Makhanda – The School of Journalism and Media Studies (JMS) of Rhodes University is honouring seven of its most distinguished alumni at a Gala Dinner in Cape Town this Thursday (September 29). The occasion types half of the faculty’s celebration of its 50th beginning yr and will be hosted by the college’s Vice Chancellor, Dr Sizwe Mabizela. The seven honourees are Audrey Brown, Rebecca Davis, Ray Hartle, Leonie Joubert, Daneel Knoetze, Karyn Maughan, Minoshni Pillay and Alison Gillwald. They are amongst 50 graduates being celebrated by the faculty this yr for his or her profession excellence in their work as journalists and communicators.
In deciding on these 50 achievers, the faculty centered on individuals who have achieved essential objectives in their skilled life, who’ve made important contributions to their occupation and whose work serves society extra broadly. To discover these folks, workers reviewed the record of greater than 5 000 college students who graduated from the faculty since its doorways opened in the early Seventies. Alumni have been additionally invited to nominate candidates and the remaining choice was based mostly on these nominations and the motivations that got here with them.
The Gala Dinner is one of 4 occasions hosted round South Africa this yr. The first 10 alumni have been awarded in April at the Rhodes University Graduation Ball in Makhanda. An additional 24 award winners will attend a celebration on November 24 in Johannesburg. The School can be internet hosting a digital occasion on October 27 to honour 9 of the graduates who’re based mostly exterior South Africa. All 50 honourees are invited to this digital occasion.
In addition to the alumni awards, the School is internet hosting occasions this yr in which the media and media educators are invited to take part in debates about the present state and future of South African journalism. This features a colloquium entitled Decolonial Approaches to the Practice, Study and Teaching of Journalism, which is due to happen at the School from October 19 – 21 in commemoration of Media Freedom Day. The programme will be launched on the night of 19 October in a televised debate, hosted in the School’s studio and broadcast nationally as half of a partnership with the SABC. Debate panelists will embody Professor Tawana Kupe, Vice Chancellor of the University of Pretoria and long-term colleague of the School of JMS; Dr Noxolo Grootboom, veteran public broadcaster who acquired an honorary doctorate from Rhodes University in 2021; Mr Eusebius McKaiser, Rhodes alumnus and broadcaster, journalist and political analyst; and Mr Sanele Ntshingana, JMS alumnus, rising scholar and lecturer in at the School of Languages and Literatures of the University of Cape Town.
Media contact: Chandra Otto, electronic mail: jms50@ru.ac.za.
About JMS: Journalism was first taught as a course in the English Department at Rhodes University in 1970. Seventeen folks signed up. Then in 1972 journalism turned a separate division with two workers members, Les Switzer and Anthony Giffard. Since then it has grown right into a School with greater than 50 workers members and greater than 600 college students finding out a selection of 5 totally different levels (undergraduate and postgraduate) and three diplomas (in journalism and media research, economics journalism and media administration). The School is the residence of the Sol Plaatje Institute for Media Management, the Highway Africa Conference, and the South African Reserve Bank Centre for Economics Journalism and the Public Service Accountability Monitor.
About the seven honourees to be awarded citations in Cape Town
Audrey Brown is a broadcast journalist with the BBC World Service since 2005, and she is senior presenter for BBC’s Focus on Africa.
Rebecca Davis is an creator and journalist who writes often for the Daily Maverick and has a daily discuss slot on Cape Talk Radio.
Ray Hartle has labored in journalism and company communications for almost forty years. This features a interval as communications guide in the Office of the Premier of the Eastern Cape and a protracted affiliation with the Daily Dispatch as full-time author.
Leonie Joubert is a science author and creator specialising in environmental and public well being journalism. She has explored these matters via books, journalism and communication help to lecturers and civil society organisations.
Daneel Knoetze is a communications practitioner who champions the pursuits of poor communities in South Africa, specializing in poverty, inequality, crime and civil rights abuses. . He is the founder and editor of investigative reporting unit Viewfinder.
Karyn Maughan is a authorized journalist and writes for the for-Business Day, News24 and Financial Mail, Newzroom Afrika, Al Jazeera, 702, SABC, eNCA and different retailers. She has produced acclaimed documentaries for eNCA’s Checkpoint.
Minoshni Pillay joined the SABC as a radio information journalist. During her tenure at the SABC she has been the performing information editor for KwaZulu-Natal and is at present a full-time editor for SABC News.
Alison Gillwald is a broadcast specialist in telecommunications and broadcast coverage and regulation. She contributed to the founding of the Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) and the Council of the South African Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (SATRA). She is government director of Research ICT Africa (RIA) and is an adjunct professor at the University of Cape Town’s Nelson Mandela School of Public Governance.