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Charles Apple: The Visual Side of Journalism

 

‘South Africa’ archive

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Feb. 20: How South African visual journalists are covering the ongoing Oscar Pistorius story (2)

You’re aware, most likely, that South African track-and-field athlete — and double amputee — Oscar Pistorius was involved in a shooting at his apartment in the early morning hours of Valentine’s Day. His girlfriend of four months, model Reeva Steenkamp, was shot three times and died at the scene. Pistorius is being charged with her murder but says the shooting [...]

Feb. 17: A photoillustration ran wild this weekend in South Africa’s die Burger

I was mighty impressed with the way my friends at die Burger in Cape Town presented the horrible Oscar Pistorius shooting story on the front of Friday’s paper. That is Pistorius, being led away to jail after police determined that his shooting and killing of his girlfriend early Thursday was probably not an accident. What a terrible story and what [...]

Nov. 29, 2012: Have you ever wondered…

…what a South African Christmas card looks like? Wonder no more. That’s a giraffe, wearing a Christmas tree as a hat. Note the little bluebird holding a string or garland. It almost looks like a fancy earring. The card is by Tracy Paul of Stuff from Africa — a Cape Town-based greeting card company founded by a woman laid-off from [...]

Oct. 15, 2012: How newspapers played a faster-than-sound fall from the sky

One of the big talkers for this past week was Felix Baumgartner, the man who skydived from the edge of space — 24 miles up. I wish I had seen this before, but my friends/clients at Grapihcs24 in Johannesburg, South Africa, produced a graphic explaining how the operation would work. Visual journalist Rudi Louw tells me: Yes, we ran this [...]

Oct. 9, 2012: If you want to innovate, you have to take chances

Recently, South African journalist Herman Manson interviewed me about the perceived lack of innovation in the design of that country’s newspapers. An excerpt: Q. I’ve seen somebody argue that newspaper re-designs lack innovation preferring to copy of other designs. Is this a fair complaint and if so how can it be remedied? A. It’s a fair complaint. I think it’s [...]

Oct. 3, 2012: South African paper settles lawsuit over infographic

A South African newspaper settled a lawsuit today filed by a mayor who disliked how he was portrayed in an infographic last summer. Last August, City Press — a nationally-distributed English-language Sunday paper — ran a story about how national and local officials work together to extend government-funded work — called “tenders” over there — to companies with ties to [...]

Sept. 27, 2012: South African newspaper fires staff photographer for blowing whistle on front-page Photoshop incident (3)

A photographer was fired over a photoshopped picture on the front of a South African newspaper. But it’s not what you think. This was the front of the Citizen newspaper of Johannesburg, eight days ago: The problem? Two bodies lying on the ground on the right were cloned out of the picture. Find the original here. A debate on photo [...]

Sept. 20, 2012: A couple of Photoshop scandals remind us about visual ethics (1)

Let’s close our Thursday with news of a couple of Photoshop scandals… First, in Johannesburg South Africa: The Citizen newspaper published a front-page photo Wednesday of a horrific bomb attack on an airport minivan in Kabul, Afghanistan, that killed 12 including two South Africans. That’s pretty bad. But hey, the photo could have been worse, right? There could be bodies [...]

Aug. 20, 2012: How South African papers covered last week’s disastrous mine protest

Mining is huge in South Africa. You may be aware of the gold and diamond mines there — the country is quite famous for those. But South Africa is also big on mining coal, chrome, manganese, and platinum. Workers held a strike last week to protest conditions at a platinum mine northwest of Johannesburg. On Thursday, the protest got out [...]

Aug. 12, 2012: A hearty hello from Boston’s Logan airport

As you know, I’m on my way home from three weeks of visual journalism consulting and instruction in Nairobi, Kenya; Johannesburg and Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. Saturday afternoon, I flew from Joburg back to Nairobi. Overnight, I flew from Nairobi to Amsterdam, from which I blogged earlier today (or late last night U.S. time). At this very moment, I’m kicked back [...]

Aug. 12, 2012: I’ve made it as far as Amsterdam (4)

At my age — and as lucky as I’ve been to be able to travel extensively, teaching visual journalism — I don’t have a lot of things left on my “bucket list.” But one that remains is: I’d like to visit Amsterdam. It’s a gorgeous city. I love what I’ve seen, via pictures and books, of the architecture of Amsterdam. [...]

Aug. 11, 2012: A whirlwind news design expedition to Pietermaritzburg, South Africa (3)

After two weeks of visual journalism teaching in Kenya and three more days of teaching and consulting here in Johannesburg, South Africa, my clients here — Media24 — sent me to Pietermaritzburg for two half-days. I rose bright and early Thursday, checked out of my hotel and drove over to the nearby suburb of Melville. Where I had to pull [...]

Aug. 8, 2012: There’s no front pages like snow front pages

I wrote about the rare snow the folks here in Johannesburg enjoyed Tuesday. In fact, we had a few more flakes again late that night. It was so damned cold, however, that no one really wanted to go outside and enjoy it. Naturally, South African newspapers played up the snow as if it were the second coming. This is Beeld, [...]

Aug. 7, 2012: My week — so far — consulting in Johannesburg, South Africa (2)

After two weeks of teaching and consulting in Nairobi, Kenya, I’m now in Johannesburg, South Africa. Where I’m also doing a bit of consulting work for my longtime clients at Media24, the country’s largest media company. I’m staying at the Garden Court hotel in the Auckland Park suburb in northwest Johannesburg. Here in the hotel with me are two — [...]

Aug. 6, 2012: I can die happy now

The South African Netball team — which is staying here in the same hotel as me, in the Auckland Park area of Johannesburg — was kind enough tonight to pose with me for a picture. Frankly, I had never heard of Netball before. It’s a lot like U.S. women’s basketball was back in the 1950s or 1960s: Seven per team; [...]

Aug. 6, 2012: My weekend in Johannesburg, South Africa (1)

My work at the Nation News Group of Nairobi, Kenya, wound up mid-afternoon Friday. It was time to get to the airport. My bags were already packed and waiting for me at the concierge station in the lobby of the Stanley Hotel, where I had stayed the previous 13 nights. I waited about an hour for my driver… Until I [...]

Aug. 1, 2012: Olympic gold medal elation on South African front pages

For the second time in three days, a South African swimmer won a gold medal right under the nose of heavily favored American Michael Phelps. It’s difficult for me to feel too sorry for Phelps. He had his run and, I’m told, now holds the all-time record for most Olympic medals won by any human (19). But I’m also delighted [...]

Aug. 1, 2012: Former Indiana grad student hired as digital strategist by South African media company

Online journalist and analyst Siyabonga Africa has been hired as digital strategist by Media24, a large South African newspaper chain [and who are my long-time consulting clients]. He’ll be working primarily with City Press and the Daily Sun, Siyabonga tells us, both of which are published at Media24′s MediaPark complex in the Auckland Park section of Johannesburg. A 2006 graduate [...]

July 30, 2012: A Johannesburg paper celebrates Olympic gold for a South African swimmer

My good friend Andries Gouws — the front page editor of Beeld, the Afrikaans-language daily in Johannesburg — writes: Here’s our front page for [today]: The first South African gold medal in the Olympics (100m breaststroke) and a new world record. “It was a perfect race,” said Cameron van der Burgh. The picture is by Clive Rose of Getty Images. [...]

June 24, 2012: A visit by a South African visual journalist

A very good friend from my travels to South Africa is here visiting us in Virginia Beach this weekend: Elsolet Joubert of Graphics24, the team that provides infographics to all the Media24 newspapers: Beeld in Johannesburg, die Burger in Cape Town, Volksblad in Bloemfontein and national Sunday papers Rapport and City Press. When I first met her in August 2009, [...]

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