Wow, what a kick off!!

Lebogang Mgiba

Well, where do is start? After the 20 hours trauma in bus, toddler screaming her lungs out when I was trying to get some sleep. I was close to speaking French and tell her to shut her lil mouth but that would have been so rude of me. We arrived in Grahamstown in the morning and I just fell in love with the environment (I’m not sucking up, truth be told). Anele did a little tour with us to the Department of Journalism. Wow I felt ripped off at the University of Johannesburg because we are not as advanced as Rhodes University. Yeah I’m jealous, who wouldn’t? After the whole tour we went to Eden grove to try and register but the system was down but finally managed to register at the end.

I had that opportunity to meet different people from different backgrounds, cultures and I even realised that there were high school students participating in this initiative. Oh and how can I forget the goody bag, Of course I like free stuff-I’m black after all. Again, it also proved a point that journalists don’t know how to dress, just because they journalists doesn’t necessarily mean they should just dress the way they feel it’s appropriate. They also have reputations to protect, and no one wants to be called the “untidy journalist”. I’m not saying they should wear designer clothes, but just to be presentable.

I must admit, it’s a privilege for me to be chosen as one of the Future Journalist Programme participants, as I believe it’s the beginning of my journalism career. The High Way Africa conference is trying to give students a platform to get to meet professionals in the industry and to network with them and who knows, you might just meet your future employer. It’s a bit nerve wrecking to approach these top notch people and ask for business cards, but hey it’s do or die. It is my future that will be on the line after all.

Journalism is a broad word, and there’s a lot you can do with a journalism degree/diploma. The beat that I want to venture into is Entertainment journalism, that’s where I want to see myself. I would like to know everything within journalism but entertainment is what I would like to excel in and with Highway Africa, I will be able to meet professional journalists on my field and getting advice that I need and not forgetting to ask that business card.

Reflection: the sessions that I attended today were very interesting. They spoke about how social media (twitter, blogs) changing the definition of news. Mapule, former SABC member also emphasised the fact that TV and radio focus more on entrainment than education, of which I strongly agree, tabloid journalism has taken over. Issues were raised by the panellists about reporting on African stories and delegates were given opportunities to have a say on what they spoke about.

One of the best things was to meet Professor Guy Berger, who’s the head of the school of journalism and communication at Rhodes University as some of our journalism readings at UJ are based on his work.