Enrolment of first year students in journalism leaps up by 30% in 1979. Why?
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"Possibly because the Information scandal has made journalism seem like a glamorous profession." At least this is the opinion of Journalism staff who compare the jump in numbers with a similar phenomenon at journalism schools in the United States after Watergate.
Of course, the increase may also be linked to the growing reputation of the Rhodes department, the only one of its kind at an English-language university in South Africa.
Bulletin, 1979 (2): 3
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Existing histories
What has been written and by whom?
Established as an independent department in 1972 [i], the SJMS was the first English-language, university-based site of journalism education in South Africa. However, despite its continued pre-eminent position, preliminary research points to gaps in both the volume of historical accounts of the SJMS and the scope of their historical perspective. The predominant SJMS historical narratives have involved various versions and methods of SJMS history as contextual and legitimising agents. Among these are: academic reflection regarding the development of curricula, which give insight into formal educational strategies (Du Toit, 2013; Greyling, 2007; Steenveld, 2006); a Grocott’s Mail [ii] publication celebrating its 134th year which published brief profiles of the Heads of Department of the SJMS; autobiographical accounts incorporating SJMS as a backdrop to personal histories (Hilton-Barber, 2016; Warman, 2015; Butler, 1991); and as part of Paul Maylam's institutional history of Rhodes University from 1904 - 2016, 'an intellectual, political and cultural history.'
NOTES
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i / As an independent department and no longer a sub-set of the English department (Butler, 1991).
ii / In 2003, Rhodes University bought the newspaper to set up the David Rabkin Project for Experiential Journalism Training.
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REFERENCES
Du Toit, J. E. 2013. Journalism Education in Universities: The Global and Local Migration of Concepts between Practice and Discipline. Doctoral dissertation at University of Stellenbosch. Retrieved on 6 Feburary 2016 from http://scholar.sun.ac.za
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Butler, G. 1991. A Local Habitation. David Philip: Cape Town.
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Greyling, S.A. 2007. Rhodes University During the Segregation and Apartheid Eras , 1933- 1990. Master of Arts of Rhodes University thesis.
Hilton-Barber, B. 2016. Student Comrade Prisoner Spy: A Memoir. South Africa: Penguin Random House.
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Maylam, P. 2017. Rhodes University, 1904-2016: An Intellectual, Political and Cultural History. Institute of Social and Economic Research: Grahamstown.
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Steenveld, L. 2006. Journalism in South Africa? Context, context, context. In A. Olorunnisola (ed.), Media in South Africa after apartheid: A cross-media assessment, New York: Edwin Mellon Press.
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Warman, J. 2015. The Class of 79. Johannesburg: Jacana Media.
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