Wednesday, October 27, 2010

The 'collaborative role' exists only in textbooks...

Rod Amner validated the JDD-CMP course to us by saying that there have been criticisms of undergraduate journalism at Rhodes' failure to link theory to practise. However, I am afraid to say that this course only highlighted this notion. It is one thing for Christians et Al to theorise about the 'collaborative role' of journalists but another entirely to bring it to life when you are dealing with "unwilling government and a demoralised populace" in Nick Mulgrew's words. The community has cultivated feelings of anger and animosity towards government officials and rightly so, and now we are stationed in the firing line of false promises, abandoned elderly and desperate circumstances with nothing to protect us but a notepad/camera/recorder? Sure, we can take our carefully collated folders to the municipality but why should they take any notice? They ignore desperate pleas to remove waste and sewerage but they are going to respond to a soundslide? Wishful thinking is an understatement. This course has left me despondent and heartbroken about the state of affairs in South Africa and the adversity which confronts journalists. I am not sure what would have equipped me for coping better with this course, but 3 years of learning about the Utopian ideals of journalism certainly did not.

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