sorry guys i will not be in town this weekend so if you do meet and decided how to do the size and shape story please sms me or blog it and i'll check on sunday afternoon. is the critical reflection also due on the 8th? I'm kind of unclear on that.
Mpumi
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.
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