Jamlab and repairing innovation final 2018

repairing media through innovation jamlab research report no. 1
jamlab research report 1
September 2018
repairing media through innovation
learnings from the ﬁrst year of the journalism and media lab
Indra de Lanerolle, Director, Journalism and Media Lab, Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct
Visiting Researcher and adjunct Lecturer, Journalism and Media Department,
University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.
Page of1 28

This report presents action research over the first year of the journalism and media lab (jamlab)
based at the Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct, Johannesburg. It was written by Indra de
Lanerolle with the assistance of Tshepo Tshabalala and Phillip Mogodi.
The journalism and media lab is a programme of the Wits Journalism and the Tshimologong Digital
Innovation Precinct in partnership with Journalists for Human Rights and Ryerson University.
Aspects of the programme were also supported by the Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives, the
International Development Research Centre and the Open Society Foundations Program on
Independent Journalism.
All views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the publishers,
partners or any other organisations affiliated with jamlab.
Published by the Department of Journalism and Media, University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg, Braamfontein, Johannesburg 2000, South Africa.
© 2018 University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 
Page of2 28

repairing media through innovation
learnings from the ﬁrst year of the journalism and media lab
Contents
Introduction and Summary of key learnings 4

1. The journalism and media landscape in South Africa 6

2.1 The jamlab accelerator 8

2.2 jamlab knowledge programme 11

2.3 jamlab community of practice 12

3. Assessing the jamlab programmes 13

4. Learnings on the innovation process: ‘Innovation as repair’ 17

5. Conclusions and implications for jamlab 2018-2020 23

Acknowledgements 26

References 26
Page of3 28

Introduction and Summary of key learnings
This report presents and analyses evidence drawn from action research conducted in the process of
establishing and running a new journalism and media innovation laboratory - the first such initiative
in Africa - over its first year.
The founding purpose of the lab is to support innovation that grows and transforms journalism and
media in Africa, developing media that meets needs of more audiences through innovation,
entrepreneurship and research. As we put it at the time of our launch, our vision is to see ‘new ideas,
new information, new conversations reaching new audiences in Africa’. We started from the position
that journalism and informational media is an essential part of public life. In South Africa, in 2017, the
year jamlab was launched, media organisations were central in holding government to account in
exposing and challenging what became known as ‘state capture’: widespread corruption and
patronage that threatened to gravely undermine the country’s public institutions. But we recognised
that many parts of the media system were broken: with unsustainable business models, shrinking
resources, significant parts of the population not reached or served, and many stories not being told.
The lab was established with three mutually re-enforcing components: an accelerator programme
supporting teams to develop new media ventures and products and services; a knowledge
programme that would document and publicise innovations and learnings from the lab as well as
innovations from across the African continent; and an events programme that could begin to build a
community of practice which could extend support for innovation to a wider group of journalists and
media professionals. The six month accelerator supported six media teams - providing workspace,
coaching and mentoring, and opportunities to extend their industry networks and to present to
potential investors and partners. An online magazine documented innovations and innovators from
across the continent in more than thirty articles and reports. Three events were also held including
one on understanding fake news threats in South Africa, one on entrepreneurship and one
international event on the roles of tech hubs in innovation and entrepreneurship.
The analysis suggests that overall, the programmes were very successful in meeting jamlab’s key
objectives. The teams in the accelerator - most led by women - demonstrated significant progress
over the course of the programme and half of them were able to secure investment to grow their
ventures in 2018. Two new media services were launched and more than 100, 000 people were
reached with new services.
Already, the programme appears to be meeting a real demand and filling a gap in the innovation
ecosystem for developing new and improved media products and services. Some significant
relationships and partnerships have been established, sowing the seeds for a potentially powerful
community of purpose around journalism and media innovation in South Africa and on the continent.
Some significant weaknesses are also identified in our assessment. As a ‘bootstrap’ operation, the
resources available were less than were originally budgeted and did not match all the ambitions of
the programmes. While the majority of the teams developed their ventures substantially, some
teams faced challenges in being able to devote sufficient time to the programme and to their
ventures. The major reason for this was financial - with founders having to balance their
commitments with the need to earn a living or sustain their existing businesses.
Page of4 28

The building blocks were put in place for creating a wider community of purpose and practice, but
growing this network or community is still at an early stage. As well as being a goal in its own right,
this community is needed to provide a pool from which to draw mentors, guest lecturers and
contributors for the accelerator programme.
An important part of our approach is to learn and to document our learning to inform our own
practice and to influence others. In the report we examine in some detail what kinds of innovation
processes took place in the first year of the lab. Through this analysis we identify a common approach
which underlies the diverse work that the teams undertook. We call this approach to innovation
‘repairing innovation’ to distinguish it from two forms of innovation identified by previous
researchers - ‘disruptive’ and ‘sustaining’ innovation.
This approach to innovation focuses on discovering and understanding what is broken in existing
systems and processes and then seeks to develop innovations in the form of new products or services
that can address (or repair) these broken parts of the existing system. The analysis contrasts this to
the approach many innovators take which starts not with identifying existing problems but with an
idea for a new product or service. We suggest that a focus on demand - on the needs of audiences or
users and on the broken parts of the system that delivers journalism and media is appropriate for the
jamlab initiative which seeks not only to support media entrepreneurship and innovation but to
contribute to the improvement of the journalism and media ecosystem overall.
The research identifies some key learnings which are relevant to the further development of the
jamlab. These include a need to provide more technical resources to support the development of
minimum viable products; introducing industry mentors at an earlier stage in the programme and
extending support after the initial six months through a structured alumni programme. For the other
programmes, there is a need to grow and deepen relationships with mainstream media houses and
other media institutions and with innovation leaders in the sector.
For the media sector as a whole, we suggest that ‘sustaining innovations’ continues to be important,
especially in improving and extending payment systems such as paywalls. However, we also suggest
that deeper ‘repairing’ or ‘disruptive’ innovations are required to differentiate products and
audiences in the clutter of the digital sphere and to address the failures in reach and coverage.
The first section of the report sets out the context for innovation, describing the current media
landscape in South Africa. The second and third sections describe the jamlab programmes and
assesses the achievements and impacts of the programmes. The fourth section sets out an analysis of
the approaches to innovation that the teams took and draws out implications for understanding the
kinds of innovation that may be needed for media in Africa. The last section summarises learnings and
recommendations for jamlab in the future and for media organisations seeking to innovate.
Page of5 28

1. The journalism and media landscape in South Africa
jamlab launched while media and journalism in South Africa - as elsewhere - was in flux. Change was
all around but not in any consistent direction. Some trends were not new and were associated with
the digitisation of media: continued financial pressures on print readerships and advertising bases;
shrinking of newsrooms; and the ongoing struggles of the major media houses and alternative digital
media to develop sustainable business models online. Some trends became particularly pressing in
the course of the year: especially the increasing domination of digital advertising by the the search
and platform behemoths - Google and Facebook. Others were particular to South Africa - most
notably, the continuing struggle to enable the public broadcaster to meet its mandate and negotiate it
independence from the state. The 2017 State of the Newsroom report published by Wits Journalism
sets out many of these issues in some detail.
Other patterns were much less clear. Investigative journalism in South Africa in 2017 was as strong
as at any time in modern South African history. This was a suprise. In recent years there had been the
closure of the Investigative Unit of the Sunday Times, possibly the leading national english language
newspaper in the country. AmaBhungane, the Mail and Guardian’s investigative unit had been spun
out of the M&G which could no longer support it financially. Following the ‘Gupta Emails’ exposes - a
series of stories based on a large data dump of emails from servers used by an Indian business family
with strong links to President Zuma and his son - significant donor funds came in to grow capacity in
investigative teams. But it is not clear what the sustainable business model is. The Nobel prize-
winning economist Joseph Steiglitz, speaking at the Global Investigative Journalism Conference held
at Wits in November 2017, stated that the market will not and could not support ‘evidence-based
journalism’. If that is so, what will sustain it? There is as yet no clear answer.
While it may have been a vintage year for investigative journalism, the mood at events that brought
together South African journalists and media managers like MMX, South African Media Summit and
Media Indaba was generally not optimistic. Two themes haunted discussions, neither of them new,
but both reaching new crisis points: the attacks on the status and credibility of news and information
media and the undermining of the business models on which they rely.
Media organisations were trying to come to terms with Google and Facebook taking the majority of
digital advertising revenues in South Africa and social media increasingly dominating news
distribution. And they also faced a growing and fluid range of actors - from commercial pseudo-news
sites to highly organised AI supported campaigns - aiming to blur the lines between the real and the
fake and in some cases to actively discredit and threaten journalists.
Nic Dawes, former editor of the Mail and Guardian, and now with Human Rights Watch, summarised
the crisis at the end of last year at the Cape Town Media Indaba:
"The information infrastructure that undergirds democracy, and public life, is under deliberate siege
at a time when its foundations are already weakened by sloppy construction, inattentive
maintenance, and the rising waters of technological climate change."
There is widespread global recognition of the need to innovate in the sector. But there is also
evidence of how difficult this is to execute. The latest Reuters Institute annual report on journalism,
media and technology trends suggests that digital media managers and leaders in many countries are
Page of6 28

finding it difficult to innovate
within their organisations and
consider this a considerable
risk (Newman, 2018). But
what innovation should they
be pursuing? The digitisation
of media has opened up a
great new vista of what is
possible. The challenge is
finding, amongst these
possibilities, those that can be
sustainable and which will
make journalism in South
Africa work better. The
questions are: how to
innovate to maximise the chances of success? and how to identify the innovations that will work - for
newsrooms and for their audiences?
Jamlab was launched in this context specifically to address these questions and to empower existing
organisations and new entrants to innovate successfully.
Other initiatives were also launched during the year which aimed to add to the innovation
‘ecosystem’. In February 2017, Innovate Africa awarded seven grants to South African teams to
create new journalism and media services. In September, Open Society Foundation South Africa,
Omidyar Network and the Media Development Investment Fund launched the South African Media
Innovation Programme (SAMIP) committing $4m to supporting innovation over the next few years.
Innovation is a process not an event, and it’s too early to tell what impact these initiatives are going to
have on South African journalism in the middle or long terms. They are start-ups themselves. The
remainder of this report describes the first year of the jamlab programmes on the basis that it may
already offer some useful evidence that can develop our understanding of the processes of
innovating in journalism and media.
Page of7 28
Figure 1. Theory of Change underpinning the three jamlab programmes

2.1 The jamlab accelerator
In 2017, the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, launched a new programme to support
innovation in journalism and media supported by international partners, Journalists for Human
Rights and Ryerson University. The Journalism and Media Lab or jamlab aimed to encourage and
support innovation in journalism and media by incubating new journalism and media start ups led by
commercial or social entrepreneurs and ‘intrapreneurs’ ; by building a learning network for1
innovation for journalists and media professionals, tracking and publishing stories on journalism and
media innovation in Africa via a regular newsletter and online magazine and by hosting discussions2
and events in Johannesburg; and lastly by producing actionable research on innovation to improve3
innovation outcomes.
In planning the programme, an initial landscape analysis of the South African media landscape was
produced and on this basis, four opportunities for innovation in the media sector were identiﬁed: the4
development of new content and services; creating new income streams and business models;
developing new audiences and lastly, developing new modes and technologies for communicating
stories and information .5
‘intrapreneurs’ are leaders inside existing organisations that create innovations or new products or services within1
their organisations.
See http://jamlab.africa2
‘Future of Journalism Lab Concept Note’ internal document written by Indra de Lanerolle in May 2016.3
ibid4
ibid5
Page of8 28
jamlab teams on jamlab demo day. Picture: CHANTE SCHATZ

An open call for participants for the incubator was announced in April 2017 with the final selection
made by a panel which included Romeo Kumalo, tech investor and chief executive of Washirika
Holdings; Ferial Haffajee, Editor-at-large at HuffPost SA; Koketso Moeti, Executive Director of
Amandla.mobi; Mathatha Tsedu, visiting professor at Wits and former editor of the Sunday Times and
City Press; Prof. Barry Dwolatzky, founding CEO of Tshimologong and Franz Kruger, head of Wits
Journalism and Wits Radio Academy.
THE TEAMS
Fourteen journalists and media makers in six teams were recruited and started the programme in
July 2017. Ten of the fourteen were women and four of the teams were led by women. Ages ranged
from those in the early twenties to one in her fifties.
Professional backgrounds included an entrepreneur with a newly established media business, a mid-
career journalist and a team from a well established media non-profit. This mix reflected quite closely
the range of media innovators we had identified in setting up the programme (see box below).
African Tech Round Up, led by Andile
Maskuku, aimed to extend its existing
podcasts, which had already built up an
influential audience and network in the
African tech community, into video and
also develop a sustainable business
strategy to bring them to profit.
Black Girl Fat Girl, an online lifestyle
magazine led by Siphumelele Chagwe
aimed to challenge media stereotypes
with their new online magazine. As they
stated their magazine was for ‘the fat
ones, the skinny ones, the incredibly
queer ones and the “ I don’t know
where i fit in” ones…’ Through their
participation in the accelerator
programme, the team aimed to develop
their technology platform, and grow
their audience and develop income
streams.
The Global Girl Media team led by
Patricia Hlophe aimed to build on the
training programme they had been
running since 2010 and create a viable
media enterprise for young women
from townships and rural areas.
Nelisa Ngqulana of the Media Factory
had worked with Media Monitoring
Africa on a Youth News Agency and
Page of9 28
Who are the innovators?
Journalism Students and Professional Journalists
Wits Journalism provides training for over 200 students each year
(both new entrants and mid-career professionals) through full-time,
part-time and short courses. We would aim to expose them all to the
Future of Journalism Lab.
Start up entrepreneurs
The Tshimologong Precinct community that is growing prior to the
formal opening of the Precinct will provide a basis for reaching out to
start-up entrepreneurs. In addition, the Creating The Media course
could provide a launch pad opportunity for mid-career journalists
wanting to explore new entrepreneurial opportunities and develop
start-up ideas.
Newly established journalism ventures
Wits Journalism already has relationships with some of the new
online journalism ventures (see ‘A new generation of alternative
news online’ above). We think the lab could play an important role in
supporting this group of journalism social entrepreneurs and
professional and new journalists, and help these initiatives to secure
their future growth and sustainability.
Media houses
The major media houses, both the public broadcaster and the
commercial media, represent an important source of innovation and
important sites where new innovations can take place. Wits
Journalism has strong relationships with all of them and has
conducted training for many of them.
From the Future of Journalism Lab concept note (2016)

UNICEF Children’s Radio Foundation. During her time at the accelerator programme she aimed to
create a new citizen journalists news agency made up of young content creators.
Soul City Institute, one of the country’s best known social justice organisations and producers of
successful television shows including Soul City, Rise, Soul Buddyz and Kwanda, aimed to build a new
young women’s radio station. They also wanted to explore the possibility of starting a mobile virtual
network operator (MVNO) which could offer data-free listening online.
The last team, Volume, was made up of journalist Paul McNally, a Harvard Nieman Fellow and
founding director of Citizen Justice Network and Roland Perold, a serial entrepreneur with a
background in telecoms and software startups. They aimed to create a new mobile-first news wire
service that linked community radio journalists with mainstream news outlets to breakthrough the
existing metropolitan filter bubble of South African news coverage.
Two of the teams were non-profit organisations although they both were aiming to to generate
income from their new enterprises. One was already established as a private company. The others
had yet to formalise their structure.
The teams’ goals reflected some, but not all
of the innovation opportunities we had
identified in planning the programme. The
four established or newly established
organisations (Soul City, Global Girl, Black
Girl Fat Girl and African Tech Round Up)
were all highly focused on developing new
income streams and business models. Two
teams (Volume and Soul City) were focused
on reaching new audiences. Volume and Soul
City were aiming to develop or adapt new
technologies.
THE PROGRAMME DESIGN
The six month programme was designed after studying and visiting start-up incubators and
accelerators in Nairobi, Kigali, Toronto and Silicon Valley as well as a review of literature of
accelerator and incubator programmes (see for example, Hathaway 2016). It was also influenced by
the experiences and goals of the organisations involved in establishing it. Wits Journalism had run a
post graduate course on starting media enterprises and this was adapted for the programme. The
new Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct, launched the previous year, had been created by the
University as a co-working space, training facility and innovation centre to encourage tech
entrepreneurship, build stronger relationships between the University and entrepreneurs and
contribute to inner city re-generation. The founder had visited Ryerson University in Toronto which
had established a series of tech hubs in the city including the Digital Media Zone and this influenced
some of the plans. Journalists for Human Rights, a non-profit organisation also based in Toronto had
trained journalists in a number of African countries and also supported independent media
entrepreneurs through a fellowship programme.
The programme included a two week bootcamp which aimed to align expectations for the
programme, build relationships between the teams and introduce and inculcate some of the key
Page of10 28
Innovation opportunities
We see four innovation gaps in South Africa that a digital
journalism/media innovation lab could seek to support.
First, innovation in content and services; second innovation
in revenues and business models; third, innovation in
identifying and reaching new audiences and lastly,
innovation in adoption, adaptation and development of new
technologies.
From the Future of Journalism Lab concept note (2016)

working methods; an assessment of each teams support and mentorship needs; a certiﬁed course on
media innovation and entrepreneurship based on ‘lean start-up’ methods (Ries, 2011) widely used in
incubator programmes around the world; weekly coaching and a programme of talks, meetings and
events which enabled teams to meet and engage with experienced journalists and media managers.
Teams spent at least a day a week at Tshimologong. At the end of the programme they were given the
opportunity to present their innovations to a wider community of media professionals including
potential investors and supporters.
By design, and unlike some other accelerator and incubator programmes, the teams were not all at
the same stage of development so the expectations for
teams progress over the six months varied.
Overall we aimed to move their proposed innovations to a
point where they were all ‘investable’ - able to attract
commercial or grant funding in order to continue to
develop and grow their enterprise. This required
developing and testing at least a basic version of their
product or service and researching and testing the market
for their service.
2.2 jamlab knowledge programme
In May 2017 jamlab launched the jamlab magazine on
medium.com (medium.com/jamlab). Ten email newsletters
were also distributed to a list which grew to 464
subscribers by the end of 2017.
Page of11 28
Fig 2 Model of jamlab accelerator programme

Articles documented journalism and media innovations from South Africa, Uganda, Zimbabwe,
Liberia, Rwanda/Burundi and Ghana. Interviews with African innovators helped illuminate the
challenges of innovation on the continent. A series of “how to” articles aimed to share learnings on
how to use new approaches or technologies. A range of new digital tools from video broadcast to data
tools were reviewed by experienced journalists. The magazine also published learnings and insights
from the jamlab accelerator programme and published a series of blogs by accelerator teams tracking
their progress. Content sharing partnerships were established with the European Journalism
Observatory and the Nieman Lab and some jamlab articles were republished on these platforms.
Social media was used to publicise events and publications. A website jamlab.africa was established
towards the end of the year.
2.3 jamlab community of practice
In July, the jamlab teams were invited to an event
organised by Wits Journalism at Tshimologong on
privacy led by Dario Milo, one of the country’s top
media lawyers.
In August 2017, jamlab hosted the ﬁrst meetup
with Asmaa Malik from Ryerson University in
Toronto, Canada. At this event, around thirty-ﬁve
media entrepreneurs, journalists and media
practitioners shared their experiences and insights
on opportunities for innovation in the South
African media landscape.
In November, jamlab hosted an international
workshop at Tshimologong with leaders from
Ghana, Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria and Senegal
running incubator and accelerator programmes in
other tech hubs. We also held a cocktail evening
hosted by the Wits Vice Chancellor and the Canadian High Commissioner to South Africa.
Later in November jamlab hosted a roundtable with researchers and journalists examining fake news
in South Africa. This has led to a series of workshops planned for 2018 on strategies and tools for
addressing fake news. Further jamlab research reports are planned based on these and other events.  
Page of12 28
Asmaa Malik from Ryerson University, Andile
Masuku from African Tech Round Up and
Siphumelele Chagwe from Black Girl Fat Girl
discussing journalism innovation with Indra de
Lanerolle at a jamlab meet up. Picture: jamlab

3. Assessing the jamlab programmes
In this section we present our assessment of the programmes’ achievements and effectiveness based
on our monitoring and evaluation of the programmes over 2017. This is based on an action research
methodology which is an appropriate method for professional and organisational learning which can
aid ‘reflective practice’ (McNiff 2013).
Throughout the programme we gathered data based on self-reporting and observation of the
progress of the teams. This was done by weekly check-ins where each team reported on their
activities, challenges and plans; by requiring the teams to write regular blogs which were published
on jamlab media platforms , and by interviews with team members including extended interviews6
conducted at the end of the six month programme. We also compared and analysed the content of
their initial proposals submitted or presented prior to selection with their final presentations.
Data on the online magazine was gathered by reviewing the content produced, reviewing the email
subscription lists and reviewing online analytics (including google, medium.com and social media
accounts). A survey of selected frequent readers was also undertaken.
Management documents including funding proposals, steering committee reports and management
meeting minutes were also collated and used in the analysis.
Data was collected and collated into various preparatory documents by jamlab team members and
discussed and analysed in various team discussions.
At the beginning of the programmes we set a broad range of goals (see figure 1 above):
“Improve effectiveness and impact of up to six initiatives and secure investment for at least one of
them; Build a learning network for innovation in journalism and media; Publish case studies and
reports to share learning within the network; Build and develop a programme for 2018 and beyond
including a plan to extend influence further in the continent.”7
JAMLAB ACCELERATOR
The main goals we had set for the accelerator were met and exceeded. By the end of the programme,
four of the teams had succeeded in developing a product and testing it with users or customers.
Three of the six teams had succeeded in getting significant investments to grow their initiatives.
Teams stated that they had greatly benefited from the programme and made more progress than
they would have done without jamlab’s support.
The programme aimed to provide four key forms of support to the start-up teams. A co-working
space, coaching in innovation and start-up processes, mentoring and networking opportunities and
coaching to enable teams to be able to raise further investment and support .8
see https://medium.com/jamlab/accelerator-programme/home6
From jamlab funding presentation 20167
In the original plan (see figure 2) we had planned a development fund to enable teams to pay for software8
development teams. However we didn’t have sufficient funds to do this.
Page of13 28

After more than twenty years of innovation research there is no definitive picture of what is the most
appropriate environment and what interventions are most likely to support successful innovation.
Through interviews at the end of the programme, we tried to identify which elements of the
programme, the teams had found most helpful.
The review of the first year suggests that the major aspects of the programme were all useful. The
‘lean start up’ coaching was appreciated and, on the evidence of the teams successes in raising further
investment, helped them to develop more viable products and better business cases to support them.
Teams also reported significant benefits from being part of a cohort. A lot of sharing of resources and
mutual support amongst the six teams was observed during the programme. While many expressed
some stress as a result of the deadlines imposed by the six month structure and fixed deadline of
‘demoday’, they also recognised that this meant they achieved a lot in the period.
The teams appreciated the networking and mentorship opportunities but would have liked to see
more. Least useful to most of the teams was the offer of free workspace. Most teams only spent a day
a week at Tshimologong. Many of the teams also required more support from professional services
(e.g. legal and accounting services) and more access to software developers. We aim to address these
needs in designing the programmes in future years.
An appropriate space for innovation
Some evidence suggests that start-ups find it easier to innovate than large existing organisations.
Christensen argues that established organisations should create separate spaces for innovation
teams (Christensen, 2013; Christensen et al, 2015). The Soul City team, which was made of the CEO
and two senior professionals in the organisation which employs more than 50 people, found it helpful
to have a separate space to innovate away from the day to day processes within the organisation.
The venue for the programme, the Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct was still in the very
beginning of its operations when the accelerator began and this did present challenges in, for
example, booking systems and heating through a Johannesburg winter. Though the ‘headspace’
enabled by being part of the programme may have been as important as any physical space.
“The jamlab programme provided a place where our time on innovation can be legitimised
within the organisation. The experience allowed us to think about different ways of
restructuring and developing new ideas for Soul City; an avenue we would have
[otherwise] never explored” (Shereen Usdin, Soul City).
Building networks
The teams also saw value in the programme’s ability to extend their networks.
“We made very good connections and extended our network during our time in the
programme.” (Paul McNally, Volume)
“Being part of jamlab gave us some form of protection and credibility; it was easier for Paul
and I to meet people.” (Roland Perold, Volume)
Page of14 28

Entrepreneurship training and coaching
The teams reported that they had learned more about the business of media and that this had
enabled them to take a more entrepreneurial perspective on their work. This may have been
particularly important since with only a couple of exceptions, none had any experience of running a
business.
“Being part of the jamlab process changed my perspective about entrepreneurship…I have
gained more confidence in myself than I did when I first started the programme” – (Nelisa
Ngqulana, Media Factory).
“Through the jamlab accelerator programme, we have grown a lot in the way we think
about entrepreneurship and the South African media landscape.”- (Simphiwe Mabaso,
Global Girl Media).
“The journey has been a process of building on and refining our business models... Working
on this Lean Canvas helped us figure out how our product will be beneficial to our
customers, and generating income to run our organisation sustainably.”- (Patricia Hlophe,
Global Girl Media).
In comparing the final presentations to the teams’ initial proposals there was also clear evidence of
how the teams had developed a much deeper understanding of the South African media landscape,
and had found new ways to identify opportunities for change and new enterprises that met real
needs of specific audiences. This brought the teams’ enterprises much closer to a point where they
could seek further investment and support. The ways that the teams developed these insights offers,
we argue, some lessons which are applicable beyond the JamLab initiative and may apply more
widely. Section 4 below explores some of these lessons.
While most of the teams participated consistently throughout the six month programme, in two cases
their participation was uneven. There were various reasons for this but a common denominator was
the lack of dedicated capacity within the teams which was at least in part the result of the lack of
revenues or income to sustain the enterprises. Another perspective on this problem is that the teams
differed in the levels of commitment that they had made to, and the stage of development of, their
enterprises. Three teams were already in formalised enterprises, two of them with salaried staffs.
The other three had no employees and no people who dedicated 100% of their time to their ventures.
In exit interviews at the end of the programme, teams made a number of suggestions for
improvements in the programme. They all found the events useful both in content and in
opportunities to extend their networks, but they would have liked many more of them. Some of the
teams would have liked to established mentoring much earlier on in the programme though they also
said that they found they needed different kinds of mentorship at different points rather than one
mentor throughout. Two of the teams would have benefitted from access to software developers or
detailed advice on software development. During the programme some teams also had needs for
professional services support (e.g. legal or accounting) which were not met.
JAMLAB KNOWLEDGE PROGRAMME
There was a variety of content produced and published online, describing innovations in journalism
and media on the continent. Our own assessment of this content is that it was generally well written
and potentially useful to journalists and media managers interested in innovation in the field. From
Page of15 28

desktop research and from engagement with US and European organisations that publish such
information about other parts of the world this appears to be signiﬁcant gap with very little attention
given to the African continent.
From our analysis of email and online data, circulation of this content was relatively limited,
especially in African countries beyond South Africa. Our analysis of our social media communications
was that it was too focused on promoting the content on the magazine, rarely linking to other sources
of useful information for African media innovators.
JAMLAB COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE
Only three events were held in the ﬁrst year of the jamlab programme. The attendance (between 20
and 70 people per event) showed strong levels of interest in learning and sharing insights on key
topics. Staff from many of the leading media companies and organisations attended the events
including SABC, Tiso Blackstar, Media24, Mail and Guardian. The accelerator teams all participated
in these events and valued them, especially for the opportunities they provided to meet media
professionals.
There is a clear opportunity to grow this programme. The location of Tshimologong is suited to
reaching many of the country’s major media houses with the Independent group, media24,
TisoBlackstar, M&G, Caxton, SABC and Primedia all within a few kilometres of Tshimologong. The
two main journalism and media teaching institutions in the city, University of the Witwatersrand and
University of Johannesburg are both nearby. WIts Journalism also has a strong network of
relationships with media companies and professionals.
Page of16 28

4. Learnings on the innovation process: ‘Innovation as repair’
The research undertaken as part of the 2017 programme aimed to go beyond assessing the
programme itself. Our goals included identifying broader insights and learnings that could contribute
to a deeper understanding of journalism and media innovation in Africa. In this section we set out an
analysis of the approaches to innovation that the teams in the jamlab accelerator undertook and
suggest that they point to a useful direction for media innovation in South Africa - and possibly the
continent.
Reviewing the work of the first six JamLab teams over 2017, a common thread connects their
approaches: their starting point of discovering problems in the current journalism and media landscape.
This was a product in part, of the entrepreneurial focus of the programme. A central tenet of the ‘lean
start up’ (Ries 2011) set of methods is a discovery process that demands that entrepreneurs identify
real problems that well-defined groups of potential customers or users have in order to find
opportunities and test assumptions for a new business. This means going to speak to people and later,
testing out new products with them.
From engagement with journalists and executives in South African media houses, this is not a
common approach. Within media houses innovations are often driven from the product side - for
example looking for new ways to exploit existing content or improving online delivery mechanisms.
Indeed previous research we have conducted in the public sector and civil society organisations
suggests that this approach to new technologies and innovation is not limited to media or to the
private sector (de Lanerolle, Walker and Kinney 2016).
What the discovery process enabled the teams to do was to identify, and then seek to address, some
significant broken parts of the wider journalism eco-system in South Africa.
‘Broken world thinking’ is a term coined by information science and media scholar Steve Jackson to
describe an approach that starts with looking for what is broken rather than for what is new. An
approach that describes:
“the distinctively different worlds of design and practice that appear to us when we take
erosion, breakdown, and decay … rather than novelty, growth, and progress as our starting
point.” (Jackson, Pompe and Krieshok 2012).
From this ‘broken world’ perspective, it is not difficult to find many areas of the journalism and media
ecosystem that are broken in South Africa as well as elsewhere. Broken business models of course
have been clear for some years. Broken trust between online media and public may be now coming
into sharper focus in many countries (Newman, 2018). In South Africa it is also clear that the
distribution system is and it could be argued has always been broken, with print and online media
failing to reach most; very limited choices for news and information through broadcasting outside of
the major cities; limited access and high costs online and a great lack of content in most of South
Africa’s official languages.
The jamlab teams identified some significant opportunities in broken aspects of the media ecosystem
in South Africa.
Page of17 28

LOCAL NEWS IS BROKEN
The Volume team identified an obviously broken part of the news and information ecosystem: the
production and distribution of local news. Outside of the major metropolitan areas where audiences
have choices of local news in print and on radio, in rural areas and in the smaller towns and cities, the
supply of local news is very limited and often non-existent. Local newspapers have been closing. This
broken part of the news and information system affects especially those on lower incomes, and living
in towns or rural areas. Though community radio reaches many of these people, stations often fail to
meet their licence requirements to produce local news (Kruger, 2011).
NATIONAL COVERAGE IS BROKEN
In the course of their problem discovery, The Media Factory identified a different broken part of the
news system, one that led them to change the focus of their innovation. In interviewing senior
newsroom staff, they found editors were concerned about significant gaps in their ability to cover
stories in many parts of the country. A number of them reported not having offices, reporters or
stringers available in a number of provincial capitals. When significant national stories such as the
Knysna fire broke this posed significant problems for coverage. Overall there was a recognition that
‘national’ news services were often not national but rather metropolitan with only a few additional
nodes - such as Bloemfontein where the Appeal Court sits - also covered.
THE PUBLIC SPHERE IS BROKEN
The third problem that teams identified concerned what is sometimes called
‘voice’: who gets to speak in the public sphere or spheres that media platforms
facilitate. This is hardly a new problem. As Moropa (2010) points out, until the
very late nineteenth century and the creation of the isiXhosa newspaper, Imvo
Zabantsundu, black South Africans had virtually no voice in media. And the
importance of such a voice was recognised at that time .9
Two of the JamLab teams - Soul City and Black Girl Fat Girl focused on this
problem in relation to young women. They both identified a lack of voice of young,
especially black, women in media. Both found that while there were active
discussions between young black women on social networks, this was not
adequately reflected within mainstream media.
None of these problems are new and the jamlab teams are not the first to identify
them. Media critics including Duncan and Seleoane (1998), Habib (2004), Wasserman and de Beer
(2005), Friedman (2010) and Harber (2014) have all challenged the inclusiveness of voices included in
South African media, and the narrow focuses of coverage - for example in reporting (or non-
reporting) of working class protest outside metropolitan areas. Kruger (2011) also identified the
failure of community radio to deliver local news. However these questions appear to be much less
focused on by media owners and journalists themselves. The Economist South Africa Media Summit
held in Johannesburg in September 2017 touched on elitism and closures of local newspapers but the
One of the readers’ letters of the time puts this very eloquently: ‘Akukho nto thina isivuyisa njengokuba abenzi bobubi9
kwabantsundu bangatyi nto ihlayo ngenxa yeMVO ZABANTSUNDU, sithe sakubafumana emasheyeni, balila esikrakra
namhla.’

‘There is nothing that pleases us more than the discomfort which IMVO ZABANTSUNDU has caused towards those who do
evil to the blacks, when we discovered their deception, they are crying bitterly today.’ Imvo Zabantsundu 25 October 1888,
quoted and translated in Moropa, 2010.
Page of18 28

main themes, possibly unsurprisingly, were the management of SABC - the public broadcaster,
investigative journalism, funding and fake news .10
REPAIR RATHER THAN DISRUPT
Jackson (2014) argues that “broken world thinking” leads to a focus on repair, an aspect of innovation
that is often rendered marginal. As he points out “the language of innovation is generally reserved for
new and computationally intensive “bright and shiny tools,” while repair tends to disappear
altogether”11
Jackson defines repair as “the subtle acts of care by which order and meaning in complex
sociotechnical systems are maintained and transformed, human value is preserved and
extended” (Jackson, 2014)
While Jackson and his colleagues have
taken often taken the term ‘repair’ quite
literally, focusing, for example on the repair
of mobile phones in Namibia (Jackson,
Pompe and Krieshok, 2012), we interpret it
to include interventions that repair not just
the technical artefacts but the
‘sociotechnical systems’ themselves.
The jamlab teams identified different parts
of the news and media system to repair. The
Volume team focused their approach on the
community radio sector which is made up of
more than 180 stations with a weekly12
listenership of between five and nine million
people . Stations’ licences generally13
require them to report local news but
previous research suggests that stations
rarely meet these requirements, with one
study reporting local news constituting less
than 15% of news coverage (Kruger, 2014).
On one of the site visits to a community
See ‘South African Media Summit: ‘we need to rewire the media landscape…’’, The Media Media Online, 3 October10
2017. http://themediaonline.co.za/2017/10/all-things-media-at-sa-media-summit/
I’m indebted to Professor Sarah Nuttal, the Director of Wits Institute for Social and Economic Research for11
introducing me to Steve Jackson’s work and for her suggestion that ‘broken world thinking’ and a focus on repair may
be a particularly useful perspective in Africa (Nuttal, 2017).
The number of community radio stations actually broadcasting is less than this. The National Community Radio12
Forum has 120 stations in its database and recent information from Sentech - the signal distributor - seen by the author
implies about 140 stations are actually broadcasting.
Media Connection, the advertising sales agency that represents many community stations to advertisers, claims an13
audience of nine million people (http://themediaconnection.co.za). The total audience reported by the Broadcast
Research Council (http://www.brcsa.org.za/brc-ram-radio-listening-jan17-jun17-apr17-sep-17/) for April to September
2017 is under six million though their methodology has been criticised by some community radio stations.
Page of19 28
News reader at community radio station in the Vaal using
her mobile phone to find stories from national news
website. PICTURE: VOLUME NEWS

station in the Vaal, the Volume team found a newsreader sitting on the floor of the studio huddled
over her phone gathering her stories from news24 headlines.
The Volume team developed and launched a series of products and services for
community radio stations to enable them address this broken part of the media
system. Their intervention involved recruiting and training local reporters,
providing software to enable them to record ‘soundbites’ and write or record short
links and send them to the station. At the time of writing they were operating in
three stations and reaching more than 100,000 listeners with daily local news stories. The initial
indications from their initial sites in the Vaal in Gauteng suggests that they may have succeeded in
developing a scalable model to repair news coverage on community stations and greatly improve the
access to news in African languages.
The Media Factory team worked to develop a platform that could link freelance and unemployed
early career journalists in undercover areas of the country with news desks so that when a story
broke in these areas, editors would have access to people capable of providing them with stories,
photos or video. This intervention could over time, lead to more representative national coverage and
help to redress the metropolitan bias of news coverage.
The Soul City and Black Girl Fat Girl Teams both focused on extending the voices of young women in
the public sphere by offering platforms that explicitly positioned themselves as alternatives to
mainstream media. During the programme Soul City launched a radio show on UJ FM to test demand
for an explicitly feminist radio station and also developed a detailed business case and plan for
launching a virtual mobile operator or MVNO aimed at young women.14
With the exception of the Soul City team, all the teams on the JamLab were start-ups. Most of the
participants had not worked in newsrooms. So are their experiences relevant to newsrooms? We
would argue that the different perspectives that they brought to media innovation may be useful for
those running or working in newsrooms to consider, especially their focus on trying to understand
the needs of media users.
INNOVATION IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER
One insight we draw from the first year of the JamLab is that innovation seen from inside the
newsroom is very different to innovation seen from the outside - amongst users and customers of
news and information. Inside newsrooms, it seems innovation is all around. Indeed from the point of
view of journalists, it can feel that there may be too much of it. But innovation becomes much less
visible when we shift our perspective to customers/citizens. Looking at the major digital news
platforms - news24.com, iol.co.za, mg.co.za, timeslive.co.za its not obvious that the services they
provide have changed in any transformative ways in the last few years. Yes, there are now more
videos. Designs have changed. There is more use of social media. But the range of content and news
and information services does not appear significantly different. And when we look at the overall
media system, it could be argued that there is less innovation overall than in, for example, financial
services or transport where highly capitalised new digital businesses such as Uber and TymeDigital
are transforming traditional business models and services.
An MVNO is a mobile operator that provides a branded mobile network service to customers but which doesn't own14
or control a mobile network infrastructure. Instead it ‘piggybacks’ on an existing operator’s infrastructure, paying a
share of revenue to it. Virgin Mobile in South Africa is an MVNO which uses CellC infrastructure.
Page of20 28

INNOVATION AS ‘REPAIR’
One way of understanding the differences in these perspectives is to distinguish different kinds of
innovation.
Clayton Christensen, the Harvard Business School professor who coined the term ‘disruptive
innovation’ identifies two forms of innovation: ‘sustaining innovation’ which improves existing
products for existing customers, and disruptive innovation that starts with marginal customers that
are poorly served by existing services or products but over time improves to challenge market
leaders and change the market. Newsrooms appear focused on sustaining innovation - incrementally
improving their products and businesses models. According to Christensen (2013), this is to be
expected from incumbent businesses and organisations aiming to maintain their services and
businesses to existing clients.
There are few examples in South Africa of disruptive innovations transforming the media sector in
the way that AirBnB or Uber have disrupted the accommodation and transport sectors . It is beyond15
the scope of this analysis to examine in any detail why this is the case but some factors may be
relevant for further research. First among them is the challenge of extensive ‘free’ content available
online. Free media predates the internet - broadcasting has provided such free news and information
for generations. With so much free content available, new paid for services are much less likely to
succeed, and as we have noted above the media industry is also deeply aware that the main source of
revenues for free content - advertising - is not working well for media enterprises in the digital space.
Where solving an audience problem through a transformative innovation does not produce a
foreseeable income stream, the incentives for disruptive innovation (which often requires
substantial investment) may be limited.
Second, as Christensen (2013) points out, large firms or organisations, especially successful ones,
tend towards sustaining innovation rather than disrupt the markets that they dominate and find
profitable. It could be argued that the disrupters in the news media space in South Africa are those
that have been accused of being sources of fake news such as South Africa Latest News and SA16
Breaking News, the former with over 900,000 likes on its Facebook page. These services are
disrupting the online news space and business - competing with genuine news sites for audiences and
advertising but without investing in any original reporting.
If disruptive innovation in South African media has been limited or even negative, the work of the
jamlab teams suggests a third innovation path or at least a third perspective that we could call
repairing innovation. Like disruptive innovation the goal of the innovation is transformative change.
But like sustaining innovation, the goal is to improve the existing system rather than disrupting it. The
repairs that the jamlab programme is focused on are not minor. They are ambitious. But because they
focus on the systems as they find them, damaged or inadequate as these systems are, they offer an
opportunity to leverage the working parts of the system to deliver new and better services to more
people. Volume, for example, building on the large network of community radio stations and Media
factory leveraging existing newsrooms and publications.
It should be noted that Christensen himself does not view Uber or AirBnB as leading disruptive innovation. However,15
we use the term as do many, to indicate that they have succeeded, through innovation, in disrupting the sectors they
compete in.
See AfricaCheck 18th November 2016 ‘GUIDE: How to stop falling for fake news’ https://africacheck.org/factsheets/16
guide-stop-falling-fake-news/
Page of21 28

We do not believe the first six teams have exhausted by any means the opportunities for repair.
Delivery of news and information in African languages - digital or otherwise - is one example that
remains a significant opportunity. Improving the business models and income streams of local
community media in particular is another.
This approach also has implications for the processes of innovation. Sustaining innovation can be
done ‘in house’. It is often driven by noticing what competitors are doing, but does not require co-
operation between organisations. The disruptive innovation perspective which dominates much of
the digital start-up world of tech hubs, incubators and accelerators often sets the innovator in
opposition to incumbents. Repairing innovation implies a need for collaboration with other actors in a
wider system. For Volume’s approach to succeed, for example, there will need to be collaboration
between their initiative, many community radio stations, and potential advertisers and marketers.
A repairing innovation prospective also requires a focus on context. It is innovation designed from the
ground up for a particular context. Since contexts differ it is not necessarily global in reach or
ambition. This distinguishes it from the approach that dominates in and spreads outwardly from
Silicon Valley where the view is often that the greater the opportunity to scale the better.
It is too early to tell whether these teams have found the right answers but their success in
identifying real problems to be solved suggests some questions that news and media organisations
should be interrogating more deeply. Are the innovations they are pursuing grounded in an
understanding of real problems that audiences or users have? And are they capable of addressing the
most significant failures in the existing journalism and media system in South Africa?
As the experience of the JamLab demonstrates, finding answers to such questions is challenging and
cannot be found in company offices or newsrooms. They require engagement with audiences and
maybe especially with potential audiences - those the media currently fail to serve or serve poorly.
Page of22 28

5. Conclusions and implications for jamlab 2018-2020
The research identifies some recommendations for the further development of the jamlab
programme and also some insights that may be more broadly relevant to media innovation in South
Africa and in Africa.
ENTREPRENEURSHIP, INNOVATION AND THE PUBLIC SPHERE
Jamlab’s purpose combines economic and social ambitions. Its targets include entrepreneurial ones
of developing new sustainable enterprises. They also include influencing the media and journalism
ecosystem through innovation that strengthens a sustainable media sector. Lastly, they include the
goal of developing new products and services that extend the range of ideas, information and
conversation that are available to the South African public. So it aims to benefit three communities:
entrepreneurs, the media sector and media audiences.
Overall, we find that after one year, jamlab is off to a strong start in developing the activities to meet
this purpose. The range of enterprises the accelerator programme has supported to date is aligned to
its broader goals. The accelerator programme in particular has a sophisticated range of interventions
which appear to be effective and which are adding value to the innovation ecosystem.
The programme mix also aligns to the lab’s objective to influence the wider media landscape. But the
scale of activities will need to be expanded and the industry network will need to be deepened if the
lab is to fully meet its ambitions.
JAMLAB ACCELERATOR PROGRAMME
Building on the success of the first jamlab accelerator, the focus on coaching in innovation methods
through the ‘Creating Media’ course and weekly engagement with each team should continue. Our
assessment also confirms that the cohort approach (having teams start and finish at the same time)
provides significant benefits. However, if we are to continue to accept start up teams at very
different stages, we should investigate whether we could offer pre-programmes or other means of
support to help those teams still at the ideation stage.
The mentoring system needs to expanded and modified to take account of the changing needs of
teams over the course of the programme. This will require a wider pool of mentors.
Based on feedback from teams, new priorities should include providing access to software
developers to support the creation of ‘minimum viable products’ to improve testing and feedback and
more access to professional services providers who can support them in company registrations,
business budgeting and planning, and marketing. Greater support in business planning could enable
the programme to expect teams to develop more sophisticated investment cases by the time they
reached demo day stage.
The seed fund to cover early development costs which was envisaged in the original plan should be
established (subject to funding).
There is a clear need to ensure teams devote sufficient time to make progress during the six month
programme. The fact that half of the teams were able to do this consistently shows it is possible. The
assessment suggests that more established teams found it easier to maintain their commitment.
Page of23 28

however one of the successful most ventures was a new team at the ideation stage when it came onto
the programme, so ruling out such early stage projects would mean missing out on potentially
impactful opportunities. A combination of interventions at the selection and commitment stage, and
during the programme could be explored. The question of whether a stipend or bursaries would be
effective should also be considered (subject to funding).
The programme duration seems to have been long enough to enable teams to make significant
progress while short enough for deadlines to drive that progress. However, if the programme
continues to allow teams at a variety of stages of development to participate there needs to
continued monitoring and thinking about the most appropriate duration for the programme. In any
case, there is a clear demand to extend the support and monitoring process after the completion of
the six month programme. This could be achieved through a structured alumni programme.
The operational plan identified a long term aim to extend the accelerator to other African countries.17
The accelerator model is based on high levels of contact as well as work ‘in the field’ to engage with
potential and actual customers. This is likely to make it difficult for teams from other countries to
participate in the programme as currently structured. There are two routes that could be explored to
expand beyond South Africa. First, a partner/franchise approach, opening other sites, for example in
Kenya and/or Nigeria. Second, a ‘blended learning’ approach moving some of the programme onto a
digital platform. These should both be explored.
JAMLAB KNOWLEDGE PROGRAMME
The jamlab magazine has built a small but significant readership in South Africa as well as in a number
of other African countries. There is a need to extend this network - both as audiences and as
contributors - by identifying key media and media support organisations in more African countries.
Some countries where we have made initial contacts include Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Rwanda and
Zimbabwe.
There is an opportunity to build on the relationships that have been established with organisations
beyond the continent that are focused on journalism and media innovation including the Knight
Foundation, the Nieman Lab, the European Journalism Observatory and the Reuters Institute.
The commitment to generate and disseminate useable original research from the accelerator and
community of practice events should be continued. In our experience there is very little research
focused on African media innovation published and generating original research takes dedicated
effort. Working with others in the Wits Journalism department we aim to increase our research
output. This report is we hope the beginning of a series that can form the basis of further event
programming and content for the online magazine.
As the audience for the publications grows, content should be tested regularly by reviewing online
data and conducting surveys.
JAMLAB COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE
A start has been made in building a community of journalists, media managers, researchers and
others with an interest in building a better sector. To grow this community, jamlab will need to extend
its outreach into the major media houses and smaller media start ups. This will require running more
Implementation Schedule internal management document. May 2017.17
Page of24 28

events and curating their content to meet current interests and needs of the wider journalism and
media community.
There are also opportunities to extend relationships already established with other actors that are
similarly committed to supporting innovation in media and journalism in South Africa and Africa
including South African Media Innovation Program and Innovate Africa.
JAMLAB THEORY OF CHANGE
The original ‘theory of change’ (see figure 1) suggested that there was a strong relationship between
the three jamlab programmes. Because the knowledge programme and community of practice are
still at early stages it is not possible to evaluate all aspects of the model at this stage. However, it is
notable that some of the aspects of the accelerator programme that we have identified as needing
strengthening would be greatly helped by strengthening the community of practice. Continuing to
grow the knowledge programme and especially expanding content from other African countries is
also likely to be helpful in growing a network to meet jamlab’s ambitions outside of South Africa. As
these programmes develop, further research should be undertaken to test usefulness of the model.
RESOURCES AND PLANNING
As noted in Section 2, the pilot year was a ‘bootstrap’ operation, funded in part through in kind
support. Many of the recommendations here will depend on establishing a dedicated team and
resources that can be committed over the medium term.
As Tshimologong has expanded its activities and team significantly since the jamlab began, there are
many more opportunities to leverage and integrate aspects of the programmes with other
programmes at Tshimologong. Wits Journalism also now has a full time events co-ordinator and an
extensive programme of events as well as industry and alumni networks. These were utilised in the
first year but more opportunities exist to leverage them further in the future.
INNOVATION IN THE SECTOR
For the media sector as a whole, we suggest that ‘sustaining innovations’ continues to be important,
especially in improving and extending payment systems such as paywalls. However, we also suggest
that deeper ‘repairing’ or ‘disruptive’ innovations are required to differentiate products and
audiences in the clutter of the digital sphere and to address the failures in reach and coverage.
New start ups are part of the solution. The jamlab accelerator, along with other initiatives, aim to
increase and improve the supply of new entrants that can enrich and repair the media environment.
But there is also a need to support innovation within existing media organisations. The challenges for
established media houses to ‘re-invent’ their products or business models in this way are significant.
If jamlab, with partners, can succeed in building a stronger ecosystem for innovation, through
building better connections between start ups and existing media organisations then this may offer a
path for existing institutions to explore new paths.
Page of25 28

Acknowledgements
The journalism and media lab is a programme of the Journalism and Media department and the
Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct of the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in
partnership with Journalists for Human Rights and Ryerson University. Anton Harber and Barry
Dwolatzky from Wits, and Rachel Pulfer from JHR were instrumental in initially conceiving the
programme along with the Brookfield Institute at Ryerson. Asmaa Malik from Ryerson made
important contributions to the course that the jamlab Fellows completed. Aspects of the programme
were also supported by grants from the Canadian Fund for Local Initiatives, the International
Development Research Centre and the Open Society Foundations Independent Journalism program.
Acknowledgement and thanks are due to Phillip Mogodi and Tshepo Tshabalala who contributed to
the research and documentation on which this report is based and Kagiso Magoe who was an intern
on the programme and was responsible for co-ordinating the events programme and our social media
accounts.
Lastly thanks are due to the six teams that participated in the first jamlab accelerator programme:
African Tech Round Up, Black Girl Fat Girl, Global Girl, media factory, Soul City and Volume News.
They helped co-create the programme and offered many insights that have been drawn on in the
analysis and writing of this report.
References
Christensen C. The innovator's dilemma: when new technologies cause great firms to fail. Harvard
Business Review Press, 2013.
Christensen, C., Raynor, M., McDonald, R. What is What Is Disruptive Innovation? Harvard Business
Review, December 2015, pp 44-53.
de Lanerolle, I., Walker, T., Kinney, S. (2016). Sometimes it is about the Tech: choosing tools in South
African and Kenyan transparency and accountability initiatives. IDS. http://opendocs.ids.ac.uk/opendocs/
handle/123456789/10283
Duncan ,J. and Seleoane, M. Introduction in Duncan, J. and Seleoane, M. eds., 1998. Media and
democracy in South Africa. HSRC Press, pp 1-54.
Friedman, S., 2011. Whose freedom? South Africa's press, middle-class bias and the threat of control.
Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies, 32(2), pp.106-121.
Harber, A., 2014. Accountability and the Media. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and
Social Science, 652(1), pp.206-221.
Hathaway, I., 2016. Accelerating growth: Startup accelerator programs in the United States.
Brookings Institution. https://www.brookings.edu/research/accelerating-growth-startup-
accelerator-programs-in-the-united-states/
Page of26 28

Jackson, S.J., 2014. 11 Rethinking Repair. Media technologies: Essays on communication, materiality, and
society, pp.221-39.
Jackson, S.J., Pompe, A. and Krieshok, G., 2012, February. Repair worlds: maintenance, repair, and ICT
for development in rural Namibia. In Proceedings of the ACM 2012 conference on Computer Supported
Cooperative Work (pp. 107-116). ACM.
Krüger, F., 2011. News broadcasting on South African community radio: In search of new public
spheres. Ecquid Novi: African Journalism Studies, 32(3), pp.61-79.
McNiff, J., 2013. Action research: Principles and practice. Routledge.
Moropa, K., 2010. African voices in Imvo Zabantsundu: Literary pieces from the past. South African
Journal of African Languages, 30(2), pp.135-144.
Newman, N. 2018. Journalism, Media, and Technology Trends and Predictions 2018. Reuters Institute
for the Study of Journalism.
Nuttal, S. 2017. Keynote address at Strategic Narratives of Technology and Africa Symposium. Maderia
(forthcoming).
Ries, E. 2011. The Lean Startup: How Today's Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically
Successful Businesses. Crown.
Wasserman, H. and De Beer, A., 2005. Which public? Whose interest? The South African media and
its role during the ﬁrst ten years of democracy. Critical arts, 19(1-2), pp.36-51.
Page of27 28

Page of28 28
journalism and media lab
Tshimologong Digital Innovation Precinct
Braamfontein, Johannesburg 2000
jamlab@journalism.co.za
+27 11 717 4028
jamlab.africa
medium.com/jamlab
@jamlab
jamlab@journalism.co.za
web
blog
twitter
email

Jamlab and repairing innovation final 2018

Recomendados

Recomendados

Más contenido relacionado

Similar a Jamlab and repairing innovation final 2018

Similar a Jamlab and repairing innovation final 2018 (20)

Último

Último (20)

Jamlab and repairing innovation final 2018