Welcome to Rhodes University�s Sol Plaatje Institute for Media Leadership (SPI), a pioneering institute in Africa offering high-level editorial and business training programmes to both practising and aspirant media leaders.

Established in 2002, the SPI is the only university-level institute in Africa offering professional media management and leadership training programmes and the honours-level Post-Graduate Diploma in Media Management (PDMM).

Our training programmes uniquely combine cutting-edge theory and practice and are led by media industry experts and academics, who seek to provide course participants with knowledge and skills of how to lead sustainable media organisations in rapidly changing conditions typified by Africa�s socio-economic and political landscape.

      We do not claim that we will turn you into a media management expert overnight, but we give you a range of insights which empower you to make direct interventions at your workplace.

We offer a range of short-term professional courses such as our popular Essentials of Newspaper Management and the Essentials of Broadcast Management, which are usually taken by practising mid-career media managers who want to sharpen and deepen their understanding of the media sector.

The PDMM, an equivalent of an honours degree, is the only training programme of its kind in Africa which specifically focuses on leadership and management of media institutions � print, broadcast, online and converged � as opposed to offering generalist management to course participants.

      We design and stage customised courses for media companies from across Africa, the latest being an innovative leadership newsroom programme run by the SPI for senior editorial members of the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

We also conduct research into key issues, questions and trends that define today�s media landscape.

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