About the Centre

Discovery Health generously sponsored the Centre's operational costs -- and provided scholarships for students -- until the end of 2014. From 2015 onwards, the Centre is supported by Rhodes University. The Centre is not currently offering Honours degrees in Health Journalism, but students who qualify for entrance to our Masters programme -- and who are interested in researching topics related to health and media -- are invited to apply for either the 2016 or 2017 academic years. The Centre currently has some funds to support the research of students who enroll for a Masters by full thesis.  Students interested in this Masters should have exceptional academic profiles, and be interested in health communication, media and behaviour change in South Africa, or Africa more broadly. Supervision is also available for students interested in topics related to media and sexuality.

This website is currently not being updated regularly, but will be reactivated in February 2016.

The Discovery Centre for Health Journalism was established in October 2010 as a partnership between Rhodes University and Discovery Health. The Centre was officially opened in January 2011 and is located in the School of Journalism and Media Studies (JMS) at Rhodes University. The Centre supports journalists covering health and medical beats, including health systems and the NHI in South Africa, as well as journalism about medical science and healthy lifestyles.

The Centre offers full-time Honours and Masters degrees in Health Journalism and short courses for working journalists in the health journalism field. Through this website, the Centre will be providing online resources for journalists, including background briefs,  fact-sheets and info-graphics on various medical and health journalism topics.

If you are interested in any aspect of the Centre's work, please explore the relevant sections of this website, or contact Harry Dugmore at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Professor Guy Berger (then Head of the School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes), Dr. Jonathan Broomberg, CEO of Discovery Health, Suzanne Stevens (then General Manager: Marketing Services) and Alan Pollard (then CEO of Discovery Vitality, South Africa) at the October 29th 2010 launch of the partnership between Rhodes University and Discovery to create the Discovery Centre for Health Journalism at Rhodes.