RUTV 3

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                                             

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With new found pride at finally being RUTV reporters, Zikhona and I embarked on our story. A simple topic, investigating why campaign posters have been banned on campus, proved to be challenging to film and condense into a focused 1 and a half minute news story.

 

Technical glitches

On our first day of filming – we had set up an interview with Siyabonga Yonzi, a politics honours student – we decided to get to our set location early to be super prepared. To our great frustration and embarrassment, we realised once the camera was unpacked and securely on its tripod that we had stupidly forgotten a tape at home.

Click here to watch a clip of Siyabonga that we did not use in the final story due to an unappealing sniff (or snort) mid-answer:

 

 

 

 Off the record interviews

While “off the record” sounds really journalistic, it turned out to be more problematic than expected. We were told by an anonymous source that Rhodes has not yet legislated the decision to ban campaign posters on campus. The decision allegedly only appears on SRC meeting minutes.

 

Findind a focus

We made the mistake of getting all our visuals and conducting interviews with no clear purpose or story angle in mind. When we finally sat down with all our footage we had to ask ourselves repeatedly “what is the story?” While writing to visuals is a strength of the image school principle, our visuals failed us in that they were not amazing and we didn’t have interesting sequences to work with.

Looking at our final story, I realise that we failed to establish a clear angle. We should have either pursued the lack of a paper trail angle or interrogated the claims by the University that posters harm the aesthetics (the visual feel and appeal) of campus.

Click here to hear Kholosa Loni, Rhodes SRC President, revealing the flaw in University Management’s argument (a rare ‘going against the authorities’ moment):

 

 [podcast]http://rutv3.ru.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/soundclipforblog1.mp3[/podcast]

 

Interviewing a DA leader

Interviewing Mike Lewis, a DA leader for the Makana Municipality, was not that fruitful. He did, however, take a stab at student partying and Pirates Pizza (despite asking him about posters!). We decided not to include him in the final story as we did not want our story to in any way favour the DA or only give a voice to one political party.

Click here to see a Democratic Alliance leader letting his political correctness slip for a few seconds:

 

 

 

We definitely learnt some tough lessons through producing this news story. However, they will prove to be helpful in terms of avoiding the same mistakes in future projects.

Nonceba Mhlawuli, secretary of the ANCYL at Rhodes University, gives her opinion on the upcoming elections. According to her, Cope is no better than the ANC as it is lead by ex-ANC members – “what makes them better now?” – and Cope member have abandoned the legacy of the ANC. She also feels Malema is a bad role model for the youth of South Africa, but, in her eyes, he retains his status as a good leader of the ANCYL.

student rapper S.C.A.M. has offended ANC members through lyrics on his new album.

How do Zimbabwean students feel about having no say in who governs them? I spoke to one to find out.