The Postgraduate Diploma in Media Management (PGDip in Media Management) is an intensive, year-long full-time programme accredited at the honours degree level (NQF Level 8) by South Africa’s Qualifications Authority (SAQA). The programme is offered annually by the Sol Plaatje Institute for Media Leadership at Rhodes University.
The course is the only formal qualification in media management in Africa and the developing world, having been launched in 2004.
It provides an insider view of how successful and sustainable media organisations operate in rapidly changing and discontinuous contexts that mark our media landscape today.
The programme develops the strategic knowledge, understandings and work competencies which media managers and leaders need to apply to run media organisations in the public, commercial and community sectors sustainably and ethically in the ‘age of participatory and transient journalism’.
For further information: Please check details on the website of the Sol Plaatje Institute for Media Leadership (www.ru.ac.za/spi) at Rhodes University. Or contact Sibo Mbengashe, the Administrative Co-ordinator of the course, at az.ca.ur@ehsagnebm.s; telephone 046-603-8851.
Summary
The Sol Plaatje Institute (SPI) for Media Leadership at Rhodes University offers a range of professional, certificated media management short courses for practising media managers from across Africa. So far, more than 2,500 participants have attended these courses since the launch of the SPI in 2002. The Institute also designs customised courses that address a media company’s identified training needs (e.g. strategic management; management of talent in media industries; financial management for media, marketing and advertising in competitive media markets; etc.).
This course focuses on recent and emerging developments in the digital media sector that have had a significant impact on the media industry in different parts of the world. We specifically explore the impact of the digital and social media on Africa’s traditional media and explore the essential concepts in managing a multi-platform media firm, especially now that increasing numbers of Africans have increased and cheaper access to high-speed bandwidth.
Participants learn from the experiences of each other as they exchange views on what they do in their own media firms. Participants are also exposed to case studies of successful online and mobile strategies by newspapers and other media and we give the attendees tools to assess whether these could be adopted in their own media organisations.
The course targets communicators who work in the national, provincial and local government communications departments, or those who regularly interface with the media such as municipal managers, councillors and mayors.
The course will provide participants with key insights and practical skills to help them make direct interventions in their organisations.
