http://poponthepop.blogspot.com/2008/11/samantha-ronson-blogs-about-prop-8.html#links
poponthepop.blogspot.com: Samantha Ronson Blogs About Prop 8 Exclusive celebrity gossip, void without sense of humor.
Saturday, November 8, 2008Posted by NewStreet at 3:19 AM 0 comments
“Are Rhodes Students Snobs or They Are Influenced By The Gtown Environment??”
I totally agree with the points that you have made in your opinion piece. I am so tired of being looked down upon just because I choose to speak English and just because I choose to conduct myself in a manner that most black people do not consider “black enough” . I just really feel that these people envy us and they want to be like us. It is YOUR choice if you want to date outside of your race. Black people just need to get over themselves! They should stop feeling sorry for themselves and actually begin doing positive things with their lives. So what if we want to act like snobs? Who cares? As long as we are living our lives the way WE want then to hell with the rest of them. I respect the fact that you tackled such a hair raising issue because I am just so tired of all the name calling and belittling by people who claim to love us! If you love me, you will accept me and MY SNOBISH WAYS!
Boitumelo Msiza aka Diva 101 of mynewstreet.com
Posted by NewStreet at 10:00 AM 0 comments
Developing Seeds: Reflexive Piece
I was productive in the sense that I completed all my work on time, received good marks for that work and posted everything on our blog. Now that I think about it, however, I notice that I only completed one additional article for the blog and one of my members completed almost twenty. This could be due to my recurring infection of laziness, but I think it’s mainly due to the lack of free time in the term.
The articles that I did complete were the assigned tasks from Alette and Sim. My stories for those articles were not incredibly original because everyone in the class had to work with the same subject matter: surviving first year. Everything we wrote – the profile, the letter, the opinion piece and the photo comic – had to pertain to first year and it became increasingly difficult to generate new approaches to the theme.
I believe my whole tutorial group experienced the same problem as I did. We often discussed the issues we were having but apart from that, the tutorials seemed a little pointless because we covered everything in lectures. Although some tutorials were highly entertaining: the image of Push shouting “Order in the class! Order! Let’s here both sides of this argument” is still clear in my mind. Creative and intelligent Push was a wonderful member to have in my team because she always encouraged and complimented the group. Tumi and Divia are also very hard-working and innovative individuals who were assets to the team.
On a scale of one to ten I would place my personal growth at eight. This course has developed the foetus of knowledge that I have on blogging, the internet and new media. The tasks weren’t as beneficial for my writing, but my knowledge gained on new media is priceless. As a group, I believe my team members and I have learnt patience, responsibility and trust. When assigning tasks to different people, I usually prepare for a future migraine. I worry that people won’t get the work done or won’t have it ready on time – this is especially worrisome in Journalism where meeting deadlines is essential. Nevertheless, I learnt to have faith in my team and their unbeatable skills.
Input from the whole team also enabled us to envision our blog’s name and characteristics: NewStreet - The Street of Life. We all painted a part of the masterpiece, some of us maxing our quota for the cause. I believe the group put so much effort into this blog because it’s our own publication. For most of JMS 1, we wrote article for an imaginary publication and an imaginary audience. NewStreet is a real publication and we hold pride and satisfaction in the way we have mastered it. Furthermore, we write articles quite often, but no-one ever sees them. This blog is a physical culmination of the term’s hard work that we can share with our family and friends.
We had to titivate the blog appearance, but written work was a more important factor. Personally, I suffered from many problems when writing my articles. Firstly, I naturally speak in an academic register, I’m not very witty and I don’t use slang. This makes my writing slightly boring for a blog, but I am definitely making an effort to correct this defect in my versatility. Secondly, I felt very confined by the theme of ‘surviving first year’. This theme has been used for the entire year and I’ve exhausted all my story ideas pertaining to the subject.
For the profile article we only needed to interview a first year, therefore, I had a primary source and did not need to verify any facts. I interviewed with ease and I think people are willing to open up to me because I’m not an intimidating or overbearing person. The other articles such as the letter or the opinion piece mainly dealt with my emotions and experiences and also did not require external sources. However, I did take care to double check my information about university rules and alcohol when writing my opinion piece.
Doubling checking information would be essential for a news blog because if you posted incorrect sources just once, you would lose all your credibility. I’m under the impression that a blog that provides new information and current affairs can be called Journalism. Our blog, however, is more of an online diary because opinion pieces and letters are issues of the heart and not news.
Speaking your mind is important, but one has to exercise some restraint when writing about sensitive issues. Personally I did not face any ethical issues because my subject matter was not particularly controversial, although my group was confronted by an ethic problem. After just one week, one of our members was in hospital and we didn’t know whether to exclude her from the group and continue or to wait for her. Luckily we decided to continue without her because she did not come back after her stay in hospital.
Blogging has been a wonderful experience. It has proven challenging, annoying and teeth-grinding at times, but my group and I have persevered. This term is the seed that will grow and flourish and produce an array of beautiful, vibrant journalism graduates.
Posted by Niki at 3:33 AM 0 comments
Labels: blogs, first year, problems, rhodes journalism
Debating the dating Game!
The argument presented by Yolisa, in the Straight Shooter blog, is one that is flawed by the speaker’s lack of understanding and racist tone. Yolisa points out that every ‘jock’ on campus is a racist white male who will never associate themselves with black girls. She further stresses that people are better off with their own race. It seems that Yolisa is the one who is the fool who looks at people by some stereotypical lens. For her, a man wearing a khaki outfit might just be the ‘typical racist white man.’ It just shows that Yolisa is backward and sees people outwardly rather than trying to understand people and appreciate them for who they are. She then advises the youth to “stay with their own kind”. This came as a shock since Yolisa is part of our rainbow generation. However as a student who was raised in a democracy, Yolisa should see that people’s race does not matter when it comes to relationships. It just shows what she looks for in a man: race (possibly white). Therefore I found that this opinion piece is a racist comment that discriminates any white man with muscles on campus.
Pumelela Nqelenga
Posted by NewStreet at 4:42 AM 0 comments
Taxi to Democracy...
Tuesday, October 21, 2008Like a taxi, our government is our vehicle to a democratic society. We choose which taxi is right for us. When we are in the taxi we have the right to see the drivers license just the same way we have the right to see whether our leaders are just. We can voice out our opinion on the drivers conduct on the road. This is the same when we place judgement to those who we feel they are not driving our democracy to a prosperous future. We also have in mind that we pay for the ride just the like we pay taxes, so our voices are just. We place people in front to count our money so that when the drive complains they speak for us. Is this not the same with parliament? Do they not have obligations to the citizens who placed them in such positions? Of course! Lastly as a citizen, you must know that if you did not enjoy the ride and that you find yourself lead to the wrong place, you still have the right to choose the next taxi coming. So when it comes to politics, let us not take it too far from us. Let us see it in our everyday lives and apply it nationally. Also to those voting for the first time next year, just know that you have the privilege of choosing your own taxi and allocating the people in front who voice out your needs. So let us become a South Africa driven by passion to a destination filled with democratic principles.
Pumelela 'Push' Nqelelnga
Posted by NewStreet at 3:50 PM 0 comments
Labels: rhodes journalism