It is all about the reader

Find the blog that makes your voice heard at:
http://uvebnpind.blogspot.com/

Exposure, drama, scandal and no gossiping these are the main aims of this blog that allows the reader the platform to express what they feel. The main target audience for this blog are students who have issues that need to be expressed. Within the blog the reader can feel a sense of a relaxed, semi-formal environment that uses a variety of colloquial, formal and jargon related language depending on the piece of writing that the authors publish.

The writing is comprehensible; the posts are still relevant in today’s era. The design of the blog also helps to create this funky feeling to the blog that is modern, expressive and yet fun.
The main articles that are published within the blog focus on politics with articles pertaining to racism; they focus on social aspects, and on journalism as a profession. The authors of the blog have also contributed to the blog by writing about their own experiences. Although within the blog the authors have not succeeded to fulfil all the required amount of work and opinions that they might have stipulated within their mission statements. The public has also not engaged as much with the blog in writing about what they feel even though they have been given the grounds to do so.

The blog is lively, interesting and worth a read for everyone interested in people who speak their mind and allow for their issues to be heard. So I have written what I like, what about you?

FINAL BLOG POST

JMS FINAL TUTORIAL

Tuesday I decided to attend a random lecture, though I was not sure of the lecture I was I attending I was at least praying to myself that it is subject I am at least close to or have little information about. I had no real reason for doing this but it is something I have never done before so I am beat anxious about it. I have no specific time of doing this, I will do it when I feel free and have nothing serious to do.
I expected people to look at me and I was praying that they do not recognise that I am a stranger; I also expected to be a bit lost as I will not know where to sit or stand. The other thing I wanted to avoid was any kind of a conversation because I did not want to get embarrassed in case someone asks me something related to the course.
It was 1:00 after I had my lunch and I had already finished my classes, I went straight to the GLT, I entered in the back door (the one facing the library). The lecture was already in progress, the lecture room was half fool, and the back sits were empty so I sat at the back alone and listen. You know what I enjoyed the lecture very much, at first I thought I was going to leave the lecture mid way but I ended up finishing the lecture.
I really enjoyed this experience, journalism can be really funny at times I mean like being asked something you have never done before is a funny question on its own. But it is a very useful question and can reveal a lot about yourself that you never know before.

RU: Blog Reviw

Blunt red pencil is a group blog by:
Ashleigh Swart
Nicola Haw
JOurnBug
Theo any
Thulani Xelelo

Considering that these are all first year student at Rhodes University, I would like to believe that this group has done a tremendous job. The blog template is not that attractive and I think this is the area they need to improve on. But what does not look good to me might be appealing to other people. But however, whatever the case might be the blog, especially by students and for student audience should at least have bright colours, black alone is very boring; mixing variety of colours for instance black with other colours would be good.
They also tackle lot of local issues which make the blog more relevant to the readers and the other good thing about this blog is that they cover stories in details, they have link for every story they have written.
The content itself, the font they are using is fair and they do not use jargon and use everyday English which makes the blog easy to read and attractive to many audiences, something central in journalism because every writer wants to be read.
However in terms of consistence there is a cause for concern because, I think it is more appealing to be consistence and by consistence, I mean they should have continuously used relatively same text colour.
All in all this is a very well written blog, you can see they have put a great deal of effort in their blog as group and individually. They have beautiful comeeko pictures as well.

http/www.twitter.com
spamie

People in power get away with crme

The Jacob Zuma case, When he raped a teenage girl. Jacob Zuma was suppose to be arrested because rape is a very serious crime but instead people were in favour of him not being arrested especially in KwaZulu Natal people did not want to believe that their future president would be a rapist and Jacob Zuma took this very light because after raping the gal he mentioned that he took a shower so has no AIDS. It was very unthoughtful of him to do that cause that girl is the same age as his daughters or younger. Imagine your child being raped by an old man like Zuma and saying those kinds of things like she wanted it, it was very wrong of him. Imagine the pain of your child being raped by an old man and this men is old enough to be her father. It was very unfair because after that Jacob Zuma continued with his life normally and perfect and the girl was take away from her mother land. She had to adapt to another country or town she was pushed away from her family, friends and every body she new. Zuma did not only lived a normal life after that he because President of our country and this was very disturbing for a ma who has done such bad things like what he has done and am very sure he never checked how the girl was doing. This very painful for the family.

A world full of "note pads and deadlines"...

A first year journalist student has nothing valuable to contribute to the world of journalism, right? Wrong! As a journalist blogger myself, I have sifted through what feels like hundreds of stale, somewhat trivial bogs throughout the year, and have found this. It can simply be defined as- a blog amongst blogs.

"Note pads and deadlines", a rather recent addition to journalism blogosphere, may not be the most visually appealing blog around, however its controversial, thought-provoking, brutally honest and challenging essence, constantly makes you re-evaluate your views on critical issues within the world today.

This blog deals with a multitude of issues, ranging from environmental, political, racial, cultural and social phenomena which constantly arouse journalists in the world today. With the use of clear, descriptive and sometimes highly amusing writing, the blog ensures that important journalistic messages come across to every reader. "Note pads and deadlines" uses thoughtful writing, yet it is still able to speak to the student journalist, allowing them to relate to every post. It is inspirational pushing journalists to reach their full potential and to truly engage with the world around them.

The visual aspects of this blog is linked directly to its witty title, as a notepad-like theme is applied throughout the blog, ultimately adding a hint of funk to the screen. It goes without saying that this blog is highly original and highly recommended to any budding journalist student.

Although the writers of this blog are based in South Africa, this enticing blog has no geographical boundaries as it spreads itself across the globe, dealing with issues that allow anyone to properly engage with the world around them. I have nothing more to say but, get out your notepad and pen, because this is a deadline you simply do not want to miss!

Head feels part of litter for an hour

FINAL JMS BLOG POST:

My heart is filled with mixed emotions that are moving at an erupt speed, congested in a limited era of the ‘battle of the fittest’ surprising enough the prickly like feelings of fear come out victorious within this heart breaking experience. My bodily movements are slow like a soft breeze on a cool sunny afternoon. My brain is receiving endless chemical reactions so that a 'constant', becomes a ‘once upon a time’ phenomenon.

This is one experience that I have never undertaken. and the task is becoming daunting by the minute. I desolately sit my back side on a hard surface, a mat, as I unwillingly reach for the main subject needed to make this task possible…my bin.

I think for what seems like eternity, as I put my head in the bin, I can feel my spinal cord stretch to its maximum and it continues to battle with this new stretch. I quickly, while shaking type 23:34 in my alarm, as this would be an exact hour to finishing my dreadful task. I quickly reminisce about the thoughts that have lead me to perform this task, as within ten minutes, my neck is so stiff as though it had been fastened tightly into its new position. My lower back also stiff and sore like pins pricking at my back. The scariest feeling is that I feel like I am in a cage due to my stationary position. With each minute passing my body aching.

For this day and this hour I feel as though my head belongs in the bin, part of the litter that one throws instinctively. The reason behind this is still hazy within my brain but I know these 60 minutes would allow me to achieve the unknown.

The time slowly passes by, and by the minute my body aches more and more, and finally…TTTTTTRRRRRRR! My alarm rings and I am finished ( excuse the pun). I literally have to wait for five minutes to pass until my body could adjust to its historical position, once more…the things Journalists do just to break free of the ideologies put within society...MY WORD!

Key-tastrophe!

I lay quietly in bed, on Tuesday afternoon, fully absorbed in an overtly dramatic episode of Desperate Housewives. Yet, in my relaxed state, a nagging feeling kept interrupting me, drowning the essence of my relaxation, as I was constantly reminded of the fact that I had not yet completed my new journalism blogging assignment. "Do something you've never done before" our journalist lecture excitedly proclaimed the previous day. That I've never done before? Really? Um...

The miserable drizzle outside intensified with every moment of my perplexity. It was only when the thick, velvet melody of raindrops dancing on the roof turned into hard distinct pounds, when I recognised that it had started to hail. In a moment of sheer brilliance I realised that dancing in hail is something I had never done before and would perfectly qualify for my assignment (no matter how painful it was). I instantly jumped out of bed to head for the door.

Filled with pluck and energy, I opened the door, and slipped the key into the security gate lock. As I turned the key, however, I found, to my horror, that it had in fact tore in half! Shocked at my astounding strength or at the simply pathetic quality of key manufacturing, I soon realised that I was stuck in my flat and had no way out. Alone and stranded, my neighbour came running when he heard me scream for help. With pliers in hand he and I both attempted to turn the very last bit of key that was sticking out of the lock. The victory was, however, short-lived as the pliers confirmed our belated hypothesis as it tore off all that what was left of the key.

In an act of desperation I plunged myself into every corner of the flat, in the hopes of finding a spare key that I was not confident even existed. It felt like hours before I came across a small, abandoned, silver key that was wedged into the corner of the kitchen cupboard, amongst the ironically dirty, cleaning products.

The key was useless to me, until I was able to remove the small fragment of metal lodged so intimately into the slit of the lock. "'n Boer maak 'n plan", I quietly whispered to myself, imagining what my mother would do in this situation. And so, for the sake of upholding the core of my cultural heritage, I simply realised that I had to force the fragment out, no matter what that would mean. With my golden, delicate and inappropriately expensive pair of tweezers in my one hand, and the stubborn industrial lock in the other, I started pinching... and pinching. It was only after twenty minutes had passed, when I was able to successfully unlock the gate and run into my long awaited freedom.

Both the hail and rain had stopped by now, leaving the familiar miserable drizzle behind to comfort me as I stood shocked, confused, and silenced by the entire scenario. I quietly returned to the safety of my bed, sat for a few moments and slowly grew pleased with the idea, that the entire ordeal was most certainly something I have never experienced before!

"shoot to kill" is moronic, imbecile and naive

Last night i watched a news bulletin on e-tv around 10:00pm. in the incident involving shooting between 5 robbers and money delivering vehicle. 4 of the robbers were shot dead in the scene while one securuty was injured, i was perplexed by the way the reporter made fun out of the whole situation, shooting of people cannot be seen as a 'win' by the government who is failing its people. it was a very emotional incident, dead people scattered all over the place uncovered. government, police and those reporetrs who are in their comfort zone must atleast respect the humanity of the black man and understand why blacks are on crime..why? if killing black people is a 'win' therefore apartheid government was victorious. the government must find another way of dealing with crime.

Reportesrs: You are the serial killers!

Continous dehumanising of african people, and its continent is a serious issue that needs close attention. We have also dealt with this issue in our journalism course in ideology and narrative and genre.

MY area of interest in these stories are the words that are used by the world reporters when depicting African situation, words such as famine, ethiopia as the "closet thing to hell on earth", dark dispairing days, congested, Crowded, flimsiest of clothing; " and when describing ppeople often as - exhausted, often woefully thin, hungry people trying to find food, criminal and corrupt As a student journalist i am worried of this continuos negative depiction of africa. Fiske in his writing of narrative and genre says that this is done deliberately, it is not seen as impacting on African peoples lives but as comfirming 'ours'. this also plays into the stereotype that Africa is a doomed continent, one of the writers once wrote "africa a country of darkness" what puzzles me is the fact that despite the increase in the level of education globally, people especially reporters continue depicting africa as place of no hope.

What not to do...

Don't we all just some times feel like this is all we're doing in the world? As budding journalism students, we need to make sure to remind ourselves that "No matter how one may think himself accomplished, when he sets out to learn a new language, science, or the bicycle he has entered a new realm as truly as if he were a child newly born into the world." - Frances Willard.

'Cannot' is only formulated within the brain

The air is congested with feelings of uncertainty as the year draws to an end and exams are drawing near...slowly but surely we all have to face them. The fear of looking at that question paper and wondering if you know all the answers or even worse...if you know anything!

One thing I believe in life is that, 'cannot' is only formulated in the brain and if one strives to get what they what they will get it. This is not to say that now you can get 100% for that law exam...come on now, you also have to be realistic about things. Dr Enathi will take you through some steps on how to achieve those goals:

1) Imagine...set your mind free and lose control of all those thoughts.

2) Within these thoughts filter a few possibilities that you want to achieve by the end of the year.

3) Take out a note pad and write all of these down.

4) While you are undertaking this task make sure you formulate a method of how you could turn these ideas into a reality.

5) On your wall or somewhere visible, put this quote by Marilyn vos Savant, " Being defeated is often a temporary condition. Giving up is what makes it permanent." With this quote in mind you will think twice about not fulfilling what you set out for yourself.

This is a very broad method of achieving what you want but remember that if you truly want something with no hesitation, you ought to fight to get it. As Brian Tracy states in a book entitled Goals " One of the rules for success is this: It doesn't matter where you're coming from; all that matters is where you're going. And where you are going is solely determined by yourself and your own thoughts."

Whichever goal you intend on fulfilling may you strive and undertake the task of making it achievable with care. Do it legally, and for all those who will be writing examinations soon...take a stand and prove to yourself that you CAN, after all you are worth the success you receive.

ispeakmymind

Racism (in south african context) is the indocrination of the black men's mind to believe that being called 'black','nigger' or 'kaffir' is an insult and therefore whoever call those names should be punished.

This is pathetic.... WHY?

For non black to keep a black man happy for instance don't dare mention those words. but should a black man mess up the names will come into play.

This puts black skinned in other's mercy

For example to keep a lame/blind person happy one must pretend not to recognise his disabilities but when conflict arise the names come to play, and what a lame man does he lay charges or curse that "your kids will be like me or say i did't choose to be diasbled".

In my way of seeing things its the same for racism it is like saying "i did'nt choose to be black therefore interpealing to the call that black is inferior and has to be continuously proteced from the more 'perfect skinned', some even pray that "Oh god, why I was black in the first place?"

To explain the process of racial reconcilation is not to explai it away.

A racist person is a pretending person, like a first thaught is the true charater of a person.

Of all the cases i have tell of people complain that they have been called 'nigger',I guess it is sometimes about wanting someone's attention.

In many circumstances once a black person get rich he tends to look down to his people and associates himself with white and in doing so he/she tends to forget her colour and when white man pulls the race card he feels offended because he is being associated with people he believe is head and shouldiers above them, i therefore say we should not put a great deal of emotins to race, because it does exist and the only problem with these steriotypic ideas is that they are so entangled to the truth. Be black and proud.

Where is the love?

Why can't the field of journalism deal with issues of the heart? Is it too subjective? Not appealing enough? Has the subject of love gotten so cliché that it is somehow a taboo for me to write about it in a journalism blog? Well if it is- too bad, because I simply cannot keep this in any longer.

You can consider me a hopeless romantic. I believe in true love and am not afraid to admit it. I fantasise about the day I get to grow old with that one person, and am tired of being criticised for it.

The stare I receive from society that insults my intelligence, by diagnosing me with some form of naive abnormality for believing in commitment, tears at me every day. How can anyone believe that the "one night stands", "cheating is acceptable" and "marriage is jail" ideology society has somehow developed in the last few decades, could bring real happiness?

Is it not logical to think that the false ideas of love and the flexibility of social mores in society has something to do with the rising statistics on divorce?

How could something so pure and extraordinary, become so polluted? Commitment has somehow become the little, but very evident, piece of spinach everyone tries to avoid, that sneaks into the gaps of your two front teeth. It humiliates you, and fills you with shame, until you feel nothing but relief when you flick it out and throw it into the wind.

I may be alone in this, but I believe that life is nothing without love. So if my happiness means being an outcast and walking around with an entire vegetable garden between my teeth, I have nothing to say but, "Let's start sowing!"

The increasing of crime and diseases

The first article I read from The Time Online was about a pregnant teenager who died with her baby after contracting swine flu. This article falls under bad news in the news value. I would say that this story is focusing on the resent disease that has hit our countries, for example here they are talking about England and Scotland. Basically in this article they are talking about pregnant people who die before and after giving birth to their children. This article is very much clear and talks about how pregnant women can protect their selves and in these two countries its estimated that there were 100,000 cases of this swine flu in July, this means that a lot more other people are in danger. The other article was from The Herald and it was about three arrested men for selling the RDP houses. Its about three men selling houses that belonged to the government, they sold these houses because they wanted peoples money but in the end they were caught and sent to jail, these men were very old, they were51, 36 and 37.In the end this caused people to be violent( those in the RDP houses). I also read a story from the Grocott’s Mail about a 23 year old guy who killed a local business and his domestic worker. These stories are what is happening in our everyday lives. These stories are like a cry for help, its something bad and people need to be helped.

Bon appatit...

In the world of journalism, interacting with people is nothing but key. This stretches from truly understanding a client's visions for their newest logo design, to needing to fluff up a celebrity's ego to ensure their sound participation in an upcoming interview.

I have about a year's worth of waiteressing experience behind my name by now. And let me tell you something, waiteressing is no different to the sometimes daunting requirements of producing solid journalistic works. Just last night I needed to flutter my eyelids, compliment, and pretend to care about stories, I quite frankly couldn't be bothered about, for the sake of building a relationship with my customer (and of course for a 'solid' tip.) I needed to grasp a comprehensive understanding of the 'feeding' needs of my customers and make sure to present them with dishes that would undoubtedly tantalise their expectant taste buds.

An important lesson that I have only recently come to realise, and you should realise as soon as possible, is that all aspects of your life, feed into the multiple facets of journalism. We, as journalism students, still have so much to learn about this all encompassing subject (we are reminded of that every day) yet opportunities constantly present themselves to us that provide us with the potential to acquire a new set of skills or level of understanding that could make the world of difference to the eminence of our work.

In order to be a successful journalist, we need to, quite frankly, open our eyes. Break the walls of your thinking and allow yourself to experience life on a whole new level. See the world as what it is to a journalist... a playground of endless opportunity.

Education leads to dissatisfaction

It is very demoralizing to find that in certain parts of the country children are not given the opportunity to prove themselves. This is due to factors such as the one in the following article from The Herald. According to the article written by the Herald Reporters the Department of Education will not implement any new steps into improving the current conditions from the Nelson Mandela Bay.

Issues such as these could lead children to quit and give up on school and in actual fact the next President of South Africa could be among these children. Education is very important as without it, there is not much anyone can do. The question is, “when will we allow these children the chance to break free of the ideologies that they cannot do it and they cannot make it big?”

Analysing table 3 from the Department of education statistics for 2009, it is evident that the amount of learners in the Eastern Cape are decreasing and so are the schools being built although the amount of educators is increasing. In provinces such as Gauteng and the Northern Cape the amount of learners is increasing. Therefore the Department of Education needs to uplift the education throughout the Eastern Cape.If need be, they need to increase the infrastructure money within the budget, something needs to be actively done.

Tony Blaire once stated, “The child with a good education flourishes. The child given a poor education lives with it for the rest of their life. "

news commentary

Glenn Agliotti lambasted - headline
This is the headline was in the Mail& Guardian news paper, about the ongoing story of the convicted drug trafficker Glenn Agliotti, a very interesting story. The date was the 14th of October 2009
Effectiveness-the headline to some extent is effective, it drew my attention; Agliotti was called by the state to testify against Jackie Selebi, by reading the headline you get the sense of what is going to follow. He seemed to know more about him and now he is exposed by the court that he is a liar. The headline is related to the story and the incident that happened in court, of him confessing that he lies when it suit him.

Verb-the verb lambasted is very exaggerating and aggressive for instance it’s as if Agliotti has been confronted for lying, also the verb is ridiculous and dehumanising.
Short-the head line is short and catchy; you do not need to read for long a long time. It is just one glance and you got the entire headline.
Attractive -language and raising question: the headline is attractive especially the words and used in the headline. Agiotti has been on the news recently for all the wrong doing so every thing negative about him is interesting to large number of audiences. As people always want to know what is going to come next.

Clear and accurate- it is not accurate why is he lambasted. You have to be someone following the story to understand why he is lambasted, you cannot only read the headline and get the sense of what is going to follow, unless you knew that it was his day in court but the headline is clear, only three words used.

Informative- This headline contain who and what, the where, why and how is not there in the headline. it is informative in the sense that to people who are following every bits of this story they will know what the news is about, but to someone who is not following the story I am not sure that is the case.
An accurate headline would be; Agliotti lambasted in court for lying

DOUGHNUTS, no more guilt!

Trans fat and health control have become the main concern for the Health Department in South Africa. One of the recent articles is found in Sowetan, the fact that some action is being implemented on problems concerning weight sets my heart at ease. This article is characterised to be good news as it particularly has got positive overtones such as that of people not having to worry about consuming mainly the ‘comfort foods’ that have a lot of fat in them. It has got relevance in today’s era whereby many children are obese due to lack of exercise and motivation; this could be attributed to the increasing technological advancements.

News24 explains the process to us more explicitly to get a better understanding concerning whether we really do agree with the implementation of these laws in South Africa. The article is effective as it engages more with the reader and the terms presented in the opening paragraph are hardly jargon related terms. The article is clear and accurate pertaining to the fact that it explains the scientific terms. The headline is an analogy pertaining to humans. The article is broken down to sub headings and the information contained within these is factual as it contains what, where, when, why and how. The genre of the article pertains to all readers and therefore the article has a value of magnitude as health is an important issue. Within the article most commas are put behind the most important words that the reader should adhere to.

Another headline to consider: Trans fat serves a sentence by law.

One, two...only two fingers left

A wave of nausea crept over me Monday morning during my habitual Internet browse for news of the art community. I came across, seemingly hundreds of articles describing the horrifying accident of a sixteen year old student, who lost eight fingers during an art class at Giles School, in Boston.

BBC news reported that, in order to create the desired sculpture of her hands, the child was instructed, by her teacher, to place her hands into a bucket filled with plaster of Paris. Shortly afterwards, the girl realised, to her horror, that she was stuck. NewsFlavor explains that up to 60C can be generated within large quantities of plaster of Paris. This means the girl sat there, hopeless, while her hands were being burnt beyond recognition.

She underwent not one, but twelve operations and was still left with only two fingers. Take another look at the photo. Can you imagine the pain that girl had to endure?

A very effective article on this incident was published by the Boston target. It was highly informative, highlighted the importance of pupil safety in schools and emphasised the school's failure to report the incident to the Health and Safety Executive.

This outrageous tale does, however, not end there. A fine of a mere £19,000 was issued to the school. This is, in my opinion, nothing but an insult to the severity of the injury that that poor girl experienced. She is crippled, maimed and forever marked by this calamity, and £19,000 is all they could give?

How could this possibly be called justice?

Is there such a thing as "perfect"?

So what is it about the clothes that I wear that makes other's within the society I am in analyse, interrogate and examine? What is it about my weight that makes people talking, questioning and asking? So what! is the answer...

In an article I recently read on one of the woman’s magazine, Marie Claire, a woman by the name of Ashley Falcon writes about how much she is a 'big girl' within her society and how she has struggled with her weight ever since she has been growing up. She then writes about the clothes that she wears in order to 'hide' her weight. The article written by Falcon is in fact very subjective and this is one tool used by a writer in order to manipulate the audience to agree with the subject matter of their respective piece of writing. One could argue that this is exactly what my piece of writing is doing to you, the reader...I am manipulating you to believe that what I am writing is true. Well let me just say that I believe that what I am writing is true and if you feel the urge to analyse it thoroughly before taking any further actions in implementing what I am about to say in your life, please do not hesitate to...by all means be my guest.

Weight is one of the things that has negative connotations within a society for females if you are ‘fat’; this excludes the African societies that mainly prefer big woman. In the western society that many of us have been bought into (yes you too) we have grown up knowing that weight is a sensitive issue and one should not be big and fat as this would mean scary looks coming your side on all corners and a certain feeling of uncomfortably. We should credit most of this to the texts written by journalists about 'the perfect body' as if this exists? No it does not! As individuals we have formulated a certain ideology of the perfect body with the help of journalistic articles. Going back to my point that the subjective matter of how a writer constructs their text will manipulate the intended host in many ways.

"Woman dress for other woman. They may dress to please the man as well, but usually it is what other woman say that clinches the decision between the short skirt and the long skirt." This is quote taken from a book by Bishop Lea and Bailey Covert (1989:4) titled, The fit or fat woman.

This quote is actually true if one thinks about it, woman are advertised to be these perfect creations and most woman would love to live up to be the perfect woman and this is where the dress code fits in. The ideology behind a scruffy dressed woman entails negative connotations and that is why a woman would always want to look her best. The book goes into explaining the issue of weight by stating that, " A woman’s appearance is not only scrutinized more carefully by other woman but often unfairly criticized by the woman herself " Bishop Lea and Bailey Covert (1989:3).

So my task for all the females out there for the rest of the year is that you must love who you are because if you do not, then you must go and dig a hole for yourself!...just joking. On the serious side; females please let us not let these journalist’s through their powerful words in magazines, manipulate us to think that there is a thing such as the ‘perfect body that exists.’ Be who you are and dress the way you feel comfortable in, easier said than done? I know! Rather implement the change now before its too late and you find yourself in hectic depression mode. One of our woman ambassadors, Oprah Winfrey once said,

“As you become more clear about who you really are, you'll be better able to
decide what is best for you - the first time around.”

So be clear about what YOU really want and what YOU feel because it is all about YOU and not the writer who tells you what to do! (Excluding myself of course). Make sure that in life you always read the fine print: You are beautiful the way you are females, so do not change to become what others want you be unless the change in itself will bring you a world of happiness, break free of the ideologies that are put out there within societies!

WATERY WONDERS...




Pic By Enathi Mqokeli

Who you are as a journalist

I am a journalist student from Rhodes university. As a journalist we are thought how to right and report on stories so as a journalist i would like to be out doors and be able to go out and research stories and find stories that happen in our country and other countries. As a journalist i want to help people whose voices cannot be heard like people who are not in a well developed country, people who have no say in how their leaders should be rule the world they live in. So its our duty as journalists to report and make sure that their stories are heard. I want to report news from my country and other countries and see what other people go through and experience the way they live. I want to be an observer .I want to do hard news in a kind of a way. As a journalist i report about important stories. As a journalist i have to attend a lot of functions to experience and observe. I am a journalist who loves something that i do, to get stories i interview people and also do interviews. Be in the field of reporting. Voice peoples views and talking to people who saw what you are writing about.

Peeling away...

Pic: Anica Jansen van Vuuren

Black, white and pink...does it matter?

On Thursday’s I usually have my English language and Linguistics tutorial, and it so happens that this term we are discussing the notion of texts and how they relate to ideology. This last Thursday though, was special in a kind of way, I already have the date marked on my diary: 01 October 2009, the first day of the month and already remarkable occurrences are evolving...and so I am looking forward to what this month has in store for me.

We were doing chapter 2 on how to analyse text mainly looking at the functions and stylistic transformations. We get to the usual of discussing the week’s workpoints (something more like homework). In coming to question 2, taken from a newspaper article dealing with unrest during the apartheid era. We had to identify any stylistic transformations and describe how they inform us about the ideology that underlies each passage. This was the statement from extracted form the newspaper.

“In an explosion of unrest at least 14 blacks were shot dead in Uitenhage today. A significant number were wounded. Between 3000 and 4000 ritous blacks were on their way to white suburbs in the town when the violence broke out."

While other tutlings were analysing the text for stylistic transformations such as passivation, adverbial fronting and agent deletion. I was too busy analysing the text for the meaning it contained. One word that stroke me was the use of ‘at least’ in the first sentence. Me and my friend sitting next to me were so perplexed. At the thought of the word ‘at least’ and all the connotations embedded in this one word. Did the journalist mean there needed to be more ‘black people’ dying? That there were not enough deaths regarding the fact that there was unrest and only a few blacks died in it. ? Then I read on, only to realise that another derogatory term had been used, ‘riotous’ blacks and now this term required the use of a dictionary. The meaning of this term I came to realise is, “ involving wild and uncontrollable behaviour” and then the question arose, is this the picture the journalist is trying to convey? Wild people, angry citizens, uncontrollable individuals?

What ideological terms arise from the word ‘blacks?’ ...evil? Insane? Stupid? and violent? Why can’t we be put as positive in the eyes of a society that consists of diverse cultures? In a book written by our own freedom fighter, Nelson Mandela titled, “the struggle is my life” on page 222, in an address to rally in Durban that happened in 1990. One of the opening paragraph states, “In Natal, apartheid is a cancer in our midst, setting house against house, and eating away the precious ties that bound us together. This strife among ourselves wastes our energy and destroys our unity. My message to those of you involved in the battle of brother against brother is this: take your guns, your knifes, and your pangas, and throw them into the sea. Close down the death factories. End this war now!”

I re-read this statement and I realised that it has now been 19 years since Mandela has been stating words of encouragement within different races to get along with each other hole heartedly. Throughout the year, for Journalism, we have been touching on the issue of race. One can get the tendency to become bored with it by now, but we really need to talk and discuss this issue thoroughly. Yes, most people are not racist but when you come to think of the past you fill like digging a hole and putting yourself in it. It is a sensitive issue and the fact that it is still sensitive means we have not come to the root of the problem, as the more we talk and express and understand each other-it will become less of a sensitive issue. Firstly, Journalist’s through their articles get the privilege to achieve their view point even if they are not allowed to enquire their subjective opinions within the article.

Within society the ideology behind the notion of black people is still viewed negatively( you and I both know it) even though there might be slow progress into changing this notion...we do have white friends who understand and love us and we do the same right?

In actual fact the world may have come to peace with apartheid for now but black people, deep down still have troubled hearts that yearn for lives that once mattered but now to be remembered and mourned for. I have come to know that even though the skin to all of us, when cut, the same striking red blood is shed. This is the same skin that can have detrimental effects on a human soul, heart and life. How life can be so miserable and unpleasant when the past is bought forward, to a young black girl even post-1994. Though the rights given to us dimly exist, it is not something within the surface that matters but what is deep down. That is still difficult to talk about, troubling enough to speak about and difficult to hear about. As Albert Einstein once said, “It’s every man’s obligation to put back into the world at least the equivalent of what he takes out of it.”

LET US EMBRACE THE COLOUR DIFFERENCES AS ART, LET US NOT LOOK DOWN ON EACH OTHER! so what do you think...are you in or not?