Those six little words...

As I quietly sat in the sparsely occupied journalism lecture, I waited patiently as I wondered what book the lecturer was going to read to us today. Noticing that no books were placed on the counter, I slowly grew suspicious of what was to come...

"Write a six word memoir in the next five minutes." she explained, as a hush slowly settled into the corners of the room. Our life story in six words? You're kidding, right? I sat perplexed. I felt exposed and naked in my inability to capture the essence of my life in those six words. This was amplified as all those around me almost instantaneously started writing at their mini autobiographies. Where do I even start? What do I focus on? How could six words possibly explain the complexities of my life? Every aspect of it, every experience, every hardship and every moment of glory has shaped me into the young woman that I am today. How do I discern which of those were more important than others?

I remembered a book that I read about a year or two ago that comforted me in my few moments of unease. It is called "Saturday" and was written by Ian McEwan. What struck me most about this book was that it was in its entirety (over 300 pages) devoted to intimately and meticulously describing every detail of a single day in a man's life, named Henry Perowne. Through this book Ian McEwan showed just how precious every moment of our lives are. He proved its worth. That it's worth remembering, worth telling, and definitely worth writing about. Yet, here I was, a year later, trying to sum up my life's story in merely six words.

Words have such importance and carry so much power within them. As journalists, we need to truly understand the value of life and consider the manner in which we portray the lives of the individuals whose stories we are telling. How can we as writers reduce an individual's entire life into a couple of pages, into an article, or even into six, measly, little words?

But here's my attempt. My six words...

Born to love...passionately, truly, unconditionally.

Siphamandla Bofu

Have you find it hard to really understand how your sport is reported by journalism?.. oh well remember that sport is not just up and down movement it is part of our life, it brings people together and has for instance cricket been appropriated to appeal to huge number of people it has become part of who we are, forms part of our identity, we nationalised sport, there is no sport for certain group of people. sport has become food for our souls, healing nations if you have been struggling to get platform to discuss the issues concerning your soprt and giving opinions on how it should be covered 'journ inside out' is without a doubt is your answer then.

In our day the roporters seems to be more interested in scandals happening in sport rather than the original sport, you can think about how many soccer newspapers are out there, megazines and even every prodcasting campany have a section put a side for the beutiful game is that not enough to inform you how important sport is to our miserable life in all the spheres of earth. You

get in your house, sit on the couch, and turn on your tv you will see floods of sports adverts by sportsmen, they can either be used to advertise clothes and even social issues they use these sportman to make profit and even use them to win great pool of uncommited number of audiences. Because these people are always seen everyday in our media, they are then percieved as trustworthy since familiarity confers. so is it not importent that our sport is covered with a great eal of circumspection?, by this i mean our sport should atleast be covered with greate deal of accuracy and dignity our sportsmen should be seen as heroes rather that media palookas.

Beeing a sport fanatic myself these are kinds of questions i ask myself everytime i touch a sport newspaper or gaze at sports tv broadcasts. Hoever it is not enough to sit down and complain 'jour inside out' group stood up and created this blog that aim to remove this anxiety so that we could together with our dear audiences enjoy a free platform to discuss these issues and eventually come up with a solution remember what troubled waters authour said "dont ask what your nation can do for you instead ask what you can do for your nation and this is what enathi anica siphamandla and sibongiseni are proving, put us to the challenge.

Everytime you logon to "journ inside out" then to the section reporting on sport you wont be asking the same questions you were asking before joining up to this blogg. here you will be coming up with issues that you.. you yourself have recognised and some you have not realised yet,with tips of how can perfect sport reporting can be achieved by journalists and media students. By visiting this site you will also develop a critical way of understanding our sport as we are living in a world where propagandas is major and a way of figthing rivals to gain power over people.

Remember that in south africa we boast of our diverse cultures, these diverse cultueres are evident in our sports as we are one of the countries with varieties of sports genres if not all, for instance we have wresttling, cricket,swimming,soccer,rugby,jupming etc and these sportsgenres are not only for fun but they bring a sense of nationality, our rainbow nation.

Who am I?-Enathi

Have you ever wondered on how Journalism really impacts on the society? How Journalists through their words actually form rules and norms within our societies? How the journalistic texts and various articles that you have read throughout your own life have made the decisions that you were battling with? Well, you can wonder no more because within Journ-inside out these issues will be discussed, analysed and dealt with to find the core reason as to why Journalism forms social implications such as propaganda within our lives. Within this part of the blog, issues such as the following will be discussed and Journalists like you, have the privilege to comment and make your voices heard!

· How physical pressures are pressed on males and females on how to dress, what is acceptable and what is not acceptable on how they should conduct themselves within society. For example, woman are suppressed on how they should act feminine and speak in a certain tone while the perfect man who owns a six pack is instilled in our minds to be…HOT! What about those people who are gays and lesbians, who decides if they are deviant and why?

· How students within society are being influenced each and everyday by texts written in magazines and newspapers such as the current implementations of technological devises which means that less people are reading books, but the question that arises is what happened to the reading culture? Without reading will the youth be able to achieve a degree if they are reading less?

· Why is it that in the youth’s mind parties and the wild life are more appreciated than books which guarantee much success for future purposes?

These and many more other issues will be discussed within this part of the blog through various texts that will be used as various points. It will be a very creative section that will be filled with videos and pictures of people, mainly other students and the youth of what they think about these kind of social phenomena. The reason why this topic is chosen is that propaganda is a vast subject matter as it alters the ideas of the society by manipulating people to act and think in certain ways. As journalists it is important that we unpack these social phenomena through interactive discussions in order for people to be aware that most of the time, the most fancy or luxurious items that are sold at commercial industries are not the most crucial life needs. Therefore lets discuss and maybe attempt to try and break free of the chains that other journalists, through their use of words within particular articles have put as the “normal” thing to do in our society…what change will you implement? It starts with you; it starts with our forum in Journ-Inside out.

Who am I?

Alright, so here we are...you're sitting at your computer, maybe with a cup of something hot on the desk beside to you, wondering what to do with this blog. Should you become a follower? Or should you quickly click by and roam around the web to find another one of the millions of blogs out there in the hopes of replacing this one?

I recently heard that what you get out of journalism deeply reflects what you as an individual bring to it. So let me make the decision for you and ignite our relationship by telling you a bit about who I am and what I hope to bring to the journalistic realm.

To put it simply..."My name is Jansen van Vuuren...Anica Jansen van Vuuren"...(doesn't quite work with my name does it? ha ha) I am ambitious -a perfectionist (one could say), I'm hardworking and a full-out hopeless romantic. I have stared some of life's horrors straight the eye and have still managed to come out on top. I am dramatic, opinionated, arty, but more importantly I am passionate, creative and quite frankly put my heart and soul in to everything that I do.

The way I view the world is rather unique in its own respect. When I walk outside I see the world as a potential for a masterpiece. I see compositions, colours and textures that could be woven into the most beautiful images and designs. For me an old barren tree, some flowers, and maybe a dirt road craft the lines, shades and components of a fantastic photo landscape. I don't see a pair of simple beaded earings but rather an opportunity of an intricate yet dazzling macro photo or an exciting skeleton for a breathtaking design.

To me words are nothing but an aid to express true passion, and if used correctly it can truly change someone's life. I love the effect a beautiful image or a stunning piece of writing can have on someone's life. It is for this reason that I am here. I want to help you. I want to discover with you, entertain you, share with you and hopefully along the line give you something you will never forget.

Life as a journalism student is exiting and creates an opportunity for so much discovery. Although I don't claim to know everything and am uncovering the life of journalism with you, I can only hope that you will also share all that you can with me. Each author in this blog will focus on an aspect of journalism that they are truly passionate about. This will create a well rounded journalistic blog that you just simply won't be able to replace.
So...decision made?

Welcome...

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