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.
Opening the door to change
Friday, October 29, 2010
Thursday, October 28, 2010
The end of a new beginning
Nicole Bloch
The Journalism Democracy and Development and Critical Media Production Course have broadened my horizon. It has given me a chance to leap out of my narrow minded journalism box. Though, I am not saying I am narrow minded, but I realize that my journalism practises have been.
I started the course with a lot of apprehension and frustration. Like many other students, I feared that we were going to exploit our subjects for the purpose of our lecturers’ research and our own grades. Our first public meeting only emphasised my concerns when a member of the community questioned our project and raised many valid points, like our timing and if we were going to give something back to the community.
However, we soon started to create bonds with other members in the community, and raised some of their issues in our documentaries, sound slides and wallpapers. We concentrated on the overarching theme that was raised in the public meeting, that of ‘emptiness’ and ‘youth’, as there is a lack of service delivery in wards 7 and 8 and children have little recreational space. They are often seen playing in rubbish dumps or on graveyards.
I believe that the soccer tournament was therefore extremely successful and rewarding, as it gave many children from ward 7 and 8 a chance to play and to bond. Our main purpose was to help the youth organize themselves, so that they themselves too could organize such events. However, the project seems to be unsustainable as no other soccer event has been arranged by the people in the wards. One of the reasons is that the soccer ball is flat and they do not have another ball yet. There are also several other reasons why the project is unsustainable which are mainly due to our lack of foresight during the planning of the event.
Nevertheless, I have learned a lot and I have mainly realised that, to be a good journalist, I do not have to stay within my box or role. I have learned that I can use for example marketing skills and activism in the fight for chance and social equality.
As a television crew, we have decided to convert or AVI files to mp4 files and Bluetooth them via telephone. Many people in our wards do not have DVD players so we thought this would be a better way of reaching people. Many people in our wards do have cell phones to which they can load the documentaries.
Yesterday myself and Tim distributed the 2010 Makana ward focus DVD’s, which has all the documentaries and slideshows from the different wards. It was a satisfying journey as people could not belief that they got a free DVD. They all wondered what we wanted in return, and for once, we could assure them there was nothing we needed in return. We just asked them to watch the DVD and pass it around or show to other people. This final part of the process was a rewarding end of a new beginning.
The Journalism Democracy and Development and Critical Media Production Course have broadened my horizon. It has given me a chance to leap out of my narrow minded journalism box. Though, I am not saying I am narrow minded, but I realize that my journalism practises have been.
I started the course with a lot of apprehension and frustration. Like many other students, I feared that we were going to exploit our subjects for the purpose of our lecturers’ research and our own grades. Our first public meeting only emphasised my concerns when a member of the community questioned our project and raised many valid points, like our timing and if we were going to give something back to the community.
However, we soon started to create bonds with other members in the community, and raised some of their issues in our documentaries, sound slides and wallpapers. We concentrated on the overarching theme that was raised in the public meeting, that of ‘emptiness’ and ‘youth’, as there is a lack of service delivery in wards 7 and 8 and children have little recreational space. They are often seen playing in rubbish dumps or on graveyards.
I believe that the soccer tournament was therefore extremely successful and rewarding, as it gave many children from ward 7 and 8 a chance to play and to bond. Our main purpose was to help the youth organize themselves, so that they themselves too could organize such events. However, the project seems to be unsustainable as no other soccer event has been arranged by the people in the wards. One of the reasons is that the soccer ball is flat and they do not have another ball yet. There are also several other reasons why the project is unsustainable which are mainly due to our lack of foresight during the planning of the event.
Nevertheless, I have learned a lot and I have mainly realised that, to be a good journalist, I do not have to stay within my box or role. I have learned that I can use for example marketing skills and activism in the fight for chance and social equality.
As a television crew, we have decided to convert or AVI files to mp4 files and Bluetooth them via telephone. Many people in our wards do not have DVD players so we thought this would be a better way of reaching people. Many people in our wards do have cell phones to which they can load the documentaries.
Yesterday myself and Tim distributed the 2010 Makana ward focus DVD’s, which has all the documentaries and slideshows from the different wards. It was a satisfying journey as people could not belief that they got a free DVD. They all wondered what we wanted in return, and for once, we could assure them there was nothing we needed in return. We just asked them to watch the DVD and pass it around or show to other people. This final part of the process was a rewarding end of a new beginning.
In the end...
Khatija Nxedlana
What seemed to be a mammoth task at the outset, proved to be a truly rewarding experience. Working in a large group of 20 along with the community members from wards seven and eight we set out to solve one of the challenges the community faced. Our overarching theme was “emptiness” and “a lack” focussing on the youth. We split into smaller groups to produce content that would reach a wider audience, creating awareness and possible get aid from leadership in the wards and the municipality.
Our intentions too were to take the works produced back into the community disproving the notion of journalism students coming into the wards, taking stories and never looking back. Focussing on children specifically, our group organised a soccer tournament on Saturday the 2nd October. The event brought close to 100 children to the field, making the day a huge success. The children had fun and for a change escaped playing in rubbish dumps and graveyards. Being able to help out in a small way obviously made us very happy; however our hopes were for this sort of soccer day to continue every Saturday. One of the prises for the winning team was a soccer ball promoting regular soccer practice and tournaments.
Public journalism ensures that journalists become immersed into that which they are reporting. My view and understanding of the role of journalists has changed as a result of this process. Firstly, aside from radio, the CMP course has been the most practical course in Media Studies. I enjoy that because it enables you to learn first-hand. As much as I promote education in terms of text books and reading academic articles, I’ve always felt that real life experience is the best education. Secondly, the focus for the past three years has been solely on mainstream journalism which states that objectivity is something journalists should strive for amongst other things. This is not a bad thing at all, only that this process has taught me that journalists can be involved with the people they’re dealing with and not see them purely as subjects. At the same time, tell the truth, deliver the facts and a story that shows all sides involved.
What seemed to be a mammoth task at the outset, proved to be a truly rewarding experience. Working in a large group of 20 along with the community members from wards seven and eight we set out to solve one of the challenges the community faced. Our overarching theme was “emptiness” and “a lack” focussing on the youth. We split into smaller groups to produce content that would reach a wider audience, creating awareness and possible get aid from leadership in the wards and the municipality.
Our intentions too were to take the works produced back into the community disproving the notion of journalism students coming into the wards, taking stories and never looking back. Focussing on children specifically, our group organised a soccer tournament on Saturday the 2nd October. The event brought close to 100 children to the field, making the day a huge success. The children had fun and for a change escaped playing in rubbish dumps and graveyards. Being able to help out in a small way obviously made us very happy; however our hopes were for this sort of soccer day to continue every Saturday. One of the prises for the winning team was a soccer ball promoting regular soccer practice and tournaments.
Public journalism ensures that journalists become immersed into that which they are reporting. My view and understanding of the role of journalists has changed as a result of this process. Firstly, aside from radio, the CMP course has been the most practical course in Media Studies. I enjoy that because it enables you to learn first-hand. As much as I promote education in terms of text books and reading academic articles, I’ve always felt that real life experience is the best education. Secondly, the focus for the past three years has been solely on mainstream journalism which states that objectivity is something journalists should strive for amongst other things. This is not a bad thing at all, only that this process has taught me that journalists can be involved with the people they’re dealing with and not see them purely as subjects. At the same time, tell the truth, deliver the facts and a story that shows all sides involved.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
CMP: the good, the bad and the impossible
Prinesha Naidoo
Another academic year has come and gone so too have countless courses, of which the Journalism Democracy, Development and Critical Media Production (JDD-CMP) course was the most memorable.
Another academic year has come and gone so too have countless courses, of which the Journalism Democracy, Development and Critical Media Production (JDD-CMP) course was the most memorable.
In my opinion everything about the JDD-CMP course, from being met with dissent by community members who accused Rhodes Journalism Students of exploiting them and their personal stories, to dealing with a messy story about human remains, involving several key actors who were either unreachable or refused to comment or just didn’t care about the plight of those for whom they were responsible, was agonising.
I expected more from the course, I would have liked to have made more of a difference in wards 7 and 8, two of Makana Municipality’s most impoverished zones. Yes, we held a successful soccer tournament in response to residents’ complaints about the lack of adequate recreational facilities and activities, causing their children to stray. This initiative has however proved unsustainable, almost a month has passed since the tournament and despite their promises, the community members who were actively involved in recruiting and coaching players in run-up to our tournament as well as refereeing matches at the tournament have yet to hold another tournament. Furthermore, the fact community members approached us with serious problems such as poor housing and sanitation, unemployment, cable theft and an overwhelming concern about the ever-increasing crime rate was disheartening – regardless of how hard we tried, we could not help them solve such problems.
As a television student, I also felt let down by the course. I looked forward to working in multimedia groups, learning from my peers and being exposed to the intricacies and necessary software for their respective specialisations. This however, was not the case as the course required television students to work independently of other specialisations.
Despite or rather because of the aforementioned problems, I feel that I learnt a lot and grew both as a media producer and individual during the course of the CMP component of the course. As scary as it was, going blind into a strange place helped me develop the necessary skills to engage with a host of different types of people as well as to maintain contact with sources. I also learnt of the paramount importance of fact-checking, just by immersing ourselves in the community and talking to locals we found that a visually appealing story that planned on covering was based on hearsay – the information given to us by a local was unfounded. Having to deal with a messy story about human remains, as stated above, whose angle every so often as a result of the amount of people and institutions involved in the matter and the fact that the area in which the human remains were found is a potential historical site, taught me that sometimes having one back-up plan just isn’t enough – as excruciating as it was, going back to the drawing board each time taught me how to see and thus present the same old story in a different light.
In terms of distributing our final product, as a television unit we felt that handing out DVDs community members who barely afford to make ends meet, let alone television sets and DVD players was rather silly. Therefore, we decided to only to hand DVDs to the relevant authoritative figures used in our stories. In terms of giving our finished products back to the community, we decided to convert the avi files to mp4 files, which are compatible on cell phones and to send them to the community members, whose cell phone numbers we collected at the public meeting, via Bluetooth. This means that our work has the potential to be viewed by the masses and to go viral as they can be sent free of charge, from cell phone to cell phone via Bluetooth.
While the stories covered offer no outright solutions to the problems vexing wards 7 and 8, I strongly believe that using Bluetooth to publicise our finished products, will go a long way in the repairing the reputation and damage done by past Rhodes Journalism students in the greater Grahamstown area.
Friday, October 22, 2010
Good night and good... riddance?
So the CMP course has come to a close, and I had imagined myself feeling swollen with joy and excitement to be rid of the entire process. But this is simply not the case, and I am not entirely sure why. I feel a gentle sadness when I realise that the CMP process has ended and we shall play no further part in it for this year.
It's like having a stray dog staying with you for a while. At first you are not very enthusiastic in getting involved, but then time passes, and when it comes time for the stray dog to leave, you feel a minor anguish in letting go. This being the case, I feel optimistic in saying that we made a difference to the communities we were involved with. We set out, rather hesitantly, with the intentions of uncovering a few problems facing our communities. We did not know it at the time, but we would uncover a host of issues and pains that our fellow Grahamstownians live with on a daily basis. Of course we had to be realistic in our hopes of making a difference. We could not do very much about the lack of RDP housing, or the power cuts they face every few hours. However, we did focus our energies and hopes on making a change that was possible. We set out to try and shed some light on the lack of activities available to the youth within the community, and we accomplished this through a highly successful soccer tournament on an overcast but warm Saturday.We gave the community some attention; attention they had been starved of for a very long time.
In my opinion, Group For78, we did our job. We did it well.
It's like having a stray dog staying with you for a while. At first you are not very enthusiastic in getting involved, but then time passes, and when it comes time for the stray dog to leave, you feel a minor anguish in letting go. This being the case, I feel optimistic in saying that we made a difference to the communities we were involved with. We set out, rather hesitantly, with the intentions of uncovering a few problems facing our communities. We did not know it at the time, but we would uncover a host of issues and pains that our fellow Grahamstownians live with on a daily basis. Of course we had to be realistic in our hopes of making a difference. We could not do very much about the lack of RDP housing, or the power cuts they face every few hours. However, we did focus our energies and hopes on making a change that was possible. We set out to try and shed some light on the lack of activities available to the youth within the community, and we accomplished this through a highly successful soccer tournament on an overcast but warm Saturday.We gave the community some attention; attention they had been starved of for a very long time.
In my opinion, Group For78, we did our job. We did it well.
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.
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.
A quiet finish...
Catherine Deiner
The JDD CMP course came, with much scepticism, and left... quietly. The final distribution which should have been the highlight feels somewhat quiet. Perhaps it is the method that we have chosen to distribute our pieces? I know that limited time is perhaps to be blamed but it seems sad that after much hardwork to get our soundslides together, simply handing out a dvd is a letdown. Maybe we should have gone with sheets in the streets???? any takers??
Perhaps it is only because the soccer tournament was such a hype and the overall highlight of the JDD CMP course for me. I think that the soccer day, for me, summed up community/public journalism: helping communities find their own solutions to their problems. The biggest adjustment I had to make in doing this course was to realise that everyone does not feel the same way that I do about community engagement. This was frustrating to begin with but looking back, I think that this course has made more people civic-minded and that we will all leave Rhodes as journalists with a hint of compassion for communities and a respect for public journalism.
I will be taking a dvd to Sr Theresa today and The Assumption Nutrition Centre on Monday and, hopefully I will get to watch the dvd with the soccer players from Ward 7 and hear what they have to say about the soundslide. I would like to get their feedback before I pat myself on the back for a job well done.
The JDD CMP course came, with much scepticism, and left... quietly. The final distribution which should have been the highlight feels somewhat quiet. Perhaps it is the method that we have chosen to distribute our pieces? I know that limited time is perhaps to be blamed but it seems sad that after much hardwork to get our soundslides together, simply handing out a dvd is a letdown. Maybe we should have gone with sheets in the streets???? any takers??
Perhaps it is only because the soccer tournament was such a hype and the overall highlight of the JDD CMP course for me. I think that the soccer day, for me, summed up community/public journalism: helping communities find their own solutions to their problems. The biggest adjustment I had to make in doing this course was to realise that everyone does not feel the same way that I do about community engagement. This was frustrating to begin with but looking back, I think that this course has made more people civic-minded and that we will all leave Rhodes as journalists with a hint of compassion for communities and a respect for public journalism.
I will be taking a dvd to Sr Theresa today and The Assumption Nutrition Centre on Monday and, hopefully I will get to watch the dvd with the soccer players from Ward 7 and hear what they have to say about the soundslide. I would like to get their feedback before I pat myself on the back for a job well done.
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