Monday, June 11, 2007
Critical Reflection
Critical Reflection on Learning - Tim Walker
Journalism is a very tricky subject to learn via PowerPoint. Good, solid practical experience cannot be substituted by a slide telling the dos and don’ts. Journalism can be taught in a classroom but not entirely, the important point is that we have come to Rhodes to be taught to be the best possible journalists. Media studies help with this respect but there was too much emphasis on media studies and not enough focus on our specialisation this term. I know from one of my friends in Photography that they had to return early in the year to begin an intensive number of lessons in photography. While obviously we have been writing since first year and are proficient in it, we need a comparable level of learning for writing. The lectures needed to contain more exercises with strict deadlines – for marks – that teach us the value of being prepared, resourceful and to finish on time. I still feel confused about how to be a journalist at times, how to be a good writer. Repetition is important when it is used to teach a lesson, when the class has accomplished a task and has learnt how to apply the acquired knowledge, then the repetition should cease and then we move onto a new set of skills to learn. Testing is useful in reminding us of what we have learnt, and can reveal to the lecturers how effective they have been and how much the class has learnt. We should have written more tests, not just general knowledge ones but ones like the class exercises.
Having said that without lectures we would be lost, the slides offer invaluable tips and lessons and I make use of them often when writing. The slideshow about the man in the balloon was interesting for a minute but it dragged on, getting more and more boring. It was bad in comparison to the slides we were viewed in class and were emailed about the story writing process. I thought these were really useful and I was grateful to read them and adapt them to my writing process. We needed to see more slides which would help with the practical side of writing, around constructing leads, paragraphs, kickers. As I said it is our third year but these things have never been taught to us satisfactorily.
As a group we all pulled our weight. It was peculiar that Sam left us early on in the term. Whether the reason was that she did not like us personally, or if her friends were in another group is unclear. What is clear is that she missed out on a rewarding beat with a rich pool of sources and stories. Group work has positives and negatives. I feel that it in a group individual creativity and expression is constrained at the behest of the larger group. However in this group we all learned skills and lessons that will benefit our writing ability in the long run. We made ample use of the group blog and I thoroughly enjoyed the group practical sessions with Adrienne and Sim. We could function effectively although we are quite busy with our other majors and some had tutoring. Group work has made me more team orientated, I understand how group dynamics function and will be able to apply the lessons learnt from this term’s group work to group work situations outside of university. I think it is certain that some people are better suited to group work then others. Some people need to work with people with a similar work ethic though, and those with a better work ethic and strong leadership skills make group work better for all involved as they can encourage others to work harder and set standards for others to emulate or use as a yardstick for their own work.
There was a feeling of independence from the group when out working, most of my stories I found out about by myself, I made the contacts by myself and followed up ideas by myself. We did communicate over issues about which we were unclear, such as the civic map, portfolios and stories, but there has been a lot of confusion this term.
The Beat system was useful. Once we have identified all the possible sources of news and locations of news and put them onto the civic map, it makes it a lot easier to find and write stories. One obviously has to dig deep, be patient and careful. One thing I have learnt is to not be lethargic when chasing a story, if nothing is happening; do not wait on that source. Move onto something else because waiting around for an interview is very stressful and time consuming. Rhodes and Grahamstown are over reported. It is a cosmopolitan university but not a cosmopolitan town. Subsequently there is little of interest to report, for a lot of people to try to report on, a lot of the time. What is a major difficulty is coordination of timetables. It can be difficult to arrange times to conduct interviews, the course seemed to expect that we could fully devote ourselves to being a beat journalist around the university, but this was not simple. My other major required a lot of time this term and also involved group work, I could not always arrange an interview at a convenient time as I had another arrangement. This did not stop me from securing information but it was difficult, I’m glad I overcame it.
Unfortunately I was absent for the first week of term so I was unaware how the course started or what introductory comments that the class were given. Luckily I was not overwhelmed at all this term. I was a bit under prepared for the group work and it took a while for it all to come clear. The group work was a challenge; I knew most of the group but was not friends with them, so it took a couple of meetings to get comfortable.
The previous two years have not been excellent courses, I have looked at how the first years are being taught and I am filled with a bit of envy as they are being taught in a much better way then we ever have. This shows in the assumptions of prior learning, we are not the finished article yet, I feel I want to learn a lot more, but it is already my third year.
Another point to which I was referring when I said we needed more work was that we should be doing more intensive learning in class. I liked doing the class exercises. All of them were useful and the explanations offered afterwards were helpful although we tend to stick to long to talking about the same point or something that has no relevance to writing. My point is that we should do as many exercises as possible in the lecture periods in order to get better acquainted with the need to quickly write on deadline.
The subediting drills were useful. I have not been a subeditor and all work that I hand in ends up changed, although I feel some subeditors are over zealous with correcting articles and end up rewriting the story.
Journalism is a very tricky subject to learn via PowerPoint. Good, solid practical experience cannot be substituted by a slide telling the dos and don’ts. Journalism can be taught in a classroom but not entirely, the important point is that we have come to Rhodes to be taught to be the best possible journalists. Media studies help with this respect but there was too much emphasis on media studies and not enough focus on our specialisation this term. I know from one of my friends in Photography that they had to return early in the year to begin an intensive number of lessons in photography. While obviously we have been writing since first year and are proficient in it, we need a comparable level of learning for writing. The lectures needed to contain more exercises with strict deadlines – for marks – that teach us the value of being prepared, resourceful and to finish on time. I still feel confused about how to be a journalist at times, how to be a good writer. Repetition is important when it is used to teach a lesson, when the class has accomplished a task and has learnt how to apply the acquired knowledge, then the repetition should cease and then we move onto a new set of skills to learn. Testing is useful in reminding us of what we have learnt, and can reveal to the lecturers how effective they have been and how much the class has learnt. We should have written more tests, not just general knowledge ones but ones like the class exercises.
Having said that without lectures we would be lost, the slides offer invaluable tips and lessons and I make use of them often when writing. The slideshow about the man in the balloon was interesting for a minute but it dragged on, getting more and more boring. It was bad in comparison to the slides we were viewed in class and were emailed about the story writing process. I thought these were really useful and I was grateful to read them and adapt them to my writing process. We needed to see more slides which would help with the practical side of writing, around constructing leads, paragraphs, kickers. As I said it is our third year but these things have never been taught to us satisfactorily.
As a group we all pulled our weight. It was peculiar that Sam left us early on in the term. Whether the reason was that she did not like us personally, or if her friends were in another group is unclear. What is clear is that she missed out on a rewarding beat with a rich pool of sources and stories. Group work has positives and negatives. I feel that it in a group individual creativity and expression is constrained at the behest of the larger group. However in this group we all learned skills and lessons that will benefit our writing ability in the long run. We made ample use of the group blog and I thoroughly enjoyed the group practical sessions with Adrienne and Sim. We could function effectively although we are quite busy with our other majors and some had tutoring. Group work has made me more team orientated, I understand how group dynamics function and will be able to apply the lessons learnt from this term’s group work to group work situations outside of university. I think it is certain that some people are better suited to group work then others. Some people need to work with people with a similar work ethic though, and those with a better work ethic and strong leadership skills make group work better for all involved as they can encourage others to work harder and set standards for others to emulate or use as a yardstick for their own work.
There was a feeling of independence from the group when out working, most of my stories I found out about by myself, I made the contacts by myself and followed up ideas by myself. We did communicate over issues about which we were unclear, such as the civic map, portfolios and stories, but there has been a lot of confusion this term.
The Beat system was useful. Once we have identified all the possible sources of news and locations of news and put them onto the civic map, it makes it a lot easier to find and write stories. One obviously has to dig deep, be patient and careful. One thing I have learnt is to not be lethargic when chasing a story, if nothing is happening; do not wait on that source. Move onto something else because waiting around for an interview is very stressful and time consuming. Rhodes and Grahamstown are over reported. It is a cosmopolitan university but not a cosmopolitan town. Subsequently there is little of interest to report, for a lot of people to try to report on, a lot of the time. What is a major difficulty is coordination of timetables. It can be difficult to arrange times to conduct interviews, the course seemed to expect that we could fully devote ourselves to being a beat journalist around the university, but this was not simple. My other major required a lot of time this term and also involved group work, I could not always arrange an interview at a convenient time as I had another arrangement. This did not stop me from securing information but it was difficult, I’m glad I overcame it.
Unfortunately I was absent for the first week of term so I was unaware how the course started or what introductory comments that the class were given. Luckily I was not overwhelmed at all this term. I was a bit under prepared for the group work and it took a while for it all to come clear. The group work was a challenge; I knew most of the group but was not friends with them, so it took a couple of meetings to get comfortable.
The previous two years have not been excellent courses, I have looked at how the first years are being taught and I am filled with a bit of envy as they are being taught in a much better way then we ever have. This shows in the assumptions of prior learning, we are not the finished article yet, I feel I want to learn a lot more, but it is already my third year.
Another point to which I was referring when I said we needed more work was that we should be doing more intensive learning in class. I liked doing the class exercises. All of them were useful and the explanations offered afterwards were helpful although we tend to stick to long to talking about the same point or something that has no relevance to writing. My point is that we should do as many exercises as possible in the lecture periods in order to get better acquainted with the need to quickly write on deadline.
The subediting drills were useful. I have not been a subeditor and all work that I hand in ends up changed, although I feel some subeditors are over zealous with correcting articles and end up rewriting the story.
How we implemented the civic mapping
We used different avenues to try and find stories for our news agency. Our first strategy was to approach departmental secretaries, asking them to let us know if there were any interesting and newsworthy events happening in their departments. When that did not work out as expected we changed strategy and subscribed to listservs of the departments and societies that are relevant to our beat. That proved to be more useful than some of the secretaries.
We then ventured out and tried to find our own stories through spaces such as the internet (e.g. Studentzone, departmental websites, etc.); posters; the Activate offices and random tip-offs from students around campus. The E-research depository, the statistical digest and the Rhodes website have been some of the best places to find story ideas from.
We talked to the Deans of almost every faculty. Some of the Deans were very helpful and shared some important information. We also talked to the Finance Registrar, the Registrar, Director of communications, the SRC, Director of Human Resources, the Vice-Chancellor, students and lecturers. We talked to most of the people in the academic administration offices, such as the Head of International Office Marius Vermaak and Chrissie Boughey from the Academic Development Centre. We also spoke to Sandy Stephenson from the Academic Planning and Quality Assurance office. Most of these people were very good sources, if they couldn’t give out the relevant information they would redirect you to the right person to talk to.
We talked to the different Institutes, such as the Institute for Social and Economic Research; the Environmental Education and Sustainability Unit; the Telkom Centre of Excellence; the Public Service Accountability Monitor and the Data Management Unit. We talked to some of the broader Grahamstown community on issues of research that affect them.
However, not everyone was as helpful and cooperative as we had hoped for. Some of the secretaries were not helpful at all and some were just hard to deal with. Some of the Deans at first were a little hesitant about giving out information especially for matters relating to university policies.
There were for some of us in the group regular sources such as the Activate news planner which helped generate some of the stories. Studentzone and listservs were also regular sources as some of the stories were sourced from there.
What worked for the group is that we used the physical spaces, such as hanging around in the Activate offices, Pick ‘n’ Pay and Checkers parking lots and the departmental and Faculty offices, to our advantage. The notice boards around campus, at the Union; dining halls and library, were also the best spots for story generation.
We then ventured out and tried to find our own stories through spaces such as the internet (e.g. Studentzone, departmental websites, etc.); posters; the Activate offices and random tip-offs from students around campus. The E-research depository, the statistical digest and the Rhodes website have been some of the best places to find story ideas from.
We talked to the Deans of almost every faculty. Some of the Deans were very helpful and shared some important information. We also talked to the Finance Registrar, the Registrar, Director of communications, the SRC, Director of Human Resources, the Vice-Chancellor, students and lecturers. We talked to most of the people in the academic administration offices, such as the Head of International Office Marius Vermaak and Chrissie Boughey from the Academic Development Centre. We also spoke to Sandy Stephenson from the Academic Planning and Quality Assurance office. Most of these people were very good sources, if they couldn’t give out the relevant information they would redirect you to the right person to talk to.
We talked to the different Institutes, such as the Institute for Social and Economic Research; the Environmental Education and Sustainability Unit; the Telkom Centre of Excellence; the Public Service Accountability Monitor and the Data Management Unit. We talked to some of the broader Grahamstown community on issues of research that affect them.
However, not everyone was as helpful and cooperative as we had hoped for. Some of the secretaries were not helpful at all and some were just hard to deal with. Some of the Deans at first were a little hesitant about giving out information especially for matters relating to university policies.
There were for some of us in the group regular sources such as the Activate news planner which helped generate some of the stories. Studentzone and listservs were also regular sources as some of the stories were sourced from there.
What worked for the group is that we used the physical spaces, such as hanging around in the Activate offices, Pick ‘n’ Pay and Checkers parking lots and the departmental and Faculty offices, to our advantage. The notice boards around campus, at the Union; dining halls and library, were also the best spots for story generation.
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Critical Evaluation of the Course...done ages ago, but not posted...sorry...!
I’ve definitely learned a lot from the journalism work that I’ve done this term. And this is entirely due to the practical work that I have done producing stories as part of the small, informal news agency which I was required to form with Ian, Tim and Nompumezo. I wholeheartedly agree with the idea that journalism is something you can only really learn by doing.
There are several quite separate stages to publishing a news story. First there is coming up with the story idea. Then there is researching the story. Then there is writing the story. Then there is marketing the story. Through most of these, there is the business of working in a group. In this reflection I will examine each of these areas individually.
Finding Story Ideas
I am so incredibly grateful for how pushy I was at the beginning of the term when we were deciding on group beats. Not only did our group secure the academic beat, but we managed to extend the beat to include all areas of academic life at Rhodes. This meant that we had enough story possibilities to satisfy a team three or four times our size. One thing which became very clear was that there are a lot of things going on in Rhodes University that never get reported. There is enough going on in Grahamstown as a whole for the local student newspapers to publish only two or three academic stories every edition. And Grocotts Mail or the bigger regional papers only pick up the really big ones. What this means is that, contrary to what one might think, many potential sources have never really had much to do with student reporters, and are very, very willing to engage with us.
The most obvious stories can all be gleaned from the mailing lists, and most local newsrooms clearly rely on these. Because we were such a small group, it was easy for us to do the same. It is clear that very little in depth searching for stories or investigative journalism takes place. This is the sort of thing that you need if you want to uncover scandals and really exciting pieces. I did just a tiny bit of this sort of investigation, and the results were fantastic. One example was going to the Sasco general meeting, just in case something interesting happened. This was how I got the Youth day exams story.
I also asked every source that I interviewed if they knew of any interesting stories which they thought might be worth reporting. I got a whole lot of good things from this, although almost all of it is stuff which is going to happen next term. Most of them involve particular meetings where ground-breaking decisions are going to be made about various aspects of the university and its future. None of these meetings are formally advertised to students or student newspapers, and the only way you can find out about their significance is if someone involved tells you about it. It is very unfortunate that many of these highly important decisions never get properly reported to the university community - it seems administration rely mostly on closed circuit mailing lists and ‘the grapevine’ more than anything else. And this is not their problem – it should be the job of journalists to find out what’s going on, not just wait to be told. Of course, this does involve a lot of work.
I had originally anticipated exploiting my friendship with Kathryn Furman, the SRC Academic Rep who goes to many of the high-level meetings to let me know what was going on. But she was either very bored by everything, or just being incredibly cagey. It was fine the way it was, because there was very little pressure to find stories. But if this hadn’t been the case, it might have been interesting to see what we came up with. In the end all of my stories were news stories of varying degrees of hardness. At the beginning we brain-stormed ideas for a range of different feature articles. In the end, I think we only produced one or two between the whole agency.
Researching the story
The wonderful thing about having a surplus of story possibilities was that you got to pick and choose stories that interested you. This made researching the story – be it with interviews or going along to an event – a much more interesting, painless business.
I really appreciated the experience I got in interviewing people. It is wonderful when you can interview someone in such a way that it’s not really an interview but rather an in-depth discussion between the two of you about something which you both have reason to be interested in. On two occasions the person that I interviewed said that they had really enjoyed the interview because it made them think about what was being discussed in a different way, or from a different perspective.
It also made a big difference if I could maintain an engagement with the person before, during and after the event, with email correspondence, face-to-face communication, and phone calls. Often it took ages to pin a person down, but rather than being annoyed people seem to really appreciate this ongoing communication. It also means you get to know them a bit, and makes interviews and correspondence easier because there is some level of personal engagement on both sides. I also always made it clear that I was on their side – if they wanted to see it before it got published, I sent it to them and I always sent the published article to them afterwards.
Researching stories was made much more effective by working around a specific beat and focusing only on certain kinds of stories that interested me. This was because there was often a little bit of overlap, which allowed me to have a slightly different perspective, and to ask question with a bit of background knowledge. I was also more aware of all the developments in this beat, and could refer to what I knew. This made me come across as knowledgeable and informed, and clearly impressed sources. For instance, everyone kept referring to how things were going to change when the VC got involved, and I as able to talk about his trip overseas and exactly when he would be getting back to sort things out. For the Academic Development story, I could talk about what Russell Kaschula had said about the issue when I interviewed him for the Translate@thon story, and what Leonhard Praeg had said in his lecture. These kind of connections were great for building confidence and making me come across as well informed and ‘in the know’, which really made people open up more and take me seriously.
Writing the stories
It was amazing how quickly my writing has improved across this term. I don’t think the finished products were that much better, but the process of putting a story together became much easier and quicker. It also made researching stories much easier – I knew exactly what I was looking for, and didn’t waste time on unnecessary sidetracks. Also, looking back at the stuff I wrote at the beginning of the term, there’s a lot of stuff I wanted to change. Is this what always happens when you have a bit of retrospective perspective, or did I become a better writer? Regardless, going back and reading stuff after a few days is definitely a fantastic way to improve writing.
Marketing the stories
This was by far my weakest area. Although I published most of my stories in some or other form, there were a number of problems, and I could have had my work much more widely published.
The first big problem was that I insisted on sending all of my articles to Activate. This was just the easiest, simplest option for me, because I write for the paper all the time anyway (although I’m not officially a part of it), and I know everyone involved. I’ve also been writing for them for the last two years. And I have a long-standing feud with the editor of Oppie Press. I realised that I shouldn’t have been sending my stories to Activate, and it was made very clear, time and again. My articles were badly subbed, or often not even included in the print edition. There were a number of reasons why this happened.
Firstly, I have a very different idea of what constitutes a worthwhile story compared to the Activate editors. I would argue that I have a better idea of what constitutes a good story, but this is not the place to debate this. I also write in a very different style to what they expect. This means that my stories have to be automatically reformatted. I refuse to conform to their house style, and it’s obvious that I shouldn’t be writing for them if I can’t do this. Yet I still do. I am too loyal.
My articles were probably also a bit long. I tended to get very interested and write very long, involved articles. I don’t know whether or not this is a good thing. I didn’t feel like I was including unimportant or completely superfluous detail. But it did mean that often everything except the bare facts had to be removed. I should really have had better communication with the editors to find out exactly how many words they wanted.
Another problem was that I didn’t take pictures. This almost certainly made it more difficult to get stories published. No matter how good the story is, in Activate it seems that a story without a picture will usually lose out to one with a picture. I was so frustrated by this at one stage that I ordered a R5000 camera from the US.
The last problem was that I didn’t market my stories to other papers. At three of the events I went to there were representatives from all the other local and regional papers. When I read the stories they wrote, they were usually much worse than the ones I had written. But some of mine were never published in print, not even in Activate. I could have easily just offered to write stories for Mike Loewe or for Grocott’s. And I will never get over how irritating it is that there are stories about Rhodes which Activate isn’t interested in printing even though The Herald is.
Working in a group
Our groupwork definitely benefited from the fact that there were just four of us, and we were all quite passive but reasonably well motivated. There was almost no competition over stories, and everyone cooperated easily. There was no pressure on anyone to contribute, and for the most part this was fine.
One possible source of tension which never really materialised was the fact that Ian, as Content Editor for Activate, was partly responsible for choosing whether my stories got printed or not. There was never any tension about this, and its probably just the kind of people we are – reasonably non-confrontational.
The groupwork was very useful for story conceptualising and planning sources, etc. Although I helped a couple of times with contacts for the other group members’ stories, I worked completely independently for all of mine.
Ian did help a bit with marketing the stories, and also subbed a few of them. This was helpful, but not in any way essential. We felt compelled to get a bit more involved in each other’s work than we otherwise would have, because of the idea of the ‘News Agency’. However on such a small scale, and with so much time, it made more sense to work fairly independently. There was no real structural basis to our group work, apart from the need to avoid clashing on stories and maybe contribute story ideas.
Friday, June 8, 2007
Message from the VC
I've forwarded the message, he seems quite polite, thats good.
Dear Tim
I regret that I was in Cape Town for meetings over the weekend and then
returned only to be laid low by flu. I am afraid that in the light of my
commitments over this past week and into the next weeks the time you provide
for a response is simply too short.
Some shape and size matters are in the process of being finalised and if the
article can be held for the following issue of Activate you could have some
more definite answers.
Regards
Saleem
-----Original Message-----
From: Vice-Chancellor's Office [mailto:M.Sweetnam@ru.ac.za]
Sent: 04 June 2007 09:47 AM
To: s.badat@ru.ac.za
Subject: (Fwd) Size and Shape Activate Story
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Sat, 02 Jun 2007 15:24:04 +0200
From: g05w0961@campus.ru.ac.za
To: vc@ru.ac.za
Subject: Size and Shape Activate Story
Dear Dr Badat
I am part of the Journalism 3 writing and editing class and we are
writing a story about the size and shape debate. We are publishing the
story in Activate nat the beginning of next term but our deadline is
Wednesday.
Would you please answer the following questions for us?
1. How exactly did the size and shape debate start?
2. What, in your opinion, is the reasoning behind Naledi Pandor's
2010 targets for the size and shape of the university?
3. After the faculty board meetings on Monday 21 May, what is the
direction Rhodes is taking with regards to the future size and shape
of the university?
4. What plans are there to secure funding for expansion of the
university, should a decision be taken to expand admission?
Your assistance in answerng these questions will be much apppreciated
Thank you
Tim Walker
------- End of forwarded message -------
Dear Tim
I regret that I was in Cape Town for meetings over the weekend and then
returned only to be laid low by flu. I am afraid that in the light of my
commitments over this past week and into the next weeks the time you provide
for a response is simply too short.
Some shape and size matters are in the process of being finalised and if the
article can be held for the following issue of Activate you could have some
more definite answers.
Regards
Saleem
-----Original Message-----
From: Vice-Chancellor's Office [mailto:M.Sweetnam@ru.ac.za]
Sent: 04 June 2007 09:47 AM
To: s.badat@ru.ac.za
Subject: (Fwd) Size and Shape Activate Story
------- Forwarded message follows -------
Date sent: Sat, 02 Jun 2007 15:24:04 +0200
From: g05w0961@campus.ru.ac.za
To: vc@ru.ac.za
Subject: Size and Shape Activate Story
Dear Dr Badat
I am part of the Journalism 3 writing and editing class and we are
writing a story about the size and shape debate. We are publishing the
story in Activate nat the beginning of next term but our deadline is
Wednesday.
Would you please answer the following questions for us?
1. How exactly did the size and shape debate start?
2. What, in your opinion, is the reasoning behind Naledi Pandor's
2010 targets for the size and shape of the university?
3. After the faculty board meetings on Monday 21 May, what is the
direction Rhodes is taking with regards to the future size and shape
of the university?
4. What plans are there to secure funding for expansion of the
university, should a decision be taken to expand admission?
Your assistance in answerng these questions will be much apppreciated
Thank you
Tim Walker
------- End of forwarded message -------
Thursday, June 7, 2007
New deadline
Since Sim's given us an extension, you now only need to e-mail me your critical reflections (the separate ones and the main 1 500-word one) by Monday 7am, and give me the photocopies of articles you've had published sometime that morning. But Tim and Luke, could you e-mail me your stories as soon as possible for subbing. If possible, I'd like a copy of the story as you submitted it to be published, and the latest version with all your editing since then.
Luke, I'm happy to come round at any time to add my stuff to the civic map, unless you've put what I emailed you onto the map already. How about calling a meeting tomorrow night at 6:30pm to get it done quickly all together?
Luke, I'm happy to come round at any time to add my stuff to the civic map, unless you've put what I emailed you onto the map already. How about calling a meeting tomorrow night at 6:30pm to get it done quickly all together?
The Civic Map
Ok, so I've done the basic structure of the Civic Map, and added my stuff. You guys now all need to put your stuff on it. Do you want to meet and do it all together? Or else you could all just come by my room in the next couple of days whenever it suits you. Bearing in mind that I have two exams to write by the time we hand this thing in. Let me know.
Wednesday, June 6, 2007
Phew.
So...just spent the whole day polishing stories and writing 2500 words worth of critical reflection on my articles. Now...at least another 1500 words of critical reflection on the course. And a Civic map. I need to get this done by tomorrow. Eish......
Emailing
Hey Luke, csn you email Ian all your stories plus critical reflections, in fact everything..articles published and photcopies if published. Ian says he'll print out the stories from Activate Blog.
Tuesday, June 5, 2007
Being politically correct.
Sometimes you just can't avoid referring to 'black people' and 'white people'. Even if you don't want to, other people do, and you can't report what they are doing unless you make this kind of reference. So anyway, I hereby announce that from henceforth, my personal style will be to always put the words 'black','white' and 'race' (except when quoting, or if it refers to anything other than people) in inverted commas. If the subs want to change it, they're welcome. I haven't read the Rhodes style guide about it, and probably should, but I do know that it isn't standard practice in SA journalism. I think it should be. This shaite ain't going to go away unless someone actually does something about it.
This is all prompted by me writing this 'how to do a BA' academic development story, which has lots of 'race' issues.
This is all prompted by me writing this 'how to do a BA' academic development story, which has lots of 'race' issues.
Monday, June 4, 2007
Interview with Director of Finance
I talked to Anton Vorster, the Director of Finance, about size and shape today. He gave me some good hard figures on what expansion to 7 000 students is going to cost (though personally it seems to me they're under-estimates), and an idea of how the whole government subsidy system works. It was a very helpful interview. Tim, any response from the VC yet?
The 'Webinar'
So...had what I imagine is the classic journo-thing this afternoon: went to this 'webinar' thing, slept through most of it, played on my cell-phone for the rest, and then went home and bashed out 500 words about it which I've decided in retrospect were pretty damn decent.
As I understand it, its how we're supposed to function - half asleep or on drugs or medication but on some level taking it all in....and then able to manifest exactly what's needed in an unreasonably short space of time. Its how they always do it in the movies. The subconcious is a wonderful thing - you can sort of do it on auto-pilot.
At the time I was so completely 'over it' I decided that I wasn't going to do the story and was trying to find the least obnoxious moment to sneak out. No jokes. There's a lesson in there somewhere.
And not only did I get a decent story out of it, but I was also quite inspired in terms of what I want to end up doing career-wise. All in retrospect of course.
As I understand it, its how we're supposed to function - half asleep or on drugs or medication but on some level taking it all in....and then able to manifest exactly what's needed in an unreasonably short space of time. Its how they always do it in the movies. The subconcious is a wonderful thing - you can sort of do it on auto-pilot.
At the time I was so completely 'over it' I decided that I wasn't going to do the story and was trying to find the least obnoxious moment to sneak out. No jokes. There's a lesson in there somewhere.
And not only did I get a decent story out of it, but I was also quite inspired in terms of what I want to end up doing career-wise. All in retrospect of course.
Sunday, June 3, 2007
What I'm up to
So....busy working on my sixth story - Academic Development in SA universities. Had an absolutely fantastic interview with Chrissie Boughey on friday.
Part of it was the cool things she was saying, but it was also that I was able to really engage with her, mostly because of interviews I'd been doing for all the other stories this term. I referred to things that about five other people had said, and you could see she was very impressed. I looked VERY well informed, and she started taking me more and more seriously - when I first went in she was quite distracted and looked like she just wanted to get it over and done with. So....hope I can write a good story about it. She asked me to send me a copy before publication, and I said yes. I've never actually been able to say no to this kind of request - I am, after all, a student journalist, and in their position I'd want the same thing.
Tomorrow I'm going to an e-learning 'webinar' with a professor at an italian university (who will be sitting in front of a webcam in italy). I don't need the story, but I think it'll be quite interesting. I'm interested in IT developments, so....
Part of it was the cool things she was saying, but it was also that I was able to really engage with her, mostly because of interviews I'd been doing for all the other stories this term. I referred to things that about five other people had said, and you could see she was very impressed. I looked VERY well informed, and she started taking me more and more seriously - when I first went in she was quite distracted and looked like she just wanted to get it over and done with. So....hope I can write a good story about it. She asked me to send me a copy before publication, and I said yes. I've never actually been able to say no to this kind of request - I am, after all, a student journalist, and in their position I'd want the same thing.
Tomorrow I'm going to an e-learning 'webinar' with a professor at an italian university (who will be sitting in front of a webcam in italy). I don't need the story, but I think it'll be quite interesting. I'm interested in IT developments, so....
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Subbing
By the way, Nompumezo's e-mailed all her stories to me for subediting. It would be great if you did the same, Tim and Luke. Even if the stories have already been published, it would look good for the groupwork section of our portfolio if Sim and Adrienne can see that I've subedited them.
We need to meet
Tim and Mpumi, we need to meet to discuss exactly how we're going to write this size and shape story. I'm snowed under with an exam tomorrow and Saturday morning, but I can do Saturday afternoon or Monday. I must also still interview the director of the Finance Division.
Tim, have you interviewed Kat Furman? Just wondering. I've got comments from an education and humanities student. When either of you have time, please read as much as you can on the Size and Shape website: www.scifac.ru.ac.za/misc/sizeandshape. And if your deans aren't giving you much information, one document on there, www.scifac.ru.ac.za/projections.htm, has a list towards its end of the direction each faculty will need to take if Rhodes is going to meet Pandor's targets. Ask your deans if there is a plan to change the size and shape of the faculty as the list suggests, and if not, why not. Then you're sure to get some interesting info.
Tim, have you interviewed Kat Furman? Just wondering. I've got comments from an education and humanities student. When either of you have time, please read as much as you can on the Size and Shape website: www.scifac.ru.ac.za/misc/sizeandshape. And if your deans aren't giving you much information, one document on there, www.scifac.ru.ac.za/projections.htm, has a list towards its end of the direction each faculty will need to take if Rhodes is going to meet Pandor's targets. Ask your deans if there is a plan to change the size and shape of the faculty as the list suggests, and if not, why not. Then you're sure to get some interesting info.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Re:contributors
to sign your name as a contributor go to SETTINGS PERMISSIONS then ADD AUTHORS it will require you to write your email you used to create your blog. after that they'll give you further instructions. good luck
portfolio
i am unclear about the portfolio. do we hand in one group portfolio with all our individual work in it? let me know what's going down.
and Ian, do we email everything we have to your email address?
and Ian, do we email everything we have to your email address?
Just because I have to.....
So....haven't been doing much in the way of journalism for about a week now....although its been much on my mind.
Been trying to track down Chrissie Boughey about the 'How to do a BA'/Academic Development in SA universities story. So far unsuccessful, but it should happen on Friday.
Trying to decide whether its worth also following up on the VC's anniversary story.....do I care enough to do more than the minimum....?
Been trying to track down Chrissie Boughey about the 'How to do a BA'/Academic Development in SA universities story. So far unsuccessful, but it should happen on Friday.
Trying to decide whether its worth also following up on the VC's anniversary story.....do I care enough to do more than the minimum....?
good
great interview with prof lotz-sisitka, interviewing students (masters/phds) involved with conference tomoz at 9am, yay. reason for lateness was that she's the busiest person on the planet, trying to save it etc, and she didn't have a lot of time to spare...
apart from that quite good with prof bernard, i'll write what i have and post it or email it or or or... ideally some study-time would be nice right now. theres the lecture tonight too....
anyone unclear on group portfolio still??
apart from that quite good with prof bernard, i'll write what i have and post it or email it or or or... ideally some study-time would be nice right now. theres the lecture tonight too....
anyone unclear on group portfolio still??
Interviewed
just interviewed prof bernard from biological sciences for size and shape, now going to the EESU to hopefully secure that precious interview, it's all agreed but just hop[ing the prof has not popped out, she mentioned having some tea with the interview! fingers crossed cos i'm rather parched right now.
Tim
Tim
size and shape
i haven't been able to get anything from the deans with regards to what they have decided at the meetings. but i did get that they are looking to extend increase the number of students in each department and that goes with increasing resources and facilities for them. but they don't know if the university can afford to do that at this stage. so should i continue interviewing students about what they think of that? Mpumi
Tuesday, May 29, 2007
Naledi Pandor's Budget Speech
I've just read Naledi Pandor's education department budget speech, and it has plenty of stuff in it relevant to the size and shape article. Here are some particularly relevant quotes:
"Chairperson, the Department's direct budget is R16 billion this year. Of this R16 billion, universities receive R13,3 billion. This is an increase of R1,5 billion (13%) over 2006. It is a substantial budget increase.
The R13,3 billion is composed of three main items: block grants, student loans, and merger funds. The largest item is R11,3 billion for block grants. This R11,3 billion is an increase of R1,08 billion (10,6%) over 2006."
"The student enrolment planning process that we referred to last year has been finalised. We have an agreed plan for the growth of HE. We believe the plan to grow from 738 000 students in 2005 to 820 000 by 2010 creates the basis for a more efficient and coherent system of HE.
Growth in all disciplines has been accepted as part of the plan. However, the greatest expansion will be in the fields of SET. These are key disciplines for knowledge creation, innovation and human resource development and we will invest in them to ensure that we succeed in expanding success in these disciplines.
A key focus over the next few years will be on well-designed academic development programmes and the provision of student support services on all campuses with a view to enhancing academic success."
Unfortunately, the Financial Registrar, Tony Long, is on long leave (no pun intended). I'm going to try to talk to the director of the finance division, though, about exactly how much Rhodes gets out of the government, and how much it can hope to get in coming years.
"Chairperson, the Department's direct budget is R16 billion this year. Of this R16 billion, universities receive R13,3 billion. This is an increase of R1,5 billion (13%) over 2006. It is a substantial budget increase.
The R13,3 billion is composed of three main items: block grants, student loans, and merger funds. The largest item is R11,3 billion for block grants. This R11,3 billion is an increase of R1,08 billion (10,6%) over 2006."
"The student enrolment planning process that we referred to last year has been finalised. We have an agreed plan for the growth of HE. We believe the plan to grow from 738 000 students in 2005 to 820 000 by 2010 creates the basis for a more efficient and coherent system of HE.
Growth in all disciplines has been accepted as part of the plan. However, the greatest expansion will be in the fields of SET. These are key disciplines for knowledge creation, innovation and human resource development and we will invest in them to ensure that we succeed in expanding success in these disciplines.
A key focus over the next few years will be on well-designed academic development programmes and the provision of student support services on all campuses with a view to enhancing academic success."
Unfortunately, the Financial Registrar, Tony Long, is on long leave (no pun intended). I'm going to try to talk to the director of the finance division, though, about exactly how much Rhodes gets out of the government, and how much it can hope to get in coming years.
Monday, May 28, 2007
Size and Shape progress check
Tim and Mpumi, how are you going with your size and shape interviews so far? It's a tight week for me, since I've got a prac exam on Friday night and a written exam on Saturday morning, but I've managed to schedule an interview with the dean of education and another faculty member for Wednesday at 10am. Otherwise, I'm still planning to get comment from one humanities and one education student. Can you do the same for your faculties. Then sometime we need to figure out exactly how to write this thing...
Keep your eyes on the blog, please.
Keep your eyes on the blog, please.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Rant about Activate. Three days late.
I'm annoyed. With myself. For my ridiculous and completely unfounded inability to stop sending articles to Activate and MOVE ON.
As explained to Sim: they seem to be making the most ridiculous editorial decisions about what is worth publishing. And its not that I'm annoyed because they didn't print my story....its the fact that I continue sending stories to the kind of newspaper that doesn't print that kind of story. Subtle, but crucial difference.
They were completely justified. They didn't have space, and needed stories with pictures. And its the kind of newspaper that they are. So I'm not blaming them. I'm blaming myself.
Why doesn't someone teach us about marketing. I am so very, very bad at it.
As explained to Sim: they seem to be making the most ridiculous editorial decisions about what is worth publishing. And its not that I'm annoyed because they didn't print my story....its the fact that I continue sending stories to the kind of newspaper that doesn't print that kind of story. Subtle, but crucial difference.
They were completely justified. They didn't have space, and needed stories with pictures. And its the kind of newspaper that they are. So I'm not blaming them. I'm blaming myself.
Why doesn't someone teach us about marketing. I am so very, very bad at it.
just had a meeting with Mrs Stephenson of the academic planning place. i managed to get my hands on the planning projections document they were discussing at monday's meeting.she also said something about going thru the stats digest if we wanna know the numbers and resources allocated to each department every year.
see y'all later
Mpumi
see y'all later
Mpumi
lecture next week
heya there's an interesting lecture next week the title of which is 'What is 'Sustainable Development' in rural Africa and what can we do to make progress?'
i'm going to try and go, sounds interesting especially because it is linked to the RCE story.
therefore my question is are we writng stories up until the 8th?
i'm going to try and go, sounds interesting especially because it is linked to the RCE story.
therefore my question is are we writng stories up until the 8th?
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Faculty of Education
The dean of education's only coming back on Monday, so I will get an appointment with him and another education staff member then. But I don't think we need to hurry on this piece; better to make it as good as it can be. I can get comments from other people in the meantime, but we'll talk about that tomorrow.
Size and Shape is looking good
I'm feeling more and more excited about this size and shape story. Many students have no idea of what the behind-the-scenes plans are for Rhodes's future. Some even think there's a conspiracy to raise admissions to 10 000 by 2010, which is clearly not going to happen, even according to Pandor's plans!
Please blog what you've learnt from your interviews with the deans. I interviewed Larry Strelitz today as acting Dean of Humanities. He said that nothing conclusive was decided at the meeting; it was more of a discussion session. Still, he had lots of good quotes about balancing resources, about how bad our library is, and how expensive it is to study at Rhodes.
Another thought: we need to interview Kat Furman for a student's take on the meetings. I've already tried to contact her, but would anyone else like to interview her? See you all tomorrow.
Please blog what you've learnt from your interviews with the deans. I interviewed Larry Strelitz today as acting Dean of Humanities. He said that nothing conclusive was decided at the meeting; it was more of a discussion session. Still, he had lots of good quotes about balancing resources, about how bad our library is, and how expensive it is to study at Rhodes.
Another thought: we need to interview Kat Furman for a student's take on the meetings. I've already tried to contact her, but would anyone else like to interview her? See you all tomorrow.
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Good Evening
The Launch of the Makana Centre, they'll be undertaking some fantastic work. The VC spoke and i got some nice comments from him, and he talked a little about size and shape too. The manager of SADC's regional education programme also spoke as well as UNESCO's regional manager. It's pretty huge although they were all keen to emphasis that even though the launch itself was an achievement the real work will begin now.
It was well supported and by that i also mean other journalists. I was talking to the UNESCO manager just before the launch and he thanked the media for their role in helping people become involved and also contribute to sustainable development (Blush)
Unfortunately it will be difficult to get this published without seemingly getting the other journalists fired!
I have learnt a very important lessons tonight: always always have a camera with fully charged batteries, i couldn't get a decent picture of the handover of the certificate because it died on me, i was pretty pissed off. This shouldn't happen it's taught me a valuable lesson in always being much well prepared especially for events like this. I enjoyed it and its made me think a lot about journalism and the way we act and work.
time to be a busy bee
Tim
It was well supported and by that i also mean other journalists. I was talking to the UNESCO manager just before the launch and he thanked the media for their role in helping people become involved and also contribute to sustainable development (Blush)
Unfortunately it will be difficult to get this published without seemingly getting the other journalists fired!
I have learnt a very important lessons tonight: always always have a camera with fully charged batteries, i couldn't get a decent picture of the handover of the certificate because it died on me, i was pretty pissed off. This shouldn't happen it's taught me a valuable lesson in always being much well prepared especially for events like this. I enjoyed it and its made me think a lot about journalism and the way we act and work.
time to be a busy bee
Tim
hmmm
the Education department's research design symposium story is ok, theres two more I'd like to write during the week as the talks progress including the launch tonight. bit nervous, is that normal??
Writing a nice feature on the collapse of the Washington Consensus and student apathy to it, including what will happen in the future as we are in a very important stage of transition in world affairs.
Lets hope the size and shape story is a winner!
here's an interesting piece of under cover journalism, i thought i was quite good, makes you wonder about PnP and checkers tho... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6676345.stm
Writing a nice feature on the collapse of the Washington Consensus and student apathy to it, including what will happen in the future as we are in a very important stage of transition in world affairs.
Lets hope the size and shape story is a winner!
here's an interesting piece of under cover journalism, i thought i was quite good, makes you wonder about PnP and checkers tho... http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/6676345.stm
Monday, May 21, 2007
Size and Shape: Plan B
I'm sorry we weren't allowed into the size and shape faculty board meetings today. No worries: I think Luke tried hard as he could to lobby Kat for us, but it didn't work.
So, for the official record, this is Plan B:
The three of us (Tim, Mpumi and I, now that Luke's decided to pull out of the story) must interview the deans of the faculties whose meetings we were going to sit in on. So that means Mpumi will interview the deans of Commerce and Law, Tim the deans of Science and Pharmacy, and I the deans of Humanities and Education. We can try to ask them what was decided at the meeting, what future plans for their faculties are. I hope we should get at least three big news hooks out of that for our story. Then we'll individually ask students, lecturers and so on for their opinions.
For the intro to the whole story, I think a comment from Dr Badat and/or Fatema Morbi would be great. Once we've emailed all our deans, we can talk about the news hooks we've found, find a good angle for the story, and ask for general comments on that for the intro.
So, for the official record, this is Plan B:
The three of us (Tim, Mpumi and I, now that Luke's decided to pull out of the story) must interview the deans of the faculties whose meetings we were going to sit in on. So that means Mpumi will interview the deans of Commerce and Law, Tim the deans of Science and Pharmacy, and I the deans of Humanities and Education. We can try to ask them what was decided at the meeting, what future plans for their faculties are. I hope we should get at least three big news hooks out of that for our story. Then we'll individually ask students, lecturers and so on for their opinions.
For the intro to the whole story, I think a comment from Dr Badat and/or Fatema Morbi would be great. Once we've emailed all our deans, we can talk about the news hooks we've found, find a good angle for the story, and ask for general comments on that for the intro.
Status: good
Right...so good news about the deadline for this whole thing.
I'm sitting with 4 decent-ish stories, so all good for me.
Feeling a bit bad - I wrote in the SASCO Youth Day article for Activate that "less than a week before the end of undergrad lectures, it was still unclear whether exams would be written on Youth Day". Turns out that the Registrar had decided to not have exams on Youth Day at this stage, he just hadn't communicated it properly. So, technically, there's nothing wrong with what I said. But really, it had actually been decided....
I'm sure its fine. I went to an extraordinary effort to find out what was going on, and it was all I could come up with.
It was a really great story. So stoked to have got it.
On that note, Mike Lowe just sent me an email asking to meet up and work on the story with him tomorrow. I replied saying that I'd love to, but the story is pretty much over. See what comes of that....
Bit of a bummer about not getting into the 'Size and Shape' meetings. Damn cagey bureaucrats.
Not working on that story myself, but it would still be nice to have had access. It sounds like some fascinating stuff must have been discussed.... If it happens again, I'll try and bug the place. Heh.
So.....see what else happens this week, otherwise just hand in the 'How to do a BA' story.
All my peices so far have been hard news. Think I might have a go at writing a feature. Maybe even an opinion piece....
I'm sitting with 4 decent-ish stories, so all good for me.
Feeling a bit bad - I wrote in the SASCO Youth Day article for Activate that "less than a week before the end of undergrad lectures, it was still unclear whether exams would be written on Youth Day". Turns out that the Registrar had decided to not have exams on Youth Day at this stage, he just hadn't communicated it properly. So, technically, there's nothing wrong with what I said. But really, it had actually been decided....
I'm sure its fine. I went to an extraordinary effort to find out what was going on, and it was all I could come up with.
It was a really great story. So stoked to have got it.
On that note, Mike Lowe just sent me an email asking to meet up and work on the story with him tomorrow. I replied saying that I'd love to, but the story is pretty much over. See what comes of that....
Bit of a bummer about not getting into the 'Size and Shape' meetings. Damn cagey bureaucrats.
Not working on that story myself, but it would still be nice to have had access. It sounds like some fascinating stuff must have been discussed.... If it happens again, I'll try and bug the place. Heh.
So.....see what else happens this week, otherwise just hand in the 'How to do a BA' story.
All my peices so far have been hard news. Think I might have a go at writing a feature. Maybe even an opinion piece....
SAIAB Story
Is anyone covering honourary research appointment at SAIAB, the email was on toplist on friday, here it is:
In keeping with the long standing academic association between Rhodes
University and the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB),
it gives SAIAB great pleasure to announce that Professor Martin Villet of
the Department of Zoology and Entomology has been appointed an Honorary
Research Associate of the Institute.
Professor Villet has been working in close association with Mr Roger Bills
of SAIAB's freshwater research division for a number years both supervising
students and running various freshwater research projects. This Honorary
Research Associate position recognizes his contribution to SAIAB and the
benefit it has derived from this over the years. Congratulations Prof.
Villet.
Serving Africa's needs in understanding fishes and aquatic environments
Penny Haworth
Communications Manager
South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB)
Private Bag 1015
Grahamstown
6140
Tel +27 (0)46 6035800
Fax +27 (0)46 6222403
Direct +27 (0)46 6035812
email p.haworth@ru.ac.za
http://www.saiab.ru.ac.za
Seems a nice little story, if no one wants it i'll do it? Unless its not newsworthy but it seems quite nice.
Tim
In keeping with the long standing academic association between Rhodes
University and the South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB),
it gives SAIAB great pleasure to announce that Professor Martin Villet of
the Department of Zoology and Entomology has been appointed an Honorary
Research Associate of the Institute.
Professor Villet has been working in close association with Mr Roger Bills
of SAIAB's freshwater research division for a number years both supervising
students and running various freshwater research projects. This Honorary
Research Associate position recognizes his contribution to SAIAB and the
benefit it has derived from this over the years. Congratulations Prof.
Villet.
Serving Africa's needs in understanding fishes and aquatic environments
Penny Haworth
Communications Manager
South African Institute for Aquatic Biodiversity (SAIAB)
Private Bag 1015
Grahamstown
6140
Tel +27 (0)46 6035800
Fax +27 (0)46 6222403
Direct +27 (0)46 6035812
email p.haworth@ru.ac.za
http://www.saiab.ru.ac.za
Seems a nice little story, if no one wants it i'll do it? Unless its not newsworthy but it seems quite nice.
Tim
Saturday, May 19, 2007
Status: frustrated
Uuurgh.....so this journalism thing can be bluddy annoying.....
Am trying to get Sasco story out of my life. And its hard.
Sasco is being very, very difficult. They don't reply to anything, even after promising that they will. Its happened four times. And I'm trying to help their bluddy cause!!!
Also, can't manage to find out what happened at the Institutional Forum meeting this morning, where a final decision was supposed to have been made.
Thing is, I've got a story. Things keep on happening, and I'm not sure when to just give in and call it a day. It would be fine if I was publishing it immediately, because then it would make sense - I'd be talking about what had happened so far. But Activate is a whole different skill. If story only comes out in a week....leaving bits out just looks stupid. But then again....Its not ultimately about Activate - its about Sim and Adrienne.....
Would have helped if I could have got it in to the Daily Dispatch. They didn't get back to me tho. Grr. Tho it makes sense of course - the story is clearly not over...
Oi vey.
Am trying to get Sasco story out of my life. And its hard.
Sasco is being very, very difficult. They don't reply to anything, even after promising that they will. Its happened four times. And I'm trying to help their bluddy cause!!!
Also, can't manage to find out what happened at the Institutional Forum meeting this morning, where a final decision was supposed to have been made.
Thing is, I've got a story. Things keep on happening, and I'm not sure when to just give in and call it a day. It would be fine if I was publishing it immediately, because then it would make sense - I'd be talking about what had happened so far. But Activate is a whole different skill. If story only comes out in a week....leaving bits out just looks stupid. But then again....Its not ultimately about Activate - its about Sim and Adrienne.....
Would have helped if I could have got it in to the Daily Dispatch. They didn't get back to me tho. Grr. Tho it makes sense of course - the story is clearly not over...
Oi vey.
Friday, May 18, 2007
Plans for next week
I've followed Luke's example and set myself up as a contributor to the blog. I'm also going to put all my more personal posts from this blog onto my personal blog, 268ian.blogspot.com, as well, and from now on I'll do my personal blogging from there.
I've just set up an interview with Prof Hughes of the Institute for Water Research for Tuesday. IWR's doing some exciting stuff in developing software that models the likelihood of droughts, which I think would be well worth an article.
Mpumi, is the MiST story you're doing the one about Open Publishing? I passed a poster today about a whole half-day conference on the topic on Wednesday afternoon, but you need to RSVP by Monday 21 May. I think it could be a good story. - Ian
I've just set up an interview with Prof Hughes of the Institute for Water Research for Tuesday. IWR's doing some exciting stuff in developing software that models the likelihood of droughts, which I think would be well worth an article.
Mpumi, is the MiST story you're doing the one about Open Publishing? I passed a poster today about a whole half-day conference on the topic on Wednesday afternoon, but you need to RSVP by Monday 21 May. I think it could be a good story. - Ian
Thursday, May 17, 2007
And....before its too late....my third post for may 17!
Right....this is just so I can be clever and do a post from my own account. Just added my Gmail account as a contributer to this blog. So now you can tell if its me. Schweet, eh....
Must do some work. Thing is, I have almost 2 hours worth of audio recordings from the SASCO meeting to work with. Intense. Long. Exhausting.
Must do some work. Thing is, I have almost 2 hours worth of audio recordings from the SASCO meeting to work with. Intense. Long. Exhausting.
(__) (oo) /-------\/ / | || * ||----|| ~~ ~~
Luke's second post....!!! In one day. Can he keep it up?
So...quite a successful evening. As mentioned earlier, I interviewed Jane Anderson, the instigator of the 'How to do a BA' story.
THEN: I went to this SASCO meeting. It was hectic. Huge scandal, but basically, I could make the university look terrible. And I think I feel obliged to. They are acting terribly.
Although...it's a bit of a conflict of interests. I am definitely not neutral on this issue. I was taking part in the meeting in the most inflammatory, vigourous way possible - at one stage I called on the SASCO leadership to not be scared to directly threaten the university. Afterwards one of their very outspoken members told me I was 'too radical for [her]'. She was being nice of course...but still.....
So anyway. At this stage I'm making a decision about whether or not I feel like staying up for however long it takes me to put together a story to send to the Daily Dispatch tomorrow morning.... I really feel I should. This needs to get out. But I'm soooooooo tired.....urrrrrghhhh.....mmmmmmmmm....
THEN: I went to this SASCO meeting. It was hectic. Huge scandal, but basically, I could make the university look terrible. And I think I feel obliged to. They are acting terribly.
Although...it's a bit of a conflict of interests. I am definitely not neutral on this issue. I was taking part in the meeting in the most inflammatory, vigourous way possible - at one stage I called on the SASCO leadership to not be scared to directly threaten the university. Afterwards one of their very outspoken members told me I was 'too radical for [her]'. She was being nice of course...but still.....
So anyway. At this stage I'm making a decision about whether or not I feel like staying up for however long it takes me to put together a story to send to the Daily Dispatch tomorrow morning.... I really feel I should. This needs to get out. But I'm soooooooo tired.....urrrrrghhhh.....mmmmmmmmm....
Luke::::::::: It begins.....!!!
K, so now begins my new regime of minimum thrice daily blog updates....
I'm about to go and interview the instigator of the 'how to do a BA' fiasco. She just so happens to be someone I know quite well....although its a relationship I've been trying to extricate myself from for about a year now....
So...that basically means that I'm maintaining contact with her purely for the sake of a story. A similar issue exists with my relationship with Katherine Furman, the Rhodes SRC Academic Rep. The idea is that deliberately strengthening my relationship with her will allow me to emotionally blackmail her into leaking confidential information to me.
So....I guess the question of course is whether I should feel bad. Am I a cad? Am I a bad journalist? In actual fact, I haven't really exploited these relationships as much as I had planned to, so I think my hands are still clean. But it is quite an interesting question.... And I do feel bad. I flipping well hope they don't read this.... :)
I'm about to go and interview the instigator of the 'how to do a BA' fiasco. She just so happens to be someone I know quite well....although its a relationship I've been trying to extricate myself from for about a year now....
So...that basically means that I'm maintaining contact with her purely for the sake of a story. A similar issue exists with my relationship with Katherine Furman, the Rhodes SRC Academic Rep. The idea is that deliberately strengthening my relationship with her will allow me to emotionally blackmail her into leaking confidential information to me.
So....I guess the question of course is whether I should feel bad. Am I a cad? Am I a bad journalist? In actual fact, I haven't really exploited these relationships as much as I had planned to, so I think my hands are still clean. But it is quite an interesting question.... And I do feel bad. I flipping well hope they don't read this.... :)
Tuesday, May 15, 2007
My "There's no story" day
Sigh... Today I found out that two stories I was interested in weren't going to work out. I suspected that my Rooibos story was going to fall through because yesterday the Prof I wanted to interview about it told me that he had played only a minor role in the research on the rooibos-growing projects. That meant I had very little to hook a story onto, remaining within the confines of our beat.
Nevertheless, I went through and interviewed him this morning. It was interesting, of course, but he doesn't know enough about other Fairtrade projects in SA or about the way Fairtrade works in general to do a story on either one of those angles. I could have done a story on one of the rooibos-growing projects, but like I said in my last blog entry, it wouldn't be a great story since I can't go out to the West Coast and interview the farmers personally. They probably don't even have a contact number of their own, from what the prof tells me. So, that's one story on the backburner.
Then last night I'd also told the Activate people last night I'd do an article for them on some students who've come back from an exchange programme and are battling with one department to get credits awarded to them for it. I followed it up and the people involved didn't want to have any comments published about it, since it might jeopardise their standing with the department involved. I enquired about others who might have similar problems, and came to a dead end there too. Sigh.
But I've got another really interesting idea I'm working on at the moment. The Politics department is running a seminar on Friday at lunchtime on China's involvement with Zimbabwe, which sounds like it could be intriguing. Now, as long as it isn't cancelled because a rape awareness march is happening at the same time... - Ian
Nevertheless, I went through and interviewed him this morning. It was interesting, of course, but he doesn't know enough about other Fairtrade projects in SA or about the way Fairtrade works in general to do a story on either one of those angles. I could have done a story on one of the rooibos-growing projects, but like I said in my last blog entry, it wouldn't be a great story since I can't go out to the West Coast and interview the farmers personally. They probably don't even have a contact number of their own, from what the prof tells me. So, that's one story on the backburner.
Then last night I'd also told the Activate people last night I'd do an article for them on some students who've come back from an exchange programme and are battling with one department to get credits awarded to them for it. I followed it up and the people involved didn't want to have any comments published about it, since it might jeopardise their standing with the department involved. I enquired about others who might have similar problems, and came to a dead end there too. Sigh.
But I've got another really interesting idea I'm working on at the moment. The Politics department is running a seminar on Friday at lunchtime on China's involvement with Zimbabwe, which sounds like it could be intriguing. Now, as long as it isn't cancelled because a rape awareness march is happening at the same time... - Ian
Monday, May 14, 2007
Saturday, May 12, 2007
Rooibos Tea and Fair Trade
I've just read a journal article by Etienne Nel from the Rhodes Geography department on how two isolated rural communities near the West Coast have made money by exporting rooibos tea to Northern countries through the Fairtrade network. It's very exciting stuff, and I'm throwing around a few angles I can take on the story.
It doesn't make too much sense to do an article solely on the West Coast rooibos-growers, since, well, I'm here and they're over 1 000km away by road. I could ask Nel how much he knows about other Fairtrade agricultural projects, and do a general feature on Fairtrade agricultural projects in SA, or even do a "How fair is Fairtrade?" angle looking at the benefits of selling to Fairtrade organisations versus the administrative costs, extra paperwork and tight constraints it brings.
I think I could sell a feature on this to Daily Dispatch. It's the type of story M&G might love, but they're also likely to have heard it all before. So I'll see where this goes. - Ian
It doesn't make too much sense to do an article solely on the West Coast rooibos-growers, since, well, I'm here and they're over 1 000km away by road. I could ask Nel how much he knows about other Fairtrade agricultural projects, and do a general feature on Fairtrade agricultural projects in SA, or even do a "How fair is Fairtrade?" angle looking at the benefits of selling to Fairtrade organisations versus the administrative costs, extra paperwork and tight constraints it brings.
I think I could sell a feature on this to Daily Dispatch. It's the type of story M&G might love, but they're also likely to have heard it all before. So I'll see where this goes. - Ian
Thursday, May 10, 2007
Vox-popping in town...and other adventures
Jonathan Ancer asked me to write both a hard news story on the quality of life survey that ISER's planning for Grahamstown East, and a feature on Prof Valerie Moller's opinions about quality of life in Grahamstown. I suggested both these angles, and in my naivety suggested that I could do vox-pops in town to see whether people agreed with Moller's opinions for the feature story. Bad move.
I tootled off to Pick 'n Pay pretty confidently on Tuesday afternoon to start taking vox-pops. I had decided that I'd ask people how long they'd been in Grahamstown, and then whether they felt quality of life in Grahamstown had changed for better or worse during that time or since 1994, whichever was shortest. The whole point of doing the vox-pops in town was, of course, to get the opinions of regular townspeople, rather than students.
As Murphy's law would have it, the first person I meet on New Street would happen to be a close friend of mine. And he would ask me what I was doing, and I would feel obliged to interview him. Still, I thought that was fine. Students are a part of this town, after all.
I walked further along and found a man standing around at the corner of Peppergrove's Allen Street exit. He gave me a great answer, and I felt like I was getting somewhere. Then I get into Peppergrove and decide to do my shopping before carrying on with the vox-pops. I took one look at the people coming in and out of Pick 'n Pay, and another look at the Hi-Tec security guards hanging around, looking like they wouldn't appreciate me standing there interviewing randoms, and headed out of Peppergrove.
I met a beggar in the road, flipped him a couple of coins and asked his opinion. It was good. I then walked on to the entrance of Checkers, asking a few people on my way for their opinions, but they're all rushing home from work, and so don't have time for a friendly reporter.
When I get to Checkers, I stand in the doorway for a while, but everyone's moving too fast for me to get a word in edgeways. Then I get sidetracked by a half-blind, drunk beggar who thinks I'm God. He twists my arm into buying him bread and amasi. Memo to myself: Never bring money with you when you do vox-pops in town. And never try doing it in the entrance to Checkers. I pray with the man, make some attempt at a theological discussion with him, then beat a hasty retreat, unnerved. He'll keep on bugging me if I stand around Checkers, and anyway, it's 5:30pm by now, so there aren't too many people around. All I have to show for my hour-long vox-popping section is four interviews: two of students, and two of black males. Not exactly what you'd call good demographics.
I came back to give another stab at it this morning. First target was a bead-seller under the arch. She couldn't speak English. Right, I'll just move on. I make my way to Peppergrove, garnering another interview as I go. There I lurk in the doorway to Pick 'n Pay (which is now mercifully clear of security guards), ready to pounce on all those soccer moms coming to do their groceries while the kids are at school. As any American politician will tell you, the soccer mom is the holy grail demographic. Once you've got her on your side, you can do anything.
And anything is precisely what I do: I even load a little old lady's groceries into her boot so I can interview her, and speak to the grumpy old man waiting for his wife in the car next door. Eventually I have my target of ten complete vox-pops with requisite variation in gender, age and race. It's taken me about two hours.
It was quite an experience, but it's under my belt now. But next time I vox-pop in town, I don't think I'll be nearly as selective about my demographics, or quite as shy to pounce on people and ask them for a comment. - Ian
I tootled off to Pick 'n Pay pretty confidently on Tuesday afternoon to start taking vox-pops. I had decided that I'd ask people how long they'd been in Grahamstown, and then whether they felt quality of life in Grahamstown had changed for better or worse during that time or since 1994, whichever was shortest. The whole point of doing the vox-pops in town was, of course, to get the opinions of regular townspeople, rather than students.
As Murphy's law would have it, the first person I meet on New Street would happen to be a close friend of mine. And he would ask me what I was doing, and I would feel obliged to interview him. Still, I thought that was fine. Students are a part of this town, after all.
I walked further along and found a man standing around at the corner of Peppergrove's Allen Street exit. He gave me a great answer, and I felt like I was getting somewhere. Then I get into Peppergrove and decide to do my shopping before carrying on with the vox-pops. I took one look at the people coming in and out of Pick 'n Pay, and another look at the Hi-Tec security guards hanging around, looking like they wouldn't appreciate me standing there interviewing randoms, and headed out of Peppergrove.
I met a beggar in the road, flipped him a couple of coins and asked his opinion. It was good. I then walked on to the entrance of Checkers, asking a few people on my way for their opinions, but they're all rushing home from work, and so don't have time for a friendly reporter.
When I get to Checkers, I stand in the doorway for a while, but everyone's moving too fast for me to get a word in edgeways. Then I get sidetracked by a half-blind, drunk beggar who thinks I'm God. He twists my arm into buying him bread and amasi. Memo to myself: Never bring money with you when you do vox-pops in town. And never try doing it in the entrance to Checkers. I pray with the man, make some attempt at a theological discussion with him, then beat a hasty retreat, unnerved. He'll keep on bugging me if I stand around Checkers, and anyway, it's 5:30pm by now, so there aren't too many people around. All I have to show for my hour-long vox-popping section is four interviews: two of students, and two of black males. Not exactly what you'd call good demographics.
I came back to give another stab at it this morning. First target was a bead-seller under the arch. She couldn't speak English. Right, I'll just move on. I make my way to Peppergrove, garnering another interview as I go. There I lurk in the doorway to Pick 'n Pay (which is now mercifully clear of security guards), ready to pounce on all those soccer moms coming to do their groceries while the kids are at school. As any American politician will tell you, the soccer mom is the holy grail demographic. Once you've got her on your side, you can do anything.
And anything is precisely what I do: I even load a little old lady's groceries into her boot so I can interview her, and speak to the grumpy old man waiting for his wife in the car next door. Eventually I have my target of ten complete vox-pops with requisite variation in gender, age and race. It's taken me about two hours.
It was quite an experience, but it's under my belt now. But next time I vox-pop in town, I don't think I'll be nearly as selective about my demographics, or quite as shy to pounce on people and ask them for a comment. - Ian
Monday, May 7, 2007
Interview with Valerie Moller, and some kiff ideas
I went down to interview Prof Valerie Moller on the quality of life story this morning, and spoke with her for an hour on her research and different things affecting quality of life in Grahamstown. A lot of what she said seemed a little vague, but there are still some very interesting stories in there, and I've emailed Jonathan Ancer with some possible angles for a Grocott's article. I like this sort of story because it relates directly to our mission and vision of showing people about how academic research at Rhodes relates to them.
Grocott's is full of this quality-of-life stuff, of course. It deals with service delivery, crime, the wealth gap, the generation gap and so on all the time, but what's nice about Valerie Moller's research is that it pulls all those things together to show exactly how it affects the mindsets of people in this town. One thing she feels is that there's a lack of pride in Grahamstown. It's not surprising that some people find this place quite a backwater, but I still think it's a really fun, quirky backwater to be in, definitely the Arb City.
I don't know if anyone else has seen, but there's some juicy stuff coming off the mailing lists. I've told Activate tonight I'll do a story on the Translate@thon, a project to translate some software like the Rhodes webmail program into different languages. It's going to be pretty exciting. But there are even more tantalising prospects for the future: I got a whole raft of Humanities faculty board minutes, which might have some very interesting info in them. Then there's a survey being done by the HR division on lecturers' pay, which would be a great jumping-off point to start a lecturers' pay feature on.
Grocott's is full of this quality-of-life stuff, of course. It deals with service delivery, crime, the wealth gap, the generation gap and so on all the time, but what's nice about Valerie Moller's research is that it pulls all those things together to show exactly how it affects the mindsets of people in this town. One thing she feels is that there's a lack of pride in Grahamstown. It's not surprising that some people find this place quite a backwater, but I still think it's a really fun, quirky backwater to be in, definitely the Arb City.
I don't know if anyone else has seen, but there's some juicy stuff coming off the mailing lists. I've told Activate tonight I'll do a story on the Translate@thon, a project to translate some software like the Rhodes webmail program into different languages. It's going to be pretty exciting. But there are even more tantalising prospects for the future: I got a whole raft of Humanities faculty board minutes, which might have some very interesting info in them. Then there's a survey being done by the HR division on lecturers' pay, which would be a great jumping-off point to start a lecturers' pay feature on.
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Exam Timetable (again)
Sam, have you noticed the note on Studentzone that says there'll be exams on Youth Day? That would be a very interesting thing to add to your story: how it affects people, how they feel about writing on a public holiday, what attempts the SRC are making to resolve it, and so on. - Ian
Size and Shape
If you've been following the faculty listservs, you'll have seen that there's a whole series of special faculty board meetings on Monday 21 May to discuss size and shape and the university's institutional needs. I think the meetings will probably be closed, but we should start doing our homework in advance and see if we can talk to people about what's said after the meetings. - Ian
Quality of Life Story
I've spoken to Prof Moller at ISER, and made an appointment with her for Monday to talk about quality of life in Grahamstown. She's researched quality of life in SA generally, in the Eastern Cape and in Grahamstown, so I thought it would be good to put a local angle on the story. Grocott's is very interested in it. - Ian
Wednesday, May 2, 2007
Stories
Hi Guys
I'll be attending the ISER lecture today at three, I've emailed the ISER for some interviews but they haven't replied yet, depending on how cooperative they are the lectures will either be written as two separate stories at the moment or (as i intend) a larger feature story a bit later. Its interesting stuff and i'm going to try attend a lecture in the politics dept tomorrow.
I found out some interesting news concerning the Environmental Education and Sustainability Unit of the education dept. They are being launched as a United Nations Centre of Expertise in Education for Sustainable Development on May 22. I'll cover this event, i have talked to one of the chairs in the unit and he is keen to work with us. The environmental conference in Durban later is the highlight of their year, their students will have the opportunity to meet academics involved in their research from around the globe, and Rhodes in involved in the academic pro gramme and reviewing all papers (over 600) that will be submitted. Exciting times ahead...
Tim
I'll be attending the ISER lecture today at three, I've emailed the ISER for some interviews but they haven't replied yet, depending on how cooperative they are the lectures will either be written as two separate stories at the moment or (as i intend) a larger feature story a bit later. Its interesting stuff and i'm going to try attend a lecture in the politics dept tomorrow.
I found out some interesting news concerning the Environmental Education and Sustainability Unit of the education dept. They are being launched as a United Nations Centre of Expertise in Education for Sustainable Development on May 22. I'll cover this event, i have talked to one of the chairs in the unit and he is keen to work with us. The environmental conference in Durban later is the highlight of their year, their students will have the opportunity to meet academics involved in their research from around the globe, and Rhodes in involved in the academic pro gramme and reviewing all papers (over 600) that will be submitted. Exciting times ahead...
Tim
Tuesday, May 1, 2007
Story ideas
Hi guys
Two story ideas: 1. the Women’s Academic Solidarity Association (WASA)in collaboration with the education dept are having a seminar tomorrow title " Representing Research as a Political Act"
2. the journ dept is having a workshop this weekend to introduce high school kids to the 'wonderful' world of journ.
I'll be at both events so I'll cover them. Can you please let me know how to link my blog to this one.
See y'all at the meeting tomorrow.
Mpumi
Two story ideas: 1. the Women’s Academic Solidarity Association (WASA)in collaboration with the education dept are having a seminar tomorrow title " Representing Research as a Political Act"
2. the journ dept is having a workshop this weekend to introduce high school kids to the 'wonderful' world of journ.
I'll be at both events so I'll cover them. Can you please let me know how to link my blog to this one.
See y'all at the meeting tomorrow.
Mpumi
A Useful Place for Story Ideas
The Library website has a very useful list of papers written by Rhodes researchers this year, with links to the pdfs:
http://eprints.ru.ac.za/view/year/2007.html
There are eight stories there at the moment, including my ISER one, so anyone could write a great story on any of the others. - Ian
PS. I'm also going to do the Rooibos one, maybe next week, since I took Geography last year.
http://eprints.ru.ac.za/view/year/2007.html
There are eight stories there at the moment, including my ISER one, so anyone could write a great story on any of the others. - Ian
PS. I'm also going to do the Rooibos one, maybe next week, since I took Geography last year.
Monday, April 30, 2007
Exam Timetable
Sam, I have a contact for your exam timetable story. She has all her four exams in the first three days of the exam period! It's Shellique Carby, Tel: 082 507 0983, email: g05c3101@campus.ru.ac.za. What makes it worse is that she has Asperger's Syndrome, so she takes a long time to study and write. - Ian
A Small Mistake
The Dispatch's subs made quite a mistake with my Biofuels article. A lot of information near the end of the story from one source, Garth Cambray, was attributed to Mark Hazell. Sigh... I understand how this things happen, but it is rather unfortunate. Lesson: don't use a string of "he saids" or "she saids" for too long in an article without saying who the he or she is! - Ian
guys
i battled trying to put these things in tables and i gave up. so if one of you can do it that would be lovely...please add the rest of what we have 'cause this is all i have.
Roles
Sub-editor: Ian
Communications Manager: Luke
Beats
SRC Academic Councellor, General Scouring: Luke
Humanities, Law, Education: Tim
Commerce: Nompumezo
Faculty of Science, Faculty of Pharm, Dean of Research: Samantha Scott & Ian Sieborger
Story ideas
FEATURES
F-Size and shape- numbers
F-Extended Studies and how to do a BA
[Luke] not started
F-Lecturers' Pay
NEWS
Lecture by Praeg
Luke- in production
Expected this week
Sociology Lectures
Tim- in production
Expected this week
ISER article on std of living
Ian-next week
Geography article on Rooibos
Ian
Bio-fuels
Ian-done
Law dept moot court final and winners announcements
Tim- in production
Expected this week
Environmental Conference in Durban
Future
Rhodes Summer School
Future
Law week for Law dept
Statistics seminars
Thursday 3 May
11:25-13:05
WASA seminar, Education
Education Faculty
Thursday 3 May
5:30-6:30
Palaeobiology Lecture
Natural History Museum
Thursday 3 May
7pm
Media Freedom Day Lecture
Barratt 1
Thursday 3 May
7pm
OTHER ITEMS e.g. News in brief
Exam time-table coming out (vox pops)
Sources
SRC Academic Officer
Faculty Heads
Academic Planning Office
Departmental Secretaries
List servs
Contact List
i battled trying to put these things in tables and i gave up. so if one of you can do it that would be lovely...please add the rest of what we have 'cause this is all i have.
Roles
Sub-editor: Ian
Communications Manager: Luke
Beats
SRC Academic Councellor, General Scouring: Luke
Humanities, Law, Education: Tim
Commerce: Nompumezo
Faculty of Science, Faculty of Pharm, Dean of Research: Samantha Scott & Ian Sieborger
Story ideas
FEATURES
F-Size and shape- numbers
F-Extended Studies and how to do a BA
[Luke] not started
F-Lecturers' Pay
NEWS
Lecture by Praeg
Luke- in production
Expected this week
Sociology Lectures
Tim- in production
Expected this week
ISER article on std of living
Ian-next week
Geography article on Rooibos
Ian
Bio-fuels
Ian-done
Law dept moot court final and winners announcements
Tim- in production
Expected this week
Environmental Conference in Durban
Future
Rhodes Summer School
Future
Law week for Law dept
Statistics seminars
Thursday 3 May
11:25-13:05
WASA seminar, Education
Education Faculty
Thursday 3 May
5:30-6:30
Palaeobiology Lecture
Natural History Museum
Thursday 3 May
7pm
Media Freedom Day Lecture
Barratt 1
Thursday 3 May
7pm
OTHER ITEMS e.g. News in brief
Exam time-table coming out (vox pops)
Sources
SRC Academic Officer
Faculty Heads
Academic Planning Office
Departmental Secretaries
List servs
Contact List
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