Breaking the distribution boundary

Making media for Riebeeck East has taken a semester's worth of long dust-filled journeys and late nights but the tears, exhaustion and cursing at technology has all been worth it as we come to the final stretch of our JDD/CMP course. As journalists, our goals range from finding the inside scoop and reporting the facts to getting that one-in-a-million photo but, no matter what our specilisation is, we all aim to provide good quality media to those who want or need it.

For Riebeeck East, we were given the opportunity to provide media to a community that has been starved of media attention. Besides our media assignments for the course, we got to go beyond our call of duty as a third year journalism students by trying to give back or help the community in whatever ways we could.

At first, we printed 10 page A3 full colour wall newspapers and displayed them in the school, on the gate dividing the settlement from the middle-class area, at the local "spaza" shop and at the local B&B which is visited frequently by tourists and locals alike. We also made soundslides and video clips showcasing what life for a member of the Riebeeck East community was really like. However, after seeing how the community responded to our media outputs, we decided to take it one step further. We made colouring in-books for the local creche which is in desperate need of help and funding; we distributed how to guides to help the community help themselves; we started a campaign to collect stationery and toys for the creche and ensured that as many people as possible who matter to the Riebeeck East community or those who could make a difference had seen or had access to the DVD with the video and soundslide footage our team had worked on.

Distribution was never easy for us as the Riebeeck East area was quite a challenge to get to but no matter the transportation, we somehow made a plan to ensure that the media we made was able to get to Riebeeck East and make a difference. We even managed to enlist the help of a Riebeeck East local who helped us get our final media outputs to the right people.

It's been a long road to where we are now and it seems like the journey has come full circle as the JDD/CMP course comes to an end but, the connections we made with the people of Riebeeck East and the difference our team made, no matter the size, to the community have not closed the circle of hope but have instead made it bigger so that others, who are willing to do good for that community, can now have the opportunity to.

Alex Turner