Stellen-Buzz
Posts
The ramfeezled journalist

The ramfeezled journalist

Stellen-Buzz with SMF
October 04, 2024

Beating around the Bosch

with

Dear Reader,

If you’ve been reading these newsletters, you would be well aware of the obstacles that stand in the way of becoming a journalist. Echoes of “Print is dying” and “What about AI” seem to hover in the air above us constantly.

But one hard truth that has echoed particularly loudly of late as we start scouring the industry for jobs, is that we are doomed to a life of meagre monetary means. Not a comforting thought, especially when almost every lecturer you meet for the first time says something along the lines of: “You better not be doing this for the money!” followed by malicious laughter.

Journalists, much like artists, possess a sweaty fervour to do what we do, the source of which is unknown. But we are still humans, and sometimes need external recognition to reassure us that we aren’t barking mad.

So, something like Woordfees comes along.

Beginning in 2000, the festival started as a one-night celebration of Afrikaans literature. It has since welcomed several other languages to its repertoire, with some shows boasting a multilingual script, and now includes theatre, music, dance, art exhibitions, and more.

Daily Maverick’s Marianne Thamm is hosting a show at Woordfees this year called “Vuisvoos, maar nog regop”, roughly translated as “battered and beaten but still upright”, reciting the major events in the world of journalism over the last 20 years. Performance, I suppose, is an essential part of journalism; I see traces of it in the way we phrase headlines to catch an eye, or the boom of a reporter’s voice in soundbites. How else are we meant to get people’s attention?

This week, our class is attending various Woordfees shows and writing reviews – a welcome break away from the hard news style that we usually conform to. You will be seeing more of these come out on our website next week. Let us know what you think of our critiques!

Nicola Amon, newsletter editor

Visual of the Week

Graduating students at the Elizabeth Galloway Academy of Fashion Design showcased their final-year collections at a fashion show on 14 September.

📸Some BTS from SMF News’ Bayanda Gumede:

I found out about the show through one of our classmates, Erinma, who was a model that night. I spent the whole night walking back and forth trying to get good shots of the models coming down the runway, but knew the broadcast would lack depth and personality if I didn’t speak to one or two of the designers, so after the show I made an effort to corner Angelica Davis and Shaquille Smit. I didn’t know how the interviews would go the following week, but just knew they would add the depth that I needed. Both of them ended up adding such interesting elements to the broadcast — so much so that I would have preferred to make the video five minutes instead of two. The editing was quite seamless and my final product was great. What would have made it perfect was if I wasn’t sick while I was recording the voiceover, but I made it work nonetheless.

Watch the story here