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.