Reflections on Our Media Outputs

Here we reflect on our media outputs, all are avaliable on request for futher review by yourself if you are interested in our project.

1) Reflection on Voices of the Youth
(Soundslide by Simone Landers and Dominique Little)

When we set out to work on Voices of the youth, our aim was to give insight into ‘afterschool’ activities of the youth in extensions 6 and 7. The point of choosing this angle came about from our 2 focus group meetings, where we learnt that very few of the youth do after school activities, sport etc. The consensus being that as a result of boredom, many of them were going to taverns and/or becoming involved in crime.

When profiling two girls from Benjamin Mahlasela High School, we found an angle to our story which gave much deeper insight into the ways of the youth. The fact that they do not have fields for sport, or many after school activities was not the main concern, the concern lay in the fact that there are only seven pupils in their matric class.

This is not because the school is too expensive as one may think, it is because the youth have chosen not to go to school and would rather bunk (although many of their parents think they are attending classes). The opportunities are there, yet they are not being taken. The question to be asked is what has made these two young girls go to school, when the rest of their peers (brought up in the same living conditions as the girls) have chosen not to. The answer came down to choice. At the end of the day, it is your choice what you want to achieve in your life. Our focus thereby turned into a piece on how although times can be tough, there are opportunities and it is your choice whether you take them.

Our story portrays two girls who have chosen to take them, as they have goals for their life. Although one’s circumstances take huge affect on one’s choices, there comes a time to take responsibility for your actions – especially when you are denying yourself your right to education and a life of quality.

2) Reflection on My articles for the WEPD group
Lisa Brigham

A) Gangster Resistance: This article and the interviews involved really brought light to the fact that we should not, as outsiders, impose stereotypes on the poorer youth of the extension 6 & 7 community.

Talking to the boys was enlightening and informative and my story on their extra curricular activities to stay away from getting involved in crime will be used in the 'inspiration' banner that will be reproduced and put up around schools and hopefully encourage students to stay away from crime. This article synced up with the rest of the group as we provided a platform for the youth to discuss ehat they needed to stay awar from crime and I felt it fitted well into our theme of UPLIFTING YOUTH, UPLIFTING COMMUNITY.

B) Interview with Police Captain: This article was useful because it could be used to promote the work being done by the police in the extensions as well as show the community that the police ARE in fact helping to create a crime-free generation.

This article will be used to aid students in being more aware of the police and join in the campaign that the police are currently launching around crime awareness.

C) Top Tips From a Graduate: Despite this being a very short and systematic article I believe that by quick-fire questioning an ex-graduate from one of the local schools, we can inspire the students to be whatever they want to be and to stay away from the temptations of crime.

3) Reflections on soundslide
Andrew Wassung

Cari and I drove up to our area to visit a guy called Steven, who we were going to do a soundslide on. Having lost his phone number (which we later recovered) we found his house, but also found out that he had already been interviewed in quite some depth. Then we set off on foot and probed the neighbourhood, desperately looking (as journalists do) for something we could do a story on. Having walked a couple of kilometres, and now nearing the car, we came across a young guy called Kanya. He studies at NMMU and grew up with people who now do crime and sit drinking all day. He was more than happy to do a profile and talk about crime in the youth, the same youth that he was and is part of. When we left we saw a bunch of guys with a cricket bag.

Upon asking, we learnt that they play cricket at some nets not far away to keep themselves busy. SO when, on the set meeting day with Kanya, we found that he had gone back to PE, we went in search of our cricketers. This turned out to be the best thing for us as it is something we not only enjoyed being involved in, but something we can, and are, getting involved further in.

Our soundslide proved quite difficult at first because the guys were all practising and were all keen to remain practising – it was hard to get any of them to talk to me as the sound man. Ambience was, however, flowing. Once we had made a few appearances at these ‘Tigers’/ ‘Falcons’ practices, and the guys got to know us, they offered more than enough great sound. Essentially, in our sound slide, but more importantly, in the community, these guys are making a difference. They are playing cricket for 3 or 4 hours every day of the week. Because they love it and it keeps them out of doing other things – like crime. With time pressure on, we put something together and it worked out great.

I was personally very happy with how our soundslide worked out and how we framed some of the problems in the community. The soundslide was a juxtaposition on the concept of crime as it showed a) what a lot of the youth are getting into and why, and b) what they can do to get out of it – through role models who are willing to make a difference. Our relationship with these cricketers has only just begun!

Having lost 2 main leads for our work, I spent most time getting sound with Cari taking photos. Dom and Simone did very well in getting good sound for the groups other soundslide, which was also great in terms of both audio and visual. The sound Dom and I got with Hi-Tec was good but ended up being irrelevant for the way that their soundslide/story ended up unfolding. I acted as a techie here in making minor tweaks to the piece they had already made, and did some final editing with ambience and mixing down. Both sound slides are great and the continuity our group offers is great. A great experience!