RUTV 3

 

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This story about Julius Malema’s first visit to Rhodes campus caused quite a stir. People thought it was a rumour at first but then as soon as posters  were put up confirming the arrival of the ANC Youth League leader, people started to believe.

There were concerns that the event would be too big for Rhodes Campus Security and Grahamstown police to handle, with many saying that it could turn into a rally, with COPE and ANC supporteres clashing. The event was scheduled to be held at the Rhodes General Lecture Theatre which proved to be an unwise choice as it was too small to host the number of people that were expected to come. Students and lecturers alike were left stranded outside the venue as the GLT was filled to capacity. As journalist, we also found it difficult to get inside with security being very stringent on the amount of people allowed into the venue. We eventually did get inside because we pitched up quiet early and decided to set up our camera befoe the evnet had got under way.

Filming inside the actual venue was a diffucult process. We knew the venue would be packed with people: students, lecturers, journalists of all the kinds. There was hardly a clear space to even set up our tripod to get the visulas we wanted for the story. There was a constant movement of people up and down the aisles and people dancing everywhere, that getting good, quality visuals became quite tricky. The great thing though about a small venue with many people is the feeling of being close to the action. You are able to concentrate on indivulas as well as the group with ease. There was hardly a person we were unable to talk to. Everyone was accessible.

The man of the hour however, the one everyone had come to see, was a no-show. There were rumours swirling around that he had done this before on other campuses. There would be advertisements plugging his arrival, only for him not to show up. This had happened at UCT and UKZN, and many students were not surprised that he did not pitch. The fact that he did not come then became the story angle. It was just as juicy a story as one had he pitched. the various parties that were bringing various excuses as too why he was not there also proved interesting, with Rhodes admin and the ANC having a go at each other about him not arriving.

The final story proved to dfficult to edit as various subplots within the story could have been further expolored: the protest by the GAP members, the young dance group that encouraged people to vote for the ANC, the talk given by Young Commiunist League General Secretary, Bhuti Manamela, the small venue which left many disappointed people still waiting outside… I could go on. But ultimately the focus was on the non-arrival of Malema which proved to be the big selling point.

Isn’t it just great when you have friends partaking in controversial activities?  This is what i thought at first…A group of boys who i know, were scheduled to have their digs formal.  We negotiated at length until they agreed to let me film the beginning of their formal.  In true Rhodes style (and may i reiterate that this is a male digs!) they called me about half an hour before i was set to shoot, to cancel!  Their excuse was that their dates (who had been procured at the last minute) felt uncomfortable being filmed. 

 

So rushed phonecalls were made and i managed to secure another digs formal shoot on the same night!  And it turned out to be a success-we got great footage.  Everything happens for a reason…

 

Check out this short description from an anonymous source about the theme of a digs formal:

Watch this short video, from the same source, which talks about the games played:

Here is some footage on the actual digs formal.  Our camera was on while the ladies were setting up.  This snippet shows them blowing up condoms and putting in little cards which detail a game to be played (by the person who pops the balloon).  We had to step in to help them…taking journalism to a new level…

 

And last, but not least, a look at how they prepared their punch.  It seems even though it didn’t taste that great, it was consumed!

Fired_Soul
Last month panel of Rhodes management, including Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Dr Mabizela), the Dean of Student’s office as well as the SRC sat to decide on the presence of election campaign poster on campus. Thapelo Tselapedi, Vice president External of the SRC says that the executive committe of the SRC had decided that they would oppose decision taken by management to ban election campaign posters on campus. However when they executive committee took their decision to council, they were defeated. Management had already decided that posters should be banned, stating that they felt that there is a manner in which a university must represent itself and that the presence of election campaign posters would be harmful to the aesthetics of the university.

The SRC in opposing this decision taken by management states that Rhodes is a public instutution and should not isolate itself from society.

A decision was then taken by managemnt and the SRC to allow political parties to put up poster to advertise events on campus. Parties may use these events to put up election campaign posters around and inside the venue of the event, but only on the day of the event and for the duration of the event.

If you were in high school less than four years ago I am sure you still remember the feeling of being a learner. Sitting behind the desk and regurgitating what the teacher is feeding you. But things have changed now, the matriculants of 2008 wrote their first examination under the Outcome Based Education system (OBE). The system encourages them to apply what their have learnt in the class room in real life situations and think critically. Despite the change in the education system I still felt like I could relate to the learners on a very personal level. I also went to a high school in a previously disadvantaged community like T.E.M Mrwetyana Senior Secondary School-Grahamstown. The teacher we interviewed mentioned that one of the reasons why they could not successfully implement the OBE curricular is because they school does not have enough resources 

Listen to the podcast to hear more about what the OBE teacher had to say about the system:[podcast]http://rutv3.ru.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/teachermp3.mp3[/podcast]

 

 

 

How we followed the story: – “If it bleeds, it leads”

After brainstorming all possible angles we were going to follow to put together the story. We just noted down possible sources, location for filming and the research. One of the sources we were going to use is Prof. Chrissie Boughey; she is the Rhodes University Dean of learning and teaching. Prof Boughey was quoted in an article published in the previous edition of the Financial Mail. We could not meet with her for an interview so we were going to use her picture as a graphic cutaway in our package and also use her quote. We could not do that because we had to make the package as short as possible. Check out the full article about OBE: 

 

 

 

 

“The Benchmark Tests assess students against a set of ‘benchmark competencies’ — skills experienced academics have identified as necessary if students are to be able to engage with first-year work”.

 -Prof Boughey                                             

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I Interviewed Khanyisile Khanyile, a third year politics student to find out the reason behind her decision not to vote in this year’s upcoming elections.

By Shanel Pillay

You running from the AMM carrying the tripod in one hand the camera box in another… wait… that would be a lie, I can barely walk carrying both, who am I kidding? Team work is definitely the name of the game, having a partner to help with all the lugging about and capturing makes your job well… oh so much easier… having a partner with a car, well that would be the cherry on the top.

But I’m not here to get into the joys and pains of lugging around camera equipment but rather to share my experience of being a reporter, on the scene (lol). It felt amazing going out to cover a story, knowing that you, and you alone, have the opportunity and power to make or break the story. Being the only TV journalist on the scene made me feel important, especially when everyone was so willing to be filmed and have their fifteen minutes of fame.

Editing proved to be a real challenge. TIME was the main issue. We didn’t have enough TIME. There was so much to say and very little time to say it in. I had to chop and change my transcript a number of times because it just did not fit. I also found choosing the most important visuals very tricky, what do you use, what do you leave out? There were many things I wanted to include, some of which you can view right here, thank goodness for blogging.

Guili’s interview was quite interesting; especially at the end… watch this clip to see what I mean.

Other bits that we couldn’t include was grade 11 comments, they were so overwhelmed by the camera’s they were not sure what to say unlike their mentor for the day, so don’t miss out, listen to this:

[podcast]http://rutv3.ru.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/learners.mp3[/podcast]

And lastly, the Lillian Ngoyi Hall community engagement reps were such troopers. They managed to stay for the entire morning while other halls slowly got away. Find out what they were up… and why they stayed…

Other aspects that we wanted to put in, unfortunately, got lost between capturing it (or not capturing it on film and on the PC), we blame the Bermuda tripod. Shots really didn’t come out the way we planned.

All in all it was a wonderful experience and I had a great time. We have made a few mistakes but I think that will only make us stronger in the future. So look out world, here we come, because as Paddy says… “The world is a tripod” and I have the camera.

Don’t forget to see the completed news package… the final result