewer, the bushmen and the Zulu: Imaging, (re)invention and negotiation of identities. Muhammad B: Trying to be cinema: Nigerian film policy and the emergence of Hausa home video movies, 1990-2000. Sehume J: Cultural Tourism: Representation of San and Zulu cultures. Sendah M: Towards a theory of public health communication and reception: the South African AIDS memorial quilt. (Mr Sendah has suspended his studies.) Shepperson A: Culture as a radical non-political solution to historical political problems, and its subsequent elaboration as independent political problematic: A pragmaticist conceptual interpretation of cultural studies in the light of political philosophy and theories. Smith R: Production, consumption and identities: The process of reading television by black African youths residing in Durban. Tager M: The Bold and the Beautiful: The relationship between the fictional universe of the soap operas and the lived experience of the urban black viewer in KwaZulu-Natal. THESES PASSED FOR HIGHER DEGREES (GRADUATED 2001) (1) MASTERS:
(2) DOCTORAL: Mak’Ochieng MO:The making of an African public sphere: the performance of the Kenyan daily press during the change to multi-party politics PUBLISHED WORKS i) Articles in Refereed Journals ##Dolby, N: White fright: The politics of white youth identity in South Africa. In British Journal of Sociology of Education, vol. 22(1), pp 5-17,2001. [Publications only received in Jan 2002].##Dolby N: The significance of place: Fieldwork reflections on South Africa and the United States. In Anthropology and Education Quarterly, vol. 31(4), pp 486-492, 2000. [Publications only received in Jan 2002]. ## Dolby N: Changing selves: Multicultural education and the challenge of new identities. In Teachers College Record, vol. 102(5), pp 898-912, 2000. [Publications only received in Jan 2002]. ##Dolby N: The shifting ground of race: the role of taste in youth’s production of identities. In Race Ethnicity and Education, vol. 3(1), pp 7-23, 2000. [publications only received in Jan 2002]. ##Dolby N: Youth and the global popular: The politics and practices of race in South Africa. In Cultural Studies, vol. 2(3), pp 291-309, 1999. [Publications only received in Jan 2002]. #Grøtan T and #Svendsen N V: Globalisation and its possible effects on independent media in South Africa. In Media Development, XLVIII (2), pp 37-44, 2001. #Kasongo E: From development by effects to development by contexts through communication. In The Journal of African Communications, 3(1), pp 53-81, 2001. ###Krabill, R: Symbiosis: Mass media and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of South Africa. In Media, Culture and Society, 23(5), pp 567-586, 2001. #Manhando-Makore S : Free for all? The case of Zimbabwe’s media. In Media Development, XLVIII (2), pp 14-18, 2001. #Phiri B and #Powers D: Plurality and power relations in Zambian broadcasting. In Media Development, XLVIII (2), pp 25-30, 2001. #Rama K: Libertarianism, a Free Media and Democratisation. Arts Research, 3, pp4 - 20, 2001 #Shepperson A and Tomaselli K G: Culture, media and the intellectual climate: Apartheid and beyond. In Culturelink, Special Issue 1998-1999, pp 35-58. [Publications only received in Nov. 2000]. Teer-Tomaelli R E: Nation-Building, social identity and television in a changing media landscape. In Culturelink, Special Issue 1998-1999, pp 85-106. [Publications only received in Nov 2000]. Tomaselli K G: Cultural Studies as Psycho-babble: post-litcrit, methodology and dynamic justice. In Communicatio, 27(1), pp 44-57, 2001. Tomaselli K G Contradictory subjectivity: Movies, apartheid, and postmodernism. In Cultural Studies Critical Methodologies, 1(2), pp 139-156, 2001. (This journal is a continuation of Journal Cultural Studies: A Research Annual) Tomaselli K G Blue is Hot, Red is Cold: Doing Reverse Cultural Studies in Africa. In Cultural Studies Critical Methodologies, 1(3), pp 283-318, 2001. (This journal is a continuation of Journal Cultural Studies: A Research Annual) Tomaselli K G and Dunn H: Reform and outreach: Analysing Southern African media. In Media Development, XLVIII (2), pp 3-8, 2001. Tomaselli K G: The Semiotics of anthropological authenticity: The film apparatus and cultural accommodation. In Visual Anthropology, 14(2), pp 173-184, 2001. Tomaselli K G and #Wang C: Selling myths, not culture: Authenticity and cultural tourism. In Tourism forum: Southern Africa, 1(1), pp 23-33, 2001. ii) Books ##Dolby N E (ed.): Constructing race: Youth, identity, and popular culture in South Africa, 2001. State University of New York Press, USA.##Dolby N: Curriculum as a site of memory: The struggle for history in South Africa. In Curriculum politics, policy, practices: Cases in context, C Cornbleth (ed.), pp 174-194. State University of New York Press, USA #Heuva, W: (ed.) Media and resistance politics: The alternative press in Namibia, 1960-1990. P.Schlettwein Publishing, Switzerland. #Shepperson A and Tomaselli K G : Culture, media and the intellectual climate: apartheid and beyond. In Culture in the New South Africa: After apartheid, volume 2, R Kriger and A Zegeye (eds.), pp41-63, 2001. Social Identities South Africa series. Kwela Books and SA History Online, SA., Cape Town. Teer-Tomaselli R E : Nation building, social identity and television in a changing media landscape. In Culture in the New South Africa: After apartheid, volume 2, R Kriger and A Zegeye (eds.), pp117-137, 2001. Social Identities South Africa series. Kwela Books and SA History Online, SA., Cape Town. Tomaselli K G: John Grierson in South Africa: Misunderstanding apartheid. In From Grierson to the Docu-soap: Breaking the Boundaries, J Izod and R Kilborn with M Hibberd (eds.), pp47-58, 2000. University of Luton Press, UK. (Article received in 2001) Key:
# CMS students iii) Other Journal Articles and Publications /Editorships Commentaries/Reviews/Non-refereed Journals/On-line publications #Boloka G, ##Krabill R and Jacobs S (eds.): Media in the global South. (Online journal, established in 2001).#Dodd V : The life and times of Sara Baartman. In Visual Anthropology, 14(4), pp443 -445, 2001. #Donnelly D: Ethnicity and sacred space: Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In Democracy Watch, 11, pp 6-7, 2001. #Donnelly D: Sexual violence in schools. In Democracy Watch, 12, pp 8-9, 2001. #Donnelly D: Elections Across Continents, Democracy Watch, 12, 14-15, 2001. #Donnelly D: CNN-isation. Beyond the Nation, Democracy Watch, 13, 18-19, 2001. ###Krabill R: Long Night's Journey into Day: South Africa's Search for Truth and Reconciliation, Safundi: The Journal of South African and American Comparative Studies, 3(2). www.safundi.com/papers/asp?lop=krabill #Mason A: Cartoon journalism in Africa puts political power in perspective. In Media Development, XLVIII (2), pp 50-53, 2001. #Muhammad B, and Abubakar J: Men of the Same Mind, Daily News, July 23, 2001:10. #Rama K: Challenges facing South African Public Service Broadcasting. Perspectives on KwaZulu-Natal [On-line journal ], 8, pp 17-20, 2001. #Smith R: Yizo Yizo prompts a long overdue debate, Sunday Independent, 25 March 2001. Tomaselli K G: Media monitoring methodology: doing it with rhetoric: doing it with numbers. In Communicatio, 27(1), pp 103-105, 2001. Tomaselli K G: Rock Art, the art of tracking, and cybertracking: demystifying the Bushmen in the Information Age. In Visual Anthropology, 14(1), pp 77-82, 2001. Tomaselli K G and Sehume J: Zulu. In Visual Anthropology, 14(1), pp 107-111, 2001. Tomaselli K G: Developing the region through research, Freepress, p27, March 2001. Tomaselli K G: Visual Anthropology in South Africa: A Survey of the Turbulent 1980s. AV-Material: Online Journal of Visual Anthropology, 2, p11, 2001. PRINT/ELECTRONIC PRODUCTION AND EDITING
EDITORSHIPS
Editorial Board member
Ecquid Novi: Journal for Journalism in Southern Africa, Potchefstroom.
Tomaselli K G
Editorial Board member: Book Series Editor / Editorial Board Member
iii) Refereed Published Conference Proceedings Dalrymple L Building healthy cities and improving health systems for the urban poor in South Africa. International Conference on Building Healthy Cities: Improving Public Health of Migrants and the Urban Poor held at Hotel Africana, Kampala - Uganda, 2 - 3 July 2001. Supported by Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars and organised by Centre for Basic Research [CBR], Uganda. iv) Papers given at conferences
V) Exhibitions and Productions Film Festivals & Exhibitions
VIDEO PRODUCTIONS MsFits (by CMS Masters student - Sacha Stokes, 15mins, Beta). Commissioned by M-Net EDIT 2001. Broadcast on 29 November 2001. Premiered at FUSE, 23 November 2001. WORKSHOPS / SEMINARS Participation In National And Provincial Workshops And Seminars [DramAidE]
CMS staff members and students participated in the following:
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