REFLECTIVE PIECE

By Mcebo Makhaye

Introduction

The aim of this reflective piece is to discuss about my experience regarding the assignments I have done for New Media III. The focus of this piece is to reflect on my role as a journalist during the time when I was covering news stories, that I have being tasked to do by my lecturer, Dr Rene Smith.

I shall further discuss and explain the obstacles that I have faced as a junior journalist while covering news under unfamiliar circumstances due to the ongoing stubborn virus of Covid-19. I will also highlight some of the lessons I have learnt during classes of New Media III and practical work that I have been doing with the help of Teaching Assistant (TA), Mrs Khumbu Mbuqe.

Module Description

As we are nearing to complete the second and final semester in the New Media III, I must say I have been able to benefit from variety of new things from online classes as well as refresh my memory on basic rules of journalism ethics that I already knew from previous academic years. Above all, I have benefitted from practical work that we have had with TA, Mrs Mbuqe.

I remember the first assignment that I did the “Stranger women profile”. At first, it was hard to find a woman that I can profile because many people were staying indoors due to the July riots that resulted in public destruction and plenty of businesses were damaged, even to date some have not able to restart. Also, I recalled when my partner and I pitched a story idea about a young girl who sells avocado in the street close to Berea Centre Mall, but lecturer did not give us a go-ahead.

However, we had to think another interesting story idea which we eventually pitched a story about the DUT Master’s Degree student who is still on the verge to become a Sangoma. For me, that experience was challenging but it was good to think outside the box and produce unique news story.

In the midst of the second assignment, I experienced the mammoth hurdle during online classes because of the time management. To be honest, I found it hard to balance between my academic classes and internship duties. As a result, I ended up dedicating huge amount of time on my internship prior completing assignments on time.

Sometimes I would have New Media classes while I am at work, which is something that is crazy to say. However, while it was hard juggling between academic work and internship duties, I discovered about myself that I am flexible and I am a born leader because my editor made me her deputy, where that position needs a person who have good communication skills while trying to balance the ideas of my colleagues to come to an agreed upon decision.

What I mean is that this leadership skills have played a vital role in group work, especially during the group Multimedia package assignment whereby I have applied it and plus, the ability to take control of a situation and remain diplomatic with my group members was an asset to have for me.

I can’t stop stressing the amount of pressure my group members and I endured when covering the Multimedia package assignment about a tuck shop owner and Covid-19. There was a time where we became hopeless because we couldn’t find sources but again, I had to stepped in telling my group members to remain calm and be optimistic, which fortunately it worked out.

Conclusion

The highlights of the course for me would probably be exposed to the online teaching and learning, which was a huge challenge for me because of having to endured technical glitches while trying to learn. Speaking of online learning, I must say we have not been able to have a quality teaching lesson with you, Dr Smith, because it is hard to be taught online and not seeing your face was a bad idea for me.

Furthermore, this resulted in poor quantity online learning which I think it lacks good engagement between a teacher and learner and because of this, I have paid the price of my marks being capped to 50% due to the late submission.

I would suggest that in the near future you, Dr Smith , should consider teaching students physically maybe once or twice a week, because I believe it will make a huge difference.

As for other highlights and insights, I can’t really think of any except for the practical that we have with Mrs Mbuqe, and for me, they opened my mind to think logically and the guest speakers that she introduced to us were helpful. I would love to have more speakers not only from Journalism field, but from other fields that can help students in bettering and shaping their minds.

On another issue, having to attend online classes I must voice that they didn’t really give me any new revelations about anything. I mean I was expecting more especially since I am preparing to face the real world in the industry like I mentioned before, it is very difficult to persuade my mind to think differently than it already does.

However, on a positive side, (Dr Smith) you did well in teaching us about the importance of online media since the world has had moved to the 4th Industrial Revolution (4IR) which many things now happen digitally. So, same rules apply to disseminating news because many readers are yet depending on reading news from their phones, computers, therefore New Media is the future journalistic weapon that is on high demand.

Finally, even though I already learnt from second year about the importance of making use of Twitter for live microblogging. As a result, this year I have done pretty well in breaking some of the big stories together with my colleagues under Iziko, an online website I am currently interning for.

Compiled by Mcebo Makhaye.