A designer's Ramblings

Mac or PC?

2008-08-31T17:44:00.002+02:00

I started my long and ongoing relationship with computers on a mac- (17 years ago now) and thought it was the shizniz! The only reason I went to PC is that there are more games available for it.

So we sold the old mac, my bro and I started building PCs together and we never looked back...until I graduated from varsity having done Communication Design. Now, my varsity uses PCs exclusively and the same went for our design lab...we were blisfully unaware that a better alternative was waiting for us in the professional, working world of graphic design.

Long story short- my dad got me a macbook pro as a graduation present and I am as happy as a pig in shit I can tell you!

Its great! Mac aaaaallll the way!

Which do you prefer? Vote here!

A world gone mad

2008-05-19T12:22:00.003+02:00

I am sad that this is my 50th post on this blog...

Its not often that the news affects me this much...

The people of South Africa are angry. Angry because of high crime, poverty and joblessness. Angry because the bright future that was promised to them seems to be nothing more than a far off dream.

They needed someone to blame....

This anger has boiled over and the hapless victims are those who have come to our country to seek a better life for themselves. The immigrants, refugees of a broken continent coming to South Africa because they see our country as a haven and somewhere to start afresh.

Xenophobia has taken hold and has translated into mob violence the likes we haven't seen since the faction fighting of the early 90s.

People are being killed. Their crime? Merely wanting a better life...now accused of stealing jobs from unemployed local people. They are paying with their lives for their dreams as part of some mad logic that they are the root cause of the joblessness...

I have no more words- I can only watch and wait.

:-(

www.tickyboxtv.com- Join up!

2008-05-14T22:20:00.004+02:00

So there I was...minding my own business and busy whittling away the hours on Facebook when a friend of mine, Bryan Vlok, changes his status to "Bryan is launching tickyboxtv.com" so being the curious type of chap I am I amble over to the site and fill in all my details and whatnot and blam I realise I am staring at greatness....

Why do I say that? Well, I usually think an idea is good if it is clever...but I think an idea is GREAT when I have a "why didn't I think of that moment"...like the kind I had about 5 minutes ago.

The site is rough and needs work but the idea behind it is spectacular and simple. But I urge you to bear with it and fill out the details, get the registration email and click on the "about us" link once you have activated your account!

Watch adverts and then fill out questionnaires about them...then get rewarded for doing so. Now I know that the internet is awash with similar ventures but the ones I have come across have always been dodgy, bland and uninteresting...you don't even get to watch anything.

The reward is practical at least- no banking details required even! Instead all you need do is get a Pick 'n Pay gift card and enter the 16 digit number found on the back into your site profile. Then every time you watch an advert and fill out the questions that come with it you will be given a certain amount of credit on this card!

Genius. Pure genius.

I am sorry if you web 2.0 types are all saying "seen it already" but I haven't ok? this is new for me...this is interesting for me and I believe that with the right amount of support this can work out to be great for everyone...

And lord knows I need help with the grocery bill!

So you web 2.0 types, you know who you are! Go and rain on someone else's parade! There are still boundaries to be pushed on the web...there are still good ideas out there, even if they have been done somewhere else, they haven't been done here.

Now go and register mense!

Miley Cyrus makes Time's top 100 most influential people...WTF???

2008-05-12T10:57:00.004+02:00

I have been a pretty loyal reader of time for most of my life but lately I feel Time is losing its edge.

A case in point was when I found Miley Cyrus' grinning at me from the midst of Time's top 100 most influential people...to say that I was flabbergasted would be a gross understatement.

You see, my problem is really two-fold:

1.) Why on earth would Time take up a spot on their top 100 for a 15 year-old teenager who can't really sing- shouldn't they have given that spot to someone more deserving? This is an obvious gripe which I feel will be shared by many.

and

2.) What the hell is dear little Miley Cyrus got to live for now? Lets take stock of this teen's life: She adored by millions of little girls who look up to her as their "big sister" - she has lucrative recording deals and a seemingly permanaent spot on the Disney Channel's line-up - PLUS: she makes it to Time's top 100 most influential people!

My point is that she has already achieved more than what many entertainers only dream about doing and never even get close to in their entire lifetimes.

So what is going to happen to little Miley when her audience grows up, let alone what more can she possibly hope to achieve in her professional life? That was the one redeeming thing about the article written about her in Time- Donny Osmond said that she will need to re-invent herself or sink into obscurity by the time she is 20.

In short she could either turn out to be a Madonna and still be around when my kids are in their 20s...or turn into another Britney Spears- alone, troubled and seen as nothing more than a washed up singer.

The next question is whether or not she has the talent to re-invent herself (or any talent at all) and if her rise to fame was only to get daddy Cyrus a second chance at being famous.

You can read the offending article in the latest copy of Time or just click here!

Why thought leader can't truly be a "blog"

2008-02-25T21:47:00.003+02:00

Ok so I might take some flak for this but here goes.

I am currently studying media management at the Sol Plaaitjie Media Leadership Institute at Rhodes University.

One of the topics discussed today was the emergence of "internet journalism" and the involvement of audiences in reporting news and often making the news. An important part of this new information landscape is the so-called "blogosphere."

Now, to me at least, my definition of a blog is somewhere a person makes comments, chronicles events and their lives, talks about their hobbies and so on- "true" blue-blooded blogs are ones which information is unsolicited, unmoderated, unpaid for and unregulated.

Under this definition (and I suppose you can call it quite conservative) Thought Leader cannot be a blog. It is instead a case of "old media" using a new platform to do something the mainstream media has always done: Make people little-known people into well-known people and finally, into experts who are always called upon to make comment on particular things (eg: Guy Berger et al).

While the content may be, for the most part, unsolicited, it is most certainly moderated (you or I mortals cannot just email in an article to Thought Leader) and it is certainly sponsored as it is a Mail & Guardian initiative- no doubt a Maher/Buckland meeting of minds spawned it. It is therefore elitist and this goes against everything that blogs stand for, in my opinion at least.

If one were to look at the internet as merely a platform (which, in part, it is) then what Thought Leader is doing is extremely clever, laudable and an excellent exercise. While I am not saying that Thought Leader isn't any of the above- I happen to find it extremely interesting myself- I feel that blogs are way more than just a platform, they are a social phenomenon where, in the words of Willis and Bowman millions have a "press" in the form of the internet.

I read somewhere that in the case of the internet, change happens at the fringes...not at the centre and I would situate good old Thought Leader firmly on the mainstream, elitist "New Media" bandwagon.

Thought Leader may be a great forum for who the Mail and Guardian think "leaders" are, it may be a pioneering piece of on-line wizardry, it may be relevant, it may be needed, it may be the best thing to come onto the media landscape since podcasts were invented...but a blog....in my opinion...it most certainly isn't.

end.
of.
story.

PS If you made it this far well done, for those of you who don't know what Thought Leader is then here is the link, click and be amazed!

The Six Patron Saints of Graphic Design

2007-10-23T09:23:00.000+02:00

Check it out!

LOL!!

Using the web to put yourself out there

2007-10-21T21:29:00.000+02:00

********UPDATE*********
freelancentral.co.za has got 20% off a lite portie till the end of the month...dammit why didnt I see this when I registered lol

click here to read about it!
********UPDATE*********

Ok I am going to shamelessly punt a website now:

Today I got my first freelance job....

How you may ask?

I created an account on freelancentral.co.za and paid R450 for a 6-month "lite" subscription (I still need to upload a portfolio though).

Lo and behold a week later a guy gives me a call and wants me to do a job for him which I can earn enough to pay off that R450 bucks and page a tidy profit!

Yay for me!

Freelancentral also has categories for writers and photographers and for just R450 for 6 months (I have already gotten 36 profile views and 1 job in the week my account has been live!) you can get enough cash to pay that back and then some!

freelancecentral.co.za - give it whirl, put yourselves out there!!

punt over!

Opera: First impressions

2007-10-18T09:12:00.000+02:00

So last night I had a rush of blood to the head and decided to download Opera- the web browser.

I am an avid fan of Firefox and last night I came to see why....

Opera was cool but there were key things which I found annoying different. For one thing everything was in a different place, from the refresh button to the load bar. Now I know you can get skins and all sorts to jazz up the look of the browser but for first time users like me there wasn't much I could relate with to make me actually want to move from Firefox. You can also supposedly customise Opera a lot...damned if I could see how though...maybe I was being stupid...

One other annoying thing was the fact that when you mouse over a link (say, in YouTube) it doesn't give you the link's title only the link's web address which can be really long and un-informative.

Opera also has tiny toolbar buttons- just like IE and one of the many reasons I HATE IE- what is up with that? I like to be able to find everything with my peripherally vision and not have to hunt out the damn thing to click on it- again, this could be solved with a skin? I am not inspired enough to try it!

The way the tabs are handled are also strange and quirky- for example there are above the address bar rather than below it which pisses me off having just used FireFox. It seems so much more sensible to have the tabs closest to the main window...I mean you are viewing everything there! Maybe there is a Firefox skin for Opera! lol!

When opening a new tab the tab says "blank page" for about 3 seconds before deciding to load the page you requested, that is just retarded in my mind- it makes it look like there is a lag time and lag in anyone's language is bad bad bad...especially for an online gamer like me hehe!

Other than that Opera is what it is: a browser- the "most compatible" browser out there.

It didn't inspire me, blow the back of my head out or even remotely prompted me to even contemplate moving from FireFox (but I will keep it anyway cos I want to use it to test my web pages out on it hehe).

Over and out for now

Essay for Web development intensive

2007-10-10T09:22:00.000+02:00

Hello there friends,

Below is an essay which I had to write for my web development course:

The topic was: "Define Web 2.0"

Let me know what you think! :-)

There is no clear agreement on the true meaning and definition of what the term Web 2.0 means for the internet and those who use it- this became patently clear in the research phase of this essay. In light of this it is prudent to evaluate the different meanings for the term which have been put forward. This, with the end of looking at the so-called Web 2.0 applications which have changed the way we are using the internet, can then bring us closer to understanding what Web 1.0 was and therefore what Web 2.0 is and ultimately what implications this has for journalists and the news media in general.

The term Web 2.0 was first popularised by Tim O’ Reilly at a conference in which the concept of a new web was brought up in a brainstorming session between O’Reilly and MediaLive International (Tim O’Reilly: 2005). The context in which this conference took place was the aftermath of the bursting of the “dot-com bubble” an event which O’Reilly calls “a turning point for the web” (Tim O’ Reilly: 2005). O’ Reilly went on to clarify this concept by stating that “the companies that had survived the collapse seemed to have some things in common. Could it be that the dot-com collapse marked some kind of turning point for the web, such that a call to action such as ‘Web 2.0’ might make sense?” Indeed, this notion of a turning point for the web is put forward in several definitions of Web 2.0. Francis Pisani, writing in the winter 2006 edition of the Nieman Report, describes Web 2.0 thus: “Web 2.0 is a catch phrase created after the dot-com crash to capture the dynamic capabilities and vision of the web when many had lost hope in its potential” (Francis Pisani: 2006). Wikipedia, an online participatory encyclopaedia and which arguably embodies what Web 2.0 stands for, goes further in its definition by commenting on the term itself: “Web 2.0 hints at an improved form of the World Wide Web. Technologies such as weblogs, social bookmarking, wikis, podcasts, RSS feeds (and other forms of many-to-many publishing), social software, web application programming interfaces (APIs), and online web services such as eBay and Gmail provide a significant enhancement over read-only websites.” The debate around the definition of the term Web 2.0 and its relevance has been centred on these aforementioned so-called new “technologies”, with some detractors to the use of the term Web 2.0 pointing out that these technologies were, in fact, not new at all but very much part of the “old” World Wide Web.

One notable detractor to the concept of Web 2.0 is Tim Berners-Lee who is widely credited with having invented the World Wide Web as we know it today (Gavin Clark: 2006). In an article for The Register (www.theregister.co.uk) by Gavin Clark, Berners-Lee is quoted from an interview he did for an IBM developerWorks pod cast as saying that the term Web 2.0 is “useless jargon nobody can explain and a set of technology that tries to achieve exactly the same thing as ‘Web 1.0’” (Gavin Clark:2005). This after the pod cast interviewer had, according to Clark (2005), “categorized Web 1.0 as connected computers and making information available and Web 2.0 as connecting people and facilitating new kinds of collaboration.” Berners-Lee bases this argument on the fact that “Web 2.0 relies on technologies that have been around for years” (Clark: 2005). Berners-Lee goes on to state that “Web 2.0 owes its existence to software and development methodologies already established in open source” (Clark: 2005) and these were pioneered during Web 1.0.

The argument put forward by Berners-Lee highlights the important fact that Web 2.0 is built on a base provided by Web 1.0. This is not dismissed by Tim O’Reilly (2005) in his explanatory paper on Web 2.0 and, in fact, O’Reilly goes to great pains to acknowledge this aspect of Web 2.0. When stating that Web 2.0 is a platform, he goes on to point out, “yet that was also a rallying cry of Web 1.0 darling Netscape, which went down in flames after a heated battle with Microsoft” (O’Reilly 2005). O’Reilly then brings Berners-Lee’s argument into his justification for Web 2.0 by stating that Web 1.0 pioneers such as Netscape “provided useful contrasts because later entrants have taken their solution to the same problem even further, understanding something deeper about the nature of the new platform” (O’Reilly: 1995). Thus O’Reilly acknowledges that the problems and challenges faced during Web 1.0 are the same as in Web 2.0 but that the power and use of the Web has shifted thus prompting changing approaches to solving the challenges faced by both the old and new platforms. However, O’Reilly does stress that there are marked differences between the way technologies used Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 operated, hence, while on the surface it may appear that Berners-Lee’s argument trumps O’Reilly’s, the similarities in technology used between the two platforms may be strong but the way in which they are implemented is markedly different.

O’Reilly highlights several key aspects which make up Web 2.0 strategies. These are the concepts of: the Web as a platform, the use of user generated tags instead of site driven taxonomy thus creating the concept of folksonomy, the user as a contributor- which ties into the concept of the user being trusted to contribute in a meaningful way, radical decentralization of information and file sharing and an overall richer user experience (O’Reilly: 2005).

In the instance of the Web as a platform, O’Reilly compares Netscape with Google in that Netscape sought to compel users to use their software when browsing the internet this tying the user in and creating loyalty through software updates and so on. This pitted Netscape against Microsoft which sparked the infamous “browser wars” of the ‘90s. Conversely, Google is fully service orientated with no software required for users to be able to benefit thus making it more dynamic than Netscape and able to innovate easier and give the user an enhanced web experience.

Another example of a site which implements Web 2.0 strategies, according to O’Reilly (2005) is Wikipedia.com. O’Reilly (2005) describes Wikipedia as a site which has created a “profound change in the dynamics of content creation”. This is done through allowing the users to generate the content and create, edit and check encyclopaedia entries with minimal moderation from the site itself thus implementing the “radical trust” element of Web 2.0. This concept also ties into, as O’Reilly (2005) puts it, “the wisdom of crowds” where the users effectively moderate themselves and exchange ideas freely. Another aspect of this “collective wisdom” can be seen in the “blogosphere”, the network of weblogs which reach out to bloggers and non-bloggers alike through RSS feeds, which allow users to subscribe to their favourite blogs and search engines alike which can not only search for keywords within the text of a blog but also the tags which the blog author has chosen to associate with each post.

O’Reilly also points out that tagging is also implemented with great success in the sites like Flikr- which deals with hosting photos and del.icio.us. He uses Flikr as an example thus explaining that, “tagging allows for the kind of multiple, overlapping associations that the brain itself uses, rather than rigid categories…a Flikr photo of a puppy might be tagged both “puppy” and “cute”- allowing for retrieval along natural axes generated by user activity (O’Reilly”2005). Thus, according to O’Reilly (2005), the lesson which tags teach us about Web 2.0 is that the “network effects from user contributions are key to market dominance in the Web 2.0 era.”

But what implications does this have on journalism? Francis Pisani (2006) points out that people are now offered a myriad of views on the world through the World Wide Web and this is beginning to overshadow “what journalists have to offer.” Pisani (2006) expands on this by stating that “tomorrow’s potential readers are using the Web in ways we can hardly imagine, and if we are to remain significant to them, we need to understand how.” Pisani (2006) uses the example of search engines and RSS feeds as a means of bypassing a route which would have been set-up by editors if the information had been consumed in a more traditional context: “search engines direct readers to articles, effectively bypassing editors’ guidance and, with RSS and aggregators, users grab what they want from sources they fancy and organize them in personal spaces.” The participation of users in making and reporting the news, generally referred to as citizen journalism, is also dealt with by Pisani. Pisani (2006) espouses that, in light of the changing ways users of the World Wide Web are interacting with what is there, “a new news ecosystem has to evolve, adapted to the multifaceted participation of people who not long ago were called an audience.” Pisani (2006) goes onto state that, “although citizen journalism is still looking for viable formulas, it is clear that journalism, as Dan Gilmore likes to say, is now less of a lecture and more of a conversation.” With this being the case it can be said that there is now, more than ever, close scrutiny of the news media and media in general by media consumers. Pisani (2006) comments on this by stating, “journalists will have to learn to practice their trade with the same rigour and demanding values in a much humbler manner.”

To sum up, the term Web 2.0 is clearly still a disputed term with the main argument against it being that it is useless jargon as the technologies supposedly used by Web 2.0 are not new and existed in Web 1.0. However, this may be true but the way those technologies have been implemented and how users and interacting with each other on the World Wide Web has, without a doubt, become just as important as using it as an information resource. The very information itself has become interactive with websites like Wikipedia allowing users to create and edit encyclopaedia entries. It is therefore not so much about whether or not the technology is new but rather how it is used. This has major implications for mainstream journalism as users are now able to use the World Wide Web as a platform to share their ideas and views without going through a gate-keeper of some kind. This is also true of how news websites are viewed with a myriad of ways users can navigate to them without even needing to go through the site’s homepage.

Bibliography

Clark, Gavin. 2006. “Berners-Lee calls for Web 2.0 calm.” The Register. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/08/30/web_20_berners_lee/ (Accessed 5October 2007).

O’Reilly, Tim. 2005. “What is Web 2.0: Design Patterns and Business Model for the Next Generation.” O’Reilly.com. http://www.oreilly.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html (Accessed 5October 2007).

Pisani, Francis. 2006. “Journalism and Web 2.0.” Nieman Report: Winter Issue. http://www.nieman.harvard.edu/reports/06-4NRwinter/p42-0604-pisani.html (Accessed 5October 2007).

Wikipedia.com. Keyword: “Web 2.0”. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_2.0 (Accessed 5October 2007).

My mad xhtml skills

2007-09-26T15:19:00.000+02:00

Today we learnt a variety of skills in New Media:

For instance:

How to make a

Horizontal line

a main header

A table

Row 1 Column 1

Row 2 Column 2

MAD SKILLS MAN!!

So I joined Technorati...

2007-09-26T10:37:00.000+02:00

Check out my profile...lol

Technorati Profile

New York...a summary

2007-07-18T10:37:00.000+02:00

Ok ok, sorry about the delay...life and work happened!

I can truly say that New York was one of the best experiences of my life.

Not only is the city so great but fact that I used my own money to get there and got to spend the time with the love of my life made it perfect. It was purely my time and we did things we wanted to do when we wanted to do them!

The city of course was awesome! If there was ever a contest for the capital of the planet New York would probably win- I know I am being all gushy but I can now see how people in the US just don't have passports and don't know where places like France are...they simply don't need to leave their country!

To be fair, New York is extremely different to, say, middle America for the simple reason that its a coastal city with an enormous influx of legal and illegal immigrants from places other than Mexico and a vibrant reading culture to boot (I mention the reading culture because they have have an excellent selection of media in NY).

In terms of what we actually did: On the first full day in NY we went to the Empire State building and there discovered the City Pass which gets you into most of the main attractions for half price. This we promptly bought and it became our what-to-see-next guide for the next week.

Here is a list of most of the places we went to while in the city: Ground Zero, The Chinatown flea market, Grand Central terminal, The Rockefeller Centre, The Natural History Museum, The Met, The Guggenheim, Central Park, The Empire State Building, 2 Broadway shows- The Phantom of the Opera and Chicago, Columbus Circle shopping centre, The 24-hour Apple shop, Hell's Kitchen, The New York Central Library, Times Square, lots of bookshops, a Radio Shack and we took the Full Circle Tour of Manhattan by boat.

I have never walked so far in my life but it was worth it! ;-)

Chapter 2- NY Day 1

2007-07-03T17:55:00.000+02:00

I gained time when I flew over the Atlantic.

When I landed at JFK airport it was 10 in the morning (after having left Paris at 8 in the morning) and as I shuffled through passport control I was immediately gripped by a profound sense of uncertainty- here I was in a strange land in a strange airport and needing to meet the love of my life without the foggiest of which terminal she will be landing at or what her flight number was....this snafu was entirely my fault as I had somehow misplaced her flight details.

Now, if anyone was to ask me to choose any airport I would like to fly into it would have to be JFK- I mean, JFK is an airport folks! 7 terminals, each as big as a shopping mall, and a sky-train which would put the Gautrain to shame (or at least it will when the Gautrain is actually built). Impressive as all of this is, it doesn't help me one jot in finding Jen.

My first order of business was to get a new sim card to use in the US...After journeying to terminal 3 looking for somewhere to buy such an item I was told by an airport employee that I might be able to find something in terminal 4.

After walking the whole way up and down the terminal I finally found an electronics shop and got myself a sim card for the princely sum of $100...it didn't work for reasons I still don't know!

To say I panicked at this point is frankly an understatement. How the fuck was I going to find Jen??? The answer was right in front of me: payphones. My dad was luckily in the US at the time and I managed to get through to him on his American number.

All-in-all it worked out in the end. Jen's flight from Atlanta had been delayed and she ended up landing at terminal 2...which is where I found her at.

We found each other, found our luggage, found a tax and were on the way to Manhattan in no time.

The rest of day 1 was a blur- I had slept 4 hours in the last 20 and vaguely remember shopping for various essentials, checking in at the hostel, climbing the 4 flights of stairs to our room and then heavenly sleep...oh and eating my first meal on American soil: a jumbo slice of peperoni pizza- it was delicious.

until next time!!

Chapter 1 Part 2- Joburg to Paris

2007-07-02T10:05:00.000+02:00

Welcome back, good to see you! ;-)

So there I was, cramped and suffering on a Delta Airlines (operated by Air Fance) flight to Paris Charles de Gaulle (or however you spell his name) airport, I was more than looking forward to getting on my connecting flight and getting on my way to NY!

We land on time at Paris and we all dismebark into surprising crisp morning air. I glance at a map of the airport as I exit the jetway- its huge and I am in Terminal 2E....I need to get to terminal 2F which seems just a short walk away, easy peasy...NOT SO.

We are herded to a bus stop, no air trains here, we have to take a bus to our terminal...ok, I think how bad can this be! Well, it was Sunday so I think we got the C team of the airport staff- a crazy middle-aged French women was driving our bus and screamed at us everytime we came to a terminal in rapid-fire French. The map seemed so simple i thought as we veered left and right through the back roads of the airport, dodging luggage buggys and various pieces of discarded equipment- if the plane journey was hell, Paris airport was purgatory.

When we finally got to the terminal (I had been standing on a swerving bus for the better part of 20 minutes-lord knows how people with only a few minutes to spare manage to get to their connecting flights!) We had to take an elevator to the third floor, then walk through a maze of corridors, up stairs, down stairs, up escalators and across travelators- it struck me that whoever designed this airport probably never actually walked through it....

When i finally made it to the main departure hall I thought I had arrived....it was only half-way. The main arrivals hall at Charles de Gaulle is the biggest load of wank I have ever seen. It is an empty, austere place with wooden floors and a wooden ceiling of some synthetic looking wood that towers about 5 stories above you....no funtionality whatsoever.

Then we get to the security check...now, bear in mind that I havent been outside of the controlled area, been screamed at by a mad French bus driver, walked 6 kilometres but actually only covered about 200 metres as the crow flies and now some French guy asks me in broken english to remove my shoes!!!!!!

WTF!

I was pissed off....

Another 3 kilometres i make it to the departure gate with an hour to spare....but without any Euros I couldnt buy anything so I just sat there and waited for my flight to leave.

The flight to NY was a daylight flight...it was uneventful except for the fact we were delayed because of technical difficulties....this is always a scary thing to hear and I looked out of my window to see a gaggle of ground staff staring at out starboard engine....not good, I just fell asleep again, at least I had the seat next to me free!

The trip to New York Chapter 1 Part 1

2007-07-01T15:05:00.000+02:00

Ok, I have decided to post all of these together or when I have time, after the fact over the next few weeks as i didnt have time last week to actually sit down and do this stuff.

Chapter 1- getting there.

I am posting this part of my trip as it was...interesting to say the least, at least for me (and besides I have some things to say about it so hey...)

Ok, so I fly from PE to Joburg which was fine....

get my luggage in Joburg and trek the 3kms through the parking garage to the International terminal...what a load of bollocks that was. When i get to the international terminal I am met with a seething mass of humanity (some of them literally seething)... there must have been at least 2000 people and their families crammed into that check-in hall. My check-in desk was number 60 something and after jostling down there I was promptly given a window seat...which i didnt realise at the time- this was the affect my trip profoundly for the next 20 hours.

So I say my goodbyes to everyone over the phone and trek 3 minutes to the departure gate...the seething mass has transplanted itself into that austere space now and we are made to stand in the line for what seemed like eternity- my feet are already sore.

Finally I get on the plane...it is full but the two seats next to me are empty ("awesome" i think) and I begin budgeting which parts of my body to place on this new found space....they close the doors and start preparing for take-off- I am elated as I think that I am in for a good, roomy flight but just as we are about to push back from the terminal two (old) smelly British people arrive and plonk themselves next to me....

The didnt get up the entire flight....not once, I was trapped.

Tune in later for the second leg of my journey..

SL has a new Editor!!!!!!!

2007-07-01T13:58:00.000+02:00

Ok, I know this is a week late and that I haven't blogged in AGES!! AGAIN!

I saw that SL has a new editor and, because her editorial was, to be frank, disgustingly short and left certain key questions unanswered I have decided to post an open letter to her on here which I have sent off to her as well- Stay tuned for a response, if I get any.

Dear Louise

I know this is a bit late but congratulations on your appointment as the new editor of SL.

I have been reading the mag on and off for about the last 7 years and I have watched it grow, morph and, in my mind, degenerate.

When I heard that SL was getting a new editor I was thought "excellent, maybe now we are going to finally see a revamp of the magazine!" So I trundled over to the local news agent and bought myself your first edition....it was, disappointingly, the same as always but I was willing to let that slide. I mean, after all, it was your first edition and hey, since magazines usually work a month in advance (or should) it was probably a hangover from the Dixon administration.

Now, if you are still reading, maybe its because I am studying Journalism that I my comments may be seen to be over-critical but as they say in the classics "wait there is more more!"

I know that the nature of magazines is that they are aspirational- ie: Their content is aimed at a target audience but that audience does not see themselves in the magazine, rather the content is about successful, beautiful people a few years older than the reader.

This is all well and good if you take into account that a lot of high school learners read the mag- I mean, there were still students in the vox pops for example and these learners were all aspiring to go to varsity one day etc and be just like those Wits and UJ students/models you always seem to have in there.

But lately this has changed...

All of a sudden we don't have current students but ones who have graduated. Ones with jobs, ones who haven't been students for years ie: people who I can hardly relate to (I plan on studying for a while longer after my honours) and I am sure high school learners cant at all!

I never knew the "underground", counter-culture, out-of-the-mainstream versions of SL- those were a bit before my time. That ethos of being different from all the other consumerist magazines on the market has been lost to the bottom line of the balance sheet now, such is life I suppose.

I suppose my question to you is really "who are you and why are you here" seeing as you didn't answer any of those questions in your first editorial! What do you intend to do with the position you have been placed in? Will the magazine stay the same? Become worse (more consumerist) or better (more about students).

Having said this, I suppose that students are consumers and that you are catering to that gap in the market....if you read SL with this in mind it does that rather well.

But can it hurt to see vox pops from "normal" students at varsities other than UJ and Wits?
Can it hurt to have campus reporters at each varsity writing about....well...student life?

Is it a crime to want to be able to "see myself" in the content SL churns out? The theory that this kind of interaction with media is only reserved for community newspapers is bollocks in my mind.

A balance needs to be struck between the consumerist (money making side) of SL and giving what the audience, which ostentatiously is made up of students, not only content they WANT but also content they NEED! I understand that you need to make money in order to put this mag out but don't forget, you also need an audience to read the thing...don't forget them!

I hope you appreciate the responsibility of what being an editor means and that you can stand up to your publisher if you want to change anything about the magazine.

I will be watching.

Good luck and kind regards.

Peter Barlow

So its been a while...

2007-05-02T06:35:00.000+02:00

Right then, so its been a while since I blogged!

Time is an issue in my life these days and no, I don't make time to blog anymore- evidently.

My life over these past few months has been pretty busy. 4th year is great but Brian turns the heat up under us regularly and so we are always kept hopping up and down from one project to the next. So far this year we have: Designed logotypes for ourselves, re-designed Sci-Cue and then laid it out in shifts for a week (I had to distribute every morning...it was fun, NOT!), learnt how to use Illustrator (VERY cool program) and designed an ad using that, endured crit sessions for our 120 page magazine cover and done audience research for them, we had a visiting lecturer, Nick Lamond, who was at Rhodes in 2000 and who is a magazine fundi of note- just returned from Australia to do his MBA at UCT- lectured to us on magazines etc for 2 days and we have just finished designing a poster for Shakespeare SA- the best poster wins cash so I am holding thumbs, next up is a poster for the Schools Fest happening here in July, also for cash whoo hoo!

Well, that doesn't sound like mush but believe me it has taken up LOTS of time over the past few months...

Other stuff I have done: House sat the VC's house...for some extra cash- doing it again for 13 days from Friday (a tidy sum coming my way), went back home for the long weekend to go and get an American Visa as Jen and I are going to NY in June! (Jen is speaking at a children's literature conference and I am meeting her after that for a week of exploring NY VERY EXCITED!)

Well, thats my past few months in a nut shell...

I am sure I have left things out but hey.

I recently bought the latest SL and saw that Natalie Dixon is leaving!! My next blog will definitely be about that...see you next time!

Here comes the new academic year

2007-02-01T12:17:00.000+02:00

Sorry for all of you who have already gone back to varsity/are working etc- I only start on the 12th of Feb! ;-)

As the Chinese curse goes: "may you live in interesting times" and this year is sure to be interesting.

Nevertheless, I am excited, what with Captivate, 4th year, the subject I am taking to make up my half credit (the subject is not particularly exciting but finally getting that credit is!) and a few potential job opportunities which might be coming my way its looking good at the moment!

A few blogging resolutions:
1.) I am going to start talking a lot more about design and layout of publications I consume, thus making it truly into "a designer's ramblings".
2.) I am going to be posting my J4 design projects up on the blog for comment! Please feel free to do so! :-)
3.) I shall continue to use this blog to post PERSONAL opinions as we as the opinions of others (please note that this blog is my personal space and I will say just about whatever I damn well please if I believe in it- if you have a problem with what I am saying then you can comment- otherwise hold your peace)
4.) I will blog more!!!! I promise!

Peace outside!

Its been a long road

2006-12-29T22:38:00.000+02:00

....but I am finally there. Confirmation came through that I was into 4th year a while back but in the excitement I just havent found the time to blog about it!

I am happy but also sad- one of my good friends in my class didnt make the cut. She will be finishing her degree in Joburg and I probably wont see her again for a long time. Take care Tinks if you are reading this- its the Journ School's loss, not yours.

So the email I have been waiting 3 years for:

Re: Confirmation of acceptance for JMS 4 in 2007

Dear Peter

It is with pleasure that I write to inform you that your provisional
acceptance for Journalism and Media Studies 4, in 2007 has been confirmed by
the JMS 4 Board and by Faculty.

If you will not be taking up this position, please let me know as soon as
possible.

The university's academic registration for fourth years will be on Saturday
10 February and you will be required to attend a short orientation meeting
of all JMS 4 students on Monday 12 February in the Fine Art Sculpture
lecture theatre (near the AMM building) starting at 9.00am. (Please note
that some specialisations may have an earlier starting date than this.)

We will use this meeting to register you with the department, so please
bring a passport-sized photograph of yourself.

Please note that for JMS 4, teaching continues into both June and November
swot weeks. Also, individual specialisations may require that you remain at
university during all or part of the University vacations. Please check with
your specialisation lecturers to confirm when you will be required to be at
University.

We look forward to working with you next year. In the mean time, we hope
that you have a safe and restful vacation.

Yours sincerely,

Brian

__________________________________
Brian Garman
JMS 4 Coordinator
School of Journalism & Media Studies

Call me crazy but 4th year was what I signed on to do...BJourn is what I am at Rhodes to do and now I am finally there...all the way from Carol Christie and the history of the printing press in first year, my first journ course and surprisingly not my most boring one. Angelo Fick and his high brow lectures in 2nd year (where he wrote a speech for the last lecture crapping on all of us in his own way and some of the poppies in the class applauded him because they actually didn't know what he was saying) and Rod Amner's groundbreaking and highly confusing course in 3rd year- good luck with that one Rod, good luck (I did lots of other courses in the 3 years I have been doing journ but these ones stood out for me).

HOOORAAAAY!!!!!

I think its only beginning to sink in now my friends!

Bloglines

2006-12-12T19:20:00.000+02:00

I meant to blog about this ages ago...

I have been using bloglines for a while- after Gregor put me onto it when I said that I go through my blogroll every morning when I get up...but with bloglines you don't have to cos you are monitoring the feed of that blog, site etc...

What a great little app- all you need to do is download the bloglines notifier and subscribe to the feeds from the sites you want it to monitor.

The hollidays and exam results

2006-12-12T19:18:00.000+02:00

So I have been on holliday for a week and a bit....

I have gotten zero done yet...but there is still plenty of time I suppose. Results come out either tomorrow or Friday, I am quite scared to be perfectly honest.

More on that when the results come...or is the varsity going to make us wait fucking ages like they did the last time?

The Media's responsibility

2006-11-30T21:55:00.000+02:00

I was browsing my feed from News24 this evening and found this story "Kebble: Media given a blast"....

In the story Vusi Pikoli, the head of the NPA, stated that he thought that the media had left much to be desired from their reporting on the Kebble murder case.

His main concerns were that the media were not thinking about witnesses safety when they printed their names, thus preventing other witnesses coming forward and were too quick to print information they had received as "fact".

This proves to me that some journalism basics are no longer being followed- you verify your facts with someone...or at least try to before you print them and then if you could not verify them adequately enough but still want to print them they should be clearly qualified as unverified- better yet, don't print them at all.

Pikoli implored the media not to disseminate any information that could compromise the case and not to run parallel investigations, some of which are compromising witnesses.

I find myself agreeing with Pikoli on a number of points he makes in the story and admit that there is a fine line to tread between what I term reactive journalism- journalism motivated purely by commercial imperatives- and proactive journalism- the kind that actually informs the public without harming or compromising the investigation. Fair enough, the stuff that the NPA release might be boring and drab but I really wouldn't endorse fabricating information or trying to coerce members of the NPA to give information and in so doing put their jobs on the line.

I mean, call me idealistic but I do believe that its high time the media began thinking about the effect the information they package and disseminate will be having on the bigger picture- past the fact that Kebble stories sell newspapers and draw eyes and ears to watch and listen.

However, I do think that the NPA should also come to the party a bit. I the story Pikoli states that the media should give the NPA more time to respond to questions from the media. This is all well and good but, just as the media should make allowance for the time it will take the NPA to respond, the NPA should understand that there are deadlines that need to be met and not withhold information deliberately past the deadlines etc. Pikoli's suggestion of the NPA giving the media information three or four days after it was requested it is utterly unacceptable- they should realise that this is a high profile case which has generated a lot of interest to the public (the public interest of the story is another matter entirely) and at least appoint a dedicated media liaison to deal with the media and the public, oh wait, I forgot...they are underfunded and understaffed- great, and the government want to stamp out crime....

A three to four day waiting period for information, in my view, forces a sensationalist output by the press for a public hungry for skinner hence, I feel that both sides have to respect and understand certain boundaries set by the other side.

just my 2c on the matter....

At least I got over 60%....

2006-11-28T15:25:00.000+02:00

I suppose I should count my blessings...I got my marks back for my design portfolio and got 63%- 3% above the hallowed cut-off mark...possibly one of the lowest marks in the class if not the lowest. I feel like crap but sadly cant go to pieces emotionally and mentally yet as I have the all important Journalism exam tomorrow...I guess this is a feeble attempt to gain sympathy dear readers, but I can say that it was all my fault for getting such a dismal mark.

what probably stung most was the cutting down of most of the marks I got for my assignments by the external examiner...what a cowardly but necessary person an external examiner is- I mean, Simon and Casper were the ones who actually had to debrief me on my portfolio mark.

I just hope that my theory mark gives me over 60% overall so that I can get through to 4th year and try and salvage what dignity I have left- must start setting myself some goals now.

boo hoo for me...goodbye for now.

Big Blog Directory

2006-11-24T09:44:00.000+02:00

Ok, so thanks to my friend Nic I found this cool blogosphere initiative! Bloggers unite, go and register your blog on this site, do it now I tell you now!!!

Mwahahahaha!

Antipodean Media big business

2006-11-23T22:54:00.000+02:00

So I was lucky enough to get an internship at the The South African, a weekly newspaper which caters for South Africans living in London in January last year. The company who runs the South African also owns the New Zealand and Australian Times both weekly newspapers as well.

The reason I am blogging about this now is that I was going through the job listings on gumtree in an idle moment and came across a listing for a job at In London magazine- similar to TNT magazine, another title operating in London catering for a general Australian migrant audience- only In London aims to appeal to Australian, South African and New Zealanders living and working in London. There is also, the South African Times, a title which has been around for years and almost went bankrupt a few years ago- prompting some enterprising fellows to start the South African seeing a gap in the market.

The main problem I had with the South African is the content. It was mostly made up of stories pulled off the South African wires about South Africa and travel articles written by local South Africans as well as a smattering of entertainment news..also written either in-house or by unpaid freelancers. This was all well and good as the guys who owned the South African seemed interested only in making money, hence the ads team was twice the size of the editorial team (this seems to be standard practice at newspapers so no surprise there)...I still wouldn't have called it a newspaper- with all due respect to the editor.

But it seemed to be fine...they were making money and thats all they cared about, good on them I suppose.

In London magazine is waaay more interesting though as it has articles relevant to the Antipodeans living in London...and the stories are mainly about stuff IN LONDON and the UK! This is a glossy magazine and also seems to be doing well...clear evidence that the niche immigrant markets are alive and kicking in London with, seemingly a good, healthy ad spend for to be had and plenty of space.

What was great to see in London was the enjoyment Londoners derive from reading the newspapers. While there is a truly a plethora of titles operating and distributing in the city alone, Londoners seem to lap these up eagerly. I even saw newspapers which came with free DVDs!! Unfortunately it is rumoured that the British newspaper industry is loosing money hand over first...maybe they should cut back on those free DVDs hehe.

Anyway...enough procrastination...time for sleep!

Newsroom Management and what I wish i had known

2006-11-15T07:48:00.000+02:00

So there I was sitting on Gregor's bed a few weeks back looking at his bookshelf as you do when you are visiting a friend and your attention wanders...and I spied a book called What the Newsroom Knows: Managing Knowledge within African Newspapers. Now, one of the reasons I jumped at the chance to borrow this book was simply because there isn't much literature revolving around African newsroom management- well, none that I have found anyway and while the book was supposed to be a case study of the use of ICTs in African newsrooms, the use of digital CM systems and the internet as well as mobile telephony it did not disappoint.

I really wish that I had had access to this book when I was still running my own newsroom at Activate. I say this because in most of the case studies in the book detailed African newsrooms which had come up against the same challenges for copy flow within their production cycle- in other words, Activate was not alone in the problems we faced. Some of these problems were as mundane as having an incoherent folder system for content on the network and one newsroom was even running computers which had several different operating systems between them- thankfully Activate did not have these particular problems although the major problem we faced early on and one which dogged just about my entire career at that newspaper was the fact that our computers were not networked to each other or the printer...when they were working of course.

I must admit I was waiting for a case study of an African newspaper who still did things the old way in their newsroom- without computers I mean...this, surprisingly was not to be and most of the African newsrooms featured in the book had been making extensive use of ICTs for many years.

What also interested me was the way that knowledge flowed around these newsrooms, how different newspapers used their diary meetings and the way they approach archiving their past editions, copy and photographs. Many newspapers had actual libraries set aside for archiving purposes (and one newspaper filed everything away- including all press releases they didn't use! wow!)

All in all, the book opened my eyes up to the fact that, even in Africa, newsrooms have become places where the digital flow of copy is inexorably tied to knowledge management within the newsroom.

I am appointed Student Editor of Jo's Toolkit

2006-11-10T12:25:00.000+02:00

Well, Carly and Gregor, the founders of Jo's Toolkit are graduating and entering the "real world" of work and taxes and "real media" etc....

Jo's Toolkit is, without a doubt, one of the richest online journalism resources that I have ever come across. It is unique to South Africa in that its material is submitted by users of the site, industry professionals and academics alike who do this through their own goodwill and without payment. Similarly, access to the site is totally free and it is licensed under Creative Commons. Jo's Toolkit also went on to win the Highway Africa Awards for Innovative use of New Media in Africa at the Highway Africa Conference 2006.

I am therefore honoured to take up the position of student editor of Jo's Toolkit for 2006/2007.

Being student editor means that I am Jo's representative in the student media sphere, I do web maintenance, handle submissions and post things on the website- all in consultation with Gregor and Carly. I also report back the status of the site to Carly and Gregor on a quarterly basis.

It is a very exciting time at Jo's as, with Gregor and Carly moving into a new sphere, they can cultivate some excellent contacts in grassroots and online media while I can concentrate on getting more submissions from student media sources.

Onward ho!

New Look (under Construction) NO HISSY FITS PLEASE!

2006-11-08T01:09:00.000+02:00

Well as you can see I changed the look of my blog....its a work in progress as i try and figure out how Blog Beta works but its pretty cool so I will hopefully have everything all well and good soon.

***NOTE***
Re: The tiff over changing the blogs looks between two people on the blogosphere (you know who you are) the changes I have made to my blog have nothing to do with the fact that everyone who is anyone seems to be tinkering with their blog's look. I simply upgraded to beta, had a rush of blood to the head and decided to change how things looked, ok?

Peace and good night to you all, thank you!

First exam down

2006-11-06T20:33:00.000+02:00

I wrote the design exam today....the first section was a bit whack and the answers tended to overlap which was a bit of a bugger but anyway, the rest of the exam wasnt so bad....its over and now its 15 days till my next exam whoo hoo!

:-)

Water, water everwhere....

2006-11-04T12:55:00.000+02:00

Well, the water has been back on for a few days now but has been muddy and murky...apparently toxic. But, according to my uncle (who is a plumber in town and knows about such things) they put a chemical into the water to separate out the mud and the sludge and the drain the water off.

Now, someone left the wrong valve open and let all of that sludge into the system hence causing the murkiness. 35,000 fish dies at the Ichthyology department prompting a muted panic to go up over the alleged "toxicity" of the water....to this my uncle said "of course the fish died...its like breathing soup to them"

Anyways, my water seems to be back to normal now...still drinking bottled water for a while though!

Our farm

2006-11-01T00:24:00.000+02:00

For all of you who want to have a sneak peak at our farm :-)

The South African National Student Editor's Forum

2006-10-31T10:42:00.000+02:00

I have recently been appointed as the organiser and convener of the 2007 Captivate Student Media Conference. One of the ways I want to begin to craft a vision for the conference is by hearing from those who were there this year and what improvements can be made over and above my own thoughts for how the conference should be run.

To this end Gregor, Carly and I have launched an online forum powered by Jo's Toolkit as a starting point for discussions, not only about the conference and its future, but also about the state of student media in South Africa today.

I am hoping that in the next few weeks we will see most of the editors from the campus media around the country sign up and start giving us their input.

No Water....some electricity

2006-10-31T10:33:00.000+02:00

Now, I know I know we live in Africa and I know that there are millions of people on the continent without water but dammit I miss having running water in my place. This is the kind of infrastructure that we have in Grahamstown: There is a big storm that lasts all of 10 minutes...a pipe feeding the reservoir bursts and the water turns to mud as it is literally from the bottom. Here at Worcester Mews we don't have ANY water as we are too far away from said reservoir to get any with the pumps turned off..dang nambit all!

Then a thought struck me....

The guys in the hole fixing the pipe probably don't have running water in their houses, just like the pump attendants at the petrol station don't own cars and most of the people forced to wait tables for a living cant even afford to go and eat at the restaurants they work at!

Makes me think how lucky I am that even though they said it would take another two days to fix the problem...I would get water back at the end of it!

*****UPDATE*****
The official word is that it is not a burst pipe at all! The water shortage is in fact due to the main pumping station not having power...they still dont know why and they tell us that it will take them 2 days to fix- 2 DAYS!!!! I mean, I am certain I am missing somthing but surely its a case of find loose wires and then connect them?
*****UPDATE*****

Ok ok so I took the pirate test

2006-10-26T09:46:00.000+02:00

Everyone else seemed to be doing it (I deny the washing thing though- I wash plenty of times a day!) :-P

My pirate name is:

Dirty Roger Flint

You're the pirate everyone else wants to throw in the ocean -- not to get rid of you, you understand; just to get rid of the smell. Like the rock flint, you're hard and sharp. But, also like flint, you're easily chipped, and sparky. Arr!

Get your own pirate name from piratequiz.com.
part of the fidius.org network

A quick newsflash! Wank Alert

2006-10-23T12:29:00.000+02:00

***NEWSFLASH***
I have been provisionally accepted into 4th year design!!! YAYAYAYAYAYAY!!! Now all I need to do is get over 60% in the exam at the end of the year and I am in for real! 4th year here I come! :-)

***NEWSFLASH***

My opinion on the state of student media

2006-10-15T12:43:00.000+02:00

I feel that student media has not yet come into its own in the New South Africa. The current student media landscape is fragmented at all levels and is still not being taken seriously at most campuses around the country, nor is it being seen as an excellent tool of learning for aspiring journalists, because, lets face it, thats what nearly all student journalists want to become- journalists in the "real world."

However, to be take seriously student media need to give the powers that reasons to begin taking notice of whats going on in the campus newsrooms and radio studios nationally. We, as student journalists should strive to improve the quality of our media output, we should strive to become a staple on our campuses for news, information and entertainment and we should stand together as a media fraternity which stands with one foot in the dynamic world of "doing real media" with the other foot firmly in a learning space.

But how do we do this? A good starting point would be to see our experiences at campus media as part of our journalism studies- not something outside of it. We should approach working on campus as a means to apply what you learnt in your journalism lectures immediatly and to explore it in the media sandbox that are campus newspapers and radio stations. From there, more dialogue between media academics and students can be facilitated, possibly with training workshops being run and one-on-one converstations with these academics. I firmly believe that we should squeeze these people for as much knowledge as possible because they ceratinly aren't teaching journalsim and media studies for nothing.

Also, inter-campus co-operation could facilitate the solidaity and unity of the student media fraternity with websites like jostoolkit and studentwire.net being at the forefront of this.

I salute you my fellow student journalists, but I have sadly run out of time at the moment. See y'all later!

Pete

Its been nearly a year+ a little rant

2006-10-04T13:31:00.000+02:00

Well, very nearly a year...not exactly since I last blogged. A lot has happened since then: I got into my third year elective- Communication design, I worked at Cue newspaper for a second year in a row and finished up my (rather eventuful) year as Editor-in-Chief of Activate, the student newspaper at Rhodes.

But I know I have been a bad blogger *slaps self on wrists* I solemnly promise to post at least one post a day here!

In other news *rant alert* a new student newspaper will be starting next year...with an "Oppie flavour" to it...

Now, normally I would welcome a new newspaper on campus- the view I always took was that the more voices there were the better in terms of newspapers and there were two others during my my time as editor (the Edge which died and currently a mag called Excess) Both of these publications made no official statement to the effect that they were actually in opposition to Activate. Instead they chose to appeal to other markets on campus and we all co-existed together.

Enter Lionel Faull and Innes Schumacher

Now before you judge me too much on what I am going to say about these two and their ideas I want to give you some background on my experience interacting with them...just for a bit of context and I think its time to come clean about this whole thing.

I met Lionel on the first day of my editorship- he was appointed as the Features editor and was a newcomer to the team. In his interview with Bianca, my deputy editor, and I he offered us help if we needed it in running the newspaper...excuse me? Without sounding too arrogant, I want to make it clear that I feel I was appointed becausei could do the job and the way Lionel went about "offering his help" was very strange indeed. I continued to have problems with Lionel throughout the year as his section members complained about his leadership style a lot.

In my opinion, he does not have much in the way of people skills.

Lionel then applied for the position of editor and was turned down for numerous reasons, reasons I am not going to go into here. We then offered him the position of editorial consultant which he accepted but later resigned on some quite confusing grounds...I am really not sure of the whole story there.

Innes, I met when she demanded to meet us and questioned the authority of the executive committee at Activate. I was highly irritated by this and her personality continues to. Lionel and Innes are romantically involved and she was a member of the features team under him (excuse the pun). This might not have been a problem if it hadnt affected the way Lionel ran his team...

Innes then applied for Features editor and was turned down after much heated debate among the selection committee- it was a tough decision and I stand by that, even if she thought we were only trying to make her feel better by saying that.

So neithe Innes and Lionel got the jobs they wanted...so what do they do? They make plans to start a new student newspaper on campus.

Like i said before, I really wouldnt have had a problem with this if they had gone about it in the right way- if you really look at it they arent really in opposition to Activate as they want to cater for Oppies and "others" and they want to look "outside of campus" rather than reporting exclusively on the Rhodes community.

I also question their motives for doing this...there seems to be an immense amount of sour grapes about the whole thing and the fact that they are keeping quiet about how they are actually going to do this makes me wonder if they even know themselves.

Running a newspaper isnt easy...and it seems they are going to find that out the hard way.

MY OPINION on Advertising, Money and the Media

2005-12-17T15:39:00.000+02:00

It is seen by many as making a pact with the devil- information media financing itself by selling advertising space to businesseses big and small and in turn only encoding their messages to the seemingly gullible public which contain nothing bad about those who advertise with them.

This seems all well and good until the trust is broken by the media company and they don't report on the illegal or harmful practices of a business who sponsors them. I remember when I took over as editor Activate, one of my executive staff who is an ardent "activist" against the corporate power structure in the world today voiced strong concerns over the fact that we are expanding the paper in order to increase advertising space and thus hopefully our print run. What she quickly came to understand is that we need advertisers to buy space in our newspaper, otherwise we go under and can't print anything...so none of our messages would get out.

What many people don't realise though is that advertising in newspapers has been around for a long long time. Newspapers used to be sold to cover expenses way back in th 17 and 1800s. They were not in the so-called objective guise they are today, newspapers back then were run with an express purpose of encoding messages to promote the cause of particular groups in society, some would argue that nothing has changed. It turned out that the lower classes were starting newspapers in order to make their plight known and to bring about liberal changes in the countries they lived in. To the landed gentry this would not do at all so they decided to move the goal posts and started their own newspapers which they used to sell advertising to the emerging middle class of merchants and professionals. This increased revenue allowed them to not only print more newspapers than their lower-class rivals but also to fix the prices of their publications at one much lower than the local preassure group "rag".

This forced many newspapers to go out of business or adapt in order to survive. But those which adpated had to change their target markets because the money was in the middle-class and not in the lower classes- the newspaper's previous target market. Thus this saw the death of a newspaper for the poor masses turning them essentially back into bumpkins of the highest order, like the serfs of old, too busy toiling for their survival to notice what was going higher up in the political and macro-economic spheres. This tragedy was soon seen when the introduction of modern Democracy was brought about, people simply could not vote for the correct candidate...because they didnt know any better.

I endevour to use South Africa as an example if I may. The newspapers with the biggest circulations behave in the abovementioned manner- they target the upper and middle classes because that is where the money is. The Sowetan, the hallowed black daily newspaper in South Africa, has the largest daily circulation while newspapers like the Sunday Times have the largest circulation for weekly newspapers. The ANC government continues blunder its way through running this country, in my opinion at least, yet they win almost every time in all the elections, by-elections, municipal elections and any other election you care to name. It can thus be said that the majority of people in South Africa are kind to the ANC and are giving them lots of chances to redeem themselves, NOT TRUE! I sincerely believe that if democracy truly worked in South Africa, the ANC would be on its ear before you could say Jacob Zuma or Petrol Shortage. The majority of South Africans are voting ANC because they dont know any better and need to be educated and it is up to the media to do that- it is the news media's duty in society to do that...but often, due to financial constraints, it cant because that isnt where the money is.

One can only shrug and sigh when a corrupt mayor sits behind a barricade, while the citizens he was appointed by riot in his streets and throw petrol bombs and call for his resignation, and says "The ANC will win the municipal election...again" and they do because those rioting dont see the bigger picture because they cant. The scenes in many small dorpies especially in Mpumalanga and the Northwest look like they did in Apartheid- no go areas with barricades and downed powerlines, burning tires and angry residents who actually hold the power for change in their votes.

Heck, if I ran a newspaper which catered for the poor, I would'nt even have to lie about what the ANC has done and what it has failed to do. I could still be highly objective and report on the "good" things which the ANC has done although I am willing to bet my last Kruger Rand that it would be a struggle to find them.

But now I see the lower classes have a newspaper, its called Die Son and is gurenteed to ensure that they do not get any wiser about the political situation in the country and how they can change it, its just sex, scandal and sport to steal the pay-off line on a Cape Town tabloid which shall remain nameless. The lower classes need meaningful news dealing with meaningful ways of making a difference...not who has raped who or how much money someone stole from some BEE deal.

Air France is not good

2005-11-17T23:46:00.000+02:00

Don't fly Air France click here and here to see why!!!!!

The Sunday Times- a victim of tabloidisation

2005-11-14T12:03:00.000+02:00

The main headline above the fold of the edition of the South African Sunday Times for Sunday the 13th of November 2005: Zuma Rape Claim with the cutline reading: Police Probe allegation that the ANC deputy president sexually assaulted a guest at his house.

I shook my head when I read that headline and passed right on by without buying a copy (at R8,50 I think its a bit of a rip-off anyway). My main reason for shaking my head and voting with my wallet is the question bouncing around in my mind which is does it really matter what Zuma did in his home? The answer I arrived at was: yes it does. If he did do something he should'nt have to that woman he should be held accountable for it just like anyone else in South Africa, but he should only be held accountable if it has been proven that he did something and it has been brought to court- otherwise as far as this editor-in-chief is concerned, if I edited the Sunday Times, that Zuma story would have been a 250 words on page 3 if that, NOT on the front page.

But why do I take exception to this? I respected the Sunday Times once, it reported news which was factual and relevant, comment which was well justified and plausable analysis- it has quite frankly lost its way and gotten stuck in the donga which is tabloidisation. Lets talk about definitions for a moment: I use the term tabloid to mean a newspaper which reports on events and happenings in a sensationalist and unfounded way. I was insulted when many people called for a halt on the extensive coverage the Zuma trial and others have been getting. "Telling the journalists not to report on something? Freedom of the press I cried"- the reason given to this want for a media blackout was that Zuma had been tried and convicted already by the press and this I didnt buy into...until today.

In my opinion, a newspaper's job is to report facts and events in the most informative way possible- analysis should go on page 4 with it clearly labeled analysis, the Sunday Times was reporting allegations made against Mr Zuma as hard news FACT! The keywords here is allegations. It sounds to me that like the ANC is launching a smear campaign to try and discredit Mr Zuma even further- the sad part of it is that the Sunday Times seems to want to buy into doing this and thus reporting these new allegations in the way they did, they haven't dug beneath the surface and for that you need time- hence you run the initial story on page 3, dig a bit deeper, if you find out its an ANC smear campaign shout it from the rooftops! If it eventually comes to light that Zuma did in fact do something he should'nt have, then shout it with banner headlines and large font on the front page.

Ok, if you got this far so you either agree with me or you strongly disagree with me. Lets say that for argument sake that the Sunday Times is in fact trying to appeal to the tabloid readers and in so doing endevouring to increase its overall market share. Why is tabloidisation so popular? because it creates waves, it creates controversey and people love that don't they? Now, don't get me wrong, controversey is a journalists bread and butter- its what sells newspapers there can be no doubt about it, it can be colourful and interesting and it can be great. But, I say controversey has to create itself for the newspaper- not the newspaper create itself for the controversey. Let me explain, true controversey is the kind which you can slap on the page and it sends tingles up your spine when you do- manufactured (read bad) controversey is when a newspaper takes something which might be big and which might matter and make it into something that is big and does matter for all the wrong reasons- its one step away from creative writing ladies and gentlemen and not the type Hemingway did, his time is over.

I am not adverse to putting controversey in the newspaper I have been appointed to manage but I say lets create controversey with reason, and by creating I mean that something only becomes controversial once it has been read and digested by your readers.

Zuma is, in my personal opinion, is as guilty as sin. He has been tried and convicted in the public eye through the press before he has even set foot in a court room, this I admit and furthermore I admit that this is not entirely fair. "But why then defend the cad?" I hear you exclaim as you scratch your head with confusion. To this I say: the crimes Zuma is being held accountable for have gone to court- thats news, it was news when he was dismissed and it the corruption he may have been involved in is news and controversial news at that. But the team at the Sunday Times seem to be flogging a dead horse here when they dredge up this new gem- Zuma has been done and is now old news, "lets try and spice things up a bit so we can get as much mileage out of him" seem to be their thinking and that is controversey for the wrong reasons

Thanks for reading

Strange emails

2005-11-13T00:49:00.000+02:00

As editor, I get many many emails- some saying good things and some bad things about me and the newspaper I run... but I got this one yesterday and could not make any sense of it:

Hope you get the original version.

As the Editor-in-chief of an independent student news paper catering for a multiracial
community in a "small town".I would like to give you an "assignment" for this precious
december vac to go ask experienced editors, why society always use man of humble origins
as their escape goat to disrepute "organisatios"/"individuals"/"cope with their fears" .

Do n't get me twisted i am not representing any "camp" with unclear/hidden political
mandate.You may mind find it shocking that any rational/"decent"/"potential leader" would
e-mail you such "gross" after you have officilly published that you are taking a brake
for the exam.

Having to resort to the media to address "challeges" of life is not my nature,
but at times when an irrecovable error has occurred a person realy on carefully tailored
minds to regain his dignity.

"I wish I had the academic indepedence to say i write in my personal capacity",if you are
keen on knowing my name feel free to go trace me at the student bureau/IT division.

Good luck on your exams and your future as a journalist this precious generation depends
on your wisdom to activate them to their full potential.

[I MUST MAKE IT CLEAR THAT THE MAIL IS NOT INDENDED TO THREATEN ANY
INDIVIDUAL/OFFICER/ORGANISATION ,AS A SOCIETY AT TIMES WE NEED TO ASSESS THE MERIT BEHIND OUR UNITY, BECAUSE THE NEXT GENERATION MIGHT QUESTION THE LEGACY WE TRYING TO LEAVE FOR THEM.NEVER PLAY WITH A MIND OF AFRICAN CHILD SOME DON'T HAVE THE PATIENCE TO ANALYSE AND MAKE REFLECTIONS.Lastly until you fully experience the three education systems in the country you will always have "one formula fits all approach" to dealing with challeges in our fine land.

Thoughts, comments? I really Don't know what to make of this...

Energy and the way we spend it

2005-11-07T09:04:00.000+02:00

There are people in my life who always seem to be having some personal crisis or another. Now, I am a pretty laid back person, I simply do not have time in my life to care that its raining outside or if the new school of Journalism building is an awful piece of architecture. But this transcends time and these inane outburst of self-absorbed rage not only expend time but energy as well. Generally speaking a busy person who concerns themselves with doing meaningful things does not have the energy to expend on these outbursts I speak of, busy people's lives are interesting enough without having to invent drama and strife on which to fret and moan over.

I count myself as a busy person and I know I like my energy, I like having energy and I like channelling that energy into the right things, thoughts, people and directions. But it is a true tragedy when those who have far too much time on their hands think that they are applying their minds to things that are bigger than them...or that deserve to be fretted over. It is another tragedy that these not-so-busy people are the ones who have time to truly reflect on life. Perhaps that is why they concern themselves with expending their suplus energy in the pursuit of getting ulcers about the fact that they have so much work and thus will defiantly reset like an overloaded computer and end up doing none of it, or concern themselves with what colour the tablecloths at a restaurant are.

Get over yourselves and once you have done that go and read this blog which belongs to a friend of mine.

The bug has bitten, its official

2005-11-05T19:08:00.000+02:00

Spring has brought disgusting heat to Grahamstown, its fire season once again and the authorities they suspect an arsonist is hard at work setting fires and keeping the plucky understaffed fire service of this back-water university town busy.

A fire started in the local hospital grounds, although not the work of an arsonist but a lightinging strike, smoke billowed into the wards and patients had to be evacuated. While this drama was unfolding I was driving to the local mall with my girlfriend. On the way there a fire engine rumbled past us and I had a sudden urge to do a U-turn and chase the damn thing. I related this urge to my perplexed girfriend and she suggested we chase the thing!

It was at this point I realised, for the umpteenth time, that I had found my calling. Terrible as it sounds I knew that there was a story where that fire engine was going, people may even be dying where that fire engine was going but that would make the story even more weightier no?

Our planet is often referred to as "Spaceship Earth"well, if it was a spaceship and all 6 bilion of us were astronauts travelling through space all doing our jobs to keep it going the journalists would be strapped to the nose cone telling everyone inside what was going on, thats what our job is...and we get a front row seat on life, even though some people would rather see the show from the mezzazine.

I have sold my soul, they are keeping it in a jar in the basement of the Journalism department I am sure of it. The journalism bug has bitten, its official and I am loving it!

Editorial 3

2005-10-30T12:05:00.000+02:00

Letters to the Editor are truly wonderful things- and its been great receiveing so many since I took over the paper. Intellectuals fighting is always interestng (especially when the battle lines are the pages of the paper you are editor of) and I dare say the letters I received made the edition. My third editorial:

Well, it’s nearly exam time again and it seems like just the other day that I was sitting in exams, my mind and fingers numbed by the cold. But this time around, as always, heat will be what dulls the senses as perspiration what slows the fingers.

There are however some constants which just make the exam process seem almost cozy in a sense. The nervous wait outside the venue then the rush to see where you will be sitting and the relief to see your name hasn’t been crossed out because of that small chance that the DP warning letter didn’t get through to you. The shuffle into the venue itself, the tension quite palatable as you glance around trying to convince yourself that there are others in there with you who are more nervous and perhaps even studied less than you did. Then there is the obligatory monologue from the invigilators, at this point it almost feels like you are about to bungee jump off a bridge in the dark, the invigilators may as well be shouting “bungee” when they tell you to begin reading time as there is no turning back after that. No way of knowing if the there is a rocky outcrop or two to bash against as you speed towards the ground, no way of knowing if the cord will even hold you and save you from a plummet to an F on your academic transcript. But when you find questions you can answer, it’s like feeling the cord tighten and snap back as it saves you from getting a mouthful of dirt while a wave of euphoria and relief wash over you. All you have to do after that is start writing and believe in yourself. But enough about exams.

Letters to the editor are great things to get as they let us know that people are reading the newspaper and care about what is being said. One of the first things I did was add in the “How to contact us” box in order to open a channel of communication between us and our readers as no newspaper is an island. There were two articles which appeared in last edition in particular which were commented on. The first being the SRC article on the front page which Dominic White wrote a letter about. The second was a response written by Professor Marius Vermaak, the head of Philosophy and the Dean of the International Office with regard to the opinion piece written by Dr Leonard Praeg, a lecturer in the Politics department.

In his email to me Professor Vermaak stated that in his opinion I, as editor, “owes (sic) the University space for a full response, to a very irresponsible and damaging article.” Let me get a few things straight at this point, Activate is and independent student newspaper and thus we owe nothing to any one person or organisation, this includes the University and the SRC, we owe everything however to you, our readers, as it is only to you, I feel that Activate is accountable to. Therefore, as per Professor Vermaak’s wishes, we are running his letter in full and totally unedited. I do however take exception to Professor Vermaak’s aforementioned remark. His letter is getting printed because he is the person in the position to represent the University on this matter, he is “the man in know” so to speak. His letter is not getting printed because I owe it to the University. Turn to page four to read the letters for yourself.

Editorial 2

2005-10-30T12:02:00.000+02:00

I wrote this editorial after an unsuccessful round of SRC elections- quorum had not been reached for the executive committee to be voted in: Student apathy at its highest...but can you blame us for not voting? read on and decide for yourself!

I am going to sound like a bit of a stuck record here but I can’t resist talking about the SRC again. I hope we can elect a new SRC and get it over with or will we be third time lucky? To turn a phrase, “They [the SRC] are so useless they can’t even get themselves out of power” I wish I could take credit for saying that but alas I can’t.

We have trapped ourselves in our own apathy. Last year we elected, if their performance record is anything to go by, a stupendously useless bunch of individuals to represent us. We made decisions which were not informed and we are now paying the price. So why didn’t we get quorum last time? The confidence in the SRC had fallen so much that it was enough to turn you apathetic, why bother voting for people who seemingly only want to add another thing to their CVs? But as I said in my last editorial, the blame can’t be placed on the SRC only- we have to look at who voted them in and those people are you and me friends. The question that arises at this point is doe we need an SRC? Is it an outdated structure? I don’t dispute that we need to be represented but then it must be clear we are actually being represented. To the newly elected SRC I say: learn from the mistakes of the past, restore confidence and show us that you are actually doing something for us. But that’s enough SRC bashing for now.

I feel that one of the jobs journalists have is to demystify leaders, politicians and sometimes even celebrities. To this end we have for you on page five, an interview with the Dean of Students, Dr Moosa Motara. While I am not saying that Dr Motara falls into any of the abovementioned categories of person, he is still the person everyone seems to blame when something goes wrong. We are very quick to blast admin about any issue we have under the sun and yes, most of the time (I certainly feel) the grievance falls under their sphere of influence so the complaint is justified. Yet admin still remains wrapped in a mystical cloud of public relations and closed door meetings, the interview on page five serves to lift that cloud a little.

As I sit here writing this there is a massive banging going on downstairs, the sound of the Union in the throes of refurbishment. As you may have noticed, our front page story is about just that. I think Mike Smurfwaite sums it up well when describes the Union as nothing more than an “archaic shell.” It has certainly been this way in the two years I have been here and the refurbishment looks to be very positive step as, to coin a phrase, “if you build it, they will come.” But of course that remains to be seen.

This week, African Affairs (page nine) leads with a story on the Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) on campus which is situated opposite Smuts. Many a time I have walked past the sign at the front of the building (mostly after a big night out) and peered at it wondering what they actually do in there. Go to page nine to find out.

I hope you enjoy reading this week’s edition look out for our exam edition in two weeks, bye for now.

Editorial 1

2005-10-30T01:54:00.000+02:00

My first editorial- I wanted to make it clear what I felt Activate's role was on campus as well as steering how people saw the editorial as just a big fat rant or self-help column!

I firmly believe that it is important to ask interesting questions because then you will hopefully get interesting answers.

So, here is a question for you: did you vote in the SRC elections and if so who did you vote for? By the time you read this the election would have come and gone, quorum (hopefully) reached and the new members of the SRC ready to begin doing whatever the SRC is actually meant to do.

Hold it right there, what does the SRC actually do? At times I am not sure that the members of the SRC themselves actually know. Well, let’s break down what the acronym SRC actually stands for: the “S” is for students, that’s us. The “R” is for representative, which must mean they represent the students (us) and the “C” is for council which means, in my view, that there is a lot of paperwork involved.

Therefore, the SRC, in effect, are elected public servants of the students and who will speak for us when admin does something and sort out things like societies. The keyword here is “elected” as the candidates may choose to run but we choose to vote for them. So, here is another interesting question: if we vote in an SRC who doesn’t do a good job whose fault is it really? Let me answer that one for you: it is our fault, especially if you didn’t vote.

This brings me to another thing I would like to point out, students are great at complaining, and I am guilty of this as well believe me (I mean, what am I doing in this column?). The first thing I noticed when I arrived here last year was the amount of hot air students’ spout in complaining to whoever will listen about anything and everything, but doing nothing about it. But in an election we get the chance to do something and make a change for the better. What happens if you don’t vote then? Are you still entitled to complain about the lack of service the SRC are giving us? My answer is a big hell no! We do just that anyway though which is quite sad when you think about it don’t you think?

Let me just say at this point that while Activate is committed to watching every move the SRC makes and we won’t hesitate to print an article when they mess up, we are also going to strive to print the good things too because often those go unnoticed.

So, what can you expect from us, the new team at Activate? Our goal is simply to create a stimulating paper and get it to you, the campus community.

In this edition we lead with the HIV/AIDS week march which happened last Friday. The reception the marchers got from Dr Woods and the policy SHARC gave him was truly amazing. Rest assured we will be watching to make sure they carry through on their promises. But their actions can only go so far, AIDS is your problem too.

I hope you enjoy this first edition of the new team, have a great vac and you can catch the next edition in the second week of next term. Hold on tight, here we go!

I become editor (wank alert)

2005-10-30T01:52:00.000+02:00

I was recently appointed as the Editor in Chief of the student newspaper Activate, I am going to be posting my editorials- just as a wank to myself really!

Print is dead! Long live the Internet

2005-07-20T09:00:00.000+02:00

A group of us were having this discussion in the Cue Newsroom the other day: Is print dying and will the Internet or New Media (NM) replace it?

The way I see it, once upon a time, Print was an innovatinve new media through which information could be disseminated on a potentially large scale to many people easier than before. The coming of paper, the use of ink and the invention of the printing press came together to create a new medium.

But there was a catch- people needed to be able to read in order to digest the information and thus make use of this new medium. This lead to literacy rate to grow which had consequences later with regard to the distribution of ideology and nationalism etc. Therefore, with the increased literacy the print medium's power increased albeit that the fact that literacy was a factor which made using the print medium exclusive to elitist circles. This soon changed and being able to read is considered a prerequisite to living in modern Western society today.

But a piece of paper with words on it cannot be heard unless it is read and so radio became the meduim of the spoken word and the first form of broadcasting using the invention of electricity. The catch was, of course, one needed a radio to be able to take advantage of this new way of getting information and even then it was not gurenteed that you would be in range of a radio station. All of this has changed and now you can be assured of getting at least one radio station wherever you are in the world.

The photograph, an important element in newspapers, emerged as an important text but could only capture one moment of time- some see this as the photograph's most powerful quality. The photograph brought in the visual element into a newspaper but early cameras were bulky and unrelaiable. This was all ironed out eventually and thus cemented the alliance between photographs and print.

The Television, by the power of electricity and the Catho-ray tube brought us yet another medium- the marrying of moving pictures and sound in full colour and crystal clear clarity. But one needed to own a television set- still quite an expensive item to this day maling it an exclusive medium to the upper LSM groups of society.

But was this the ultimate?

At this point we had made a place for each of the information media in society, even though one made the other obsolete- print was, it can be argued, made obsolete with the coming of radio and radio, it can further be argued, was made obsolete with the coming of Television. Was this the best we could do?

But I believe its human nature to strive to improve technology and this has a spin-off to every aspect of modern life. Computers have undoubtably been one of the single most important invention ever. Combining the power of electricity, plastics, mathematics and a myriad of other previous invented concepts, materials and machines, computers opened a doorway into a new and exciting era- we built a machine that could think and carry out tasks when we asked it to.
But how to harness this new power? What did it all mean for information media? If computers opened the door to a new era of doing things, the internet dragged the information media through it kicking and screaming.

The internet began as a means for the United State's Military to keep a communication network up and running even if large amounts of it was destroyed. The mainstreaming of the internet heralded a new dawn for information dissemination. For the first time since Television words, sound and the moving as well as the still image could all be combined into one unit. The internet is therefore, in my opinion, the medium of mediums. However, it does not render any of its predecessors obsolete- we still need words, thos we got from print, we still need moving images and sound those we got from television and radio, we still need photographs. Thus it is a meeting of minds, a meeting of creativity. An interet site can be, in theory, viewed by anyone in the world who is on the internet.

There is of course a myriad of catches- just like there was with the previous media. Firstly one needs a computer which has access to the internet, both are still expensive things to have. One needs to be able to use this computer in a fruitful way- computer literacy is needed much like one needs to learn how to read in order to enjoy the print meduim.

But what about the other mediums? Are we going to see them die?

The way I see it, print as we know it will be around for a long time to come. Space will be made in society for NM as has been the case in the past. For print to die out completly the internet, radio or television must become the primary means for people to get their information and I just dont see this happening for several reasons:

1.) The cost: its still cheaper to buy a newspaper than get setup for the internet and learn how to use a computer or buy a TV or computer.

2.) one needs to learn how to use a computer

3.) one needs to be able to be connected to the internet and afford to use it on a daily basis- as much as one would have access to a newspaper.

thus I think print is not dead yet, and wont be for a long time.

just my 2c

Schools fest

2005-07-15T00:40:00.000+02:00

Well, Schools fest is nearly over! YAY!! I was up all night laying out the schoolsfest newsletter thing- it took me 10 hours to do an 8 page A4 sized publication....pathetic hey? at 9 this morning, when I took it to be printed, I had been awake for 24 hours straight! Well...at least they are paying me!

The Beginning

2005-07-13T14:43:00.000+02:00

Well I have finally decided to start a blog....dunno how this is gonna turn out or if I will remember to even post stuff but will try anyway!

A designer's Ramblings

Mac or PC?

A world gone mad

www.tickyboxtv.com- Join up!

Miley Cyrus makes Time's top 100 most influential people...WTF???

Why thought leader can't truly be a "blog"

The Six Patron Saints of Graphic Design

Using the web to put yourself out there

Opera: First impressions

Essay for Web development intensive

My mad xhtml skills

a main header

a main header

a main header

a main header

a main header

a main header

So I joined Technorati...

New York...a summary

Chapter 2- NY Day 1

Chapter 1 Part 2- Joburg to Paris

The trip to New York Chapter 1 Part 1

SL has a new Editor!!!!!!!

So its been a while...

Here comes the new academic year

Its been a long road

Bloglines

The hollidays and exam results

The Media's responsibility

At least I got over 60%....

Big Blog Directory

Antipodean Media big business

Newsroom Management and what I wish i had known

I am appointed Student Editor of Jo's Toolkit

New Look (under Construction) NO HISSY FITS PLEASE!

First exam down

Water, water everwhere....

Our farm

The South African National Student Editor's Forum

No Water....some electricity

Ok ok so I took the pirate test

A quick newsflash! *Wank Alert*

My opinion on the state of student media

Its been nearly a year+ a little rant

MY OPINION on Advertising, Money and the Media

Air France is not good

The Sunday Times- a victim of tabloidisation

Strange emails

Energy and the way we spend it

The bug has bitten, its official

Editorial 3

Editorial 2

Editorial 1

I become editor (wank alert)

Print is dead! Long live the Internet

Schools fest

The Beginning

A quick newsflash! Wank Alert