I interviewed George Euvrard, the dean of education, yesterday. He was extremely helpful and informative. What helped, of course, is that he knew my dad from his high school days. Amazing what help a little personal connection can be. It's something I must bear in mind for the civic mapping. In fact, during the interview, he kept on calling me by my dad's name by accident!
Anyway, Euvrard was very eager to explain the background behind his faculty's corner of the size and shape debate as much as possible, to make sure we didn't get the context wrong. So the information I got from him was rather interesting. It turns out that Naledi Pandor had a meeting with the education faculty last year, where she said she was impressed with Rhodes's quality of training and our throughput, so she wanted us to do more and take on more students.
He also was very transparent about the faculty's future plans for its size and shape. He outlined the whole plan to me as it stands, and invited me to the next faculty board meeting, where the issue would be discussed. It'll be after the deadline for our portfolios, but I may well go anyway, just to make sure the article is as up to date as possible when it gets published in Activate next term.
Another civic mapping issue I've been thinking about a lot lately has been access to the finance administrators. I asked for an interview with the Registrar: Finance, but he's on long leave until July. His secretary referred me to Sandra Stephenson at the Academic Planning office. I don't think she quite understood that I wanted to learn a bit more about the financial side of the size and shape debate in particular. I'm going back to her soon to ask for an interview with the director of the finance division, to talk with him about government funding of the university, and how expanding the university would affect the budget. I hope he'll be willing to talk with me.
We also discussed at our last news agency meeting what kind of students we should interview about the size and shape debate. Luke Reid made the valid point that first-years are quoted too often in Activate, so I've asked a PGCE student and a third-year for comment. That's another thing to note in civic mapping: how more senior students are generally more in tune with how the university works and so are more likely to offer good comment on matters like size and shape.
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Monday, May 28, 2007
An interesting technique
I was reading through last Tuesday's Grocott's (May 22) today and particularly enjoyed one article, "Fly me to the fun" on page 6, about the recent Aviation Day/Fly-in. The story used the technique of telling the story from the point of view of a visitor to the airshow: in this case, a three-year-old boy.
I think the technique helped to capture the childlike wonder one can feel at events like this, and brought readers closer to the action on the airfield. Unfortunately, the technique wasn't executed perfectly, though, and by the end of the lead paragraph I was left wondering what "Jimbo jets" and heliqwaqwas" were, before realising they were poor attempts at writing down the kid's baby talk. It's easy for this kind of writing to get patronising, or to jump in and out of the participant's viewpoint in an erratic way that simply confuses the reader. But I was still impressed with the overall idea of telling the story from a participant's perspective, rather than the traditional "all-seeing journalist" approach.
I think the technique helped to capture the childlike wonder one can feel at events like this, and brought readers closer to the action on the airfield. Unfortunately, the technique wasn't executed perfectly, though, and by the end of the lead paragraph I was left wondering what "Jimbo jets" and heliqwaqwas" were, before realising they were poor attempts at writing down the kid's baby talk. It's easy for this kind of writing to get patronising, or to jump in and out of the participant's viewpoint in an erratic way that simply confuses the reader. But I was still impressed with the overall idea of telling the story from a participant's perspective, rather than the traditional "all-seeing journalist" approach.
Friday, May 25, 2007
Pilger on Palestine
I just read a very interesting opinion piece by John Pilger on the M&G website. It's available online at http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=309403&area=/insight/insight__international/. In it, Pilger argues that Israel is slowly trying to suffocate Palestine. I first noticed the article because it was written by Pilger, and it certainly lived up to the man's reputation.
His writing plays on the emotions, with a detailed description of what it's like to live in Palestine at the moment. Now, I'm a bit sceptical about all this emotionalism, but Pilger makes it work really well towards his argument. The other thing I noticed about the piece is that although it was commentary, it was backed up by plenty of facts and statistics. I was particularly impressed by what he dug up about Israel having previously supported Hamas to fragment the Palestinian liberation movement. This showed me how an opinion piece can be far more effective if a fair amount of hard evidence is given for the opinion.
Nevertheless, it is clearly an opinion piece: I think Pilger is rather one-sided in criticising the Israelis' intent to destroy Palestine, while accepting at face value what he hears about Hamas being ready to make moves that would effectively recognise Israel. Still, it's an excellent expression of his opinion and a persuasive argument for it.
His writing plays on the emotions, with a detailed description of what it's like to live in Palestine at the moment. Now, I'm a bit sceptical about all this emotionalism, but Pilger makes it work really well towards his argument. The other thing I noticed about the piece is that although it was commentary, it was backed up by plenty of facts and statistics. I was particularly impressed by what he dug up about Israel having previously supported Hamas to fragment the Palestinian liberation movement. This showed me how an opinion piece can be far more effective if a fair amount of hard evidence is given for the opinion.
Nevertheless, it is clearly an opinion piece: I think Pilger is rather one-sided in criticising the Israelis' intent to destroy Palestine, while accepting at face value what he hears about Hamas being ready to make moves that would effectively recognise Israel. Still, it's an excellent expression of his opinion and a persuasive argument for it.
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Should have read my course outline sooner...
Yes, there's no excuse for it, I've missed half the point of personal blogging for the Writing and Editing course, and just bumbled along doing what I thought was right. If only I'd read that course outline properly from the beginning! Apologies, Sim.
I had no idea about the need to find examples of good journalism or to comment on civic mapping until I read the outline properly this afternoon. So, before I shower and jump into bed, here are a few thoughts:
Firstly, civic mapping sounds like a wonderful concept. I've always been intrigued at the way societies and spaces interact, and civic mapping sounds like a fun way to do that. I hope that as I learn more about it, I'd be able to comment more on it in this blog. I said at the beginning of the course how Rhodes is, academically at least, rather a hierarchical structure, with information generally flowing down the ranks. It looks something like this: Rhodes administration > academic staff > postgraduate students > undergraduate students > the broader Grahamstown community. The task of a journalist in this kind of world is to fetch information from the top layers, and take it down to the bottom layers, where people aren't always aware of what's going on at the top. At least that's my working hypothesis at present.
Then, while it doesn't exactly qualify as journalism, I'd like to rave about my favourite blog (other than the ones I contribute to, that is). It's www.godspolitics.org , an American site in which several bloggers speak on the connections between Christian faith and politics. It's very activist, trying to plot an alternative to the USA's Religious Right ideology in calling for a broadening of Christians' political agenda from issues like abortion and homosexuality to areas like immigration reform, pro-poor policies and opposing unjust wars. I find it often an insightful alternative commentary on the USA political scene.
I wrote in the Christians @ Rhodes blog (http://christiansatrhodes.wordpress.com) about a news-feature-cum-commentary post on www.godspolitics.org that covered the banning and later unbanning of student Christian societies at the States' Georgetown University. I thought the article was a fairly good treatment of an event and issue that spanned some time, providing plenty of background to readers like me who were unaware of the event at the beginning. But more than that, I found it thought-provoking, like good journalism should be. It encouraged me to draw links between the Georgetown situation and life here at Rhodes. The article's online at http://www.beliefnet.com/blogs/godspolitics/2007/05/nancy-chan-exiled-ministries-return-to.html .
I had no idea about the need to find examples of good journalism or to comment on civic mapping until I read the outline properly this afternoon. So, before I shower and jump into bed, here are a few thoughts:
Firstly, civic mapping sounds like a wonderful concept. I've always been intrigued at the way societies and spaces interact, and civic mapping sounds like a fun way to do that. I hope that as I learn more about it, I'd be able to comment more on it in this blog. I said at the beginning of the course how Rhodes is, academically at least, rather a hierarchical structure, with information generally flowing down the ranks. It looks something like this: Rhodes administration > academic staff > postgraduate students > undergraduate students > the broader Grahamstown community. The task of a journalist in this kind of world is to fetch information from the top layers, and take it down to the bottom layers, where people aren't always aware of what's going on at the top. At least that's my working hypothesis at present.
Then, while it doesn't exactly qualify as journalism, I'd like to rave about my favourite blog (other than the ones I contribute to, that is). It's www.godspolitics.org , an American site in which several bloggers speak on the connections between Christian faith and politics. It's very activist, trying to plot an alternative to the USA's Religious Right ideology in calling for a broadening of Christians' political agenda from issues like abortion and homosexuality to areas like immigration reform, pro-poor policies and opposing unjust wars. I find it often an insightful alternative commentary on the USA political scene.
I wrote in the Christians @ Rhodes blog (http://christiansatrhodes.wordpress.com) about a news-feature-cum-commentary post on www.godspolitics.org that covered the banning and later unbanning of student Christian societies at the States' Georgetown University. I thought the article was a fairly good treatment of an event and issue that spanned some time, providing plenty of background to readers like me who were unaware of the event at the beginning. But more than that, I found it thought-provoking, like good journalism should be. It encouraged me to draw links between the Georgetown situation and life here at Rhodes. The article's online at http://www.beliefnet.com/blogs/godspolitics/2007/05/nancy-chan-exiled-ministries-return-to.html .
Water Modelling Software
Yesterday I interviewed Prof Hughes from IWR about the institute's software for modelling supply of water resources. It'll be difficult stuff to explain in an article, because all that the software does is geared very much at specialists, but I think it's interesting and really does have an impact on how our water resources are managed. The national department of water affairs and forestry even uses the software.
At the moment, a second version of the software is being written by some people at UKZN in co-operation with Prof Hughes and David Forsyth at IWR. I've sent an email to the leader of the project at UKZN and to a user of the software in Sri Lanka, so I should have some good info for the story. I'm thinking of sending it either to Grocott's or the Daily Dispatch. So things are looking fairly good on that front.
I'm thinking of making it a longer news story, with the writing of the second version as a news hook, then explaining exactly what the software does and who uses it in paragraphs further down.
At the moment, a second version of the software is being written by some people at UKZN in co-operation with Prof Hughes and David Forsyth at IWR. I've sent an email to the leader of the project at UKZN and to a user of the software in Sri Lanka, so I should have some good info for the story. I'm thinking of sending it either to Grocott's or the Daily Dispatch. So things are looking fairly good on that front.
I'm thinking of making it a longer news story, with the writing of the second version as a news hook, then explaining exactly what the software does and who uses it in paragraphs further down.
Friday, May 18, 2007
My "There's no story" day
Sigh... Today I found out that two stories I was interested in weren't going to work out. I suspected that my Rooibos story was going to fall through because yesterday the Prof I wanted to interview about it told me that he had played only a minor role in the research on the rooibos-growing projects. That meant I had very little to hook a story onto, remaining within the confines of our beat.
Nevertheless, I went through and interviewed him this morning. It was interesting, of course, but he doesn't know enough about other Fairtrade projects in SA or about the way Fairtrade works in general to do a story on either one of those angles. I could have done a story on one of the rooibos-growing projects, but like I said in my last blog entry, it wouldn't be a great story since I can't go out to the West Coast and interview the farmers personally. They probably don't even have a contact number of their own, from what the prof tells me. So, that's one story on the backburner.
Then last night I'd also told the Activate people last night I'd do an article for them on some students who've come back from an exchange programme and are battling with one department to get credits awarded to them for it. I followed it up and the people involved didn't want to have any comments published about it, since it might jeopardise their standing with the department involved. I enquired about others who might have similar problems, and came to a dead end there too. Sigh.
But I've got another really interesting idea I'm working on at the moment. The Politics department is running a seminar on Friday at lunchtime on China's involvement with Zimbabwe, which sounds like it could be intriguing. Now, as long as it isn't cancelled because a rape awareness march is happening at the same time... - Ian
Nevertheless, I went through and interviewed him this morning. It was interesting, of course, but he doesn't know enough about other Fairtrade projects in SA or about the way Fairtrade works in general to do a story on either one of those angles. I could have done a story on one of the rooibos-growing projects, but like I said in my last blog entry, it wouldn't be a great story since I can't go out to the West Coast and interview the farmers personally. They probably don't even have a contact number of their own, from what the prof tells me. So, that's one story on the backburner.
Then last night I'd also told the Activate people last night I'd do an article for them on some students who've come back from an exchange programme and are battling with one department to get credits awarded to them for it. I followed it up and the people involved didn't want to have any comments published about it, since it might jeopardise their standing with the department involved. I enquired about others who might have similar problems, and came to a dead end there too. Sigh.
But I've got another really interesting idea I'm working on at the moment. The Politics department is running a seminar on Friday at lunchtime on China's involvement with Zimbabwe, which sounds like it could be intriguing. Now, as long as it isn't cancelled because a rape awareness march is happening at the same time... - Ian
Rooibos Tea and Fair Trade
I've just read a journal article by Etienne Nel from the Rhodes Geography department on how two isolated rural communities near the West Coast have made money by exporting rooibos tea to Northern countries through the Fairtrade network. It's very exciting stuff, and I'm throwing around a few angles I can take on the story.
It doesn't make too much sense to do an article solely on the West Coast rooibos-growers, since, well, I'm here and they're over 1 000km away by road. I could ask Nel how much he knows about other Fairtrade agricultural projects, and do a general feature on Fairtrade agricultural projects in SA, or even do a "How fair is Fairtrade?" angle looking at the benefits of selling to Fairtrade organisations versus the administrative costs, extra paperwork and tight constraints it brings.I think I could sell a feature on this to Daily Dispatch.
It's the type of story M&G might love, but they're also likely to have heard it all before. So I'll see where this goes. - Ian
It doesn't make too much sense to do an article solely on the West Coast rooibos-growers, since, well, I'm here and they're over 1 000km away by road. I could ask Nel how much he knows about other Fairtrade agricultural projects, and do a general feature on Fairtrade agricultural projects in SA, or even do a "How fair is Fairtrade?" angle looking at the benefits of selling to Fairtrade organisations versus the administrative costs, extra paperwork and tight constraints it brings.I think I could sell a feature on this to Daily Dispatch.
It's the type of story M&G might love, but they're also likely to have heard it all before. So I'll see where this goes. - Ian
Vox-popping in town...and other adventures
Jonathan Ancer asked me to write both a hard news story on the quality of life survey that ISER's planning for Grahamstown East, and a feature on Prof Valerie Moller's opinions about quality of life in Grahamstown. I suggested both these angles, and in my naivety suggested that I could do vox-pops in town to see whether people agreed with Moller's opinions for the feature story. Bad move.
I tootled off to Pick 'n Pay pretty confidently on Tuesday afternoon to start taking vox-pops. I had decided that I'd ask people how long they'd been in Grahamstown, and then whether they felt quality of life in Grahamstown had changed for better or worse during that time or since 1994, whichever was shortest. The whole point of doing the vox-pops in town was, of course, to get the opinions of regular townspeople, rather than students.
As Murphy's law would have it, the first person I meet on New Street would happen to be a close friend of mine. And he would ask me what I was doing, and I would feel obliged to interview him. Still, I thought that was fine. Students are a part of this town, after all.I walked further along and found a man standing around at the corner of Peppergrove's Allen Street exit. He gave me a great answer, and I felt like I was getting somewhere. Then I get into Peppergrove and decide to do my shopping before carrying on with the vox-pops.
I took one look at the people coming in and out of Pick 'n Pay, and another look at the Hi-Tec security guards hanging around, looking like they wouldn't appreciate me standing there interviewing randoms, and headed out of Peppergrove. I met a beggar in the road, flipped him a couple of coins and asked his opinion. It was good. I then walked on to the entrance of Checkers, asking a few people on my way for their opinions, but they're all rushing home from work, and so don't have time for a friendly reporter.
When I get to Checkers, I stand in the doorway for a while, but everyone's moving too fast for me to get a word in edgeways. Then I get sidetracked by a half-blind, drunk beggar who thinks I'm God. He twists my arm into buying him bread and amasi. Memo to myself: Never bring money with you when you do vox-pops in town. And never try doing it in the entrance to Checkers. I pray with the man, make some attempt at a theological discussion with him, then beat a hasty retreat, unnerved. He'll keep on bugging me if I stand around Checkers, and anyway, it's 5:30pm by now, so there aren't too many people around. All I have to show for my hour-long vox-popping section is four interviews: two of students, and two of black males. Not exactly what you'd call good demographics.
I came back to give another stab at it this morning. First target was a bead-seller under the arch. She couldn't speak English. Right, I'll just move on. I make my way to Peppergrove, garnering another interview as I go. There I lurk in the doorway to Pick 'n Pay (which is now mercifully clear of security guards), ready to pounce on all those soccer moms coming to do their groceries while the kids are at school. As any American politician will tell you, the soccer mom is the holy grail demographic. Once you've got her on your side, you can do anything. And anything is precisely what I do: I even load a little old lady's groceries into her boot so I can interview her, and speak to the grumpy old man waiting for his wife in the car next door.
Eventually I have my target of ten complete vox-pops with requisite variation in gender, age and race. It's taken me about two hours. It was quite an experience, but it's under my belt now. But next time I vox-pop in town, I don't think I'll be nearly as selective about my demographics, or quite as shy to pounce on people and ask them for a comment. - Ian
I tootled off to Pick 'n Pay pretty confidently on Tuesday afternoon to start taking vox-pops. I had decided that I'd ask people how long they'd been in Grahamstown, and then whether they felt quality of life in Grahamstown had changed for better or worse during that time or since 1994, whichever was shortest. The whole point of doing the vox-pops in town was, of course, to get the opinions of regular townspeople, rather than students.
As Murphy's law would have it, the first person I meet on New Street would happen to be a close friend of mine. And he would ask me what I was doing, and I would feel obliged to interview him. Still, I thought that was fine. Students are a part of this town, after all.I walked further along and found a man standing around at the corner of Peppergrove's Allen Street exit. He gave me a great answer, and I felt like I was getting somewhere. Then I get into Peppergrove and decide to do my shopping before carrying on with the vox-pops.
I took one look at the people coming in and out of Pick 'n Pay, and another look at the Hi-Tec security guards hanging around, looking like they wouldn't appreciate me standing there interviewing randoms, and headed out of Peppergrove. I met a beggar in the road, flipped him a couple of coins and asked his opinion. It was good. I then walked on to the entrance of Checkers, asking a few people on my way for their opinions, but they're all rushing home from work, and so don't have time for a friendly reporter.
When I get to Checkers, I stand in the doorway for a while, but everyone's moving too fast for me to get a word in edgeways. Then I get sidetracked by a half-blind, drunk beggar who thinks I'm God. He twists my arm into buying him bread and amasi. Memo to myself: Never bring money with you when you do vox-pops in town. And never try doing it in the entrance to Checkers. I pray with the man, make some attempt at a theological discussion with him, then beat a hasty retreat, unnerved. He'll keep on bugging me if I stand around Checkers, and anyway, it's 5:30pm by now, so there aren't too many people around. All I have to show for my hour-long vox-popping section is four interviews: two of students, and two of black males. Not exactly what you'd call good demographics.
I came back to give another stab at it this morning. First target was a bead-seller under the arch. She couldn't speak English. Right, I'll just move on. I make my way to Peppergrove, garnering another interview as I go. There I lurk in the doorway to Pick 'n Pay (which is now mercifully clear of security guards), ready to pounce on all those soccer moms coming to do their groceries while the kids are at school. As any American politician will tell you, the soccer mom is the holy grail demographic. Once you've got her on your side, you can do anything. And anything is precisely what I do: I even load a little old lady's groceries into her boot so I can interview her, and speak to the grumpy old man waiting for his wife in the car next door.
Eventually I have my target of ten complete vox-pops with requisite variation in gender, age and race. It's taken me about two hours. It was quite an experience, but it's under my belt now. But next time I vox-pop in town, I don't think I'll be nearly as selective about my demographics, or quite as shy to pounce on people and ask them for a comment. - Ian
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