Fifty percent of the children in South Africa don’t live with their fathers. “I never knew that the number was that big and I always thought that it was something in our water that caused neglecting fathers”, says Christie Jacobs who is one of the photograph students in the CMP course. What she learned from the fatherhood subject within this course is that it isn’t in the water. “The number of fathers that don’t live with their children is ridiculously high. But when we look at the policies of South Africa, when it comes to fatherhood, we can make the conclusion that it might not be the water that causes this absentness. Fathers that are not married to their children’s mother do not have any rights. Therefore the mother is able to keep fathers away from their children. This was a real eye-opener for me because I never gave thought to that idea.” The main aim from Christie’s story, which she’s producing together with Bryan Vlok (radio-student), is to show that it isn’t necessarily the fault of the fathers that only fifty percent of South African children don’t live with their father, but that the bad policies increase the number. They want the policies to be changed. They do not know for which NGO or organisation their slight-show is going to be, but they did found a man who cannot see his twelve year old son because the mother won’t let him. His name is Julias Jass and after seven years of contact with his son (the mother and Julias Jass weren’t in a relationship anymore), the mother forbade him to see his child ever again. He sees his son secretly by visiting him at school. (See picture)
I find it exiting that the CMP students are making stories that are going to be used. They put in a lot of work and in the end an NGO (for example) will use their material. That is such a price, I think. In Holland we also have the same kind of thing with different courses and students need to do freelance-work in their third year where their work is being published. I think that the way the fatherhood subject works in this course is pretty good because the students are forced to do good research, to think about what they want to achieve with their story, to choose and find an NGO with their public in the back of their heads. I could tell that Christie new what she was talking about and she was very interested. I think that it should count for everyone since this is in my opinion the best assignment one can have as a journalist student. You can come up with your own story and idea, something that you find interesting. You can choose who is going to use your work (if they want it) and it is real journalism. I think that this is what journalism is about. Finding stories that can send a message out there and thinking about the public are very essential things in a journalist life. At least that is my view of a ‘real’ journalist. Not waiting around the office until someone gives you story, but using your own head.
In the JDD course we learned a lot about different kinds of journalism and about democracy and journalism. To be honest I didn’t get what it had to do with ‘fatherhood’. But I see now what the point is. Christie’s story about Julias Jass is a form of ‘development journalism’. “It is development because we produce media that can be used by NGO’s.” But also investigative journalism and solution journalism fits in their story. The dots are starting to connect.
“What I learned about the JDD course and the whole fatherhood subject is that we want to produce media for the majority of the country, but the majority doesn’t understand the ‘western view of media’ the way journalists tend to use journalism.” The mainstream media, which is a very western form, contains TV’s for example, which the majority of South Africans don’t have. “Lots of fathers don’t know that there are options to get some rights to see their children. They don’t know where to go. ‘Fathers for Justice’ is a big organisation which is concerned with father’s rights. But it’s an organisation that’s on the internet, something that the majority doesn’t have access to. But there are other options, like social development centres, but fathers mostly don’t know that they can go there”, says Christie. I think that this course therefore is a good way of showing the students that there is a job to do.
Before I end this blog I would like to add that I specifically focused on the radio/photograph students. And I liked what I’ve seen so far. I think the stories that are being made are very interesting, as far as I heard about it though. I put some question marks at some interviews because they are in Xhosa. It’s my personal taste, but I rather listen to the voices if the interviewees than a voice-over. But it’s worth it if the story is interesting enough and if there really isn’t another option. The idea of the slight-show sounds nice to me and I really liked some pictures that I saw were made. So what I really want to say is that I am quite positive and I am really looking forward to the outcome! There is a lot of potential and I hope the maximum will be reached.
I find it exiting that the CMP students are making stories that are going to be used. They put in a lot of work and in the end an NGO (for example) will use their material. That is such a price, I think. In Holland we also have the same kind of thing with different courses and students need to do freelance-work in their third year where their work is being published. I think that the way the fatherhood subject works in this course is pretty good because the students are forced to do good research, to think about what they want to achieve with their story, to choose and find an NGO with their public in the back of their heads. I could tell that Christie new what she was talking about and she was very interested. I think that it should count for everyone since this is in my opinion the best assignment one can have as a journalist student. You can come up with your own story and idea, something that you find interesting. You can choose who is going to use your work (if they want it) and it is real journalism. I think that this is what journalism is about. Finding stories that can send a message out there and thinking about the public are very essential things in a journalist life. At least that is my view of a ‘real’ journalist. Not waiting around the office until someone gives you story, but using your own head.
In the JDD course we learned a lot about different kinds of journalism and about democracy and journalism. To be honest I didn’t get what it had to do with ‘fatherhood’. But I see now what the point is. Christie’s story about Julias Jass is a form of ‘development journalism’. “It is development because we produce media that can be used by NGO’s.” But also investigative journalism and solution journalism fits in their story. The dots are starting to connect.
“What I learned about the JDD course and the whole fatherhood subject is that we want to produce media for the majority of the country, but the majority doesn’t understand the ‘western view of media’ the way journalists tend to use journalism.” The mainstream media, which is a very western form, contains TV’s for example, which the majority of South Africans don’t have. “Lots of fathers don’t know that there are options to get some rights to see their children. They don’t know where to go. ‘Fathers for Justice’ is a big organisation which is concerned with father’s rights. But it’s an organisation that’s on the internet, something that the majority doesn’t have access to. But there are other options, like social development centres, but fathers mostly don’t know that they can go there”, says Christie. I think that this course therefore is a good way of showing the students that there is a job to do.
Before I end this blog I would like to add that I specifically focused on the radio/photograph students. And I liked what I’ve seen so far. I think the stories that are being made are very interesting, as far as I heard about it though. I put some question marks at some interviews because they are in Xhosa. It’s my personal taste, but I rather listen to the voices if the interviewees than a voice-over. But it’s worth it if the story is interesting enough and if there really isn’t another option. The idea of the slight-show sounds nice to me and I really liked some pictures that I saw were made. So what I really want to say is that I am quite positive and I am really looking forward to the outcome! There is a lot of potential and I hope the maximum will be reached.
