The Durban University of Technology’s City Campus recently hosted the National Association of Broadcasting (NAB) Seminar where the organisation’s (NAB) findings on developments in broadcasting – while considering the challenges, trends and opportunities facing the industry – were discussed and reflected on.

Nadia Bulbulia, NAB Director, said while the broadcasting industry in South Africa is currently faced with many challenges, they (challenges) have not hindered its develop in the last 21 years of democracy.

“In the last 21 years, there has been a massive growth in the broadcasting industry; new broadcasting licences have been issued. Before 1994, we never had three systems of broadcasting. Now, we have public broadcasters, community broadcasters and commercial broadcasters and that shows development. People can now access content in their languages and we have content that is catered specifically to different audiences. During apartheid, we had extremely high censorship rules, now we are living in constitutional democracy and there is great freedom of expression which all that shows that we have made massive strides in the last 21 years,’’ said Bulbulia.

Bulbulia challenged South Africa to improve media literacy, also urging production houses to invest more in content geared towards children saying this is a currently neglected area.

The seminar was attended by DUT’s journalism lecturers, students and local broadcasting professionals.

– Sihle Ndebele

Pictured: Nadia Bulbulia, NAB Director.