The most rewarding phase of the public journalism process arrived a little bit too sudden. After all the hard work and effort we put into the course we would have liked to have a public showing of all our work from ward 7 and 8 in the community. A little bit more foresight and planning would have prevented this time constraint. However, the course was new to us all and often we did not know what to expect. We embarked on the journey with baby steps in order to work as a team and make sense of the learning during the process. Therefore, when the final phase of distribution arrived for us, (a phase which will hopefully mark new beginnings for others) we decided to distribute our work as subgroups in order to show it to the community.
Television journalist students decided to convert their AVI files to MP4 in order to Bluetooth it via cell phones. Radio and Photo journalist students decided to burn their work on DVD’s. Design and Writing journalist students already gained exposure with their wallpapers. Besides the individual efforts to show our own work to wards 7 and 8, we also decided collectively to choose prominent members of the community to hand out the 2010 Makana Ward Focus DVD’s to. These DVD’s contain all the slideshows and documentaries from all the wards in Grahamstown. This turned out to be the most rewarding part of the process. DVD’s were handed out to libraries (Fingo library and Duna public library in Joza and Public Library in town), Joza clinic, Nombulelo secondary school, the police station in Joza,to subjects of our stories and to the main catalysts/connectors we have build relationships with over the past months. There are still a few DVD’s to be handed out to people who have been unavailable. For example to...surprise surprise...our ward councillors! Other people who have also been unavailable and who we would like to personally hand over our DVD’s are MR Dozo, ANC Youth League member who attended the public meeting and raised questions about our purpose, and Michael Whisson (DA councillor) who helped us with information about our wards.
While handing out the DVD’s we explained the process and the purpose of our course. Individuals were extremely happy to receive the DVD. Many people could not believe they did not have to pay for it or that we did not want something in return. All we asked was that they would watch the DVD and encourage other people to watch it. The community members at the school and libraries expressed that they would make the DVD available for other people to see. One of the libraries will play the DVD so anyone who visits the library can watch it. One of our catalysts who have helped us so much expressed that he is going to arrange a showing so that other people in the community can watch it. Especially the individuals who were part of a story were extremely happy and surprised to receive something back. It is unfortunate that we cannot get their feedback and reaction after they watch it.
All in all it has been a rewarding journey and a fantastic learning experience. We are hoping that our work in one way or another will make an impact in the community. We have build relationships with members of the community, and we hope that the students next year will learn from our mistakes and successes, and pick up where we left off. The door for change is open.
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