This page contains all the radio news stories I have produced throughout 2010:
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Radio Production: Podcast News
I don’t feel that I have been too successful in applying my journalistic approach to the way I conceptualized my news stories. My first story was a straight read based on the SAMWU strikes and who has been affected by the strikes as well as why exactly municipal workers are striking. I did not reach out to the community in that their voices were not featured in this story. I had spent a large amount of my time researching and gaining factual accounts of what had happened in the duration of the strike. I did speak to people who were affected by the strike but merely related their stories as part of my straight read. I strongly feel that my story lacked authenticity simply because I did not use the voices of people who were directly involved with the strike that I had interviewed. The way I conceptualized my story did not fit into the ideals of what I would have liked in terms of a well rounded community-based story and the impact on the community thereof.
My second story was a follow-up story based on the robbery that took place at Debonairs Pizza a few weeks before I produced my story. I had decided to work from an angle of escalating crime in Grahamstown using Debonairs as a pivotal point where criminal activity reached its peak. This story was more successful in terms of applying my journalistic approach to the way I conceptualized the story since I got sound clips from the manager and another member of staff who shared their different experiences of the same encounter. I felt that in this story, I had a clearer angle than my previous one and I was more successful in getting my message across that the community is getting dangerous and people need to be more aware of what is happening around them since at this point it was very current and crime was on the increase.
As a journalist striving towards attaining a variety of opinions and standing to represent community views and opinions, I feel that the research strategy I have taken for my first story on the SAMWU strike did not show proof of embodying that at all. I did use this research technique to draw out the information I needed from my interviewees which were basically teasing out how the strike affected them and what they think about it. However, a grave mistake of mine was not using any sound clips to show proof of that. I strongly feel that is where I fell short in the piece. For this story however, it did not completely work because being a story that got the community hyped and agitated was a perfect opportunity for me to air their concerns using their voices which I did not do. I did however, follow up on the strike using multiple newspaper articles and finding members of the community to interview from there, getting into contact with them through Grocott’s Mail journalists who were covering the strike. I would have used this strategy to gather information before following up on any story. In this sense, I am happy I did so as it shows that I did not take the strike at face value but used journalistic techniques to find sources and information.
Research strategies and techniques used in the Debonairs story basically included speaking to staff and how safe they feel nowadays after the robbery. This was to get a raw sense of how people that were directly involved in the incident were affected. I found that I tapped into their emotions quite significantly because staff members explained how they are still shaken up by what had happened. The manager herself was almost in tears during the interview. I therefore feel that I used sufficient research strategies and techniques to gain an account of what had happened. I would like to reiterate however that both news stories in my opinion did not completely tie into my journalistic approach of providing a platform for the community to speak about their issues and gaining a wide variety of opinions. These stories remained extremely narrowed down in terms of its focus, but still had space for community opinion which I did not seem to fulfill to a great extent. This could probably be because I became more aware of what public journalism entailed after I produced these stories, but I feel that this is no excuse. I could have definitely improved in my research strategies and techniques which I hope to do so in future productions.
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Grocott's Rewrites for Radio
Sign Language Campaign for Public Transport Sector
The Eastern Cape Transport Department will launch a sign language awareness campaign at Mount Ayliff taxi rank today. The campaign is aimed at taxi drivers in the hopes of removing all forms of discrimination against people with disabilities.
A representative from “Disabled South Africa” says that operators do not understand sign language and are disobeying disability road regulations. The Department believes that the campaign will prepare the public transport sector for the Fifa World Cup and make the system friendly and accessible to all.
Water Shortage at its worst
Makana Municipality is suffering from its worst water shortage yet. The report, presented last Wednesday at a special council meeting, indicated that Settlers dam is just three metres deep. This week’s light drizzle has not helped the situation.
According to Makana Mayor Vumile Lwana, the use of boreholes as a main water source is not the only solution to the crisis. The community should be informed about how to save water as well.
Call for guaranteed income for unemployed
Grahamstown’s Unemployed People’s Movement say the government needs to issue R2000 a month to all unemployed people. As it stands, 60% of the youth in Grahamstown are roaming the streets.
The request comes in response to claims that head of the ANC Youth League, Julius Malema, profited more than R130-million worth of tenders over two years.
In a press statement released this week, UPM spokesperson Xoli Mali said they believed that the government is corrupt beyond repair.
The UPM aims to involve other progressive movements in the call for better social services and an uncorrupt government.
New construction to hit the streets of Makana Municipality
Makana Municipality has allocated 2.5 million rand to construct a bus terminal and public toilets in Barthurst street.
The terminal will be built opposite the Frontier hotel, where the buses currently arrive and depart.
Makana Municipality spokesperson Thandy Matebese says that one of the main aims of the construction project is to offer security to bus passengers and provide toilet facilities in the CBD.
A building permit has already been issued, but Matebese says that he is does not know when the construction will start.
