Future Journalists Programme 2007-9
A programme for 15 students selected from tertiary institutions around the country was conceptualised around the 2007 Highway Africa conference. It was recognised that the 11th edition of the Highway Africa conference would serve a number of purposes for the FJP scholars:
- Get the students together for a thorough briefing on the FJP objectives and plans
- Bring the students together to meet and get to know each other
- Give the students a unique learning and networking opportunity
- Expose the students to media professionals from all over the continent and in the process inspire them on possibilities
- Begin the process of unfolding the FJP programme
The students came from seven institutions were, namely: Walter Sisulu University, University of Fort Hare, Tshwane University of Technology, Cape Peninsula University, University of Kwa-Zulu Natal, University of Johannesburg, and Rhodes University.
With the assistance of Rhodes Journalism lecturers in writing and new media a programme was conceived for the FJP scholars, which included writing and editing and new media workshops where the students produced a blog (http://zajournalist.blogspot.com/). Students also posted articles and story ideas for City Press’s “Your South Africa” campaign. This will continue in 2008.
Future Journalists Programme in 2008 and Beyond
FJP unfolded this year as a sustainable national programme with a range of partners drawn from tertiary institutions, the media industry, donor community and the not-for-profit sector. FJP will be constituted of two levels; namely levels 1 and 2.
Level 1:
This is the entry level of the programme where each year a new group of about 15 2nd year students from various SA tertiary institutions will be recruited into the programme. This year there are 15 students from nine institutions. Level one includes a yearlong programme where students will have training workshops and receive mentorship from media educators and practitioners, be provided with experiential learning through the attending of an event, be given an opportunity to be published in established media. The students will work towards building a portfolio of work produced during the year with FJP.
This group will also attend the Highway Africa conference held in September each year. FJP will also have its own programme along side that of HA at the annual conference.
Level 2:
This level will take the 3rd year students who have completed level one and focus on facilitating attachments or internships for the students at various media organisations. The students will also continue to contribute articles and blogs to FJP website and interact with other FJP students. These level 2 students will also act as junior mentors to the level one FJP students in their specific universities. We believe this is important not only to keep the network alive but also for the personal development of the level 2 students. The coordinator will assign and connect junior mentors to their mentees. Once these students have graduated they automatically become alumni and FJP will keep track of its alumni as they could be great resources for the programme.
Selection of FJP Participants
There are currently 15 FJP participants from nine journalism/media studies/communication tertiary institutions in South Africa.
The heads of departments of journalism and lecturers at the various institutions were approached and asked to help recruit deserving candidates to join the programme. The selection criteria were:
- Second year journalism/communication/media studies students
- Only students who would be able to offer their full commitment and participation to the programme and its calendar
- Students who displayed potential and passion for journalism and an eagerness to learn
- Students who could contribute positively to the programme
Future Journalists Programme 2008 Calendar of Events
The Future Journalists Programme, which operates as a vacation school around the three schools vacations in Autumn (March/April), Winter (June/July) and Spring (September).
22-23 March 2008 – Team Building Camp: FJP kicked off their first meeting for 2008 with an exciting team building camp. The camp took place from the 22-23 March in Kirkwood, about 150km from Grahamstown, near the Addo.
The idea was to get the participants to meet and get to know one another in a relaxed and fun environment, while also working towards building a cohesive team.
We had great fun Kirkwood and the participants who arrived the day before as strangers had bonded and were already calling themselves “a team”.
24-28 March 2008- Autumn School: The ‘Reporting the Arts Workshop and TV Production’ was the first of three planned events on the Future Journalists Programme calendar for 2008. The aim of the workshop was to prepare the Future Journalists Programme participants for the Winter School Experiential Learning course at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown, from June 26 to July 5. The week long workshop included learning the basics of working as an arts journalist and reporting on arts and culture from practicing from journalist and Grocott’s Mail reporter, Kwanele Butana. The students were also taught TV production skills, from camera and sound, to filming and editing, and vlogging and blogging, under the hands-on mentorship/training of experienced TV journalist and lecturer Alette Schoon. The students produced three one minute arts inserts by the end of their training.
26 June 2008 to 5 July 2008 – Winter School: FJP had its first ever experiential learning project as part of its Winter School Experiential Learning Course at the National Arts Festival in Grahamstown. The course was run by experienced media trainer and consultant, Karen Williams. Karen is very knowledgeable on the arts and the journalism profession, and has worked with Gwen Ansell on a similar course for journalists at the annual Cape Town Jazz Festival.
The course was a successful balance of class-based training in the mornings and actual reporting in the afternoons. The students generated multimedia stories for the FJP festival blog (www.fjp08.wordpress.com) and we had collaborations with other media such as Grocott’s Mail, Cueblog (www.cueblog.com) and Cue Newspaper, where some of the FJP generated stories/reviews were also published.
8-10 September 2008 – Spring School at13th Highway Africa conference: Next on the FJP calendar is the 13th Annual Highway Africa, 8 -10 September 2008. FJP participants will once again converge in Grahamstown for Highway Africa’s flagship event, as part of their Spring School Training.
At the Winter School the students were asked to write down some ideas and suggestions for what they would like to see happen at conference. These suggestions will inform the FJP programme during the conference, which will include components of the main programme. The conference also presents the opportunity to really launch FJP and showcase the talents and the skills the students have gained through their participation in the programme.
FJP students will also form part of the multimedia newsroom that will be covering the conference. FJP hopes to further explore the integration of cell phone technology into journalism by using high quality cell phones to produce multimedia content (write text, record audio and video, and upload content online). The use of cell phone technology to cover news speaks to this year’s theme, Citizen Journalism, Journalism for Citizens. The students have already shown interest and initiative in using cell phones for their stories during the Winter School. Furthering this with relevant training and demonstration would really serve to up skill these new age journalists and equip them to operate in digital newsrooms in the future and be mobile newsrooms themselves.
Other programme suggestions include: student media and its challenges such as censorship from the institution’s management; and issues around internships and whether students get the mentorship that they require from these experiences. Industry will be invited to attend these sessions to hear what the students have to say about their experiences of internships or attachments.
The FJP Website
Creating a website for the programme is one the ways in which we want to give the project greater visibility and presence. The FJP website will serve the following purposes:
- Informational (what FJP is; media industry news either through links, blogs on the site etc; updates on activities of the programme etc.)
- Showcase (Publishing platform for media produced by the students in the programme)
- Networking and communication (between the students; between the students and the mentors; between the coordinator the students etc.)
- Marketing (website must serve the publicity and marketing purposes of FJP)
- The website will be both informative and interactive.
Media partners: Relationship with City Press “Your South Africa” campaign
FJP is exploring a formal partnership with City Press, through the “Your South Africa: Our Home, Our Effort” campaign. The aim of this partnership is to have Future Journalists Programme participants writing stories relevant to the campaign. The campaign, which aims to motivate South Africans to make the country cleaner; halt vandalism of public facilities; and assist community to take responsibility for their environment, public spaces, institutions and facilities, provides an accessible platform for our students to write stories that could be published in an established national newspaper.
Contact us
Moagisi Letlhaku (FJP Coordinator)
Contact: m.letlhaku@ru.ac.za
Cell: +270822951581
Work: (046) 603 7139
