Publications

Books produced by staff, students or fellows while working at Wits Journalism.

Diepsloot - Anton Harber

Ask most people about Diepsloot and they will talk of vigilante justice, political unrest, poverty and unemployment, a scene of recent political protests and xenophobic violence, a haven for criminals and undocumented foreigners in the middle of one of the country’s wealthiest areas.

Diepsloot is a microcosm – a post-apartheid settlement with about 200 000 crammed into five square kilometres, with more than its fair share of youth, foreigners and unemployed – a way of understanding the politics of this country on the ground, a place which presents so many of the questions facing this country. Why are people still living under these conditions? Why are the local politicians tearing each other apart? How do people survive? Do they still believe in democracy?

This book takes you inside, walking the streets, meeting the people, probing the bitter local political battles, and asking what and area like Diepsloot portends for the future of South Africa. These are the stories not being told, these are the voices not being heard and these are the insights you can’t get from parliament or Luthuli House.

Anton Harber is the Caxton Professor of Journalism at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.  He was the co-founder and co-editor of the Weekly Mail (now the Mail & Guardian)y. Harber currently writes a column in Business Day.

Troublemakers: The Best of South Africa’s Investigative Journalism - Edited by Anton Harber and Margaret Renn

 Will South Africa’s first collection of investigative journalism also be its last?

The 2009 Taco Kuiper Awards saw an unprecedented number of high-quality entries all vying for the top spot at this prestigious investigative journalism award. Troublemakers is a collection of the best of these entries.

This is the book that will keep Schabir Shaik up at night. And Carl Niehaus. And Barry Tannenbaum. And all South Africa’s other crooks, scoundrels and scumbags. The powerful may lament it, but those excited by a new and lively democracy love it: South Africa is enjoying an unexpected revival of hard-hitting investigative journalism

But it looks like this could be set to change – perhaps the troublemakers have been causing a little too much trouble for those in power.

Contents include articles from:

Daily Dispatch ♦ Sunday Times ♦ Politicsweb ♦ Mail & Guardian ♦ The Star ♦ City Press ♦ Sunday Tribune ♦ Weekend Argus ♦ FinMedia 24 ♦ Financial Mail

DVD contents include programmes from Special Assignment and 3rd Degree.

Join us for the Troublemaker's book launch

Truth is a Strange Fruit: A Personal Journey Through the Apartheid War - David Beresford

David Beresford was born in South Africa and moved to the UK in 1974. Joining The Guardian newspaper, he covered the conflicts in Ireland, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and the first Gulf War. In 1984, with the outbreak of South Africa’s township rebellions, The Guardian posted him to South Africa. Truth is a Strange Fruit weaves together personal memoir, the story of John Harris who was hanged for his part in the bombing of Johannesburg’s Park Station, told through the letters sent by John as he awaited his execution.

August 2010, Jacana Media, 9781770099029

Fruit of a Poisoned Tree - Antony Altbeker

In Fruit of a Poisoned Tree he takes you into the heat of the epic courtroom battle to defend Fred Van der Vyver against a charge of murder of his girlfriend Inge Lotz. Van de Vyver’s lawyers sought to turn the tables on the police, accusing them of fabricating evidence and lying to the judge. Altbeker’s eye-witness account of the trial presents the reader with the evidence and testimony. A gripping and real life who crime thriller.

Fruit of a Poisoned Tree is Antony Altbeker’s third book about crime and justice in South Africa. His first, The Dirty Work of Democracy, won the Recht Malan prize for non-fiction and was short-listed for the Sunday Times Alan Paton Award. His second, A Country at War with Itself, is widely regarded as the most authoritative popular account of the causes of South Africa’s crime problem and of what to do to fix it.

May 2010, Jonathan Ball Publishers, 9781868423330

What's Left Unsaid: Reporting the South African HIV Epidemic - edited by Kristin Palitza, Natalie Ridgard, Helen Struthers and Anton Harber

What's Left Unsaid is a 400-page multi-authored investigation into HIV reporting in South Africa. The book combines journalism with research to present an analysis that is at once broad in its scope and focused on the important issues.

The book is a collection of work produced by the fellows of the HIV/AIDS & the Media Project. It contains a selection of the best journalism and research produced by the Media Project Fellows, which gives an important insight into the history and key issues of South African health politics and media reporting on HIV in the last decade. The texts range from in-depth quantitative and qualitative research documents to radio and television transcripts and candid interviews.

As good journalism should, it shines a light on one of the world’s most pressing concerns and gives a voice to those whose own voices are often not heard against the din of political controversy that surrounds HIV. At the same time, the book also provides a wide range of research and analysis on HIV reporting and the role of the media in the HIV epidemic.

Advertising in the News: Paid-for content and the South African print media - Adrian Hadland, Lesley Cowling, Bate Felix Tabi Tabe

The rise of commercialism poses many challenges to the integrity of the South African media in the post-1994 era. To maintain profitability, many publications have developed a range of strategies to attract advertising, in particular, developing the content that advertisers most desire - content that creates what Herman and Chomsky called a ‘buying mood’ for their products. These include niched supplements, special sections and advertorial pages (surveys) as well as a new trend in paid-for content in the South African print media, identified in this study: the development of a ‘third arm’.

For sale at HSRC Press.

By Franz Krüger:

Radio Journalism Toolkit

Black, white and grey: ethics in SA journalism

 Media Courts of Honour: Self-regulatory Councils in Southern Africa and elsewhere