Background of Area | Project Overview | Community Meeting | The Way Forward | ALL MULTIMEDIA

• Cricket team: 

While creating their sound slide and spending a significant amount of time with the Falcons cricket team, Andy and Cari, two members of our group, really wanted to help the team in some way as the team’s dedication and passion for cricket was evident from the start. The team practices three hours a day seven days a week but have not yet played a single match. As they formed the team themselves, the Falcons are not part of any league and as a result have no scheduled fixtures for the upcoming season.  

Cari and Andy approached the chairman of the Rhodes cricket club and organised a cricket match for the Falcons against one of the Rhodes sides. A match will be played on 25 October. A match against St Andrews fourth team has also been organised for 31 October. The aim is to get the Falcons into a league so that they can play matches every weekend.

The Rhodes cricket club has a developmental officer who organises coaching, transport and funds for players. He is positive about including the Falcons in next year’s developmental plans.  It is now up to The Falcons to demonstrate their ability and to ensure that they are committed to their team and the sport. 

As seen from above, public journalism encourages journalists to form relationships with their sources. Our sources’ stories have touched the members of our group in some way and so we have become emotionally involved both in their stories and in their lives and feel a sense of needing to help these people who have given us so much of their time and input. This is completely different to traditional journalism where the notion of ‘objectivity’ means that journalists feel the need to be detached from sources.

• TV documentaries

Due to the large amount of discussion which was generated by the FRM documentary, we felt the need to do a follow up documentary about the Rastafarian culture/ religion which will challenge the negative stereotypes about the Rastafarian culture. These stereotypes hamper the success of the organisation. The documentary seeks to create greater understanding about what the Rastafarian culture is about. We feel that this is important as the FRM is one of the few community based organisations in Grahamstown that promotes the upliftment and empowerment of the youth and community at large.

Our sound slides and TV documentaries will also be made into a DVD which will be given to the Life Orientation teachers in Kings Flats schools. 

• Banners

Our youth banner will be put up in Life Orientation classes as these banners can promote discussion around issues which concern the youth. The poster aimed at the Kings Flats community will be put up in spaza shops, places where people can discuss and debate the issues which the poster addresses. This poster will hopefully create dialogue between the older and younger members of Kings Flats. 

It is hoped that our project will create dialogue between the older and younger members of Kings Flats.

We will be putting Benjamin Mahlasela School in contact with Janet Buckland, Project Co-ordinator of Amaphiko Township Dance Project. Janet has said that she is willing to work with the school if the school has a committed teacher. The Vice Principal of the school has said that there is a Drama teacher available. Hopefully this will go some way in addressing the need for cultural activities at the school.

We have tried to give the community information which speaks to them, not at them. They can use this information to interrogate the issues which affect the youth of their community and hopefully formulate solutions to their problems. 

Our group has learnt the great value of public journalism. It has made us more aware of how important it is to engage with the public and not just rely on official voices. When the media act as a forum for a diversity of viewpoints, they are contributing to fostering a healthy democracy in which everyone’s voices are heard. This valuable experience will inform our future journalistic practices and has made us more aware of the potential democratic role which media can play and the importance of giving citizens information which empowers them.

The youth are the future of this community.