Postgraduate Diploma in Media Management and short courses

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.

Register today for our short courses!

The Sol Plaatje Institute (SPI) for Media Leadership at Rhodes University offers a range of professional and 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.).

1. Essentials of Broadcast Media Management: 5-9 November 2018

This course is intended for broadcast managers – new, not-so-new, and aspirants – who are willing to invest a week of their time to take a critical look at themselves and their jobs. The course will not seek to turn the broadcast manager into a Jack of all trades but will put each participant into the shoes of his or her departmental chiefs. In other words, it will give participants the chance to learn what makes their colleagues and subordinates tick.

2. Essentials of Newspaper Management: 10-14 September 2018

This course is for newspaper managers - the new, not-so-new and aspirants who are looking for an opportunity to improve their businesses by getting the latest practical and research-based knowledge and understandings that contextualise, explain and analyze the rapidly changing print media sector and how this sector could embrace new ways of doing work and survive the market turbulence.

The course focuses on integrated strategies for managing key elements in newspaper publishing. The course emphasises interactive learning and knowledge-sharing, especially learning by doing, and represent a useful platform to network with fellow newspaper managers from across Africa.

3. Essentials of NEXT Newsroom Management: 5-9 November 2018

This is a high-level course that targets editors-in-chief, news directors and news editors who supervise journalists and other media professionals in today’s multi-platform newsrooms such as business editors, economics editors, features editors and sports editors in the print, broadcast and converged media. It gives participants conceptual and analytical tools and practical knowledge and skills of managing organisations in an era of permanent and discontinuous change.

Through the use of case studies, role plays and scenario planning and simulations, the course addresses key challenges of leadership and management in media’s increasingly ambiguous and uncertain operating environment and focuses on challenges that face newsroom editors in Africa in particular and in our world.

4. Essentials of Digital Media Management 23-27 July 2018

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 media channels on African 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.

5. Essentials of Managing People: 17-21 September 2018

The course targets editorial and business managers from print, broadcast and online enterprises whose role is to enhance their ability to motivate and promote employee performance.

The course is designed to provide participants with in-depth knowledge and skills required in leading and managing diverse groups of people in a rapidly changing media industry. While HR specialist are welcome, the course aims to meet the needs of managers from editorial, advertising, marketing, circulation, content provision and programming departments who are not HR specialists but who have HR responsibilities. It is specifically designed to meet the needs of people in middle-management positions responsible for the immediate supervision of frontline staff.

6. Essentials of Media Law and Ethics in the Era of Digital and Social Media: 12-16 November 2018

The course is designed to provide participants with in-depth knowledge, understandings and work competencies, which are needed to work more effectively and in an informed manner within the ambit of ethical practice and cognisance of the law. This is particularly important in a digital context, where both media ethics and law as they affect media output, are undergoing rapid change as they pertain to issues such as defamation and respect of privacy of ordinary people in the age of digital and social media. Moreover, the relatively recent ‘fake’ news phenomenon, which at times has seen the cynical propagation of ‘alternative facts’ in a ‘post-truth’ reality, requires requisite examination and reflection, so as to build resilient media practices that are least likely to be affected by this. Ultimately, a media without credibility cannot fulfill its role and the course therefore equips participants with insights to reflect on and apply learned lessons in these areas to their contemporary daily practice. To achieve this, the course addresses the following topics and gives participants a holistic view of the core functions of a journalist and/or media content worker under the current rapidly changing media landscape – equipping participants to maintain ethical standards in this age of ‘ambient and speed-driven journalism’ and to as professionals protect themselves and their media firms from ethical transgressions and the threat of litigation.

7. Essential Tools for Editors and Journalists: Government Media: 8-12 October 2018

The course targets communicators who work in the national, provincial and district 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.

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 Nomfundo, the Marketing and Course Co-ordinator, at az.ca.ur@ewkubos.n; telephone 046-603-8949.