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,