tvanwyk

Phuza Wize round table: 1 March at the Rainbow in Pinetown KZN

February 16, 2010 By tvanwyk

09:30-10:00

(30 mins)

REGISTRATION & TEA

10:00-10:15

(15 mins)

WELCOME

Michael Schmidt (managing director , frayintermedia)

10:15-10:30

(15 mins)

KEYNOTE ADDRESS:

Phuza Wize: Why the need for this campaign?

Speaker: Dr Sue Goldstein (Soul City Alcohol Reduction and Violence Prevention Campaign Manager)

10:30-11:30

(1 hour)

SEMINAR 1: Understanding the Link Between Violence and Alcohol Consumption

Experts: Prof Charles Parry (director, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council)

Facilitator: Michael Schmidt (managing director, frayintermedia)

11:30-11:45

(15 mins)

TEA

11:45-12:45

(1 hour)

SEMINAR 2:

Mapping and sourcing stories on violence and alcohol consumption

Expert: Agnes Shabalala, (representative, Soul City Research Team)

Facilitator: Michael Schmidt (managing director, frayintermedia)

12:45 – 13:30

(45 mins)

LUNCH

13:30-15:30

(2 hrs)

Panel Discussion:

Phuza Wize: Are we a Nation of Violent Drinkers?

Facilitator: Kieno Kammies (talk show host, Talk Radio 702)

Panelists:

Scientist: Prof Charles Parry (director, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research Unit, South African Medical Research Council) on key research findings and intervention strategies

Celebrities: Kabelo Mabalane (on his personal story of alcohol consumption and interpersonal violence)

Steve Hamilton (recovering alcoholic and author of the book I Want My Life Back) on his personal story of alcohol consumption and interpersonal violence)

Machismo expert: Mbuyiselo Botha (co-director, Sonke Gender Justice Network) on masculinity and alcohol consumption, masculinity and violence

Liquor trader: Saint Madlala (national president, South African Liquor Traders’ Association)

15.30-16:00

CLOSURE AND TEA

Filed Under: events Tagged With: Advocacy, alcohol, Journalism, KwaZulu-Natal, KZN, Media, Media Round Table, Phuza Wize, Pinetown, Soul City, violence

Are we a nation of violent drinkers? Soul City launches Phuza Wize

February 16, 2010 By tvanwyk

Whatever your answer, the available research paints a horrifying picture:

More than half of the victims of non-fatal and fatal violence test positive for alcohol in urban areas. Most violence-related deaths occur on Saturdays and Sundays, when binge drinking is common. Binge drinking is defined as having 5 or more drinks in a day. Alcohol is involved in nearly half of the cases of family violence.

Soul City is launching the Phuza Wize campaign to address the significant link between alcohol, violence and risky behaviour in South Africa.

Resources for journalists

Presentation: Why and what of Phuza Wize campaign

Presentation: Understanding the role of alcohol in communities, Soul City research

Presentation: The link between alcohol and violence, Prof Parry of the MRC

Review: Research on alcohol use, Medical Research Council (MRC)

Phuza Wize kicked off with two round tables open to all interested parties in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal:

Monday 1 March at the Rainbow Restaurant in Pinetown, Durban:

Programme

Speakers

Wednesday 3 March at Sedibeng Shebeen in Meadowlands, Soweto

Programme

Speakers

How violent are our drinking habits?

South Africans consume over 5 billion litres of alcoholic beverages per year according to a report by the Cape Town based Medical Research Council (MRC). This amounts to 120 litres per capita per year. Taking into account that many South Africans do not drink at all, the alcohol consumption of those who do is amongst the highest in the world.

As research has shown a significant link between alcohol, violence and risky behaviour, the Soul City Institute, renowned for its campaigns to create positive social change, has embarked on a campaign aimed at curbing violence and HIV infections by reducing alcohol consumption and promoting safe drinking places.

The campaign

Soul City has hired respected media consultancy frayintermedia to create greater public awareness for the campaign, its goals and issues through the media. The campaign, which begins in March in tandem with the launch of the TV drama Soul City 10 on SABC2, is part of a five-year programme to reduce access to alcohol and thus curb incidences of violence and risky behaviour in South Africa.

Some of the main aims of the campaign are to:

Reduce and restrict access to alcohol.
Promote the creation, accreditation and monitoring of safe drinking spaces.
Promote the creation of alcohol-free zones, such as primary and high schools.
Promote legislative and ethical compliance by liquor traders.
Increase community knowledge on the harmful effects of alcohol and its contribution to violent behaviour and HIV infection.

The role of the media will be critical if the campaign is to reach as many South Africans as possible through newspapers, magazines, radio and TV. The response by the media has been excellent so far, with several leading companies giving support to this important initiative and others set to join soon.

For the media

Soul City will offer its media partners several services to ensure informed reporting and discussion of the campaign messages:

Two Media Round Tables were hosted, one in Durban on March 1 and the other in Johannesburg on March 3, at which experts briefed invited journalists and lead discussion of the campaign along with local celebrities and shebeen owners.
A resource kit for journalists, to be distributed as a PDF, including briefing documents, research and story ideas.
A monthly PDF newsletter (March to June) focusing on topics related to the campaign.
A news and feature service which will provide selected media outlets with stories written by leading journalists.

Help us to change South Africa for the better by getting on board

To RSVP to this event email Samkele Nkabinde of frayintermedia on snkabinde@frayintermedia.com or call on 011 341 0767

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Advocacy, alcohol, binge, campaign, drinking, fatal, Journalism, kit, launch, Media, Media Round Table, Phuza Wize, resource, Soul City, violence

Research scientists translating to ordinary mortals

February 5, 2010 By tvanwyk

There are scientists in Southern Africa doing incredible, ground-breaking research, but their work doesn’t get into the media because scientists talk in their own language – which journalists don’t usually understand.

To help scientists get their work into the public domain, frayintermedia will present a morning session to scientists at a workshop in Gaborone on March 12, sponsored by SAASTA-NSTF (the South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement, and the National Science and Technology Forum).

Michael Schmidt will be teaching scientists how the media operates, how to get their messages into the media, how to break down complex stories and make them easily digestible. Once the scientists understand the media landscape, they are better able to communicate their innovations and research to the general public.

Bridging the gap between science-speak and ordinary language and finding the appropriate media outlet are not the only challenges to a scientist in Botswana, however.

“Botswana has the reputation of having a very stable democracy, but it does not have the type of vigorous media and plurality that it could have,” notes Schmidt. He says there are legal challenges characteristic of the Botswana media environment.

Filed Under: News, Training Tagged With: Botswana, Communication, Gaborone, media training, NSTF, SAASTA, science journalism, the media

Newspapers learning in community

February 5, 2010 By tvanwyk

How can small community newspapers and magazines be made viable? Delegates from several provinces, sponsored by the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA), will be pooling their experiences and ideal solutions at a two-day workshop.

frayintermedia’s Michael Schmidt will be a speaker at the forum for community media on February 11 and 12, convened by the MDDA, the Government agency mandated to assist “historically disadvantaged communities and persons not adequately served by the media to gain access to the media”.

For small media, keeping their heads above financial water is a major challenge. Issues such as revenue generation, cash flow, managing the relationship with clients, printing and distribution, and sales and marketing will be debated in depth.

frayintermedia conducted feasibility studies for some of the media now sponsored by the MDDA. Examples are Agenda Magazine in Mafikeng and Penopele News, a community newspaper in North West. Agenda Magazine and Penopele News are unusual publications, as both are bilingual, published in seTswana and English. Both operate in areas with seTswana radio stations, but no other source of printed seTswana content.

Alex Pioneer, a community newspaper distributed in Alexandra in Gauteng, will be another attendee at the event. Sponsored by the MDDA, frayintermedia mentored Alex Pioneer during weekly visits for six months in 2009.

Filed Under: News, Training Tagged With: Community media, Journalism, MDDA, Mentoring, Training

Training government journalists – being fair, accurate and balanced

February 5, 2010 By tvanwyk 1 Comment

frayintermedia’s Michael Schmidt conducted a two-day workshop on “Online to print” for government journalists on February 4 and 5.

GCIS, the Government Communication Information System, approached frayintermedia to provide training to a group of their journalists who work for BuaNews, the Government news agency. These journalists work mostly online, but needed to acquire skills in writing for print. The course included understanding the media landscape in South Africa, understanding the reasons for tensions that have developed between the government and the media, and the legal environment journalists operate in.

During the workshop some basic journalism skills were refined. The GCIS journalists’ brief is to report on what Government does, but that needs to be done in a fair, balanced and accurate manner conforming to journalistic standards – even when covering controversial stories touching on the personal lives of Government figures.

Filed Under: News Tagged With: Buanews, GCIS, Journalism, online, Training