Our plan is to distribute the DVD to the sports centre in Ext 6 in Joza as well as the Rhodes sports admin. Since our story is based on the netball initiative which was formed to keep the kids of the streets. The focus group we conducted with possible interested sponsors for this initiative decided to collaborate with the township coaches and make a tournament happen at the end of it all. It is important that the community sees the positive outcome that has come about in the youth of Grahamstown by being involved in sporting activities. We also hope to distribute the DVD to the Department of Sports and Recreation so that they realise how important it is to inform people about available funds for such initiatives as well as be involved in the development of sport in the townships.
By: Ntombi and Nonceba
Friday, October 22, 2010
Distribution Plan
Our first wall newspaper was put up in the community, one of these places being the Little Flower Day-Care Centre, which was a featured story. We received positive feedback from this. We are also considering getting a few copies of our Grocott’s pages and distributing them in the community – possibly at the Little Flower Day-Care Centre, the Indoor Sports Centre and Egazini Outreach Centre. Our last piece of work, a signboard/banner, will be put up in Pick n Pay.
Anele Ngwenya, Kirstin Kyle & Nicole Naicker
Anele Ngwenya, Kirstin Kyle & Nicole Naicker
The final step... Distributing our media
Well I guess there's just one more step to our CMP project... distributing our media. Fifi and I plan to distibute our soundslide to a number of different groups. Firstly, and MOST importantly to The Little Flower Day-care Centre. Lungi Mtwalo will be attending the ABSA Awards Final for small businesses started in the Eastern Cape. With the soundslide which has already been given to her, she can show everyone what her little centre is all about, which will hopefully in turn, create a postivie outcome for The Little Flowers.
The soundslide will also be distributed to the Centre for Social Development, which is part of Rhodes University. They showed a great appreciation for our work and they asked us if they could please have a copy of their own to put on their website once we were finished with our final piece.
Finally, we will also give a DVD with our soundslide to Pick 'n Pay in Grahamstown, as they have done so much to help out The Little Flower day-care Centre. Jon Campbell's help has been greatly appreciated and has been documented on the soundslide. Having a copy of his own can, he can show the community and other associates how much of a role they play in the community of Grahamstown.
The soundslide will also be distributed to the Centre for Social Development, which is part of Rhodes University. They showed a great appreciation for our work and they asked us if they could please have a copy of their own to put on their website once we were finished with our final piece.
Finally, we will also give a DVD with our soundslide to Pick 'n Pay in Grahamstown, as they have done so much to help out The Little Flower day-care Centre. Jon Campbell's help has been greatly appreciated and has been documented on the soundslide. Having a copy of his own can, he can show the community and other associates how much of a role they play in the community of Grahamstown.
Reaping the rewards! ~ **gwen*
Our social responsibility wouldn’t be completed as journalists if we never distributed our media! Having focused on Makana’s Kaolin Project we will be giving dvd’s of the sound slide to Makana Municipality and to Makana’s Mining Forum in the hope that they will speed up the processes that are currently preventing the project from getting up and running!
Wednesday, October 20, 2010
On Journalism and the society
Anele Ngwenya
On the second last Friday of the JDD-CMP course, my group and I had a focus group meeting to discuss and review our experience of the course and the work which we’ve done.
On our group’s vision, we were able to talk about how we’ve been able to create a vision based on what the community has taught us about themselves. For the course we had obviously been in a place where we wanted to gage what the place was about but we learned more from them.
We reflected on what kind of journalism we had been part of. I think we were all agreeing that the journalism we did was alternative and innovative. This is because of all that we’ve been able to achieve with the network we’ve expanded towards like Pick and Pay and giving the Little Flower Day-Care Centre.
In the last three years of studying journalism, I have come to realise that the idea of upholding the ideals of democracy and maintaining human rights has become important now. I have come to realise that regardless of the specialisation which we’ve chosen, we’ve been able to see how we could help out. I saw this clearly when we delivered our first wall-paper to the owner of the Little Flower day-Care centre. It was then that I realised how important this course was. More than anything, its been a good way to navigate ourselves as journalists into society.
At first, it felt like a price we had to pay for wanting to be part of the journalism department for so long and over the last couple of years, we’ve each had time to think about our careers and what we want from them. The JDD course just took us back tour initial career aspirations.
Through our journalism, we were able to help out where help was needed. The biggest question which was asked was whether we were ‘social workers’ or just journalists. For me we were not able to help out of being social workers, but rather, journalism served as a platform for giving information and creating a space where organisations like Pick n Pay came out and offered more than we needed from them like giving food etc. and in this way, we were able to achieve journalism y being able to allow peoples voices to be sent out.
Now that we are the end of the course, the question can be asked, have we really made a social change? Have we been able to bring about a democratic space? Truly speaking, it will still take a while for South Africa to at a point whereby everybody’s issues can be brought to the surface, but our goal was achieved indeed.
On the second last Friday of the JDD-CMP course, my group and I had a focus group meeting to discuss and review our experience of the course and the work which we’ve done.
On our group’s vision, we were able to talk about how we’ve been able to create a vision based on what the community has taught us about themselves. For the course we had obviously been in a place where we wanted to gage what the place was about but we learned more from them.
We reflected on what kind of journalism we had been part of. I think we were all agreeing that the journalism we did was alternative and innovative. This is because of all that we’ve been able to achieve with the network we’ve expanded towards like Pick and Pay and giving the Little Flower Day-Care Centre.
In the last three years of studying journalism, I have come to realise that the idea of upholding the ideals of democracy and maintaining human rights has become important now. I have come to realise that regardless of the specialisation which we’ve chosen, we’ve been able to see how we could help out. I saw this clearly when we delivered our first wall-paper to the owner of the Little Flower day-Care centre. It was then that I realised how important this course was. More than anything, its been a good way to navigate ourselves as journalists into society.
At first, it felt like a price we had to pay for wanting to be part of the journalism department for so long and over the last couple of years, we’ve each had time to think about our careers and what we want from them. The JDD course just took us back tour initial career aspirations.
Through our journalism, we were able to help out where help was needed. The biggest question which was asked was whether we were ‘social workers’ or just journalists. For me we were not able to help out of being social workers, but rather, journalism served as a platform for giving information and creating a space where organisations like Pick n Pay came out and offered more than we needed from them like giving food etc. and in this way, we were able to achieve journalism y being able to allow peoples voices to be sent out.
Now that we are the end of the course, the question can be asked, have we really made a social change? Have we been able to bring about a democratic space? Truly speaking, it will still take a while for South Africa to at a point whereby everybody’s issues can be brought to the surface, but our goal was achieved indeed.
The essence of public journalism
Mainstream journalism only requires a journalist to get the story and have no intimate connection with their sources. With public journalism one needs to constantly be in contact with their sources in their environment. In the JDD-CMP course I found it really difficult seeing some of the difficult situations that people live in. One has a sense of emotional connection with their sources and journalism is no longer just about getting the story its also about getting involved in coming up with solutions for that particular environment or community.
Hass (2007) mentions how with public journalism is about facilitation a deliberating public and this is crucial. When we went out as a group to our different communities we ensured that the public have a voice in what their issues where and all we had to do was play a facilitative role. In becoming a public journalist practitioner I have realized that a lot of positive change can be enforced by public journalism. We took our productions to people in higher places and this brought about a collaborative role as well as a major change in the youth of ext 6 in Joza.
In our focus group the essence of public journalism was explored and many journalism students felt that they got more out of this course then just a mere story. They got to interact with the Grahamstown community in an intimate way and worked together with the community to formulate solutions which turned out to be sustainable and democratic. These solutions also aimed at developing the community in any way possible. In my opinion mainstream journalism is the journalism that sucks stories out of people then leaves then dry whereas public journalism allows for journalist to be more involved in changing the lives of people. If all journalist in the world would practice public journalism every once in a while then the world would be an amazing place to be.
Hass (2007) mentions how with public journalism is about facilitation a deliberating public and this is crucial. When we went out as a group to our different communities we ensured that the public have a voice in what their issues where and all we had to do was play a facilitative role. In becoming a public journalist practitioner I have realized that a lot of positive change can be enforced by public journalism. We took our productions to people in higher places and this brought about a collaborative role as well as a major change in the youth of ext 6 in Joza.
In our focus group the essence of public journalism was explored and many journalism students felt that they got more out of this course then just a mere story. They got to interact with the Grahamstown community in an intimate way and worked together with the community to formulate solutions which turned out to be sustainable and democratic. These solutions also aimed at developing the community in any way possible. In my opinion mainstream journalism is the journalism that sucks stories out of people then leaves then dry whereas public journalism allows for journalist to be more involved in changing the lives of people. If all journalist in the world would practice public journalism every once in a while then the world would be an amazing place to be.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Public journalism and the cmp course...
Nicole Naicker
When we started the whole JDD-CMP course I thought that it was going to be a tedious semester. Yet again were we expected to just go out and do as told to get a mark, only this time we were going into the greater community of Grahamstown.
At first we were all concerned that we would just go in and exploit the people for stories and leave with a mark. However, when we actually went to the community and interacted with people we realised that it was much more. People were eager to talk to us. We sort of stood out, our little group our Rhodes students. And by the mere fact of being Rhodes journalism students, and walking in to the community you get the sense that you’re giving people some sort of expectation. At our public meeting the community voiced many problems, and because we had organised the meeting and facilitated it, it felt like it was our responsibility to do something about these problems. But the problems were beyond our means of solving, and it felt like we created an expectation of nothing.
However, we decided to help where we could, and organised the litter clean-up. It wasn’t a part of the course, and we weren’t going to get any marks for it, and that sort of makes me feel better about it – we weren’t doing this for ourselves, but were trying to help. For the first time in three years I felt that we could actually do something, and maybe make a difference.
In my three years at Rhodes I always felt detached from the work I was doing. I never truly cared about what I wrote because it was just random pieces of work which would only be seen by a lecturer for marks. For this course, however, we were asked to produce work that would be displayed in and around the communities. The people the stories were about would see them. So, for the first time I found myself completely worried about my stories. I didn’t want to get any facts wrong, or offend or insult anyone by anything I had written. And this made me realise that my writing might actually have an effect on others.
After this course I think that public journalism is a preferable form of journalism. You get a chance to actually do something positive for people and hopefully make a difference and affect a change. And, you might get a better story because of that. Because you will know the people and their lives better.
When we started the whole JDD-CMP course I thought that it was going to be a tedious semester. Yet again were we expected to just go out and do as told to get a mark, only this time we were going into the greater community of Grahamstown.
At first we were all concerned that we would just go in and exploit the people for stories and leave with a mark. However, when we actually went to the community and interacted with people we realised that it was much more. People were eager to talk to us. We sort of stood out, our little group our Rhodes students. And by the mere fact of being Rhodes journalism students, and walking in to the community you get the sense that you’re giving people some sort of expectation. At our public meeting the community voiced many problems, and because we had organised the meeting and facilitated it, it felt like it was our responsibility to do something about these problems. But the problems were beyond our means of solving, and it felt like we created an expectation of nothing.
However, we decided to help where we could, and organised the litter clean-up. It wasn’t a part of the course, and we weren’t going to get any marks for it, and that sort of makes me feel better about it – we weren’t doing this for ourselves, but were trying to help. For the first time in three years I felt that we could actually do something, and maybe make a difference.
In my three years at Rhodes I always felt detached from the work I was doing. I never truly cared about what I wrote because it was just random pieces of work which would only be seen by a lecturer for marks. For this course, however, we were asked to produce work that would be displayed in and around the communities. The people the stories were about would see them. So, for the first time I found myself completely worried about my stories. I didn’t want to get any facts wrong, or offend or insult anyone by anything I had written. And this made me realise that my writing might actually have an effect on others.
After this course I think that public journalism is a preferable form of journalism. You get a chance to actually do something positive for people and hopefully make a difference and affect a change. And, you might get a better story because of that. Because you will know the people and their lives better.
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