The South African Civil Society Information Service
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
A nonprofit news agency promoting social justice. Seeking answers to the question:
How do we make democracy work for the poor?
SACSIS -
In Spring 2010, The South African Civil Society information Service (SACSIS) co-hosted a roundtable discussion with the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) South Africa Office. The meeting sought to get a better understanding of how the South African media reports on the economy.
One of the key reasons behind hosting the event was that as a country and indeed as the world, we live in precarious times.
Given the financial crisis of 2008 and the global recession that followed, 30 million...
Alide Dasnois, Editor of the Cape Times, said that the South African economy was not on the right growth path when she spoke at a roundtable discussion co-hosted by SACSIS and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung South Africa Office. She also highlighted the problem of ideology that does sometimes creep into reporting, despite editors' best efforts to clean it out.
Dasnois talked about the importance of encouraging debate in newspapers. To this end, the Cape Times launched a series called...
"Is Inequality Good or Bad? It Depends," said Prof. Haroon Bhorat of the University of Cape Town's School of Economics, setting off a heated debate at a roundtable discussion co-hosted by SACSIS and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung South Africa Office.
Every issue should not be a normative one, said Bhorat who urges people to follow the numbers to find the real answers.
Our normative response to the question, "Is inequality wrong?" is "yes, of course it's...
SACSIS columnist, Leonard Gentle, challenged Dr. Haroon Bhorat's assertion that every issue does not have to be a normative one, at a roundtable discussion co-hosted by SACSIS and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung South Africa Office.
Surely the starting point is to take a position on inequality, he argued.
The roundtable discussion, which examined the media's perspective of the South African economy, put the following questions to editors: Is the economy on the right growth path? What are the...
The media lacks a grand narrative on the political economy said SACSIS columnist, Saliem Fakir, at a roundtable discussion co-hosted by SACSIS and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung South Africa Office.
Fakir argues that the media does not even understand its own role in society.
The roundtable discussion, which examined the media's perspective of the South African economy, put the following questions to editors: Is the economy on the right growth path? What are the prospects for making it more...
Progressive change can only come about once power relations change in society change, argued SACSIS Columnist, Richard Pithouse, at a roundtable discussion co-hosted by SACSIS and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung South Africa Office.
The fact of the matter is that the media is a commercial enterprise and thus influenced by an unconscious ideological bias related to being able to secure advertising revenue as well as holding on to a particular market -- and there is a structural limitation to...
