Storytelling. And pondering journalism futures.
Hostwriter, a network which helps journalists around the world collaborate across borders, asked colleagues around the globe to contribute stories that address the challenges around making journalism more diverse. The result is the book “Unbias The News: Why Diversity Matters for Journalism.” Tanya Pampalone, wrote the opening essay for the collection, “Watch Your Language.” Everyone …
Craig Silverman, now the Toronto-based media editor for BuzzFeed News, has been digging into unhappy facts for years. But back in 2015, he came out with a report which would foretell the misinformation tsunami that would soon arrive. Published by the Tow Center for Digital Journalism at Columbia University, “Lies, Damn Lies and Viral Content: …
Continue reading "White Noise, Damn Lies, Deep Fakes and What Really Scares Craig Silverman"
It started off at the session on education. Last week, in a corner room just off the Piazza IV Novembre, in the charming medieval town of Perugia, Italy, Alice Ross, a young journalist working for Greenpeace UK’s Unearthed bemoaned the cost of her fancy investigative journalism degree at City, University of London. The total for …
When Tanya Pampalone was told her car’s warranty was up five months before it was due, she had a hard time finding out why. That’s when she delved into the world of dodgy motor industry practices where it’s almost impossible to get a straight answer. Unless you’re willing to ask a lot of questions — …
Early one morning last year a handful of students gathered to block the main entrance to the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg to protest the university's proposed 10 percent tuition fee hike. Their intention: to physically illustrate the economic barriers faced by those attempting to get into the South Africa's institutions of knowledge. Protests …
It's 1948 and it's the first day of apartheid in South Africa. A jazzy tune is playing, the sun is shining and some white people are lying on blankets on a grassy embankment. A familiar sign pops up: "Whites Only." The camera pans onto a young black man who is taking his place on the …
Continue reading "The Funny Thing About Race in South Africa"
Sometimes the most acute afflictions present in the simplest forms – like the rusted machine that once spit out parking tickets for visitors to the hulking concrete and steel towers of the South African Broadcasting Corporation's Johannesburg studios, or the escalators meant to glide employees from the ground floor to the lobby. On the last …
Continue reading "Fear and Loathing at South Africa’s Public Broadcaster"
Luxury apartments in the roughest neighborhood in town? One small development group with big plans thinks it’s an easy sell. All you have to do is believe. BY TANYA PAMPALONE The ride up is bumpy. At every floor, the cramped elevator stops and bounces, as if it were hanging from a delicate bungee at the …
THERE ARE TWO WAYS TO ENTER DAINFERN. One is through the Broadacres gate. It looks much the same as the William Nicol entrance -- both have grand white wooden facades with grey roofing and boomed lanes for "visitors" and "residents" -- but the Broadacres gate is a more fitting way to arrive. If you try …
ON A RECENT WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON in Kinshasa we sat on a marbled garden terrace waiting for Werrason, one of the Democratic Republic of Congo's most famous musicians. There were palm trees and red roses and cactuses and, next to a grand entrance with Greek pillars, an oversized vase filled with light pink and beige nylon …
