Stellenbosch University?s Department of Journalism celebrates its 40th anniversary with this publication reflecting on the four decades between 1978 and 2018 and all that happened behind 26 Crozier Street?s front door. But, in essence, it celebrates a lot more. It is an assessment of the importance of the media?s essential role in a democracy. This collection of essays, therefore, is a celebration of the inalienable right of freedom of expression, especially in the form of media freedom.
This book covers original research on the implementation of open educational practices through the use of open educational resources at the university level. The emphasis on open education in this book is on contextualising resources, supporting student agency and fostering self-directed learning specifically within a South African milieu. The envisaged chapters cover conceptual and review research and empirical work focussing on open educational practices and the use of renewable assessments. The work starts off with an overview of an institutional-wide open education project that prompted the research followed by research on open education in terms of various modules in the health science, music education, law, philosophy, dietetics, anthropology, French language learning, journalism and political science. There is a clear gap in the literature on open education in terms of open educational practices, specifically in terms of contextualising resources, supporting student agency and fostering self-directed learning in a South African context. Despite the existence of some general works on open education in terms of policy, social justice and open textbooks, this book will be unique in exploring the intersections of openness, specifically with contextualisation, student agency and self-directedness.
In a modern and fast-evolving technological world, precarity has become more notable. Digital transformation has ushered in an era of ‘datafication’, profoundly impacting societies and individuals in such a way that there are emerging complexities and potential vulnerabilities in our interactions with technology. Thus, it is crucial that the Humanities subjects focus on human beings, their culture and values. This book focuses on the challenges and opportunities experienced in the Digital Humanities. The main thesis of this book is on Digital Humanities in precarious times, while also reporting on topics and research methods in a variety of Humanities subject fields. Digital Humanities is a dynamic multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary field that encompasses a wide array of disciplines, methodologies and approaches. It represents a fusion of computational methods with humanistic inquiry, leveraging technology to explore and analyse various facets of human culture, society and history. At its core, this field’s nature allows scholars from diverse backgrounds – including literature, history, linguistics, cultural studies and more – to collaborate and engage in innovative research projects that transcend traditional disciplinary boundaries. All the chapters in this book represent a scholarly discourse and provide original research, they are based on different methodologies ranging from an interdisciplinary approach, a philosophical desk study, case studies, qualitative studies and a semi-structured survey.
This book is the culmination of several years of collaborative work. It is a unique contribution to the field of journalism because of the depth and variety of contributions it makes to the field. The scholars who contribute to this volume respond to the great need to rethink journalism from various perspectives including journalism training, research, the contents of the news media, language, media ethics, the safety of journalists and gender inequities in the news media. In doing this, they recognise how the societies that journalism address should themselves change.
What has media freedom entailed over the couple of centuries and successive governments of the geopolitical region that became South Africa since it was colonised by Westerners? And why can media freedom be described as both pillar and cornerstone of a democracy? It’s simple, as in the words of Nelson Mandela, first state president of a democratic South Africa: Press freedom is the “lifeblood of democracy”. This book tells the tale of the various states of press freedom, or unfreedom, from colonial times to today – from a British governor called a dictator and a despot, through apartheid’s “pigmentocracy”, or “sjambokracy”, where the rule of law “has been replaced by the rule of the whip”, up to the dawn of liberation, with media freedom entrenched in Article 16 of South Africa’s Bill of Rights. And why should all of this concern you? Because media freedom is not about the freedom of the media. It is about your freedom. As was formulated by an editor under apartheid: “If we don’t have a public sympathetic to a free press, not only will we not have a free press, we won’t have a democracy either.” Or, in the words of former Sowetan editor and SANEF chair, Mpumelelo Mhkabela: “Media freedom has nothing to do with the media, but with the freedom of citizens.” And that is why you should know that a free media is the only guarantee for your freedom. As we have seen, both under apartheid and also under a democratic dispensation, it is a matter of a luta continua. The struggle continues. But you, the public, are the guardian of those that guard democracy. Help ensure the rights of a free media, and thereby your democratic rights and a democratic South Africa.
Lifestyle journalism has experienced enormous growth in the media over the past two decades, but scholars in the fields of journalism and communication studies have so far paid relatively little attention to a field that is still sometimes seen as "not real journalism". There is now an urgent need for in-depth exploration and contextualisation of this field, with its increasing relevance for 21st century consumer cultures. For the first time, this book presents a wide range of studies which have engaged with the field of lifestyle journalism in order to outline the various political, economic, social and cultural tensions within it. Taking a comparative view, the collection includes studies covering four continents, including countries such as Australia, China, Norway, Denmark, Singapore, the UK and the USA. While keeping the broader lifestyle field in mind, the chapters focus on a variety of sub-fields such as travel, music, food, health, fashion and personal technology journalism. This volume provides a fascinating account of the different facets of lifestyle journalism, and charts the way forward for a more sustained analysis of the field. This book was originally published as a special issue of Journalism Practice.
In May 2005 Penguin will publish 70 unique titles to celebrate the company's 70th birthday. The titles in the Pocket Penguins series are emblematic of the renowned breadth of quality of the Penguin list and will hark back to Penguin founder Allen Lane's vision of good books for all'. was assured. There followed a string of widely acclaimed novels that together chart the changing social fabric of Britain over the last thirty years. 9th and 13th brings together several uncollected pieces of fiction and non-fiction, some of which never before published in the UK, from the master of comedy and pathos.
