MEDIAFRIKA
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MEDIAFRIKA
The Department of Journalism in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences will be contributing to Stellenbosch University’s HOPE Project through MEDIAFRIKA, its new building that will house the Department, which consists of its journalism school on the one hand and its research-focused programmes on the other. The aim is also to provide bursaries for students from other African countries on the master’s and doctoral level.
The Department, recognised by Unesco as one of the top twelve journalism schools in Africa, has three postgraduate journalism programmes. In the BPhil programme (honours level) students are educated and trained as multi-skilled, multimedia beginner-journalists. An indication of the standard of the programme is the fact that the Department’s beginner-journalists have received a cum laude mark by industry as average for their annual internship over the past ten years.
In the MPhil and DPhil courses the foci will also be specifically on media and society issues in Africa, hence the name for the new building (also the focus of the series of conferences, “Media in Africa”, that the Department has hosted over the years). It will also enable the Department to do relevant research that will benefit media industry, and ultimately contribute to democracy and development.
The Department contributes significantly to the University’s research outputs, but its existing facilities have become too small for all its activities. Initially established as a journalism school for 20 students only, the Department has grown consistently in terms of master’s and doctoral students. It now has a total of about eighty students.