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.
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