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?
Showing posts with label Rhodes University. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Rhodes University. Show all posts
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.
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. "
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!
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!
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?
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.
· 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.
