Radio Production Exam
Question 1: Radio Studies
a) At the beginning of the year, I put together a philosophy composed of a set of standards and techniques as to how I felt I should approach radio journalism. Throughout the year I have tried my best to follow this philosophy when producing stories. But throughout the media studies course this year I have learnt the core principles of public and development journalism, and my philosophy has therefore adapted to the knowledge I have gained in the field.
My philosophy revolved around how to approach radio journalism in Grahamstown, as it is here that I reported on and produced the majority of my work. I spoke of the role of responsibility that journalists have in bridging the gap in society. There are severe economic and political disparities between the ‘town’ and the ‘township’, and journalists therefore have the role of reporting on, and informing the public as a whole, of critical issues associated with Grahamstown. This can in turn allow the people of Grahamstown to be more aware of the issues and be more in touch with society and other societies around them. I also touched on the issue of objectivity. According to Glasser (1992:181), objective reporting has stripped journalists of their ability to be creative and imaginative. I agree with this. In my opinion, the purpose of journalism is to create change and awareness, to mediate between the public and authority, and to deliver it all in an entertaining manner that sparks debate. This is not possible through just stating the facts.
As an extension on this, we as a radio class compiled a radio agency to follow when producing stories. We have several roles to fulfill as a reporter. We are encouraged to be a social commentator- identifying problems and finding answers within the community. As a facilitator, we are encouraged to inform ordinary people and give a voice to those who are not represented, in turn ‘equalizing the playing fields’. As an educator, we should identify important information that will help inform citizens about how to act or where to help. As an entertainer, we should engage and interest the audience, building a sense of community pride.
While I believe this to be a respectable approach to journalism, there are as said before, certain aspects that I would change/add as a result of what I have learnt over the course of the year. I believe the most important aspect to be the level of involvement of ordinary citizens in the journalistic process. Public journalism is a very important form of journalism to use in a place like Grahamstown where marginalized voices need to be heard in order to bridge the gap between the town and the township. Haas has been a primary influencer of my thoughts on the matter. According to Haas (2007), the primary responsibility of public journalism is to promote active participation in the democratic processes. Rather than us as journalists identifying problems in the community and merely reporting on these problems, the voices of ordinary citizens should be more prominent in the end products, as it is the ordinary citizens that are directly affected by the problems in the community. We should then act as a medium between the citizens and the state to allow the citizens to play a more active role in resolving the issues, which in turn puts pressure on the state to do something about it. “Journalists advocate initiatives that help citizens not only deliberate but also design and enact concrete solutions to their most pressing problems” (Haas 2007:136). I also believe we should create a space in which citizens are more involved in political decision making. This can be done by allowing citizens to pose alternative measures to those advocated by institutions within Grahasmtown, and then encourage citizens to lobby relevant political actors to speak directly to them. I enabled this when I spoke to the head of schooling education in Grahamstown after having spoken to the headmaster of one of the schools in the community. In showing the political actor the issues of the school in the community, it prompted him to set up a meeting with the headmaster to speak to him about these issues. I believe that we must also be careful not to become disillusioned with our role as journalists. I agree with Haas (2007:32), when he says that journalists “cede their independence and an essential part of their role, becoming followers where they should be leaders.” I believe as a student journalist it is important that we make a substantial profession for ourselves in the field of journalism, and if we are just giving citizens the chance to voice their opinions without much of our own input, we are lessening our role as journalists.
b) In light of the approach that I use when I produce radio work, there are various opportunities in South African radio for this type of journalism. I have a particular interest in sport, so I would like to be involved in an organization that allows airtime for sports discussions and bulletins. I believe my best opportunity would be in the commercial tier of radio broadcasting, and in particular 567 Cape Talk, as it is privatized so it allows for, to a certain extent, discussions and debates that critically examine policies of the state and various issues within the society. Cape Talk has a daily slot from 6AM to 9AM that discusses current affairs and sport (567 Cape Talk). I believe that by working on a daily slot such as this, I will be able to produce work that provides entertainment, sparks debate, and is most importantly, in line with my philosophy.
Going back to my philosophy, I aim to provide the public with entertaining products, that not only informs them of critical issues in the society that they live in, but gets them actively involved in the journalistic process by allowing for marginalized voices to be part of the process, and allowing a channel by which the public and the state can directly communicate with one-another. Amner (2010), talks of building horizontal bridges within civil society and vertical bridges between civil society and the state. I believe that by having as much as three hours available to discuss current affairs and sport, there are very real opportunities to use my approach, and building these bridges. The stories I would produce would include a mixture of national and local stories. For instance, I could produce stories on local Cape Town development projects to train young soccer players, and bring guests on to the show that are part of that local community to discuss their relevant concerns. On a national level for instance, I could report on the lack of development progress in South African sport, resulting in poor performances, and then invite Sports Minister Makhenkesi Stofile to come on to the show, and discuss why this is happening, and I could perhaps also invite a local sports manager to address hyper-local issues to the sports minister. These opportunities not only allow marginalized voices to be heard, but also allows direct contact with political actors.
There are potential limitations that could prevent these opportunities. “Media audiences are fragmented, both in terms of unequal access to material resources, and in terms of the different cultural tastes, interests and competencies” (Barnett 1999:649). Although a space can be created for marginalized voices to be heard, are the people it affects the most actually listening? Due to lack of access to resources and means to be actively involved in the process of rectifying problems this may not be the case. “One of the possible effects of the liberalization of South African radio is an even greater degree of fragmentation of media audiences” (Barnett 1999:661). The problem with these discussions on commercial radio stations is that it covers such a wide area, and it is therefore difficult to meet the needs of everyone. This can cause a tendency to report on what is ‘popular’ news at the time, hence forgetting the issues in smaller communities that may be critical to address. Another potential limitation is the extent to which one can be subjective in what is discussed and reported. “Objectivity has robbed journalists of their passion and their perspective” (Glasser 1992:181). However, one must be careful not to cross the line of truth and fiction, or it can become unaccounted for and unprofessional, going against the radio agency that we as radio students strive to fulfill.
In response to these limitations, Haas (2007:125) talks of the journalist’s role in determining which social groups most need access to what kinds of participation. Some groups are in more need of having their issues heard than others, and these issues must then be ‘thematized’ to satisfy the needs of other social groups on a hyper-local level, as it is thought that many issues overlap between communities. It is also considered that the role of a journalist is to go into the communities and set up social locations by which everyone in the community has the chance to express their concerns, and by doing so this gives citizens the means to be actively involved in the process when they may not previously have been able to. I encourage subjectivity in my philosophy, but it is the role of the journalist to be accountable, fair and accurate for what is being discussed so as to not abuse the use of subjectivity.
As it is Cape Talk FM, my audience would be for citizens in Cape Town, and ideally, the target audience is everyone who is directly affected by what is discussed and debated on the show. By airing discussions on local sports development projects, this is for the benefit of the youth and adults, as it concerns the youth, but it is up to the older audience to make sure these projects are effectively put in place.
List of Sources
567 Cape Talk. 567 Cape Talk Lineup. retrieved 9 November 2010 from http://www.capetalk.co.za/onair/lineup.asp
Amner, R. Paper Bridges: A critical examination of the Daily Dispatch’s community dialogues. Rhodes University: Grahamstown.
Barnett, C. 1999. “The Limits of Media Democratisation in South Africa: Politics, Privatization and Regulation,” in Media Culture and Society. Reading University.
Glasser, T.L., Objectivity and News Bias, 1992, ed., New York: Oxford University Press.
Haas, T. 2007. A public philosophy for public journalism in The pursuit of Public journalism: theory, practice and criticism. Routledge: New York.
