What's Haunting the Media Industry — The Editor's Note

From artificial intelligence and misinformation, to clickbait and the brawl for audience attention, an increasing amount of forces taunting the media industry are at play. This Editor's Note by media update investigates what is causing the bump in the night — and what is giving the industry its proverbial fright.

From Utility to Experience: Brand Positioning When Entering New Markets

Difficult times can pressure businesses into bold reinventions, and Pantry by Marble is a prime example. media update looks at how the Marble Hospitality Group used publicity to turn a petrol station into a must-visit destination and what brands can learn from them about redefining a category.

The Visual Purpose and Measurable Impact of Cause-Driven Campaigns

SPAR's pink-cap campaign puts breast cancer awareness in the hands of consumers — but does their campaign's visual message translate into behavioural change? media update examines the role of transparency and genuine social responsibility in cause-related publicity. 

The Value of Loyalty: A Q&A With Byron Rode

media update speaks to Byron Rode about the challenges of customer loyalty programmes and how brands can make rewards more accessible and worthwhile to consumers. 

Inter-Cultural Communications, Cultural Events and Public Relations: A Q&A With Takamitsu Hida — Part One

What degree of investment goes into building relations between the cultures of two countries that are situated thousands of kilometres apart? media update speaks to Takamitsu Hida — Second Secretary in the Political and Public Relations Sections at the Embassy of Japan in South Africa — for whom it all lies at the heart of building opportunities to learn from one another.

The Untold Stories of Johannesburg: A Q&A With Mandy Wiener

media update speaks to Broadcaster and award-winning Journalist, Mandy Wiener, about media polarisation, and how the power of positive storytelling — facilitated through her new docu-series, The Hope Dealers — aims to inspire South Africans to take an active role in community upliftment.  

The Case for Connected Capabilities: A Q&A With Andreas Shifotoka

Andreas Shifotoka talks to media update about connecting agency disciplines, working across African markets, the role of AI and what growth really means. 

Opportunity Meets Potential: A Q&A With Jenovic Lumu — Part One

media update speaks to Next Chapter Jozi Founder, Jenovic Lumu, about the relationship between literacy and STEM, and how access to learning resources can support young people's curiosity and engagement with knowledge. 

Finding the Story: How to Make Conservation Legible

media update considers why a focus on individual animals makes more effective entry points into conservation issues than species-wide statistics and what that means for how these stories can best be told.

Building a Data Profile: A Q&A With Melissa Mc Nally — Part Two

media update continues the conversation with Melissa Mc Nally, shifting focus to understanding what makes advertising effective, from the role of attention and memory to the factors that influence consumer action. 

The Human Edge in an Automated Communications Industry: A Q&A With Kevin Welman

media update talks to Kevin Welman about how agencies can balance integration with specialist knowledge, creativity with commercial value and  technological efficiency with human relationships to build lasting credibility.

Roots to Reinvention — The Editor's Note

Spring notoriously signals new beginnings, meaning most industries lean on this symbolism for their own gain. media update considers how publicity campaigns can offer an edge to an overdone story by rooting a brand's future in its own history. 

When Literacy Development Meets Easy Answers: A Deeper Look at South Africa’s Literacy Crisis

media update considers how our relationship with AI and the decline in reading for pleasure fit into South Africa's literacy crisis. 

How Spaces Shape the Stories We Tell About Them

media update considers how the way we experience our surroundings can influence what we believe about them, and why changing that perception requires more than a fresh coat of paint.

When Purpose Meets People — A Q&A With Tarri Parfitt

media update talks to Tarri Parffit about how the Smile Foundation communicates humanitarian influence and keeps people at the heart of the cause. 

Taste as an Editorial Skill

media update considers how technology and trend culture shape our relationship with taste, and why developing discernment and an independent perspective remains essential to editorial judgement.

The Cost of Disconnected Marketing and Operations

media update considers what happens when businesses experience misalignment in marketing and operations by looking at the recent SPAR Chairman and Deputy Chair's resignations as case study.

When Local Language Meets Global Default

South Africa's multilingual reality can get lost when local languages present a challenge for developing language technology. media update considers what it means when the language we use does not fit the systems built to understand it. 

Taking Local Global — What Durban FilmMart 2026 Asks of African Storytellers

Africa's leading film finance market returns this coming October under the theme Shifting Worlds: Turning Towards Ourselves. media update looks at how local stories reach global audiences without losing what makes them local. 

The Optics of Defence: AAD 2026 Through Communication's Lens

African Aerospace and Defence's (AAD's) air show is on everyone's lips after this past weekend's impressive display of skill, but the exhibition's story began decades before the first jet took to the Waterkloof skies. media update considers how AAD evolved from a simple air show into a major civil and military industry event. 

Turning Environmental Awareness Into Action: A Q&A With Lauren van Nijkerk

South African documentary SPOILED uses coastal community stories to highlight the risks of offshore oil and gas exploration. media update spoke to WILDTRUST's Lauren van Nijkerk about how communications can make complex environmental issues relatable and turn public awareness into action.

The Digital Publishing Equation: From Traffic to Audience Relationships

AI crawlers continue to extract journalism with little traffic, if any, in return. Publishers from the United Kingdom (UK) debate newsletters and direct-audience strategies required for newsrooms to survive, while South Africa's Digital News Transformation Fund shows independent newsrooms already turning platform dependence into real self-built audience growth. 

Building a Data Profile: A Q&A With Melissa Mc Nally — Part One

media update talks to Melissa McNally about the assumptions behind audience research, from the limits of consumer personas to the risks of AI-led targeting, and how research can keep pace with changing needs and motivations.