Sowetan must be careful!

On Tuesday March 4 2008, Sowetan published a story about a man who is alleged to have set fire to the ANC headquaters, Luthuli House. What made the article different from those in other newspapers was the fact that, the alleged arsonist's identity and name was published.
This was done despite the media law that requires reporters not to identify or name people suspected of committing a crime before they appear and plead to the charges in the court of law. The same article was published by The Times, but the person was never identified or named because they had never pleaded to the charges. What made Sowetan do the opposite?

Undeserving Celebs?

Finally the awards that "recognise" talents of local artists took place over the weekend.But whether it truly RECOGNISED the "real" talent is the question on everyone's lips this week.
The Mzansi Awards on Friday named Menzi Ngubane - alias Sibusiso Ndlomo of Generations - Star Actor of Mzansi, beating the likes of Robert Whitehead and Sello Maake ka Ncube. Now, in our opinion, this was a serious misjudgement on their part. I mean come on, Barker Haines is the man, so how can he not win that award? Menzi fails to pronounce his words properly: "Exchuse me" instead of excuse me, to mention one.
Perhaps acting is not really taken into account, but rather popularity. Are we giving our actors the true recognition they deserve? One wonders what criteria qualifies one to be a great actor?

End of the week

29th March
It is finally the end of the week. The weekend is certainly a welcome break. This week we had to shadow more established journalists working the Avusa stable. Although being someone's tail is not fun, being exposed to the everyday aspects of being a journalist was. Some of us got to meet celebrities, others got to be behind the camera while others just got to stare.

This wonderful exposure to the news room meant that many guys in the group got published. Congratulations to everyone. We are well on our way of taking over. Here is some of the published work from Luphert, Luzuko, Majola, Lerato and Lebogang (take a bow guys).

We are doing it!

Hello there....Yes, you! You see I find it is so hard to blog, its something that i really am working on and today I'm doing this alone. I must say, i'm pretty impressed with my fellow newspuppies. I'm sure they would agree with me, this week has been one of the most productive weeks for all of us. We've had our stories published, which is not only inspiring, but definitely worth the blood, sweat and tears we've had to endure. I'm personally having the time of my life, the passion is begining to emerge. I must admit, for one moment I was cursing my ancestors: "what the hell were you thinking Candy?", yep, it got that far. But these last couple of days have been wonderful. With speakers like the guy from Sweden we had, I couldn't ask for a better experience. I'm looking forward to what the rest of the year has to offer. Until then, take care.

Rekindling The Love

Hey there fellow blogumists, there's no we today, it's just Vumani flying solo for today. I've rekindled my love for journalism today (not that the love was fully extinguished; the flint was temporarily drenched in fatigue). Anyway today I met popular radio personality Glen Lewis, by the way he prefers to be called a radio personality instead of a DJ,quite silly isn't it. What an awesome and laid back guy he proved to be. He'll be featuring in the Sunday Times' My Jozi segment, luckily for me I was able to accompany the journo who interviewed him. I even got a chance to throw in a few questions here and there, some very intelligent questions at that might I add. With a story of mine being published in the Sowetan today, things are looking on the up. Anyway got to go. Check out Glenzito's piece in the Metro section on Sunday,and keep tapping away my fellow scribes. Lata.

Stereotypical Discussions

The stifling conditions in the Dungeon, (yes, the dungeon, it really is a dungeon) i.e the lack of a functioning air conditioner, malfunctioning computers, sharing one phone with 12 eager journos; thesonditions are designed to separate the wheat from the chaffe. Typically these conditions are not supposed to be condusive to a good working environment, but if we survive this then we can make it anywhere.

Moving on; considering that there are so many different ethnicities and cultures within the group, there have been some understandable cultural misunderstandings. We tend to brand each other according to stereotypical perceptions. Sometimes this can be quite comical. Here are some of the gems: 1. Zulus are militant (go Shaka!!!) 2. Xhosas are considered to be conniving (Xhosanostra: think mafia) 3. Sotho women are cheeky (rebelling against everything) 4. Coloureds are all believed to be alcoholics and are considered animals in bed (the list goes on and on and on, but this does not apply for our coloureds).

All jokes aside stereotypes are generalisations, they are not necessarily true. Everyone is unique and has their own idiosyncrasies, it was fun though poking fun at each other. Lata.

How could you Mr. Khoza?

In a media briefing this week 2010 LOC Chairman and owner of Orlando Pirates, Irvin Khoza told a journalist to “Stop thinking like a K$%@#r”. According to him, he was referring to a “K$%@#r as a dubious character and unreliable.”

We think that it was very unprofessional of Mr Khoza to address the journalist in such a manner. This is a man who has dealt with journalists and the media for a number of years in his line of work and he should know better.
People who are not journalists or in the media, are quick to sue, claiming that their characters have been defamed by statements made by journalists. In the context in which the word was previously used under the apartheid regime (and the word is still very heavy in itself) the journalist should consider seeking legal advice.
Mr Khoza should also offer a public apology to the journalist and more so to South Africans.