RUTV 3

Read about S.C.A.M’s interview at 5Fm here!!

http://www.theoppidanpress.com/oppi//content/view/399/57/

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.

Rhodes University 3rd year student Phakamani Lisa is COPING just fine. With the upcoming South African national elections on the 22nd of April 2009, she knows exactly where her ballot is going to go- for ANC breakaway party, COPE. With student apathy a major concern, Phakamani provides a refreshing perspective as to why she has placed her hope in COPE.

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.

This is an interesting interview which takes a different perspective on the upcoming SA elections.  An ex-Zimbabwean student shares her concerns about the prospects for Zim in the SA elections…

ROAR president Kathryn McConnachie tells us how animal rights fit into the current elections.

Grethe Koen finds out why animal rights have been so sorely neglected in these electoral debates as well as the common indifference towards animal rights by many South Africans.