Paul Hills worked for 27 years in television news before joining the School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University in South Africa in 2005 to teach television production. He was able to bridge the gap between theory and practice, revising the curriculum and improving the standard of student work. Paul organized an annual film festival for student work and headed up an online platform for students to cover festivals. He introduced innovations like teaching data collection methods and encouraging students to draw on media studies. Paul is praised as a dedicated teacher who set a high bar for students and left a hole in the curriculum that will be difficult to fill.

1. 10 May 2014
To whom it may concern
Re: reference for Paul Hills
Paul Hills joined the School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University in South Africa in
2005 to teach the Television Production specialisation to our final-year students. Prior to that Paul had
worked in television news for 27 years as a sound/camera-operator, editor and director/producer. This
was the first time the School had employed a lecturer in this specialisation with his degree of industry
experience. The advantage of this soon became evident to staff and students: he was able to revise the
curriculum and through bringing his technical expertise and social understandings to bear, markedly
improved the standard of work hitherto produced by our students. With Paul at the helm, students
came to appreciate the education on offer and for the first time, the course was seen as a conduit into
the television broadcast journalism industry – in which many of his graduates found employment. The
quality of his teaching was reflected in the positive external examiner reports as well as the national
awards won by his students.
In his classes Paul was able to bridge the gap between theory and practice, and in line with the Vision
Statement for our School, was able to produce self-reflexive, critical, analytical media workers whose
practice was probing, imaginative, civic minded and outspoken. In order to showcase the student
work, Paul organised an annual film festival which yearly plays to full houses at the local cinema.
These viewings have become an event celebrated by staff, students and townspeople.
Paul headed up cueTV, the online platform used every year for students to cover the National Arts
Festival (the largest such festival on the African continent) and the National Science Festival. Here
students worked across a number of genres including documentary, investigative reportage and short-
form news which could be accessed by festival attendees.

2. Within the context of our School, Paul was ahead of most staff when it came to equipping students
with cross-media platform skills. Together with other staff, I was deeply impressed by what he
achieved with his students. Some of this work can be viewed at:
http://rutv4.ru.ac.za/
http://cueTV.ru.ac.za/
http://sciTV.ru.ac.za/
During his time spent with us Paul introduced a number of teaching innovations. For example, coming
out of his interest in social science research, he introduced the students to various data collection
methods as well as methodological approaches, demonstrating the usefulness of these to documentary
television research. Furthermore, his stress on bringing together theory and practice was evidenced in
the manner in which he encouraged students to draw on Media and Cultural Studies as a way of
framing their work, resulting in thoughtful and critical productions.
Paul is a dedicated and gifted teacher who set the bar extremely high for students. While some may
have found him very demanding, they were able to rise to the challenge and graduated deeply
appreciative of what they had learnt from him. This is evidenced in the ongoing contact he has with
many of his graduates. Paul’s departure has left a huge hole in our curriculum, one that will be
difficult to fill. Finally, to say that I will miss Paul as a colleague and am deeply appreciative of his
contribution to the School in the time he spent with us.
Yours sincerely
Professor Larry Strelitz
Head of School
l.strelitz@ru.ac.za