1. What our understanding of Halas’s Public journalism is:
- people expressing what they want to see in the paper
- Newspaper is the end discussion point so people can discuss
- Giving the minority a voice and giving the community an opportunity to be a part of their own stories.
- We cannot impose ourselves and our views on the communities we are engaging with and reporting on
- Haas idea of public sphere comes together with all other forms of journalism because we have all other types because it’s impossible to stick to one type of journalism
2. Criticism of Halas’s public journalism in the context of South Africa and as journalism students:
- Haas – examples and perspective from USA – comparison between SA and USA – economic and cultural variations
- In an ideal world where everyone spoke the same language etc, public journalism would work better as debates around citizen, governments and journalist’s agendas could be discussed. Deliberation space would be better and engagement with the community would be greatly improved.
- - SA has so many aspects to its history such as Apartheid that finding a common ground/footing is a problem and being seen as equal and having equal say is problematic.
- As students we probably shouldn’t practice this kind of journalism , because we go in and leave and them we are forced to leave as we have to move on with our lives
- We are still students before we public journalists
- We are not really committed to this kind of journalism as students
- Haas – people know the government structures but in SA, the people don’t
- Public journalism doesn’t work for a variety of issues, cultural, language, literacy, education
- Overall – there was a lack of South African examples and contexts
- Idea of public journalism was turned around due to the format and context for South African public journalism being very different to what we learnt in lectures
- Are basically the only people in Makana who have done this kind of public journalism
- Public journalism is still a new element in SA so we are still finding ways to iron out the problems with the system
- Enthusiasm for the course faded after the challenges became too great.
- Subjectivity is good however it is a bit destructive
3. What is Public Journalism and how it differs from development journalism:
- Public journalism is a “mixture” of all types of journalism
- Public journalism can go either way depending on the journalism
- Development role is defined as a non-radical dog, more lap-dog kind of role
- Development journalism is a more open grassroots role however in co-alliance with authorities
- Development journalism is- the lap-dog
- Developmental journalism is more a collaborative kind of journalism
- Public journalism starts at the grassroots however assist them to find their own solutions
- Public journalism has lot of the elements of developmental journalism
- Radical journalism is less facilitative
- Role as a journalist and how that has changed
- Public journalism requires one to think more critically and there are more moral obligation than in mainstream journalism
- Public journalism is more long term than short term
4. Positive aspects of public journalism for South Africa, and for us as students:
- Public journalism for our group was less superficial due to the contact we have with the community and its members. We found our direction from being immersed in the community. Despite not going frequently, relationships were established despite not being as strong as we wanted them to be
- No longer just stories – they were people who we had formed developmental relationships with
- Made us want to go beyond being journalist and help the community beyond the assignments we were given.
- We were making stories for them NOT us
- -we gave the community exposure to media which they hadn’t had/seen before – a sign of involvement
- helped to develop a culture about news and information about the community itself
- We have to take a stance and make sure that there are reactions from the stories
5. Problems we faced practising public journalism:
- Didn’t cover our ward properly due to limits and problems with time, language barriers and transport (not on resources) therefore didn’t fulfil what has was aiming for the whole community to have a voice
- Did public journalism fully take place with our coverage and reporting on Reinbeck East?
- Foreigners within the community so trust from the community was an issue therefore we had to start fresh and build a relationship within a few hours due to visits being limited
- Community opening up us was a bit of a problem – e.g. wall newspapers were admired and looked at but were not discussed with us as a group – could language, trust or literacy be the problem??
- Putting what we have learnt on paper into practice was difficult
- Public journalism in SA is a good thing as we have set the foundation for better communication in Riebeeck East and have set up relationships but due to Riebeeck East being difficult to reach and get to, relationships weren’t as developed as they should be
- Didn’t understand the concept of TV when compared to radio therefore engaging with the medium and expressing themselves through it was challenging for the community
- Most of the news if any reaches them is usually quite old/, out-dated and does not cover stories about their community and town.
- Citizen journalists are all in Grahamstown and there was no assistance from them
- We didn’t have a time-frame as to how long we were to be involved in the assignment
- We’ve been trained to deal create documentaries and design newspapers however now it is difficult to learn how to now deal with the challenges of the journalistic process itself
- The problem begins when we get to the community because as much as we know that we can’t fix the issue s ourselves, it’s the people who think that we are there to help them.
- Ideas and expectations were very high so we should have been better prepared
6. Positive aspects of Riebeeck East and the problems that they face:
- Riebeeck East is actually a very efficient town
- Limited thinking from the residents of Riebeeck East because they are comfortable where they are
- People in Riebeeck East are willing to develop themselves however we struggled with getting to the authorities because they are difficult to get a hold of
- The stories will get to the councillors in the next six or so months
- Challenges in Riebeeck East because of logistics and there are a lot of challenges that need to be dealt with
- One needs a lot more commitment in public journalism
7. Obstacles that Riebeeck East is faced with and negative aspects of the community:
- Awareness is present of corruption and nepotism
- Idea that people are naive shouldn’t sway our decisions as there is an element of entitlement and laziness. The mentality that the government is the only one responsible is still present in Riebeeck East despite the community seeming ok and hopeful
- Power vs. responsibility
- Roles of government, municipality and community members are not very well defined hence the confusion
- How do future generations deal with the fact that there is still a strong presence of apartheid in Riebeeck East?
8. what we would have liked to have achieved:
- - If we had more time, we would try go out of our way to get more hands on with the community – organise sponsorships and solutions
- Leave more behind than our media
- Would like to cover the whole of ward 3 if we had more time and show people what’s going on in the other wards and that they are not alone
- If we had more time, get more involved with the ward councillor so that together we could help better the community
- Stories – show them what else is available to them
- Find a way to link the Roads and Transport training to supplies so that the community can begin to fix the problems they have in the settlement e.g. cracks in the houses
9. What we have achieved/ going to achieve:
- We have got to know the community however we want to go beyond the journalist duty
- We have done lots of positive things but we have disappointed the community
- What did we contribute: Media and opening a debate space, and facilitating conversation and sparking consciousness of the problems that are in their community
- We created a sense of hope
- Most of us went into ward three looking for problems but after working with the community we found ways to develop relationships, help the community help themselves
- Negativity about ward three turned positive after researching and interacting with the community
- Highlighting the importance of areas such as the crèche for the community as a whole
- Help the community see the solution and move forward and improve on what they have
- Seeing themselves in media they are not exposed to
- Changed as journalists – we helped change the community but the community helped changed us
- We have made some positive changes to Riebeeck East despite the gaps in certain areas
- - meeting on Friday to show off sound slides and video
- Pamphlets will be handed out
- Overall we have contributed to the community and no matter how small we still made a difference which will last for longer than the duration of the course
10. Ideas to improve the course in future:
- Grocott’s Mail to carry on with this product for longer than the 8 weeks that we as student s are given
- The project is a brilliant idea however the impact is lost if it’s only implemented once a year
When the course was first introduced, I for one had some very mixed feelings about it, particularly the role that public journalism would have, how it would impact the lives of those living in the communities. After having partcipated in pulic journalism, I can say that I have learned that the concept of public journalism is a challenging one to implement, it is indeed a long process and it wont succeed if there is no constant deliberation between the people and journalists. My comncerns have now changed, because we have seen some role of public journalism at play, where in a mimal way, ordinary citizens participated in the process of directing and making their own media outputs. The major concern now is how will this pubic journalism continue in a community like Riebeeck East where there is no production of media and there are no communication facilities for even possible citizen journalists to continue further with this process.
ReplyDeleteI understood the frustration from the course and why a lot of the people in the class did not particularly find the course fulfilling. Not only were we the first group to take up this project at such a macro-level, we also felt like there was no real way forward. This was increased also by the fact that with citizen journalism, as a journalist and reporter you are forced to get involved and report subjectively. It is difficult, if not impossible to engage in such a course without feeling like you are leaving these communities in the lurch, once the course is done.
ReplyDelete