MY PERSONAL PHILOSOPY
The town that I am currently working in is Grahamstown, a small town in the Eastern Cape mainly known as the City of Saints. A large part of Grahamstown’s wealth is supplied by Rhodes University even though Rhodes students tend to isolate themselves from the wider Grahamstown. This town has got a rich cultural history for all races and one can see the scars of apartheid. Most black people are still living in shacks or in small RDP houses. There is also still a wide gap between the haves and the have-nots. It is also known for having some of the best learning institutions and attractions such as the National Arts Festival, Scifest Africa and Highway Africa which attract people from all walks of life to this small town.
Considering the nature of this town I think that in telling its stories one should be careful of allowing objectivity stand in the way of quality reporting. I personally feel that objectivity is an important aspect of any journalism be it audio, visual or print. Just like each and every other workplace has its ethics and ways of doing things, journalists must also follow a particular work ethic and I think that without objectivity journalism cannot be regarded as a profession because then everyone would just write or produce news articles in which ever and whatever way they want. I believe that objectivity is what differentiates a journalist from any other writer who probably writes for leisure. A journalistic article should be determined by sources instead of the journalist. One may argue that objectivity can never be fully achieved and I totally agree with that. There will always be some sort of bias in a story but objectivity is something that all journalists should strive for.
I think that the stories that need to be told in this town are those of resilience. People tend to focus on the sad part of Grahamstown’s community and all its failures. I think that there are some very strong people in Grahamstown, people who have made a life out of nothing, people who live under aggravating circumstances but still wake up each day and live life to the fullest with the hope that tomorrow will be a much better day. And I think that these people should be acknowledged, supported and encouraged to do even more. Other stories that could also be told are those of community outreach projects, stories that will serve the role of bridging the gap between the haves and the have-nots and create an understanding between these parties.
QUESTION 1: RADIO STUDIES
In my personal philosophy I described the Grahamstown the town that I am working in as a small town in the Eastern Cape mainly known as the City of Saints. A large part of Grahamstown’s wealth is supplied by Rhodes University even though Rhodes students tend to isolate themselves from the wider Grahamstown. This town has got a rich cultural history for all races and one can see the scars of apartheid. Most black people are still living in shacks or in small RDP houses. There is also still a wide gap between the haves and the have-nots. It is also known for having some of the best learning institutions and attractions such as the National Arts Festival, Scifest Africa and Highway Africa which attract people from all walks of life to this small town.
I then argued that, considering the nature of this town in telling its stories one should be careful of allowing objectivity to stand in the way of quality reporting. Objectivity according to Glasser (1992: 176) is “a particular view of journalism and the press, a frame of reference used by journalists to orient themselves in the news-room and in the community”. He adds that “By objectivity I mean, to a degree, ideology; where ideology is defined as a set of beliefs that function as the journalist’s “claim to action””. Objectivity requires journalists to remove themselves from the stories that they are telling and report facts based on what their sources have said.
Even though objectivity is something worth striving for it is important to note that no news-bulletin is totally objective even if it is reported based on facts. At the end of the day, the journalist decides who to talk to and what kind of questions to ask the person and that on its own is subjective. After doing the JDD-CMP course I realised that journalism is not only about collecting facts but also about making a difference in people’s lives and I realised that that was the kind of journalism I wanted to do. I learned about new forms of journalism that challenged the rules of objectivity but were still good journalism and even better than mainstream journalism. I therefore think that even though objectivity is important one needs to be able to judge when it is viable to bend the rules a little in order for their product to suit its audience.
According to my personal philosophy I think that the stories that need to be told in this town are those of resilience. And I still think that it is important to tell these stories because they highlight development and encourage people to stand up and do something for themselves. However, after working in the Grahamstown community for a semester I feel that as much as it is important to promote development stories, it is also important to also report on the people who are struggling. This goes far beyond just reporting on these stories but also involves following up on them and encouraging society to also find ways to assist themselves. This according to Haas is public journalism and I think that this kind of journalism that is most suitable for such an impoverished and underprivileged town like Grahamstown. According to Haas (2007:25) Public journalism is theoretically-based on account of how journalists should conceive of the public, what forms of deliberation and problem-solving journalists should help promote, and how journalists, as a matter of practice, should facilitate public discourse”. I feel like reporting on such stories puts pressure on the government to do something about their lack of service delivery and the aggravating circumstances people are living in. During the short period of time we have worked with the Grahamstown we saw considerable change, people started thinking about ways of doing things for themselves like starting soccer teams to remove young people from the streets, police forums to eradicate crime etc, And the municipality did a clean-up project of the community after we had inquired about it. Adopting public journalism therefore would go a long way.
QUESTION 1(b)
The South African radio landscape has three main tiers namely commercial, public and community radio stations. In these tiers news is produced differently because of target audiences, editorial policies, newsroom operations and resources. Taking into consideration the kind of journalism I would like to under-take a community radio station like Bush Radio would be a suitable working place for me. This is because Bush Radio is already a community radio station and serves the community in a language that is suitable to them. This would enable the majority of the community to have access to their own stories and thereby learn from each other’s stories. Bush Radio in addition to broadcasting has upliftment projects and human potential development which I think is part of public journalism. It can therefore be said that up to a certain extent Bush Radio already practices public journalism. This is why I would prefer to work for one of the commercial radio stations in the South African landscape like 702 talk radio.
702 talk radio provides talk back radio to more than a million listeners in the Gauteng province. The station’s listener base includes very prominent people in society such as high-profile politicians. This would ensure that the stories of the people reach the relevant people who can help such as politicians and high-class business people who can offer sponsorship to the community. Talk radio as the name says is talk-heavy so this would give the presenters time to go in-depth talk about the issues that are important in the community and people can get an opportunity to comment on the issue as well. Politicians can call in and shed light on what is happening and how far they are with development projects and the community can call in and say what is happening in their communities. In this way there can be open communication between political leaders, the community and the media that will allow for progress in society.
The only limitation at 702 fm would be language because the station hardly broadcasts in African languages but I do think that a provision can be made for such a show to be aired. Something that would restrict this kind of journalism to be aired on 702 fm is the fact that they are a commercial radio station and are highly reliant on advertisers. Their reliance on advertising could interfere with accurate, objective and quality reporting because they might be pressured to be sensitive to their sponsors. This could happen in a case whereby a major sponsor is associated with some sort of deficiency in society and people are talking about it on air. In this case the station would probably choose not to air the story to avoid upsetting their sponsor.
One way I could negotiate around these issues is if I could find sponsors that are going to sponsor the specific shows that are going to air these kinds of shows. Also it could be negotiated that these particular shows be aired in African languages to accommodate the audiences. The audience that I would mostly like to target in South Africa is the youth because they are the leaders of tomorrow. I feel that if the youth can be empowered enough South Africa would be a better country. Whilst we were working in the Grahamstown community in the 2nd semester I learned that all societal problems affect the youth in some way or the other. For example poverty prevents young people to get an education because their families don’t have enough money to educate them and they cannot study on empty stomachs. This then leads them to alcohol and drug abuse and hen crime, the housing problem sometimes leads to children being raped or being subjected to things they don’t have o see. If the country could invest in empowering the youth then the next generation could possibly be better than the present one.
QUESTION TWO: RADIO PRODUCTION
I did my development piece on Jabez Health care centre, a centre that looks after people with vulnerabilities such as HIV/AIDS. I think this piece met the standards of my journalistic approach because it is a development piece that focuses on an NGO that has taken an initiative to make a difference in its society. Jabez Health Centre is run by community members who started it from scratch and have developed a great deal. I have to say though that sometimes it can be tough sticking to one’s journalistic approach because sometimes the story turns out to be something totally different from what you thought it would be. For example with the Jabez Health Centre story there were interesting things that came up in the interview that I could have focused on but because of my philosophy and the fact that it was a development piece I had to leave them out. I think that the development piece I produced compliments my personal philosophy. Firstly because it is a story of resilience, the care workers a Jabez Health Centre do not have any kind of formal training but they volunteered themselves to help the vulnerable in the community. Equipped only with a few workshops they go door-to-door washing and feeding sick people and even though this tends to be traumatising for them sometimes they still carry on doing it. This can encourage other youth in the community to do something productive with their time and not just stand around in corners.
However this is not a good example of public journalism, it qualifies as a development piece but not as a public journalism one because there was no deliberation between me and as the journalist and the community. There could have been other development programmes that are run in the community that people wanted to promote but I made an executive decision to do my piece on the Jabez Health Centre. Development journalism serves to highlight development programmes in society and promote self-help programmes whereas public journalism serves to find solutions to existing problems in society.
f) This story could have been improved by using ambience to make it more appealing to the listener, people tend to get tired of listening to long dialogues and also it would help them understand it easier. I also could have included the voice of a person who actually benefited from the Jabez Health Centre to say how they have benefited from it. That would confirm that the centre does exist and it actually does what it say it does or not depending on what the person would have said. When I interviewed the manager at Jabez Health Centre he mentioned that they need premises to work in because currently they utilize a RDP house which is too small to carry out all their programs. A follow-up story then would be to go to the department of social development and ask them what they can do to assist the Jabez Health Centre and what they do to assist growing NGO’S like them. The follow-up story would also include business people in the area who might be able to donate funds towards the new building or even offer old premises that they do not need anymore. This would be taking a more public journalism approach and thereby it would satisfy my public philosophy.
The second package I produced was based on poverty, water and sustainability and with his story it was more challenging to apply my journalistic approach because it was a technical story. There were very slim opportunities of talking to ordinary people because they wouldn’t know what to say about the issue. I had to talk to officials who knew something about the issue of sustainability, water and poverty in the Eastern Cape and that failed my personal philosophy. The other thing was that the package was meant for Algoa fm an established radio station and I therefore had to take into consideration their audience and their journalistic practices which is something that posed itself as a restriction to me as the journalist.
For example if it was my call I would talk to people who are faced by these issues on a daily basis and let them talk about their experiences because they are the ones who are impoverished, lack water and sustainability so they would know how bad the situation is. This made me come to the realisation that media organisations can be very restricting and therefore it is hard foe a journalist to make executive decisions. When one enters the working place they have to conform to the work ethics of that organisation that might not compliment one’s personal philosophy. As a result a lot of journalists end up compromising their own way of doing things so that they can hold on to their jobs, which is totally understandable.
When I interviewed Sicelo Dyira he mentioned that they were going to go to a local school that has a food garden soon to teach them how to grow veggies and maintain their garden. And Emily of Masincedane soup kitchen also said that they were starting a food garden. A follow-up story would therefore be one that follows-up on the projects that they were going to do and see hoe the community reacts on them. This would help spread awareness about these programmes and show people that it is realistic, one can grow their own food and hat drought is not an excuse for not growing food.
Bibliography:
Haas, T. 2007. ‘The emergence of public journalism’ and A public philosophy for public journalism’ in The pursuit of public journalism: theory, practice and criticism. Routledge: New York.
Glasser. T.L. 1992. Philosophical Issues in Journalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
http://bushradionews.blogspot.com
