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?
The media play an important role as information mediators in today's world, occupying an important space where public debates about national and international issues take place. SACSIS seeks to understand the role and the impact of the mainstream media in achieving public interest journalism.
David Bollier -
The participatory ethic of open source software has become so widespread these days that it is migrating into some unexpected places… like musical instruments, tractors and ecological technology.
Chances are you haven’t heard about the Zoybar, — a modular instrument loosely based on the guitar. As its inventor describes it, "Every user can create his own unique instrument by its own voice and needs. We call this Decentralized Innovation. For the first time these...
Saliem Fakir -
Sixteen thousand is the number of jobs lost in 2008 by the US newspaper industry and just about 10,000 in the first half of 2009.
It is unclear how many jobs have been cut by the local newspaper industry but we have not been saved the ravages of the economic downtown.
The press is indeed bleeding editors, journalist, and columnists. The meaning of all of this is unknown. What replaces it may not be entirely satisfactory, as the seemingly imminent death of newspapers does not imply the death...
David Bollier -
A lot of politics comes down to making a point through colorful theatrics and stories. By that reckoning, Sweden’s Pirate Party deserves an Oscar for the edgiest, most innovative and dramatic advocacy since Abbie Hoffman’s Yippie Party ran a pig for president in 1968. This time, however, the “pirates” are actually electing their own to serious positions.
The story starts with a website that inspired the Pirate Party, Pirate Bay a frankly subversive file-sharing...
Ebrahim-Khalil Hassen -
As Professor Pink lead narrator on the SABC educational programme, 'Knock Knock', explored Galileo’s confrontation with power, the SABC was engaged in its own tryst with changing power.
President Thabo Mbeki appointed the board of the SABC in a move interpreted as incongruous with resolutions taken by the ANC at its Polokwane conference. In possibly an imaginary fisticuff with an ex-President, the admirable gusto of politicians arguing for a free press was expected. Cynics were left...
Rebecca Khan -
The Department of Science and Technology has, in the last month, proposed legislation for the regulation of intellectual property from publicly funded research that, should it be written into law, will set South Africa at odds with the rest of the word, and have long-reaching, and detrimental effects on research and innovation in South Africa, as well as possible implications for the future of academic freedom in this country, a freedom which is protected in the Constitution.
The...
Fazila Farouk -
Is the media from Mars and are social justice activists from Venus? If this question were put to me a year ago when the South African Civil Society Information Service (SACSIS) was launched, I probably would have answered, "yes" without hesitation.
However, having spent a year trying to purposefully influence a social justice agenda in the media, the answer to that question has become less clear-cut.
Consider the following titles: "Markets Follow Money and Nothing...
