Time to say goodbye

By: Alexandra Smith


The JDD-CMP course as a whole was itself both a wonderful and challenging experience. It allowed us the opportunity to experience a new form of journalism which was public journalism.

I was at first very nervous about going into a community and trying to identify problems within a community which are very prevalent and important to them and not being able to solve them. There was a hostility felt by the community when we entered as they felt that we were coming into their space and taking stories from them without giving anything back to them. This was one of the main concerns for our group and myself as we wanted to get involved as much as we could with the community, build relationships and try to give back to them in some way or form. During the Civic Mapping process we found that the main issues were that of housing, the bucket system and the lack of resources available to young children and teens. We did not have it in our power to address the main issues as we were not seen to harness that amount of influence and power. We decided to tackle the issues of the lack of resources in the community which had a direct impact on the children who lived there. As a writer the aim was to provide an insight into the problems and try and see if the municipality was aware of them in order to provide solutions. The stories that were written were published in the Grocott’s which reaches a large audience.

In an order to try and create a form of sustainable development we initiated and organised a soccer day for the children in the community. Community member mobilised teams of soccer players and the day was an over all success.

The entire experience I agree was a very worthwhile one, as I felt that journalists need to be in contact with the community as they are often overlooked. I did feel that the course was very time consuming and it was often difficult to manage all the work and demands put on us. I did learn how to handle sources and engage with people in positions of authority. I hope that the work that we did will have a significant impact and result in some form of change or sustainable development.