By Andisa Ndlovu and Shanel Pillay
The idea of doing community based journalism was really exciting. As part of our civic mapping task, we were asked to go into the areas we were allocated and get a general feel as to what each area was like. The areas we were allocated to was Cradock Heights, West Hill and Hill 60.
After looking around these areas and meeting some of the residents we invited a few to a focus group meeting to discuss the issue of crime and what it means to them. We thought it would be good to draw on these responses for our television news stories.
Many residents feel as thought this area is safe, some, such as Nicole went through some effort to check.
Sup. Du Plooy, a resident in the Cradock Heights area felt that the level in crime in these areas is nothing to be worried about.
Even though this may be the case, and even though some residents haven’t experienced crime they still take the necessary precautions to protect themselves from crime.
From this and other conversations surrounding crime we decided that our focus should be on the psychological effects crime has on its residents. We wanted to use what they gave us and perhaps enlighten them as the effects crime has on individuals.