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.
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