My 2024 Journalism Reflection

 Part 1:

Throughout the year of 2024 I have been undertaking my Post graduates diploma in Journalism while specializing in photography. My own Post Graduates Diploma was a different experience to a typical PGDip as I had completed the necessary photography and media law and ethics all within 2023. Due to this, I was able to continue my own specialization of photography into the fourth year and I was given the opportunity to work within the Grocott’s Mail news room and I worked as the head of photography under Cue Media and National Arts festival for 2024. I am very humbled and grateful at the individuals and the exceptional individuals met through these experiences.

My experience in the newsroom and community journalism has been a difficult learning experience within Makhanda and there are many challenges which delay the journalism process. However, I believe it contains deep seeded issues which promote and allow for corruption, negligence and the disrespecting of the journalism sphere by the municipality and those responsible for the relay and release of information for the public.

Makhanda contains a peculiar political and civic context which journalism in particular struggles due to the inabilities of the civic responsibilities of the municipality in certain capacities. My focus in particular would come to the ability to gain and access information from these parties in which to inform the public or at least provide explanation for certain circumstances around Makhanda. This includes the progress of upgrades to fundamental structures which directly affect the entirety of Makhanda. This includes service delivery, provisions of essential needs(water and electricity) and the informing of outlets or even the public of these situations.

The media presence in Makhanda is easily overlooked and it is very easy to be uninformed in Makhanda around current affairs as a student or resident. Grocott’s is one of the main sources of information within Rhodes University excluding Student media such as “Activate”. Dueactivity and relevance I would personally not consider them a reliable source of news. Other independent outlets reporting around Makhanda include Port Alfred based publication “Talk of the town” which can be quite worrying as throughout the year this publication would be first to report numerous vital stories that Grocotts and other local outlets should be able to report on initially. This entails that the media does not hold much precedent in Makhanda and the municipality voluntarily and intentionally goes days and weeks without communication due to situations in which they can not or just will not communicate the progress of town-based queries.

 Makhanda public departments are unresponsive and very docile in the activity in Makhanda and in regards to public safety Hi-tec, a private security company handles the bulk of physical and manual demand with the police force being those who are able to process and move the justice system. Makhanda is also a very segregated community by way of standard/quality of living. Many students and residents in Makhanda have never entered Joza and the location which is also the majority of Makhanda. To many the extent of how dire the conditions in Makhanda only stretch to potholes and service delivery without even understanding that some residents and neighborhoods in Joza have leaks and sewage that is untreated for up to months. Weeks without water and so the urgency of these issues in Joza are not as apparent to those with more resources to privately alleviate them. Grocott’s is very effective in being able to have news regarding the entirety of Makhanda as well as being connected to both sides.

Throughout my academic year I was always told to receive communication from one man in terms of anything to do with the municipality. This was the Municipal spokesperson and time and time again I was simply greeted with disregard as well as complete disrespectful and dismissive behavior which would deter any journalist from willingly choosing to attempt to work with this entity. This is entirely my own experience with the spokesperson however after delayed response, no feedback and a year of battling and fighting to receive communication which would conclude with my own pursuit into the water suitable in Makhanda in regards to the James Kleynhans water treatment plant and after an interview and confirmation by Amatolo water that the sufficient upgrades were complete to operate and provide Makhanda water.

Being a community journalist or working in the interest of providing information to the public is severely hindered and even halted by the municipality as there is no other methods of receiving reliable information on the municipality other than the entity itself and intentionally or not have multiple times throughout the year, withheld neglected and disregarded the concerns and cries of help by the people of Makhanda. The public has undertaken several obstacles themselves with private companies, entities and even groups of individuals taking to the roads in an attempt to rehabilitate the shocking states of Makhanda roads. This is even further seen with efforts by the Social Employment fund who undertake many community projects in which assists the state of Makhanda and all of these efforts are an even more substantial issues that the municipality just is unable to effectively and productively address the peoples issues and be transparent in the challenges at hand that they face.

This is a recurring issue which is crippling the Makhanda economic state and the learning experience which was initially provided after editor Linda Pona left was less than ideal and felt as if we were working to mitigate damage to the municipality. My issues and delays were never addressed properly and often I found myself stuck without a resolution with no communication or effective solution made by the current editor. Instead I was given vague comments in which no actual information or suggestion was given and deadlines were still enforced and rather than assist when I had publicly noted multiple times that I would not be able to finish articles. The editor chose to just state “we will just leave the story, or continue working until it's ready”. There was no learning environment and frankly what I experienced after the initial departure of our editor is simply an extremely toxic and unworkable environment for my own personal development.

Part 2: My Journalism

My PGDip year of 2024 where in Grocott’s Mail was a weekly requirement which allowed me to produce stories and share the stories of those within Makhanda has been an insightful and meaningful experience. Not only did all the PGDip students have to overcome obstacles and challenges of unfamiliarity and a changing of faculty responsible throughout the year from our original editor to our course coordinator. There have been many circumstances which posed a challenge on the department and Grocott’s and has served to be learning experiences, however within the academic year we were able to have three different editors in which were able to give us experience within the journalistic world as well as the chaos within the National Arts Festival. One of these being our initial editor Linda Pona had set a standard in which after her leave was never fully regained and although editor Luvuyo Mjekula ensured that Grocott’s continued publication and stories were still produced weekly, certain aspects of the newsroom and working within it became very difficult personally which was discussed but never resolved for myself. Grocott’s allowed us the opportunity to work under Devon Koen for Cue Media which  itself allowed us to be one of the main creators involved in Cue during National Arts Festival 2024. 

What I personally have learnt as a media practitioner is the ruthlessness and the attitude in which municipal and government officials project towards journalists is very negative within Makhanda and these issues are extremely apparent and the state of the town is never addressed or explained by the municipality and the media in Makhanda can never receive straight and productive answers. This is the first difficulty I encountered when engaging with the municipality and their ability to simply ignore the state of Makhanda and residents within their jurisdiction. Days, weeks without an explanation for water and random power outages.

With this in mind, the landscape of Makhanda also improved my confidence in approaching individuals for information as well as my own research and deduction methods have been able to improve through the time I have spent working on  individual articles. In addition to all the issues faced by residents of Makhanda there remains a large presence and continued push by those in the community. Organizations and efforts led by Rhodes University, The Social Employment Fund and numerous NGOs and institutions remain a pillar of town and efforts such as these demonstrate the power of the community and what the community can do.

 I believe my ability to write and produce information from interviews, research and such have improved due to my own development and attempting to refine the research process.