Grahamstown, South Africa – Professor Robert Picard, widely recognised as the world’s foremost expert on media management and media economics, paid his first ever visit to South Africa in early October to address senior South African media executives in Johannesburg.

He spoke at a media management seminar hosted by Rhodes University’s Sol Plaatje Institute for Media Leadership, a pioneering institute in Africa offering high-level practical media management courses and a post-graduate academic programme to aspiring and senior media executives from across Africa.

Picard, a professor and head of the Media Management and Transformation Centre at Jonkoping University in Sweden, examined the rapidly changing global media landscape caused by breath-taking technological advancements and sketched a future where old media needed to quickly adapt to these changes or die.

He spoke on the topic of “Tomorrow’s Media: preparing for the multi-product future.”

The Johannesburg seminar was attended by half a dozen media executives from organisations such as the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), its rival e.tv, the Mail and Guardian and Channel Africa, the external SABC news service.

During his visit, funded by Netherlands’ NiZA organisation, Picard also addressed a series of seminars for post-graduate media management and journalism students at  Rhodes University, where he also met senior School of Journalism faculty members.

Picard directs nearly three dozen PhD students and fellows at his management transformation centre and is the author and editor of 20 books on media management and media economics.                                                  

 – Francis Mdlongwa

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Last updated »  2007-10-10