Vol 15, No 1 (1996)

The essay was written in celebration of' the centennial year (1995) of the birth or the cinema.

Electronic mail refers to the transfer of one·way electronic messages from one person via an immediate electronic communication system to one or more identified receivers on many cases via computer linked networks such as Internet.] It has become one of the most powerful and useful ways of sending and processing information in the era of the Information Super Highway. Electronic mail is not interpersonal communication because of  it 's a Sinchronic nature but there area number of similarities between  these modes of communication. Users of electronic mail does not regard themselves as part of a faceless mass of people being bombarded with numerous messages because they exercise some control over messages received. Control is a ethical issue in the light of the current availability of pornographic material via Internet. Computer mediated communication seems to open new possibilities in the fields of education and development and these opportunities to reach disadvantaged people. Research require the attention of social and natural scientists alike to ensure that the country will not be reduced to the status of a hitch hiker on the Information Super Highway. This article examines the state of the art in electronic mail research from a communication science perspective and theoretical explanations that could be used to study this "new medium".

The South African publications control system has, during the past two to three years, shown much greater tolerance than it has been given credit for. To Jessen negative perceptions, the public should be infonned about the current state of affairs and the concessions already made in the current application of the existing legiSlation. This article also provides details of arguments considered during the drafting of the new Film and Publications Bill, aswell as details of, and comments on the proposed procedures with regards to future classification of publications and films. The meaning and effect of claSSifications, age restrictions and new proposals such as adult premises, are also explained.

There is an urgent need to train public relations practitioners as specialists within specific: organizations. It is often only then that the public relations practitioner realizes that  s/he is not competent to deal with  the unique PR requirements for that specific organization and is also unfamiliar with the broad structure and activities oflhat organization. At present there is a lack in specialised occupattonal training opportunities for public relations practitioners at our technikons and universities which need to be addressed ac-cording to research conducted amongst public relations students and medical public relations practitioners. Since heatth in South Africa is a prominent political issue, it is necessary to establish the present and future role of the medical public felations practitioner, and to what extent a need exists in further training of these practitioners. Further training can also add certain competencies to already acquired basic skills necessary for the medical public relations practitioner. Research conducted amongst second and third year public relations students at the Technikon SA, medical public. relations practitioners in the Gauteng Province, and heads of tersiary health institutions revealed that 97,5% of the respondents are in favour of specialised occupational training. It was also found that the present competencies of the medical public relations practitioner are not sufficient..

This paper argues that postmodernism challenges the way in which intercultural communication competence has traditionally been conceptualized. The very framing of the notion as "competence" reveals its historical contingency and complicity with a particular interest group. Some of the assumptions which underpin the "received" versions of competence are examined, and are related to post-modem concerns of the nature of knowledge and truth, culture and personhood. In the course of the analysis, reference is made to the literature on competence, and suggestions are made for ways in which competence can fruitfully be explored that are more in keeping with the spirit of post-mocternism.

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