Mediaworks offers ommunications services to non-governmental organisations (NGOs), Government and the private sector including DTP, graphic design, copywriting and editing, web page development, print management and communications consultancy services.

Mediaworks provides: Short courses in media and communication including (multi medium) media production, social communication and management skills; access to equipment; capacity building for community based initiatives; basic media training for high school students; a grassroots social marketing campaign on HIV/AIDS awareness in 2001; and, a quarterly newsletter, "Feedback", contributed to by Mediaworks participants, which covers policy issues in the media and communications environment.

The project has different programmes:

• Vocational media education programme: The goal of the programme is to transform the media industry by facilitating the entry of previously-disadvantaged individuals into the industry, as well as promoting media diversity through support for independent print media enterprises. It achieves by offering a 15-week full-time training course as well as part-time short courses in various media disciplines.
• Schools media programme: The goal of the Schools Media Programme is to provide the youth with access to media and communication as a means to promote their participation in school and community life. Many participants, through their exposure to the media, pursue a career in the media. It achieves this through a holiday training programme followed by the quarterly production of “Just Youth”, a youth newspaper produced by the participants. Training is followed by Saturday workshops, during which issues and themes for the publication such as gender, HIV/AIDS, child abuse and education are discussed.
• Community media programme: The goal of the community media programme is to support the establishment of community and independent media serving the information and communications needs of marginalised rural communities as a tool for community cultural expression and public participation in local governance and development planning. It achieves this through participatory (including needs assessment and media planning) followed by customised training courses designed to build local capacity to achieve identified goals. Additional support services include technical capacity-building, organisational development, resource-mapping, partnership-building and advocacy.
• Civil Society organisations (CSO) media programme: The goal of the programme is to build the capacity of civil society organisations to use media and communications as effective tools to promote their development and empowerment objectives. This is achieved by providing one-week to six-week-long training courses and customised training on request. Mediaworks provides follow-up support where needed, including access to facilities for media production and distribution. This programme targets NGOs, CBOs and activist groups nationally with a special focus on the issues of HIV/AIDS, gender and the environment.
• Prisons rehabilitation programme: The goal of this programme is to provide media and communication skills in prisons and access to media as a tool for effective communication. It does this through the production of issue-based prison newsletters, t-shirts, posters and banners. The programme aims to build confidence and self-esteem amongst inmates and to open channels of communication between inmates and prison authorities.
• Communications services: Mediaworks' business wing is aimed at maximising the organisation's income-generating potential, thus reducing its dependence on foreign and government funding. The long-term goal is to position Mediaworks to benefit from available communications tenders by virtue of its professionalism, on the one hand, and black empowerment objectives, on the other.

Economic development, Technology, HIV/AIDS, Women, Youth.

Its other aims include to:

• provide media and communication education and training, hands-on production experience and media literacy skills.
• offer follow-up support services, including technical and organisational development, SMME support, training referrals, job and internship placements and career development counseling.
• provide access to facilities for media production and distribution for all graduates, in a facilitated learning environment.

Technological innovations such as digitisation and the convergence of telecommunications, computers and broadcasting are making it possible for community media to leapfrog traditional forms of media and explore the potential of digital or new media, which is low cost and accessible and can be linked directly into numerous efforts to promote South Africa as an "information society". The strategic use of ICT's by community media formations has a number of benefits.

Community media is in a position to access information and to repackage it in ways that are more accessible to the community through popular forms of dissemination such as community radio and print media. Electronic networking facilitates cheap and effective networking, information dissemination, exchange and cooperation around joint income generating projects. Digitisation allows community media to providing citizen access, including training and equipment for media production, to multi-medium (audio-visual, sound and print) services. This approach places community at the forefront of the digital revolution thus positioning community media as a vital platform for the production of local content in a converged environment, as opposed to people simply being passive consumers of information.