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.