May podcast

May 1st Podcast broadcast –Reflective

For the second time my role in the Podcasts broadcast was that of anchor. This time around I believe I did a good job. I read stories clearly and at a steady pace, unlike my first attempt at anchoring this time around I was a lot more comfortable.

Stories:
The lead story: RDP houses fall apart. Well I must state I was happy that for the second time my group decided to put my story as the lead! On a personal note I enjoyed putting this story together; reason being I only started working on the story Wednesday morning and it was due at 2pm. I was under a lot of pressure running around getting sources and worrying about meeting my deadline 2pm, was an amazing real life journalist experience. It took my class mates days to get their stories together it took me just one morning! I was very happy with the sound clips and the sources I got.

The RDP houses residents- sounded very frustrated and the local RDP housing representative sounded like a true politician: denial denial…
I felt the story was newsworthy and in line with our “constitution” giving voice to the voiceless. Though the Makana RDP housing representative claims to have no knowledge of the houses falling apart… he now knows that the residents are unhappy!

I felt all stories by my group were relevant and of good quality. We lived to the promises of speaking to the person on the ground. I beleive the stories would have appealed to people in Joza. We work quite well together and its amazing how we have improved from last year.

If I may be critical... I still think we can do more stories outside campus! Having gone out there a number of accasions... there is much to be reported on. We had two campus related stories: Galela Amanzi and "My body my chioce". "Though the my body my choice" addresses important issues... the campaings target audince are Rhodes people. There were not any Joza or Hlalani location particpants on the campaign.. Joza people (unless they work at Rhodes) probably don't know about it.

Galela Amanzi... yes its a good fluff story but I would have preffered if the story was on the day that they actually sponsored the tanks in the townships schools. Then would be sound clips of teachers, school pupils and parents.

Politicains recieve expensive car gifts and Zille drags her self to low politics!

Transport Minister S'bu Ndebele has given up his R1.14-million Mercedes-Benz he received as a gift from a group of contractors.

This comes in the wake of opposition parties and analysts intensifying their calls for Ndebele to return the car as "it constitutes a conflict of interest".
He was presented with a Mercedes-Benz S500 by Vukuzakhe contractors during a function to honour him in Pietermaritzburg at the weekend. He also received a plasma screen TV, two cows!

Personally I think he should have kept it... the "conflict of interest theory" is over played! The Minister came in public with his gift. The contractors were just showing appreciation; if this was a bribery surely both the Minister and the contractors would have been smart enough to keep the matter out of the public eye. Must the media and the so-called political analysts always expect the worst out of our political leaders?

Not too long ago the SA press was very critical of Zuma and created fear in most White South Africans about Zuma’s presidency. But now if one analyses the content of leading Dailies and weekend’s newspapers, one would note that the SA press has had a change of hearts after his inauguration. One, they liked his inauguration speech, they liked the “balance” of the cabinet and they are calling for people to give him a chance huh!

I for one am not surprised that the press has had a change of hearts, we have seen it all before: Leading white owned dailies predicted doom and gloom when the Black government came to power. But after Mandela became president they again had a change of hearts and now everyone loves Mandela!

Same thing happened with the 2010 world cup, SA media ran stories of problems with stadiums and how FIFA has a “plan B” but now that all is seemingly on track… we don’t read about it!

Meanwhile Hellen Zille has really damaged her integrity! One: she appoints an all male cabinet which is dominated by whites. The Mail & Guardian had a fitting headline “The return of the White man” for one of their stories covering Zille’s white male dominated cabinet!

She then made another blunder which is going to hurt her even further… she continued her obsessions with President Zuma. Instead of giving answers for her failure to appoint a diverse cabinet she dared to personally attack president Zuma basically calling him a “womaniser who had put his wives at risk of contracting HIV”

I was once impressed by Zille but her continued aggressive behaviour is getting annoying. Everyone knows about President Zuma’s rape trial and the shower comments… no need to hold on to that! Even Zapiro removed the shower head!

These are my views on the current and very interesting SA political landscape!

Jacob Zuma my great President

Jacob Zuma who has had a long journey to power has finally reached the promised land after brutal public battles against his greatest political rival Thabo Mbeki. One has to admire the never die or give up attitude of Jacob Zuma, the man was down and out at one stage and he amazingly turned things around to make one of the greatest comebacks in political history. In a historic and moving event that was showered by rain and graced by the great presents of Nelson Mandela, Jacob Zuma was sworn in as President of South Africa.

Zuma is a symbol of hope for many poor South Africans, he is a symbol of struggle and triumph. The man smells of fire because he’s been through hell, he wears battle scares as badges of honour. He has been tried and tested literally and figuratively! From accused rape charges to an eight year battle against the NPA and he came out standing tall. Some may never forgive him for his shower comments that were greatly sensationalised by the very anti-Zuma South African press. Helen Zille will continue challenging Zuma’s moral standing and Zapiro will probably continue mocking the man by drawing him with a shower head. BUT the nations poor, or the over 10 million who voted for ANC have long waited for this moment and will be celebrating and whishing Jacob Zuma “umsholozi” all the best in state highest office.

I believe that Jacob Zuma has been unjustly trialed and convicted by the court of public opinion. Most of South African press have portrayed “msholozi” as uneducated, immoral and South Africa’s worst nightmare! But the over 10 million ANC voters know that even though he may not have received western British education like Mbeki he knows how to connect with the people. Zuma is charismatic, charming, approachable and he knows how to get the masses moving with his trademark song “mshini wam”.

Zuma knows he’s facing tough times ahead of him, with the economic global recession and many South Africans losing their jobs. He will need our support and fair criticism.
We need to stop being passive consumers of media products and be more analytical of what we receive because the press tends to be biased. We also need to learn to forgive people for their mistakes and move forward. Zuma may have made some questionable statements during his trial but he is now our president and its time we forgave him and look forward to what the future holds.

April 1st Podcast Broadcast- Reflective

My Role in the broadcast was that of Anchor, a position I chose myself. I feel like I did a terrible job especially with the straight read story covering Hieke’s theatre piece. I struggled to pronounce the Afrikaans terms. I don’t think my voice sounds nice. Well I think I need some voice or anchoring training, which I thought would be provided by the lecture. I felt like I was put on the spot and expected to do a great job though I have never anchored in my life before. The short practise session that we did with Danika was just too short and not good enough to prepare one for the anchoring of the Podcast broadcast.

I believe that the other groups anchor Phumi did very well because she had received training from RMR and is their current news reader. This shows the importance of training and coaching is vital.

The stories

1. This might appear and biased and subjective but I believe my story (Youth swamp the polls) was the best of the four. Because election at that time were still a relevant and newsy topic. I think I did well to “localise” the story. Speaking to the local youth about why they voted and what they expected from Government. I think the sound clips were good especially the 1^st one where the two sources give their reasons for voting. Danika was not too happy with my second sound bite… she thought it was too long. That might be so BUT all that was said in that clip was very important, the reason it sounded long is because the guy speaks slowly. I could not have cut anything there.

2. Ross Alford story on crime in Grahamstown was a good story BUT since we constitution we serve the locals and that excludes students. I felt the story was centred around student life and that a person in Joza probably would not care and does not even know African street. The story makes reference to the crime increase as a result of Pirates pizza opening a new restaurant on African street. Again all of that is student related and not necessarily an issue that would concern locals that much especially ones in the townships, which our constitution claims to serve.

3. The water cuts story was quite relevant and well done. The issue affects all locals however I would have liked to hear from a “person from the ground” who is affected by the issue. Sam spoke to official people.

4. Tsego’s straight read story was horrible! For me as the anchor. I felt the story was more like an advert for Hieke than a news piece! I think a lot of information that was unnecessary was put there.

I think we did a good Job and we can improve by selecting more “people on the ground” as sources. Funny enough even though in our agency document we claim to be against objectivity. I believe most of our stories except Tsego’s Hieke play advert, were quite well balanced and not so much subjective. However I feel the podcast would not really appeal to the Grahamstown working community.

Personal Philosophy

1. I will be working as a student journalist in Grahamstown, a small Eastern Cape town. Though small in size Grahamstown is a true reflection of South Africa as a whole, in the sense that its citizens are racially and economically divided. One finds that Grahamstown has sub- communities such as Rhodes students who are part of Grahamstown but are not facing some of the issues that are faced by everyday Grahamstown people i.e. poverty ( 70% unemployment rate). The town is also known as a “city of saint and academics”, the saints part comes from the fact that there so many churches in the town and the academic part comes from the fact that Rhodes University and high schools such as DSG, St Andrews and Kingswood who have a reputation of producing quality education are located in here in Grahamstown.

There is a rising issue of crime which mostly affects town people and students. Oppidan Press recently published that Oppidan students are hardest hit by laptop theft. The town is part of the Eastern Cape Province as I have stated above, this province is one of the poorest in South Africa, though huge car manufacturing companies (General Motors, VW, and Mercedes Benz) are located here. The province also produced one of the lowest pass rate in the recent grade12 results with just over 15% pass rate. On a more positive note Grahamstown hosts the annual National arts festival which attracts a lot of tourists and brings business opportunities to the locals.

2.

I think we should strive for objectivity though it seems its not really attainable. Its not attainable in the sense that as individuals we have our own personal views of the world that are shaped by our class, race, culture etc As journalist when we write a story these views that we have which are shaped by our environment come out. We may not be aware of this but the proof is in the fact that the same story is often reported differently by various journalists. Why is that? If we were as journalist are so objective or followed the same code of writing, then the stories would come more or less the same but because we use our own experiences of the world to tell stories that we gather, our stories come out differently. The Grahamstown community is very unequal and often the Grahamstown elites get their stories told, I think we should give the “voiceless” more space to have their views heard.

3. I as I have motioned above Grahamstown is very unequal and often the economic successful side of town makes the headline. Without turning a blind eye to the economic successful, stories such as the impact of mini- tornado that hit Grahamstown local. Stories of how people survive though it is said that 70% is unemployed. I believe one can be objective and yet still have a story that has a human and emotional feel to it.

Objectivity

Objectivity should journalists be objective? Personally I think we should strive for it though it seems its not really attainable. Its not attianable in the sense that as individuals we have our own personal views of the world that are shaped by our class, race, culture etc As journalist when we write a story these views that we have which are shaped by our enviroment come out. We may not be aware of this but the proof is in the fact that the same story is often reported differently by various journalists. Why is that? if we were as journalist so objective then the stories would come more or less the same but because we use our own experiences of the world to tell stories that we gather, our stories come out differently!

However ! as I have stated above we should strive for fair and well balnced stories. Some in our Radio prac claimed that by being objective we bocome "mechenical”. I disagree with that, people must realize that as journalist we operate in a real world and democratic country ( Some may even contest if SA is democratic at all! I think it is, we enjoy quite a great measure of Press freedom than most media practitioners in Africa and the world at large). Where finances, economics and politics takes place, being un- objective ( unbalanced and un fair) may have finacially implication for a publication.

Journalism - Why I chose Journalism as my career

Im currently doing third year Journalism Radio, Economic & industrial Socoilogy 3 and Sound technology 1. Not only am I a journ student, I also lead ( deputy editor) one of the most successful student newspapers on campus The Oppidan Press.

When I first came at Rhodes, I wanted to journalsim because I wanted to join the vibrant and rapidly growing South African entertianment undustry. However after dealing with a lot of media studies thoeries, I had to think again as what I want to achieve as a journalist.

I now have ambitions of becoming a development journalist or a sports journalist. The concept of development journalism is relatively new and that big in SA right now but I think there is pontetial for it (development journalism) to grow. Sports in SA is seen as a unifiying factor! but is it really? Look at the stands on cricket and rugby grounds... only one race is dominant: white. Look at the local soccer grounds only one race is dominat: black. However it can be said that a few black people like myself do follow rugby and cricket but there does not seem to be any support for local soccer from our fellow white South Africans! Most traditional white boy schools don't even offer soccer as a sporting option. Look at 2010 its suppose to bring the rainbow nation together... but is it going to really? Well lets look at the tickets 1st.... there is about 3 million tickest avialable for the public. But one can only buy the Fifa tickes by applaying online www.fifa.com or through FNB. Now only 5million South Africans have access to internet... this then immediatly eliminates any chances for the other 40+ million SA citezens who don't have internet.