Getting our production out there...

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

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

News values meets people values (Amy Green)

A focus on reducing social inequality, reinforcing democracy and its determination to represent a deliberating public are all, I argue, pivotal ideals for journalism as an institution. These three notions define Haas’s public philosophy of public journalism but they should also define the thinking of at least a number of newsrooms around the country.

Through the JDD-CMP course, and seeing public journalism in practice, it is impossible to escape imagining what widespread practice of this philosophy may do for South Africa. We have witnessed so much positive change in only one term by journalists in training. In our group alone, a sponsorship was garnered from Pick N Pay for a struggling pre-school. Imagine what can be done by professionals with time and resources. The problems are out there with the solutions and it is our job to try and connect them.

The course made most of us reassess what our roles as potential journalists are, and if we do not want to practice journalism it made us think about those who do and what they produce for our consumption. When one enters a hyperlocal space and speaks to individuals one cannot escape the accountability that we might set aside practicing mainstream journalism. This changes everything. We feel a responsibility to do good, to help, to produce journalism that will make change and change people’s lives. On one level this is great: we realise we have a conscience and it forces us to want to help people. On the other hand, as we discussed in our focus group, it creates and anxious sense of responsibility and a feeling of guilt.

What happens if we can’t help these people? We can’t just use their time and hospitality without giving them something in return. We came here with the aim of bettering their lives and what if we can’t actually do that? In our focus group Casper said that the way we approached our ward from the beginning was problematic. We came in thinking there was something wrong that we would have to try set right. We should have come in neutral and not looked for and expected problems. Instead of the community feeling like we are promising to help them, as has been expressed by many, we are the ones who feel like we are promising them this change. These are people that want a platform to voice their opinions. We should give them that. To avoid this anxiety we should reconcile ourselves with the fact that we can only do what we can with what we have and if it changes lives then that’s great.

This course taught me more about what is essentially right and my place in society than any other journalism course before. I do not feel my journalistic outputs matched what I have produced previously but I have grown in other ways which mediates this.

To use Casper’s words: “Can you do good and do journalism at the same time? Haas says yes.” It is difficult but I say yes. And for any real change to be effected in this so called democratic South Africa, every newsroom should have a public journalism beat.

“Social Responsibility” meets “Journalism” for the first time in three years ~ *gwen**

Growing up devouring The National Geographic I had always had the idea that journalists went out of their way to make a constructive difference in society. My illusion was harshly shattered when I began studying at what is considered to be one of the most prestigious Journalism Schools in South Africa – Rhodes University’s African Media Matrix.

The Journalism and Media Studies courses thus far have all been mainstream, requiring one to go in, cover the story, use the people, glean as much fact from fiction and leave to write the story to earn your salary (of which your source gets no benefits, yet alone another thought)! Yip, this is the callous reality of journalism. But the CMP course opened up another ally way, one that I had been seeking since I first arrived – one with a greater vision, a greater social responsibility and a greater value of being a human – “Public Journalism”!
Taking up what Haas terms as our “social responsibility” it was not only the people we were in contact with who reaped the benefits – but so too, surprisingly, us! The emotional joy in the peoples’ faces was evident as we walked down Sani Road, in Extension 6 with thick, black, plastic packets gathering the litter that they had come to accept as part of their environment. It wasn’t so much about the fact that we had Nik Naks but it was about self worth, the reality that together we were making a stance that nobody should live in these conditions! Okay, maybe Nik Naks did play a larger role than I would like to attribute… and I’ll console myself in the fact that it was just to the kids… who having helped with the litter sweep, and grinning through their artificial orange, crumbed faces they continued to drop their Nik Nak packets, displaying the society they have grown up in! This just shows the lack of public journalism in South Africa. There is a huge potential and a great need for it to flourish! From this project we learnt that we have to come up with sustainable ways in which the community can help themselves – and our role, as journalists should be to mobilize and empower the citizens, installing the catalysts for positive change! It was through the CMP course that I realised the impact I have in media output in today’s mediated society. This calls you to think of ones motives, gains and values in production – for these can either make or break society.

This brings in the much argued “ethics of journalism”. Is there a place in society for the stark, supposedly “objective” “professional” journalism when there is so many who are crying out for their voices to be heard? What articles do people profit the most from in a daily tabloid – the bland fact only, hard news articles where the name on a page is exactly that, a name on a page – or, in contrast the more subjective articles where that name on a page becomes an actual human being, like you and me with emotions, feelings and needs. Needs that you could potentially fill!

A thin line between being a Public Journalist and a Social Worker

In my three years of training to be professional journalism, I've come across the concept public journalism but have never really understood the essence of this concept. This course has allowed me an opportunity to go to the grassroots at a hyper local level and really practice a bottom up approach to journalism. I must say, it hasn’t been easy.

From the very beginning when we conducted our public meetings, the basic assumption from our part was that we were going into the township, to people whom needed a lot and I guess we went there giving the impression that we could somewhat change their lives. This in the end proved to have been a big challenge to us as we ended feeling overwhelmed and a sense of responsibility towards those people we were interacting with. One of the issues which came out in our focus group was, to what extend does one get socially involved in trying to make the lives of those you are working with as a public journalists, and whether social working and public journalism are mutually exclusive. In relation to this question, the group felt that the two are not mutually exclusive as being a public journalist does not necessary mean that you cannot get involved on a more social level, however there was also a view that to what extend does one get involved on such a social level, personally I think it is up to the individual involved.

Through this focus group discussion, it also became clear that most of us were up with this issue of becoming socially involved and then as a result initiated some social programs such as our litter sweep we had as a whole group. Ntombi and I organised a Netball tournament and set up a netball league for the indoor sports centre and Sarah and Fifi organised groceries for the pre-school they were covering.
All in all, what came out from the focus group is how public journalism as a whole allows journalists to become active citizens in their communities and do work which will be driven by democratic values of participation and accountability, and this in my view is the most valuable thing I take away from this course.

Nonceba,

A Surprising But Enlightening Experience - Fifi

So I arrive to the final term of my journalism degree expecting to do the mundane things that I’ve been doing throughout my years of study only to be met by a big bang! Explosion in fact...and by no means am I exaggerating! Top up approaches to producing stories have now been turn upside down and all of a sudden instead of relying upon institutional values of news production that have been ingrained in my psyche for the past three years, I’m now introduced to a philosopher called Tanni Haas, who shares his own philosophy to public journalism. Like what the f#@%k I think for a second. I’m now expected to apply a bottom up approach to finding a story. One where I rely on the community in which I am based to dictate what should be regarded as news worthy. I mean, me...an aspiring journalist whose been indoctrinated with the hierarchy of values that define what story is worth telling. Scandal, Celebrity, Politics,Economics...and so the list goes on. But I regard myself as a person who is always willing to try news things. So the notion of a community based approach to journalism seems not too bad.

Enter the Little Flower Day Care Centre, the story in Extension 7of Joza, a location in Grahamstown that regards itself worthy of being told. I mean, with the founder being a mother and daughter who use their RDP house to keep kids from loitering in the streets, teach their recruits the basics concerning reading and writing and the essentials of potty training at the mere expense of plus minus R80 a month, why shouldn’t it be told. Right? Well maybe! Because all of a sudden, I am thrown in to a position of greater accountability, vulnerability and responsibility. Up until this point in my journey of journalism I have never felt such a great force propelling me to not only tell the story but enact a change in the situation of my sources. Lungi Mtwala, the founder of the Little Flower Day Care Centre was doing a great job in investing in the future of the future generation. But no man is an island and everyone needs help. Help, fortunately for me and my partner, the lovely photographer Miss Sarah Couch is what we were able to give her. We met with the regional manager of Pick and Pay, Grahamstown and organised a trolley of food that will be delivered to her once a week to help her feed her 60 troops at the nursery school. Further more, we organised a Christmas party that Pick and Pay will be sponsoring in the month of November for the Little Flower Day Care Centre.

I am proud of our achievements in listening to a community, identifying a problem and providing a potential solution. However, the vulnerability and accountability that this course has exposed to me has made me realise that I don’t wish to be a social journalist. Sad...but true!!!

Reflection on the CMP Course - Sarah

Public journalism didn’t really mean much to me during our third term when we covered a lot of theory in terms of a journalist’s role in society and in news coverage. I understood what the basic ideas were behind Haas’s public philosophy of journalism, such as giving people a space to air their say, giving them the power to voice their own opinion and also providing them with the realisation that they, as citizens, have the power to make a change in their own lives, with the journalist merely acting as a mediator during this change, if needed. The ideas were pretty simple to understand, but it wasn’t until the fourth term when I actually had to practice what Haas had written about, that I actually understood exactly what was meant by public journalism.

By delving into this course whole-heartedly, I was able to understand what Haas meant by giving people a voice. Holding public meetings allowed the people in Ward 2 to do so, and it produced a variety of different results. I found that by going into Extension 7 and merely sitting with the people who live in that community and chatting to them, I was exposed to a number of different stories of both individuals and the community itself, which I would never have known unless I had done so. These stories are not covered completely by the local newspaper, as it tends to focus on the ‘bigger’ stories. Those that are seen as ‘newsworthy’. However, the stories which I uncovered during my wandering in Extension 7 are just as important as those ‘newsworthy’ stories which are seen in the local paper. To these people, issues like lack of funding, no resources and lack of communication by the municipality are what matter to these people.

By covering stories which I found, like the Little Flower Day-care Centre, I was able to create democracy in my own journalism, as I was giving the staff at the Little Flower Day-care Centre, a chance to be heard in the greater Grahamstown community, the community in the Middle Class area who wouldn’t have known about the story either, just as I had not known about it a few weeks before. By doing so, I helped bridge the gap between Joza and middle class Grahamstown, making people more aware of the stories and issues which mattered to those in Joza.

I know that I am only one person and that making a visible change is really difficult in a situation which just seems so impossibly huge to conquer, but I believe in Margaret Mead’s quote, "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed individuals can change the world. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” Unless someone does something to facilitate in the change in the lives of the people who need it, their lives will continue to be unnoticed, meaning that the people most in need of being heard, will never have the platform to do so, and in by doing so, creating a positive change in their lives.

This course has really helped me feel closer to the town, especially those in Extension 7, as I met so many different people there, sat with them in their homes and listened to their stories. It made me feel a lot more connected with Grahamstown, rather than just living in my own bubble on campus. I understand the different roles of a journalist which are mentioned by Christians et al, now that I have taken that theory along with Haas’s theory of public journalism and put them into practical use. I believe that there are different forms of journalism one could take, and in my case I think that there could be such a journalist who focuses on human interest stories and then tries to facilitate in helping make a difference in those people’s lives. Although this may seem like the journalist starts behaving like a social worker, I think it is more like a specific role which that journalist could take on. It shows that the journalist does not merely focus on a human-interest story and reports it to the world so that others can take up the initiative to help. The journalist actually becomes involved in helping improve the lives of those he/she reports on, with the help of others who have read the story and have taken a keen interest in also becoming involved.

Until now, I have never really felt the urge to become a journalist, as I thought journalism was merely about writing hard news and covering stories which are seen as interesting and important to those in high positions in society. However, this curse has made me realise that there is a space in the journalistic field for me. A space that doesn’t have to cover gory, disturbing news, but rather on human interest stories, where I feel I could help improve the lives of those who don’t have the voice to do so. I want the help people realise the potential they have to make a difference in their lives, because they have just as much power and say as anyone else does, as we live in a democratic country. I believe that our country does not practice Haas’s pubic journalism enough. Thee are so many unheard, important stories in this country that are not reported on, because of the social statuses of these people. Every person should have the right to have their story seen, heard and published for their entire country to see, so that everyone can know exactly what plights others go through everyday. I think it would help the democracy in our country grow, as I believe that every person has the right to stand up and have their voice heard and responded to. That way, with equal rights, our country’s democracy may continue to develop.

Although the story of the Little Flower Day-care Centre was not a huge one that dealt with a particularly serious issue, I believe that with the coverage it has received, the lives of the staff and the children which attend the day-care centre will be improved and I hope to continue supporting them in any way I can after the CMP course is finished. I believe that I can do more for the Little Flower Day-care Centre; I just need more time to do so. So, next year, I will continue to support the friends I made at the Little Flower Day-care Centre and keep trying my best to make their story heard, which will hopefully snowball into something bigger which will continue to sustain it once I have left Grahamstown.

Reflection on Focus Group meeting

Kirstin kyle

So we were asked to do this project and I was skeptical. What could a bunch of students possibly do to improve the community. We studied a theory called public journalism by Haas and I still wasn't convinced.

After our focus group meeting where we tackled some of the major issues that we faced (using people, not having power and crossing the professionalism that governs traditional journalism). I realised that even though not everything was successful we had managed to do something, no matter how small (picking up a few bits of litter).

I realise that journalists are trained to be objective but I think this theory could carry some weight. If the world was accountable for their actions like I felt when taking our wall papers to people, then surely a lot more positive things could occur.

Accountability, empathy, community involvement and trying to create a democracy are some of the core principles I have taken from this and I hope more journalists can be allowed to follow these practices.

Some feedback

Through this course i have been amazed by the inroads groups have been able to make, with regards to weeding out stories in their hyperlocal communities. This group is no different in this regard. Your postings hint at the amount of work that has gone into understanding your communities and offering them a new perspective on their lives. While your reading of Haas feels faint at times, your personalised understanding of public journalism through experiential learning has ensured that you are able to grapple with the concepts put forward in Haas's paper more easily. Your ability as a group, to go beyond the journalism has impressed me, and i am sure that your deeper understanding of Haas will come through as you go through the next two phases of production.

Reflection: Makana Kaolin Forum and the JDD-CMP course (Amy Green & Gwen Matthews)

Democracy through public deliberation

Throughout the duration of this course the concept of democracy has been stressed. Haas believes that a “genuine democracy depends on a form of journalism that is committed to promoting active citizen participation in democratic processes” (2007: 2). Our sub-group therefore held a public meeting at the beginning of September to actively involve the citizens of our prescribed location (Ward 2) in the agenda setting process. From this, a number of people found story ideas or were directed to certain areas of interest by what individuals at the meeting had to say during this public deliberation. However, the meeting was predominantly in isiXhosa with very little translating happening. As a result some of us left with an opaque view of the problems faced by those living in Extension 6 and 7.

We did however meet a male youth at this meeting by the name of Amos Seti. When we were interviewing him he told us that one of the biggest problems he recognises in the youth of this ward was the fact that they often do not go to school and their parents do not encourage them to do so. We then set out to do a story on parental apathy with a number of parents in the area as a target audience. We hoped that this piece would stimulate a more pro-active attitude in parents as they would realise the importance of an education for their children, especially in the light of the upcoming matric exams. We wanted to contribute to reducing social inequality through encouraging a focus on education. We embarked on a search, with Amos, to find school going children and ask them if they felt encouraged in the home with regards to their education. After roughly 10 interviews (including the Nduna Library librarian and a number of learners), we could find no other comment that linked with what Amos had told us.

Our story came to us

While we were leaving the Nduna Library we were approached by a man named Zondile Sinama who told us about the Makana Kaolin forum. The community based forum was set up to alleviate unemployment and poverty in the Grahamstown area by exploiting kaolin (a form of white clay used in many products). As Haas’s public philosophy indicates that the community should set the news agenda, we decided to take on this story (even though it was not situated specifically in our ward: the forum does not have a specific geographic location). We thought we might produce a soundslide with the ideals of social marketing in mind. We wanted to promote this initiative and potentially garner investors.

However when we interviewed Mishak Masuku, who initially headed this kaolin project before it was sourced out to the community, we discovered that the forum had a number of problems and that the process was moving at a painfully slow speed. He provided us with the official slide shows that had been shown to the steering committee, as well as factual material on Grahamstown’s kaolin. He also said the community lacked the skills to formulate a proper business plan and apply for funding etc., and that they needed to be more proactive in attaining these skills and asking for help. This was supported by the fact that when we met Sinama at the Nduna Library the forum was set to have a meeting which did not take place as most of the members were not in attendance. This lack of official communication made our job more difficult as we had to rely on subjective accounts to construct a story which made some information difficult to verify.

We then interviewed the secretary of the forum, Lizo Zakhe, who blamed the municipality and stated that there was an agenda around their work. We then decided to take a more investigative approach to the story as Masuku once worked for the municipality and might have an agenda himself. Not dissimilar to a radical approach to journalism, we aimed to expose “abuses of power and ... raise popular awareness of wrongdoing, inequality and the potential for change” (Christians et al. 2009: 126). This only made sense in light of the fact that the municipality was forced to hand the project over to the community in terms of the law (as a governmental organisation is not allowed to head and benefit from such a project). Our intended audience therefore became the municipality with the vision in mind that if they were hindering this process they would be perturbed by the fact that this notion may enter the public sphere.

However, after our interview with the chairperson of the forum, Mr. Kuselo, we had to change our approach. Kuselo was very uncooperative and paranoid. He refused to give us information about the forum and interrogated us as to where we had got our information and his contact details. He contacted both Masuku and Zakhe to ask what they had told us. He stated that the municipality was working well with them and that his only fear was giving any information to a third party as he feared that another company would take their foundational work and speed up the process by shifting it to a personal business. He refused to give us contact details of people on the trust, the steering committee or member of the co-operatives.

We decided to change tactics as this project, if realised, will ultimately benefit the unemployed in Makana and exposing anything may be out of our resource and time constraints (especially considering that there may be nothing to expose). We went back to the idea of a social marketing approach and we asked Kuselo, as chairperson, what the forum requires. He said they need no help from third parties. Previously he had told us that the trust, which the forum had set up, would like Dr. Badat to sit on their board as well as somebody with accounting expertise. We offered to create a soundslide about the forum and its economic potential for Makana followed by an insert about what they still require to realise this project (i.e. these board members). Our audience would then have been people with influence or accounting expertise at Rhodes University so that we may be active in helping the forum acquire these needed persons. However, Kuselo insisted we do not do this. He said they will manage on their own. We could not go through with this idea because it was in conflict with the very people we were trying to help.

Haas argues that it is important to listen to what citizens might say but equally important to understand their “underlying reasons for espousing certain options” (2007: 29). We understood that Mr. Kuselo was afraid of losing this project if we exposed them as being ineffective. However, because he refused to collaborate with us in any way, we could only encourage progress through identifying the current circumstances of the forum. Also, as chairperson of the project he has a certain responsibility to the community and if he is not effective then this must be made known.

Looking back on the project we would have benefited from the perspective of a person actively involved with the municipality. This approach would not have been dissimilar to the ‘collaborative role’ outlined by Christians et al. which advocates collaboration between media and the state (2009: 127). This would go against the principles of public journalism, outlined by Haas, which are characterised by the “the freedom from government intervention” (2007: 2) which is why we avoided this route initially. However, as the problems we have identified hindered the production of a clearly positioned solution based piece, this option may have been necessary.

The end product

In the end, our soundslide was more in line with the monitorial role as described by Christiens et al.: “a more or less passive channelling of information” (2009: 125). This is slightly in conflict with Haas’s view that journalists should be partisan and act “in what they perceive to be the public interest” (Haas 2007: 45). We wanted to promote the forum in the interests of the community (as they will eventually benefit) but the information we received suggested that the forum was not working effectively. We produced an information based story describing the economic benefit of exploiting kaolin as well as a description of the Makana Kaolin Forum and what they ultimately aim to do. We then described what they have done and what they still need to do. We included Kuselo’s view that the forum was doing what it is supposed to and the reason for the laboured progress was simply the nature of bureaucratic processes. We ended with Masuku’s voice saying that the community lacks the skills to get this project off the ground and advising the forum to be more pro-active in attaining these skills. The audience for this piece could be 1) the municipality so we could get comment as to whether they were hindering the forum with their paper work and what their role actually is with regards to facilitating this project (however the failed municipality focus group problematises this), 2) members of the forum so as to motivate them to dedicate themselves more fully to realising this project which will ultimately better their lives (however we are still worried about offending them or undermining their capability as we ultimately want to see this project realised).

As the forum was established in 2007 it has previously been covered in the local print media. The medium we used, therefore, provided for a difference in coverage. We attempted to make the package more appealing through sound elements (the package opens with the sound Masuku sieving clay and pouring it into a mould and describing the process as he does it. This was intended to place the viewer in his workshop as they could envision what can be done with kaolin. Also, we included a number of photographic animations to increase the visual interest of the story. We attempted to make the package engaging by stressing the economic advantages this project will have for Grahamstown even if its manifestation will take a long time.

Sources and the JDD-CMP course

This course has been particularly challenging in terms of navigating sources. Kuselo also had no conception of what we were aiming to achieve, although we had repeatedly explained the benefits to him. Claiming that we were exploiting him he tried to take advantage of us through emotional blackmail: he said he was helping us with our assignment so now we must help him and “buy him a drink”. He then expected us to print out an 80 page document and bind it for him. Also, the day I (Amy) met him in town (to print this document) he was irritated by the fact that I wasn’t driving him from Checkers on High Street to the Eden Grove computer labs. It was a short walk in amiable weather conditions. I told him I do not own a car. He said that when you do business you have to be professional insinuating that I was lacking in professionalism for not using a car I don’t have to drive him 100 meters to print out a long document. He then proceeded to phone us (sometimes at 6:30) in the morning asking us to introduce him to Chinese people at Rhodes (to garner potential investors apparently) among other requests (to get documents given to us by Mr. Masuku). He would give us missed calls and expect us to phone him back. It is very difficult to work with people like this and to assess where our social responsibility ends. He had a particular view of Rhodes students and seemed determined to exploit us without allowing us to help the Kaolin Forum.

Story 2

Because this package began to frustrate us, as we could not get information from paranoid sources and at the same time we did not want to undermine the Kaolin Forum’s efforts, we are currently busy with a second story. This will revolve around the kiln at Egazini. This is a better choice as Egazini lies in our ward. The Department of Social Development sponsored this kiln which Egazini received over a year ago. When we were at Egazini we asked why it has not been used. The woman there (named Violet) did not know. We then contacted Bongani Diko and he said that there are many problems with regards to electricity and the other group on the premises. We have set up an interview and will attempt to “formulate possible solutions” (Haas 2007: 44). We are unsure at this stage if that means our target audience will again be the Municipality (which might be unproductive). However, we may be able to get somewhere because, unlike Kuselo, Diko expressed interested in us producing a media output that may help them.

Proactive... but journalism?

Haas identifies the responsibility of journalists to become active with regards to the suggested solutions to specific problems in the relative communities (2007: 42). Therefore, our group decided to go beyond the boundaries of journalism and organise a litter sweep of the area around the indoor sports centre. This proved to be a relatively successful with a number of children (even if they were simply doing it because we promised them a packet of chips) and one or two adults helping clear the side of the road of the abundance of litter. This project proved to be a great example of public journalism in practice. This is because one of the issues that was stressed at our public meeting was the dirtiness of the community. This means the community set the agenda and the journalists actively participated in the solution (however temporary). We would hope that this sweep would stimulate a change in mindset in future. However, it was disheartening to see discarded Nick Nack packets when we walked back to the sports centre.

Our identities as journalists

Society today views journalism as having set news values. Journalism scholars contribute to this perception through the ordering of the “traditional predetermined values” (Ansell 2005: 2), with Ansell proceeding to rank ‘proximity’ at the base of the conventional values. Both the JDD and CMP course has subverted our previous perceptions of news worthiness. When one views a community from its boundaries news seems to be marginal and insignificant, thus the question is often asked how Grocott’s Mail manage to find enough coverage in Grahamstown. Only when submerged in a community does one’s ear become attuned to the throb of the pleas, cries and concerns of the people. As a professionalizing journalist we feel that by covering news at a hyper local level there is a greater potential for change. This may be attributed to the fact that our horizons seem more defined, meaning it is easier to rally up people who feel strongly about the issue at hand. In allowing the people to set their own news agenda encourages them to make a contribution in amending the current situation.

Macro news agencies have come to desensitize news by treating stories as ‘yet another’ while the JDD-CMP course lies in direct contrast to this: forcing the construction of relationships between the media and the community. A dialogue is more likely to be established and the undermining of the traditional news value of objectivity is encouraged. Through this lack of distancing that is practiced in many mainstream media institutions more responsibility is felt by us, as journalists, to “contribute to the over-arching goal of reducing social inequality” (Haas 2007: 20). The process is, as we have pointed out, not always successful but merit lies in its democratic and ultimately moral potential.

Little Flower Daycare Centre - Sarah & Fifi

We came across a potential story idea in Ward 2, Extension 7 of Joza, Grahamstown which we believed we could tackle as student journalists in terms of Haas’s public philosophy for public journalism. When we first came across the Little Flower Daycare Centre, we merely sat with Lungi Mtwalo and allowed her to speak to us about the centre which she opened up early last year. By doing so, we ‘lost’ our ‘expert’ position and became people who she could talk to freely about her grievances and positive aspects about the centre. By losing our ‘expert role’ as journalists, Lungi had the power and opportunity to voice her views, which then allowed us to gain a better understanding from her side, rather than just from an outsider’s point of view. We spoke to Lungi in her own home, meaning that she had the freedom to speak her mind, as she may not have spoken freely had she been in front of an authoritative figure like a Ward counsellor. According to Haas, by having an authoritative figure absent during our meeting with Lungi, we were able to gather more rich information from her, because she was the one who had the power to speak freely. After we had spoken to her, we knew that the story had the potential to be great and the pathway which we hoped to investigate and report on the story was clear to us.

By using the bottom-up approach to public journalism, we were able to successfully gather information and an in-depth story which may not have been covered through regular journalism. Although the story may not seem as ‘big’ or as ‘important’ as other stories which normally make the press, like robberies or crime, to Lungi, this is an important story and we were able to give her a voice.

According to Haas’s public philosophy, we became facilitators in the actions which Lungi wanted to take in terms of the Little Flower Daycare Centre. While we were working with Lungi, she had approached the co-owner of Pick n’ Pay, Mr Jon Campbell and had asked him to help her in terms of donations from the public. She took initiative and control of her situation and did something active about it. We merely acted as facilitators in helping her achieve this. Once Lungi had seen Mr Campbell, we went back two weeks later to discuss how we could help make a difference in Lungi’s life and the Little Flower Daycare Centre. We showed him the soundslide which we produced and he reacted positively towards it. He decided to help by collecting donations of food and other items like toys, by placing out trolleys during the month of November, donating excess bread to the daycare centre and holding a Christmas party at the end of the year for all 60 of the children. By contacting Mr Campbell, we built on from what Lungi had started, meaning that it was her that had the power to change her situation and we just helped move it along a bit faster.

As student journalists practicing Haas’s public philosophy, there were a number of different issues and situations which we came across, which changed the way we saw ourselves as media producers. We live in our own little bubble on campus and don’t even realise how many issues and problems people in Joza are faced with. By regularly going into the location, we began to feel a lot more connected to the area. We meet some amazing, colourful characters who made us realise that Grahamstown is a lot bigger than just Rhodes University. When we came across Lungi and the Little Flower Daycare Centre, we just knew that we could make a difference, even if it was just a small one. We felt that we needed to play a bigger role in Lungi’s life, than just merely coming into her home, finding a story and then leaving without giving her nothing in return.

It also gave us a greater understanding of what Haas was trying to explain in his public philosophy, as we began to actually practice what he had written about. Because of this, we also began to feel a greater social responsibility towards the community, and especially Lungi and the children in the daycare centre. Our experience with Lungi humbled us, as we were welcomed into her heart and her home. We felt that public journalism not only allowed us to discover story ideas which weren’t heard of, but also allowed us as journalists to actively play a role in facilitating positive change in the community.

Writer and designer's pair - based evaluation - ward 2

By: Kirstin Kyle, Anele Ngwenya & Nicole Naicker
By using public journalism methods in the Critical Media Production course we were able to set up a sort of direct link with the community. We made relations with community members. We were also able to find out what problems the people of the community had. It was not us going in there and deciding what we thought was problematic in the community, and what we thought was good – it was what the people thought of their own community, and this helped set our news agenda. So in a way it was like seeing the community through their eyes momentarily. This also helped when it came to stories – we didn’t have to go out and search for things to cover because some things that came up in talks with the community proved to be useful. We avoided getting governmental institutions involved in case they would intimidate the people. This proved to be successful, and the people of the community agreed with this and asked that we not invite government officials to meetings in the future either.

However, we tried to facilitate the meeting ourselves, and people would go off on tangents about everything. It was a bit difficult trying to keep people in check and focused on the meeting. Another problem was the fact that our ward is predominantly isiXhosa speaking, so a lot of us in the group couldn’t understand what was being said and needed to ask for translations. As much as we were there as journalists, we were able to integrate with the community, and get them to open up to us.

Previously our work produced was for mere mark purposes, however, with the Journalism, Development and Democracy and Critical Media Production courses our work is being produced with an actual audience in mind. The stories that we have covered are from ward two, dealing with the people of the ward, and these are the people that will be reading the stories. When our stories are viewed by the people of the community we get to see the responses of the people. It is only once we went out in the community that we were able to see the possibility of us actually making a difference. Sarah and Fifi, from our group managed to make an actual physical difference for the Little Flower Day-Care Centre. They have set up a link between the day-care and Pick ‘N Pay – the proceeds of Pick ‘N Pay’s November trolley drive will go to the day-care, Pick ‘N Pay is throwing a Christmas party for the children and the centre and they are trying to set up a bread scheme whereby the left over bread from the previous day will be given to the day-care. This course has shown us that as journalists we can do something to make a difference, even by merely initiating a change in a community. As professionals we can serve the public.

After going into our ward we decided that we wanted to try and help the community, and make a difference, no matter how small. We didn’t want to just be a bunch of journalism students going in there and exploiting the community to get a mark and then leave. After our first public meeting we picked up on a problem with litter in the area. We thought that it would be a good idea to hold a litter clean up – this would help with the litter problem, and encourage the community that they can try and solve their own problems instead of just constantly complaining and waiting for the municipality. These objects were clearly thought through and realistic – it was not a huge problem that was beyond our means of solving, litter was something that we could deal with. We spoke to the municipality - got bin bags from them and organised for them to collect the dirt once it was picked up. We also advertised the event and invited other organisations, such as NGOs, to get involved.

We produced a three page wall newspaper, with a fourth page poster advertising our litter campaign. We called our paper Siyakhula which means ‘we are growing’ – our theme was growth and how the community is growing towards better things. The first page held a story about the Egazini Outreach Centre which trains young children in various art forms. This story was taken from the perspective of Linga Diko who works at Egazini. The Little Flower Day-Care Centre is the main story on the second page; the story gives a general idea of the centre, what it’s about and what they do there. The next story is about a clay initiative in Grahamstown. Our third page is a sort of ‘how to’ about recycling. This is to encourage people to try and solve the litter problem in innovative ways, and to also inform the community of what they can do. Finally, was the poster telling people about our plan to clean up the area and encouraging them to come along.

Our journalism encouraged people to get involved in the community - to not just sit back and wait for the municipality to come and fix every little problem in their own time. The people of the community should get together and tell the municipality about their problems, but not just leave it there, go out and try and solve the problems that they can and campaign. They can start by getting together and discussing the problems and seen what they can and cannot do. Our journalism was ‘alternative’ in that we included a sort of ‘campaign journalism’ with our litter campaign. We didn’t just go in and get our stories and leave; we tried to integrate with the community, and went to the municipality with the problem. We then went in and got involved with the campaign and picked up the litter ourselves, with people of the community.

Our objectives were achieved through our journalism. We were able to produce a well written and designed publication which was received well by the people in each story.
The process we have gone through has been very tiring but immensely rewarding. We feel that the people around us taught us more about what we were doing more than us teaching them about anything. A place like the “Little Flower Day-care” helped us with both story ideation and creativity towards our publication design. The process went well.

The target market was very clear. We had focused on the areas which we had travelled and met people such as the Egazini art centre and the Little Flower Day-care centre. Our target market catered to those people who needed to be promoted more and needed a break in having their stories out there. Our work has targeted the target market’s expectations as we have been able to write about them in the most positive way possible. The tone was positive and the language was easy enough considering that the people were mostly Xhosa speaking. Although they were Xhosa speaking, it was not a bad thing using English as we had hoped that the publication news would eventually spread to the town where most people would read them. The tone used thought was positive, progressive and promotional of their community.

The stories were surprising in the fact that we did not focus on negative issues within the society such as the lack of service delivery. We had figured that problems like that could be complained about anywhere else. So we stayed positive. We found a negative situation of litter at extension 6 and 7. Instead of focusing on how the municipality does nothing in cleaning up the area, we decided to have a ‘litter pick-up’ day where we were able to encourage the citizens to clean up their own environment. There was also a page within our publication which gave hints and tips on how to protect the environment. The paper was different and surprising as the stories moved towards a place of positivity more than negativity- people can reach out more than just read.

We were able to do research on the project by speaking to people from door-to-door and visiting public areas like sports centres and taverns where we spoke to people. Our research moved onto to meetings and opinion boards with the wall-paper magazine. We researched extensively by reading past reports of the stories and speaking to the municipality about issues like litter. For one of our stories about the Little Flower Day-care centre, one of our group members kept visiting the day-care centre and kept working with them to research more on their development. The Centre for Social Development (CSD) was also used in our preliminary research to get the right statistics and they eventually took an interest in one of our stories.

The people spoken to in all our stories were of leadership positions. They were either managers of places like the Sort Centre at extension six or they were owners of the day-care centre. We spoke to municipal leaders who some action in cleaning after our meetings. Our biggest sources were those that were closely linked to each story. Since our stories are mostly progressive and full of positivity, we worked on allowing them to speak for themselves. With all these sources, the relationship blossomed, it became easier to come to the people and speak about anything. Our most successful relationship was that between Sarah Couch, one of our group members, and Lungi- the owner of Little Flower Day-care centre. Sarah paid regular visits to Lungi, taking pictures and even sitting in on classes.

The stories which we had were stories which facilitated public deliberation such as the one about litter. A lot of people both in the meeting and from door to door have complained about the litter situation saying that it is unhealthy and dangerous for the cattle. This was our biggest issues as it affected everybody including the elderly. The story about the litter situation in extension 6 did have solutions offered to them in the form of information about keeping the environment clean. Unfortunately, that is the only way in which the streets could be kept cleans as the municipality would not change much in how they handle the litter situation. In our stories, we did offer alternative ways in which the community can take care of itself by educating children about keeping the environment clean and having more litter drives. In our publication, we advertised our litter drive in the hope that many would appear and practise cleaning up their own environment.

Our entire group held a public meeting for the community of extension 6 and 7. Which got the citizens talking about what their problems were?
In terms of our specific WED outputs we did not hold another public meeting. But we rather facilitated focus group meetings by talking to people who interacted with our newspaper. By putting the wall paper up in the areas of which we talked about (Little flower day care centre) we were able to get feedback from the citizens. On a whole the citizens were very excited about the wallpaper and wanted to talk more about what we were doing. By putting these papers up we immediately created a site for discussion. In order to aid this deliberation and problem solving we also left a page where comments could be left and people could fill this in. We hope that our layout of our wallpaper with its large photos will also attract attention and in that way attract more comments. We spoke to the owner of the little day care centre and some shebeen patrons about the paper and this got them talking.

We tried to champion the solutions suggested by citizens by organizing a litter cleanup where lots of the children from the surrounding areas came and helped. Ultimately we would have like for this to be created into a community organization with ties to the municipality and we are still looking into this. As of course only cleaning up litter for one day is not sustainable and not creating solutions. Thus we feel we need to do more in this regard by speaking to other organizations and liaising with the municipality, to see if clean up groups can be created or revived (as suggested there are environmental groups). We also included a recycling page which we feel will help to educate people on the benefits of recycling and perhaps this will reduce litter. We hope that our stories on our wall papers will inspire some sort of positive change as it has with the little flower day care centre which is now receiving help from pick n pay.

Our wallpaper we feel was engaging and achieved our objectives. We used large photos, bright colours and easy to read layout. We feel this attracted the reader in to find out more. The writing itself achieved our objective in that we wanted to highlight what the rest of our group was doing, so the community got a sense of what we wanted to do until we can show them the video footage etc. The writing informed the reader and was written in a plain style that will helpfully be easy for people who are not fluent in Xhosa to read. Thus are colour choices, photos and writing has made this an engaging wall paper. We also used printed arrows to navigate the reader around the pages which we feel also adds to engaging the audience as they will want to find out more about the paper by questioning what the arrows are for.

Our group was extremely independent of commercial government. We went about designing our paper and including the stories and pictures we wished to use. On the one hand we gained from this in that we weren’t restricted by what other influences thought we should do and they had no influence over our content. On the other hand our litter cleanup was independent of any government influences although we did borrow black bags from the municipality this we feel was a weakness as we were not able to create a relationship with the community and the government so as to improve the litter situation.

Our group was organized into two designers and one writer. The writer covered stories that we all thought were relevant and the designers split the work. This was done democratically as the designers split the design work fairly. Unfortunately we only had one writer so this writer had to maybe work a bit harder, but we were all easy going on story deadlines and gave her sufficient time. Our editorial processes were conducted by holding group meetings where we brainstormed ideas and came up with a concrete plan. Group stories were evaluated by what would work best on the wall paper and what had the best photos, we wanted to cover all the other specializations work, so we ran those stories and as a group decided on the importance of each story and picture preference. We worked well with the other multi media groups as we got content from them and they took photos for us and discussed their stories. Within our own group we worked well together as we assigned what needed to be done and when this needed to be done. We were very lucky in that all of our sub group members contributed and there was not a problem of non contribution.

The positives of our group organization is that everyone knew what they had to do because we had meetings and set out plans. The negatives were that we didn’t have enough contact with the other groups to cover their stories at a larger level as we worked in seclusion from the other groups. Also as the writer was not there when we did design work sometimes there was confusion as to when the articles needed to be in. But we all worked well together and contributed equally.

The collaborative role is a theory that looks at journalists and the state working together to help development in times of social or economic unrest. The relationship between this theory and the concept of development journalism is that both aim to work with the government to try and help the community. We believe at some level that yes they do have some validity as change can not come about without the help of the higher levels and thus collaboration is necessary in some regards to benefit the community. However we also see this theory as relying to much on the government which might be a detriment as it could become biased and only show case the governments beliefs and views. The press is not independent and this we feel is not valid as the press should be independent to report fairly and showcase all sides to an argument.

We do not feel it had any usefulness in this course. The government was often not willing to help us or hear our complaints and thus we could not collaborate with them even if we wanted to. It would be useful if the government wanted to get involved and contribute to what we are trying to do. However this has not occurred and the community and us as journalists remain far removed from the higher powers. Which we feel as hindered us in developing our ideas further (litter cleanup program).

The radical role of journalism sees journalists going against the dominant cultural in an effort to bring about change. It sees that journalists should oppose what the dominant political parties and other parties are about in order to question them and help citizens become active members of society who do not merely accept the dominant hegemony but because of radical journalists stories oppose and question these hegemonies. The theory is that journalists should cover media in such a way as to oppose dominant streams and to do this they need to talk to citizens, go to alternative sources and not accept what traditional media is saying. These journalists provide alternative views of the media and question the roles and ideas of those in charge. There is no objectivity as journalists must give their opinions to try and exact a change within society. The differences are that public journalism still acts within the framework of traditional journalism and still seeks to create a joint relationship with dominant powers such as getting the municipality to work with the community whereas radical journalism departs from the long standing traditional professional journalistic structures and do not aim to create a vertical relationship but to facilitate a horizontal relationship that rejects higher powers. Public journalism refrains from advocating for one side like radical journalism which promotes standing against the dominant and has specific political interests. The similarities are as follows. Both facilitated citizen to citizen interaction to discuss problems, issues and solutions at a ground level. Both also go further as to organize citizen meetings and other areas of discussion to discuss issues. Also both follow up on citizen progress through ongoing coverage. Yes they do have usefulness in South Africa. This is because politics needs to be covered in a radical format to educate people and make them question what is going on. Journalism should not just accept the way things are but try and change them through illustration of what dominant parties are doing. This can facilitate change within communities who are urged to communicate with one another by radical journalism. This type of journalism can hopefully exact a change by illustrating what is really going on and being subjective. We think in terms of this course it has not had much validity as it is difficult to impose such radical ideas on a community being just a group of students. We think it could be valuable in that it will help the communities not accept what is happening to them (bad sanitation) and question the people in charge.

Netball Initiative

By: Nonceba Mhlauli and Ntombi Mlangeni
Introduction:
This is a critical evaluation report of a focus we conducted for the Netball initiative in extension six and seven, ward two: Grahamstown. This Netball initiative was started in July of this year by two Nombulelo High school learners in Joza. We created a video production of this netball story and then conducted a focus group with interested stakeholders.
• Looking back on our media productions, the one thing which was gained in our media productions and outputs in relation to Haas’s notion of public journalism was public deliberation, in relation to what the public deliberates upon and who decides what should be deliberated on. This was done through firstly conducting a public meeting as a whole group in extension six, and including the residence of extension seven as well. At this public meeting, the community came together to discuss and deliberate on issues affecting them as a community and therefore mapping out a way forward. Through this process, the public was totally in charge of such deliberation and the only role we had was to facilitate. We then also conducted a focus group with members of the same community in relation to a netball initiative which was stated by young women in the township for young kids. We must say that this focus group was extremely successful as the outcomes of this focus group brought us to a place of trying to establish a formal league for this netball initiative.

Further more, relating to this noting of public journalism, Haas, (2007:37) also notes the importance of the goals of public deliberation, in that the ultimate goal would be to stimulate citizens to explore the basis for differences in perspectives by recovering latent conflicts of interest among different social groups, (2007:37). We admit that in this regard, this was lost in our media productions process due to lack of time of being to stimulate the residence of our ward, however in relation to our focus group itself, we believe that that we have done this successfully regarding the stimulation of our participants in trying to form a league and planning an upcoming netball tournament.

• We’ve also found that ideas which were raised in both the Journalism, Development and Democracy and Critical Media Production courses have impacted on our identities as professionalising journalists/media producers in that it has changed our views of journalism. As journalists one would imagine that all that matters is getting the story out there but this course has proved that journalists can play an active role in changing the lives of ordinary people in society. The Critical media production course has also proved that as media producers our productions can make a change. Both these courses have impacted on your identity in that we are now more into public journalism as opposed to mainstream journalism which is mostly favoured in media companies. We also believe that it is important for media producers to engage with their audience on a one-on-one level and take into consideration what the peoples concerns are in general.

• What we set out to achieve was to find out what exactly the story behind this initiative was and why the department of Sports and Recreation was not helping this initiative. We also set out to help this initiative through trying to set up a formal league and sponsorship, we’re once again very happy to report that our focus group dealt this issue and as previously mentioned, we’re going to have a tournament this Saturday, (09/10/2010) and then have a meeting with all relevant stake holders to set up our tournament. We’re also been able to secure sponsorship from the Sports Admin at Rhodes to sponsor these netball teams with kit.

• We also produced a type of journalism which is more development journalism as it focuses on developing the youth in the township through sports.

• In going about our public journalism work, we went about it through using a coherent journalistic approach of trying to firstly get what the real story was then move onto how we can further develop it.

• Our journalism has enhanced the processes of democracy and development as it focuses on developing sporting codes in the Grahamstown townships to give the youth the opportunity to play for the national team some day. We focused on a netball initiative that was formed in ext 6 but is still in need of a proper league and kit. We spoke to people who have information on how to get funding and now we are in the process of forming a proper structure with Makana netball to expand other teams as well as form a formal league. Our journalism is innovative and alternative as mainstream journalism would just report on the netball initiative we are actually actively involved in trying to uplift the project.


• As previously mentioned, we believe we’re achieved the objectives we set and that we also feel that it even though the process we went through was not an easy process but after our focus group things became clearer. Our specific target audience was the people who started this initiative, the people from the Department of Sports and Recreation and the Rhodes Sports Administration and we also made it a point that the work we showed carefully illustrated the fact that this initiative is very important and that it is also of paramount importance that it be formalized and made sustainable. We used clips from some of the players talking about how they would really like a league to be formed and for them to get sponsorship so that this initiative becomes sustainable. We decided to employ a news angle to work to show the importance of sustaining the initiative. According to our reflections, the message seemed to have been received well because at the end of the focus group The Rhodes sports admin advised us to inform the netball coaches to form a committee which can then be liable for the funds that they will be able to get from the sports department.

• We believe the story has a clear focus and the angle was on youth development through sport. The narrative is strong as townships do not have enough sports and recreational centers the sports center should be expanded in terms of equipment and kit as well as leagues to encourage the youth to keep playing sport. The story has a fresh spin as people mainly focus on the negative aspects of the township this story focuses on the positive things that the youth have done.