Knight International Journalism Fellowships

South Africa: Create Multimedia Health Coverage

See video

Knight Felllow Brenda Wilson is launching multimedia health programs in Johannesburg, South Africa, reaching a young, tech-savvy population that is particularly vulnerable to illness.

Wilson is expanding multimedia health coverage at South Africa’s largest broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation, which has reporters and bureaus in every part of the country. She is coaching and mentoring SABC journalists to produce in-depth coverage of issues such as national health insurance and AIDS among soldiers, a topic that rarely receives media attention.

Wilson is also working with reporters at community radio stations around the country to improve reporting on health issues that are important to their communities.

Blogs

  • Apr 52012

    Radio Journalists in Rural South Africa Find a New Way to Report Health News

    by Brenda Wilson

    It was with a bit of misgiving that I recently headed to Limpopo province to work with reporters at the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s regional station. The national office back in Johannesburg was hankering for stories about ordinary people amid constant unrest. The idea was to get reporters out of the main city, Polokwane, and into the field, fields being quite literal since Limpopo is 90% rural and one of the poorest provinces in South Africa.

    Polokwane, however, has been a cauldron of political activity – at times, that can be taken literally.

  • Dec 12011

    South Africa's HIV News Squeezed in Among Politics and Crime

    by Brenda Wilson

    The last of the jacaranda’s hardiest blossoms are being blasted from the trees by fierce wind and rain. Spring has turned to stormy summer in South Africa, and almost everyone in Johannesburg is about to decamp for the beach or the village for the holidays.

    The media have been obsessed with the antics of the leaders of the ANC Youth League, the young lords of the ruling party who’re led by Julius Malema, now facing a five-year suspension from the ANC for defying party elders, disrupting meetings, and criticizing President Zuma.