With over 2 000 professional, high-resolution, freely available photos of contemporary South Africa, the MediaClubSouthAfrica.com image library is a stunning resource for publishers, media practitioners – and anyone else with an interest in the country.
Published by the International Marketing Council of South Africa, www.mediaclubsouthafrica.com offers free content on the country, including high-quality feature articles and a comprehensive library of up-to-date images produced by professional photographers.
Quick, non-intrusive registration on the website gives the user immediate access to a wealth of visual “takes” on contemporary South Africa.
Available either as quick copies for webmasters or as print-quality, high-res downloads, the photos are sorted into 12 categories.
These include some of the travel-type categories one might expect – people, cities, nature, arts and culture, tourism and leisure – but the photos are more realistic than brochure-style, in line with the site’s aim of providing content that journalists can take seriously.
And, taken together with other categories such as infrastructure, development, business and industry, buildings and structures, and South Africa at work, the photos combine to give a true sense of a growing young democracy and a dynamic African emerging market economy.
Shaping perceptions
With over 4 500 registered users from around the world (as of December 2009), MediaClubSouthAfrica.com complements the World Cup-dedicated media services offered by the 2010 Fifa World Cup Organising Committee, South African Tourism and the Government Communication and Information System.
The initiative took its inspiration from Germany’s Land of Ideas campaign, which established a similar media service for the 2006 Fifa World Cup.
According to the International Marketing Council, the custodian of Brand South Africa, MediaClubSouthAfrica.com aims to provide “relevant, mind-opening, up-to-date and verifiable information in the build-up to 2010 and beyond.”
While not explicitly tied to the 2010 Fifa World Cup™, the service takes advantage of the unprecedented international media interest in the country that the event is generating.
First launched in May 2008, the site recognises the importance of the media – local, African and throughout the world – “in shaping perceptions of South Africa and our continent.”
SAinfo reporter
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