Trust your heart don't be afraid to reach out to something new.Go ahead get yor hopes up even if things turns out differently than you have imagined.You will have tried,you will have learned,you never have to live with regrets.It seems to me what wears us down the most in life aren't the chances we take but the ones we don't take,the dreams we put aside,the adventure we push away.So what ever you want in life go for it an dalways remember no-matter what trust your heart and you will never go wrong.
Monday, November 16, 2009
Friday, October 30, 2009
I thought I was "RIGHT"
My first challenge was wrapping my fingers around the pen and having a firm grip on it whilst still being able to write comfortably. Then it was adjusting the angle of my book to complement my grip of the pen - which took a while; I tried having the centre of my book perfectly aligned with my body, but that restricted my left arm's movements and I thus had to compensate for that by overworking my left wrist and fingers... they got tired and so I tried a different angle; this time with the center of my book perpendicular to my body; and guess what? the opposite effect, my left arm was liberated while my left wrist and fingers' movements were restricted; the result was that my pen made erratic jerks in directions my brain didn't consent with but which were fully support by my rebellious left hand. The next logical thing to do was to find the half way mark, so I positioned the center of my book at a 45 degree angle to my body, and Voila! I had more control over my left arm's movements and could go on writing for longer before periodically resting my arm. Of course my handwriting was illegible (as not even I could make out what I wrote) but at least I wrote with my left hand for an hour and covered 1 1/8 pages. I really expected pushing a pen to be way easier than pulling it, but I was wrong; using your left hand is a skill that has to be practised, there are so many technicalities that need to be considered, it's not merely doing everything the opposite way to how you do it with your right hand - your left hand might not be comfortable with doing things that way, so you need to find what is most suitable for both your right hand and your left. You might view both arms as twins but you must treat them as individuals; they prefer it that way. After this experience of being left handed, I immediatley felt off balance when walking and uncertain as to which arm I should use when. I think my brain had become so attuned to using my left hand that it started neglecting my right hand every now and again; and i was fully conscious of this as it happened. So I had to draw the line between the two so that each hand could know its place, for small tasks like opening the fridge and pouring juice into a cup, i can use my left hand; but for bigger responsibilities, I let my more experienced right hand take its place. I thought I was right, but i guess now I'm ambidextrous.
Paper trail... I think we are on to something
My review is on the blog site http://thepapertrail09.blogspot.com. Given the fact that blogging is a subject that many of us have only been exposed to this term and that the bloggers of this site are first year students, I am quite impressed with the quality of their blog site and their blog posts. Firstly, the aesthetic quality of the blog site is impeccable, it correlates brilliantly with their name as we see strips of paper and ink blots that suggest some sort of writing activity that has transpired and that the bloggers are the ones exposing all this activity, so an element of intrigue and suspense is created from the appearance of the blog and how it relates to the name of the blog. The Posts are informative yet exuberant; you can tell that they are intended for the younger generation. In their blogs the members, who are Cam, Marina, Nkuli and Candice, cover everything from current affairs to their personal experiences and opinions. Their profiles give you the opportunity to know them a bit better and they are quite free to let you into their lives. The language cuts across academic and colloquial in that you can sense the seriousness of the reporting style yet at the same time feel like your conversing with an old friend over coffee. The headlines summarise the content of the posts effectively, thus evading anti-climaxes from reading the posts. This blog site is relevant to journalism students because it is informative and inspiring.
The day in the life of a 1st Year Pharm Student...but not really.
I never thought Id end up impersonating a student.
Not even for a minute. I ened up doing it for and hour.
I gatecrashed a Zoology prac.
I walked into the Pharmacy department i.e the Zoo building , lab coat on my back, disection kit in my hands, ready to do something deadly to something, well, dead.
Since most of my friends are pharmacy students (I kid you not, 89% of my friends are doing either 1st, 2nd, 3rd or 4th year Pharm...I need to get out more) I decided why not experienced some of what I hear about everyday?
So off I went, ready, steady, go! but what do I end up doing? disecting a leaf and examining its properties and characteristics. meh.
Never the less, I enjoyed my hour as a Pharmacy student and promise never to do it again.
Swing-swing-swing along
Run. Run. Run. I often run to the Grahamstown Grey Dam.
Tired. Tired. Wow it’s a far run, and every time I take this far run I so desperately want to jump into the water to cool off, because by that time my body is hot, hot hot, but there is this one problem; I am terrified of cold water, and Grahamstown as we all know has a weather man that so kindly graces us with all four of the seasons in one day, how delightful.
The water always looks evilly tempting, like Eves apple; yet once you are in, you freeze. So I decided for my “I have never done this before task” that I would not only brave the iciest water, but that I was going to do it in style. There is an old swing that is tied to one of the biggest trees at the dam. So I swung like a craze Jane from the tree, SPLASH and then there was silence… and before my head had reached the surface it was shit shit shit!
Tired. Tired. Wow it’s a far run, and every time I take this far run I so desperately want to jump into the water to cool off, because by that time my body is hot, hot hot, but there is this one problem; I am terrified of cold water, and Grahamstown as we all know has a weather man that so kindly graces us with all four of the seasons in one day, how delightful.
The water always looks evilly tempting, like Eves apple; yet once you are in, you freeze. So I decided for my “I have never done this before task” that I would not only brave the iciest water, but that I was going to do it in style. There is an old swing that is tied to one of the biggest trees at the dam. So I swung like a craze Jane from the tree, SPLASH and then there was silence… and before my head had reached the surface it was shit shit shit!
Some things should never be revealed but I guess…
Sunday afternoon I was the joke of the day, but I really don’t mind. I spent the whole afternoon half naked “WHAAAAAT? Yep!!! I did, all day I was walking around res only covered with my tiny towel. All my friends were all shocked because walking with a towel around res is something I really hate and never tried it before. I usually ran down the stairs to my room every time after a shower. It was a hell lot of experience, but will never do it again I’m not ready for any risks this time. Some random guy walked in the common room and it felt so weird because he spent more than 20minutes chatting with us and I was very quite always looking straight in the TV. Well sometimes, I guess it’s good to do something you not used to do even if it’s extremely risky. Maybe I will try this again……maybe not.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Journalists, Bloggers, students … Who are these people?
#rublogs a bit of politics, drama, news, entertainment all is here, have a bite. http://write-side-up.blogsp...
Firstly the enviroment, the format the location of this blog is very fascinating and eye-catching, and that was the first thing I was looking in the blog I want to review. Secondly, traditionally journalism can never be replaced by anything else in the world. I’ve looked into so many journalism student blogs and have come across “write side up” http://write-side-up.blogspot.com and I think among the rest this blog still rise above the rest. The bloggers are journalism students writing journalism. This blog, I believe is inspiring other students to write read and appreciate everything around/affecting them or their country, another thing is that it more exiting to read something that was written by your mates it can be easier to relate yourself into it.
The most valued quality of the language of journalism is clarity (Roy Peter Clark) this clarifies all the things that are written and I can see that the bloggers are passionate about writing and they are writing good stuff. There should be a good relationship between a journalist and the reader, which is well represented in the blog; the readers are well informed and represented by the bloggers. As journalist’s students, I bet all of us are the knower’s but we perceive what we get from the world we live in, differently.
Writing on-line was not an easy thing to but now it’s very easy to do so and our up-and-coming journalists are always stuck onto their screens. Objectivity and real time new is overrated in the journalism world. The blog focuses on the present what is valuable, leaving out what is not newsworthy and also has tried being objective on their writings. In this blog you a little bit of everything like in the blog; The Roving Journalist http://michellemaskaly.blogspot.com
By: Nolusindiso Msizi
Firstly the enviroment, the format the location of this blog is very fascinating and eye-catching, and that was the first thing I was looking in the blog I want to review. Secondly, traditionally journalism can never be replaced by anything else in the world. I’ve looked into so many journalism student blogs and have come across “write side up” http://write-side-up.blogspot.com and I think among the rest this blog still rise above the rest. The bloggers are journalism students writing journalism. This blog, I believe is inspiring other students to write read and appreciate everything around/affecting them or their country, another thing is that it more exiting to read something that was written by your mates it can be easier to relate yourself into it.
The most valued quality of the language of journalism is clarity (Roy Peter Clark) this clarifies all the things that are written and I can see that the bloggers are passionate about writing and they are writing good stuff. There should be a good relationship between a journalist and the reader, which is well represented in the blog; the readers are well informed and represented by the bloggers. As journalist’s students, I bet all of us are the knower’s but we perceive what we get from the world we live in, differently.
Writing on-line was not an easy thing to but now it’s very easy to do so and our up-and-coming journalists are always stuck onto their screens. Objectivity and real time new is overrated in the journalism world. The blog focuses on the present what is valuable, leaving out what is not newsworthy and also has tried being objective on their writings. In this blog you a little bit of everything like in the blog; The Roving Journalist http://michellemaskaly.blogspot.com
By: Nolusindiso Msizi
Monday, October 26, 2009
Love vs Like
Do you really love the people you say you love or do you only like them? Have you ever spent time meditating on the distinction between the two concepts? Well if you have not, then this ought to help you locate the level of your love-walk. Love gives, like lends; have you ever found that you only give things permanently to people that are very close to you while you merely lend to those that are not as important? What this represents is the worth of the people to whom you give and those to whom you lend because when you give something to someone, your conviction is that you would rather go without than to see the one you love struggle or suffer; on the other hand to lend means “I’ll help you out for a little while, but after that you are on your own”. So if you have learnt to give to all people wether they are close to you or not, wether they do good things for you or not then you are on the right track because you do not need a cause to love people, you simply love them because you believe that every single human being is worthy of being loved. Thus you will be able to give your time, energy and resources to that person with no expectation of being rewarded. This kind of love is unconditional and selfless thus making it genuine; as true love is only proven in a challenge.
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Proof of racism!
I never write about political topics, I never do. I don’t like writing about race and racism because it’s all over now and were supposed to be moving on, but now I’m angry, I’m very angry - here is living proof that racism still exists and people aren’t even trying in the slightest to hide it. In a recent article that I read on Press Association Online, researchers where investigating racial discriminations in the workplace. The researchers made thousands of phony CV’s and sent them to numerous organisations for their recruitment processes. The three fake identities - Nazia Mahmood, Mariam Namagembe and Alison Taylor - were all given similar experience and qualifications. The result?
The white candidate had to send in nine applications before an organisation requested an interview, in contrast to this response, the other candidates had reached sixteen applications before they were offered a similar response. Here it is, in black and white, the applicants all had very similar experiences and qualifications. Then what was it that made one candidate receive more attention from corporations than the others? The answer: the different colours of our skin. There was no other evidence, other than the difference of their complexion that might have made a difference in the selection process.
Employment minister Jim Knight said: "This research clearly shows that some employers are discriminating when it comes to choosing staff. This has no place in a modern society and racial discrimination cannot be allowed to continue." http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5ijBP1mlvd9ZNJ2R6XJ-IF5q1tyPQ
The white candidate had to send in nine applications before an organisation requested an interview, in contrast to this response, the other candidates had reached sixteen applications before they were offered a similar response. Here it is, in black and white, the applicants all had very similar experiences and qualifications. Then what was it that made one candidate receive more attention from corporations than the others? The answer: the different colours of our skin. There was no other evidence, other than the difference of their complexion that might have made a difference in the selection process.
Employment minister Jim Knight said: "This research clearly shows that some employers are discriminating when it comes to choosing staff. This has no place in a modern society and racial discrimination cannot be allowed to continue." http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5ijBP1mlvd9ZNJ2R6XJ-IF5q1tyPQ
Short concentration span
The Herald
Article: “Pupils and students turns to risky performance drugs”
Date of publication: 17 October 2009.
By: Yolandé Stander; WEEKEND POST REPORTER.Full article can be viewed at: The Herald
Article: “Pupils and students turns to risky performance drugs”
Date of publication: 17 October 2009.
By: Yolandé Stander; WEEKEND POST REPORTER.Full article can be viewed at: http://www.theherald.co.za/article.aspx?id=485891
#rublogs http://uvebnpind.blogspot.com fellows our lives are at risks we should act wise for our future.
Coming to University is a big step for everyone, and as a result everyone is so exited and passionate to do and finish up their degrees. There’s always been competition, more especially among friends and some students can’t stand the competition and are forced to do stupid things to make the best out of themselves, like trying to use drugs in order to maintain concentration on their academics.
This article serves as a warning to all students to be aware of the decisions they make regarding what they take to improve their learning abilities. This is something that always happens when students are facing exam pressures. Professors, Lecturers need to talk to the students and make them aware of the risk they are putting their lives and suggest things that might be helpful.
The head-line: not very strong and not everyone might be interested in. I can say it is aimed at students, parents and Lecturers. There’s an over-wording in the head line; Pupils and students (synonyms). The story could’ve been much more interesting if the reporter had also included the students in the article; students who have personal experiences of these drugs. Now that the exams are around the corner we should be wise and do what’s best for our health and academics, because we wouldn’t like ending up in bad conditions.
#rublogs http://uvebnpind.blogspot.com fellows our lives are at risks we should act wise for our future. less than 5 seconds ago#rublogs http://uvebnpind.blogspot.com fellows our lives are at risks we should act wise for our future.
Coming to University is a big step for everyone, and as a result everyone is so exited and passionate to do and finish up their degrees. There’s always been competition, more especially among friends and some students can’t stand the competition and are forced to do stupid things to make the best out of themselves, like trying to use drugs in order to maintain concentration on their academics.
This article serves as a warning to all students to be aware of the decisions they make regarding what they take to improve their learning abilities. This is something that always happens when students are facing exam pressures. Professors, Lecturers need to talk to the students and make them aware of the risk they are putting their lives and suggest things that might be helpful.
The head-line: not very strong and not everyone might be interested in. I can say it is aimed at students, parents and Lecturers. There’s an over-wording in the head line; Pupils and students (synonyms). The story could’ve been much more interesting if the reporter had also included the students in the article; students who have personal experiences of these drugs. Now that the exams are around the corner we should be wise and do what’s best for our health and academics, because we wouldn’t like ending up in bad conditions.
Article: “Pupils and students turns to risky performance drugs”
Date of publication: 17 October 2009.
By: Yolandé Stander; WEEKEND POST REPORTER.Full article can be viewed at: The Herald
Article: “Pupils and students turns to risky performance drugs”
Date of publication: 17 October 2009.
By: Yolandé Stander; WEEKEND POST REPORTER.Full article can be viewed at: http://www.theherald.co.za/article.aspx?id=485891
#rublogs http://uvebnpind.blogspot.com fellows our lives are at risks we should act wise for our future.
Coming to University is a big step for everyone, and as a result everyone is so exited and passionate to do and finish up their degrees. There’s always been competition, more especially among friends and some students can’t stand the competition and are forced to do stupid things to make the best out of themselves, like trying to use drugs in order to maintain concentration on their academics.
This article serves as a warning to all students to be aware of the decisions they make regarding what they take to improve their learning abilities. This is something that always happens when students are facing exam pressures. Professors, Lecturers need to talk to the students and make them aware of the risk they are putting their lives and suggest things that might be helpful.
The head-line: not very strong and not everyone might be interested in. I can say it is aimed at students, parents and Lecturers. There’s an over-wording in the head line; Pupils and students (synonyms). The story could’ve been much more interesting if the reporter had also included the students in the article; students who have personal experiences of these drugs. Now that the exams are around the corner we should be wise and do what’s best for our health and academics, because we wouldn’t like ending up in bad conditions.
#rublogs http://uvebnpind.blogspot.com fellows our lives are at risks we should act wise for our future. less than 5 seconds ago#rublogs http://uvebnpind.blogspot.com fellows our lives are at risks we should act wise for our future.
Coming to University is a big step for everyone, and as a result everyone is so exited and passionate to do and finish up their degrees. There’s always been competition, more especially among friends and some students can’t stand the competition and are forced to do stupid things to make the best out of themselves, like trying to use drugs in order to maintain concentration on their academics.
This article serves as a warning to all students to be aware of the decisions they make regarding what they take to improve their learning abilities. This is something that always happens when students are facing exam pressures. Professors, Lecturers need to talk to the students and make them aware of the risk they are putting their lives and suggest things that might be helpful.
The head-line: not very strong and not everyone might be interested in. I can say it is aimed at students, parents and Lecturers. There’s an over-wording in the head line; Pupils and students (synonyms). The story could’ve been much more interesting if the reporter had also included the students in the article; students who have personal experiences of these drugs. Now that the exams are around the corner we should be wise and do what’s best for our health and academics, because we wouldn’t like ending up in bad conditions.
Saturday, October 17, 2009
Thinking Beyond...
Michelle Mack was born without the left hand side of her brain due to a stroke she suffered before birth; the lesion literally took away the left hemisphere of her brain. Yet remarkable she has been able to lead a normal life, even graduating from High School. The left hand side of the brain controls the right hand side of the body and language processing. The right hemisphere controls the left hand side of the body and visual spatial functions. The right-side of Michelle’s brain essentially rewired itself to take over the left-side’s functions. Doctors and scientists call Michelle’s case a “new discovery” concluding that the Brain has the ability to compensate for damage by restructuring itself http://tinyurl.com/yhq9gg3. The compensation of the left hand side of the brain by the right has cost her in some of the normal functions of the right; e.g. she struggles with abstract concepts and gets easily lost in unfamiliar surroundings, she’s lost some language ability and has difficulty controlling her emotions. Now 37 years old, Michelle works at home doing data entries for her church. Prior to this, science has told us how the brain has wired functions, yet Michelle’s case proves that the brain is actually quite placid. I think people trust science too much, we should learn to think and research beyond scientific research because sometimes it can be inaccurate; plus, scientists will never admit to being wrong, they’ll simply underplay their mishaps with euphemisms like “new discovery”. Time to think beyond!
Friday, October 9, 2009
O-week: Rhodes edition
First Years and House Comm together during O-Week at Rhodes, A celebration of things to come?
Photographer: Annchen Naude
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=23359145799&ref=ts
Thursday, October 1, 2009
quote of the day
No one ever confides a secret to one person only. No one destroys all copies of a document.
Renata Adler
Renata Adler
Monday, September 28, 2009
N. Msizi's Personal mission statement...
Personal mission statement
Hallow Everyone!!! Nolusindiso Msizi, here, a.k.a Pinky
Passing my Matric was the biggest achievement that I ever had. Then this coming to Rhodes was the best thing that had happened to me because I’ve always aspires to be a Rhodent, studying Journalism and Media studies and indeed I came. As I grew up I’ve always wanted to work in media, and now is the chance for me to prove myself that I can do the best out of what I really want. I’d like to think that I’m a very passionate student, full of life and always wanting to learn more and to adjust to the environment I am in, in a particular time. I normally describe myself as “young South African” excluding my identity and ethnicity as we are living in the diverse country, it’s not that significant to describe oneself regarding your, skin colour, ethnicity and gender. I’m not sure about my sin colour I think I’m light brown with dark brown hair, white bright eyes, roundish face, small lips, a lot of people always said that I have a killer smile, J I don’t know about that , but would be glad if that’s true. As a journ student I’ve learnt to be patient, to be a hard-worker, to be able to work under pressure, as there’s so many deadlines to meet at all times.
I’ve always asked myself, what kind of a reporter am I? But never find any answers, now that me and my group mates has came up with the blog “uvebnpind” I think I’ve found the answers, for this blog to be a success wee have to co-operates with other students, we are alerting the things that has been put on silence for long time now in our campus, and we want the student s to be the one who take the platform to bottle out things that had always been hidden in Campus. I and my team mates are challenging all world wide students to make a difference. Journalism is about revealing secrets, scandals, drama, newsworthy, hard-core news etc. our blog topic “uvebnpind” says it all as we want to pind down the truth and bottle up un touched issues that we come across in and around campus. I believe I have the ability to reveal the real issues that became problematic to the students. As journ student I believe I can do more and break the silence. If I can break the silence, anyone can.
Manifesto of Dhiya Lachman
Greetings Readers,
My name is Dhiya Lachman. I am a Student Blogger and this is my story.
Manifesto of a student journalist blogger:
I am a student blogger, and my aims as not only a student journalist, but also as blogger are to inform people. I intend to be as informative and reliable as I can. I want to be the voice that people hear over the noise of bad news, unreliable journalism and poor quality blogs. Basically, I am the type of Journalist that will be dedicated to the fact that people need to know things, people want to know and it will be my job to inform them.
I have a sarcastic and naturally scathingly witty nature, although I might be viewed as a joker at times. I am quite laid back, unless I feel passionate about something, or I feel something needs to be put into the open and should be known, and then I go into Journalism mode.
The message I am trying to get across is my passion is the truth, and making it known. Showing people what was previously hidden knowledge is my aim and I intend to accomplish my purpose as much as possible.
Now a bit about me: I am of Indian decent [ I HATE it when people say Im indian, Im not. Im South African and proud of it! ] Im tall for a girl, it has to be said, 1.75m. Although I was taller, I feel I am actually shrinking! I was a size 8 shoe in Jan, then I became a 7...now Im on boarderline 6...am I a Benjamin Button case in the making???
Im funny, witty, smart-ish, independent, I have an incredible general knowledge if I do say so myself and Im down to earth.
I enjoy many things form ice skating to reading, but at the end of the day my passion will always be languages. Je parle Francais en petite peut, mais J'ai comprend bien quelquefois.
Love me or hate me, I'll be around for a while.
I am who I am.
My name is Dhiya Lachman. I am a Student Blogger and this is my story.
Manifesto of a student journalist blogger:
I am a student blogger, and my aims as not only a student journalist, but also as blogger are to inform people. I intend to be as informative and reliable as I can. I want to be the voice that people hear over the noise of bad news, unreliable journalism and poor quality blogs. Basically, I am the type of Journalist that will be dedicated to the fact that people need to know things, people want to know and it will be my job to inform them.
I have a sarcastic and naturally scathingly witty nature, although I might be viewed as a joker at times. I am quite laid back, unless I feel passionate about something, or I feel something needs to be put into the open and should be known, and then I go into Journalism mode.
The message I am trying to get across is my passion is the truth, and making it known. Showing people what was previously hidden knowledge is my aim and I intend to accomplish my purpose as much as possible.
Now a bit about me: I am of Indian decent [ I HATE it when people say Im indian, Im not. Im South African and proud of it! ] Im tall for a girl, it has to be said, 1.75m. Although I was taller, I feel I am actually shrinking! I was a size 8 shoe in Jan, then I became a 7...now Im on boarderline 6...am I a Benjamin Button case in the making???
Im funny, witty, smart-ish, independent, I have an incredible general knowledge if I do say so myself and Im down to earth.
I enjoy many things form ice skating to reading, but at the end of the day my passion will always be languages. Je parle Francais en petite peut, mais J'ai comprend bien quelquefois.
Love me or hate me, I'll be around for a while.
I am who I am.
Sunday, September 27, 2009
Personal Mission Statement
Itumeleng Mohlabane
My name is Itumeleng Mohlabane, I am a 1st year Bjourn student and welcome to my profile for my blog group "uvebnpind". Now I know that when most people think of a Journalism and Media studies student they think: uptight, stressed, untrustworthy, interrogative, shallow, dishonest, paranoid and rude. You probably think I've set up some hidden cameras on your computer or a tape recorder to try and catch you out so I can get a good scandal out of you; but honestly (excuse the pun) I'm not like that. You'll be happy to know that I'm one of the few journalists who actually stand up for positivity and change. To describe myself in a few words I'd say, tallish, caramel brown (stereotypical racial terms like "black" are so outdated, caramel is more descriptive), medium build, cheerful, understanding, independent, creative and honest. I am a vivacious Christian who's always amped for the Lord Jesus, so I rank fairness quite highly. That is why my group and I have decided to make our blog facilitate the exposure of truth. Our blog group "uvebnpind" is designed specially for you - the students, because we believe that you deserve to be heard. Thus we aim to address controversial campus issues that usually get ignored or are quickly forgotten despite the weight of their injustice. This is your opportunity as the students to get your power back and to have a say about sensitive and taboo issues at Rhodes. Now don't get me wrong, this blog isn't for gossip, we are talking hardcore truth, things that have either affected or are affecting you, or your friends, directly that you feel are unfair and should be looked into deeper; so don't fall victim to suppression. I believe that as a journalist it is my responsibility to give the general public a voice so that solutions for our nation can be drawn from the people. Journalism is not about scandal and sensationalism, but about uncovering the truth so that we can live in a nation that can make accurate and well informed decisions about their lives. If we are ever going to have a better nation, the change needs to take place in our spheres of contact; mine is Rhodes University, and because this is the place where leaders learn I believe we will carry the banner of truth and justice wherever we may go after graduating. So go ahead and share your opinions, solutions or experiences: what is it that really drives you up the wall, is it the DP system, university fees, serving portions at the dining hall? No need to keep things bottled up; here is your platform for absolute freedom of expression.
My name is Itumeleng Mohlabane, I am a 1st year Bjourn student and welcome to my profile for my blog group "uvebnpind". Now I know that when most people think of a Journalism and Media studies student they think: uptight, stressed, untrustworthy, interrogative, shallow, dishonest, paranoid and rude. You probably think I've set up some hidden cameras on your computer or a tape recorder to try and catch you out so I can get a good scandal out of you; but honestly (excuse the pun) I'm not like that. You'll be happy to know that I'm one of the few journalists who actually stand up for positivity and change. To describe myself in a few words I'd say, tallish, caramel brown (stereotypical racial terms like "black" are so outdated, caramel is more descriptive), medium build, cheerful, understanding, independent, creative and honest. I am a vivacious Christian who's always amped for the Lord Jesus, so I rank fairness quite highly. That is why my group and I have decided to make our blog facilitate the exposure of truth. Our blog group "uvebnpind" is designed specially for you - the students, because we believe that you deserve to be heard. Thus we aim to address controversial campus issues that usually get ignored or are quickly forgotten despite the weight of their injustice. This is your opportunity as the students to get your power back and to have a say about sensitive and taboo issues at Rhodes. Now don't get me wrong, this blog isn't for gossip, we are talking hardcore truth, things that have either affected or are affecting you, or your friends, directly that you feel are unfair and should be looked into deeper; so don't fall victim to suppression. I believe that as a journalist it is my responsibility to give the general public a voice so that solutions for our nation can be drawn from the people. Journalism is not about scandal and sensationalism, but about uncovering the truth so that we can live in a nation that can make accurate and well informed decisions about their lives. If we are ever going to have a better nation, the change needs to take place in our spheres of contact; mine is Rhodes University, and because this is the place where leaders learn I believe we will carry the banner of truth and justice wherever we may go after graduating. So go ahead and share your opinions, solutions or experiences: what is it that really drives you up the wall, is it the DP system, university fees, serving portions at the dining hall? No need to keep things bottled up; here is your platform for absolute freedom of expression.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
quote of the day
Some people think I'm a total moron and I would hope most people think I'm very good at what I do.
Dan Abrams
Dan Abrams
Monday, September 21, 2009
be heard
We all want to be heard, right? So its time for everyone to voice out and be heard this blog brings freedom of speech to students by giving them the platform to have their say because that’s what the blog is all about we want people to touch the untouchable and reveal what has always been hid under the carpet. The good thing is that everyone is welcome to take part in the blog as it caters for everyone who’s interested.
Journalism is about digging up and finding truth about everything and also about voicing out what you have in mind about the world around you, so as journalism students we are putting that in practice by bringing this “exposure blog” to you also it would be good for you to participate, because we made this blog for you, without you there’s no blog and so help us to pind the truth and make a difference. Users should be free, funky and make this blog the best. We are bringing you the best/exciting student blog ever.
We all know the things that are never brought up due to certain reasons and the sad part is that most of the times these this do upset us but never given a chance to actually expose them, rather than discussing them with our friends, now is the time to let everyone know and all of you can do so, we are giving you this exciting opportunity to do so. We welcome everyone to have their say in every issues concerning them, through their experiences around campus and also stating what should be done to deal with the issues. This blog is about exposure, drama, scandal, and REMEMBER we don’t gossip we focusing on real issues, things that we feel that we can’t tolerate anymore, but they have been pushed to us.
HAVE YOUR SAY AND PIND DA TRUTH!!
Sunday, September 20, 2009
The angle of the UVEBNPIND Team
Our plan is to have a student forum, where students get to speak out about issues that are considered taboo or controversial on campus. Students will be given the platform to address sensitive or non-politically correct topics like DP’s and favouritism in serving portions at the dining halls to black students. The point of this is to give students a voice concerning issues that are usually ignored; we want to expose unspoken injustices on campus.
We can therefore be seen as sort of an “expose blog”. This theme correlates with our blog name, which is “uve been pind”, because what we are doing is using students’ experiences on campus to pin down the truth. This will bring about a greater consciousness among students of deeper issues that affect people on campus and hopefully solutions can be drawn out because of their exposure.
Our blog’s tagline is “write what we like, and we’ll read what you’ve got”, this is basically a challenge to students to make their posts interesting. We don’t want general campus news, gossip or hear-say; we want to hear about heartfelt issues that cut deep; things that wouldn’t dare be spoken about openly on campus or things that students have found themselves having to tolerate on campus that they feel they have no power to change. We want to liberate students from their oppression and voice their suppression in order to give them back the power: if not to get a change in the situation then at least to have the freedom to speak their hearts with no fear of condemnation.
Posts will be uploaded anonymously, thus ensuring the safety and liberation of our bloggers. This blog gives students the rare opportunity to share experiences, commune and speak boldly with no sense of inferiority or trepidation of what “others might think”, it’s purely about what the individual student has to say at that moment. This blog will definitely be a success because it is on a very personal level, and most of the issues raised will be issues that affect students daily; thus making impossible to ignore.
Audience of our blog:
Our target audience are students, because our blog is about discussing matters concerning students and how they deal with those issues. The audience (students) should discuss their daily lives in and around the campus. Journalism is about digging deep and revealing the unknown, in our blog we are putting that in practice as students have the chance to speak-out anything they want to say. This blog is made for the students and so, they should feel free to make their comments on the matters.
As journalists to-be, we should be able to create what can be said to be news-worthy and not by putting forward the things that matters the most to students. Journalisms students like scandal, exposure and drama and they would like to read a these kinds of blogs because that’s what their career lies and what’s more important they would like. The blog will also train students on news feeding; as they will be informing each other about what is happening around them.
The blog does not target “specific others”, students from outside our campus can also participate on our blog. The students are the blog’s best friends as the blog will always be there to listen what bothers the students.
Blogging references:
The basic theme for our blog is essentially a student’s forum where students can speak out and voice their opinions on issues that are not ‘politically correct’ or not easy to speak about in the open. So when we were searching through other blogs on the internet we stumbled upon Joe. My. God, this blog intrigued us and, made us interested because of the interesting means of display. The writer, Joe, has very open views and seems to accept every comment that has been made on his blog. This is something that our group used to devise our plan on how we wanted our blog to be, we want students to feel free and at ease to say whatever is on their mind and not to hold back for any reason, we want our blog to be a medium for students to truly say exactly how they feel without any sugar coating.
Another example of a blog that our groups became inspired by was a blog that concerned a murder of a Yale student. The blog is called The Huffington post by, we found that this blog interested us because it involved our age group, and we thought that we could incorporate these types of issues into our blogs. Safety on campus is an important issue on campus recently; laptops are going missing like hot cakes on sale. And we thought that if we could have students voicing their experiences and thoughts on the crime rate in an around Rhodes we might have more insight and therefore be more prepared, and those who have had crimes committed against them, can speak to and interact with those who have gone through a similar ordeal.
We also felt when browsing through political blogs, that yes they might not be the most exciting topic to blog about, but we thought lets face it, we are all students that are studying Journalism and the media, so we thought that if we could incorporate some political issues for students to discuss, then it would only be on benefit to ourselves, a good example of a political blog that we used was Health Care Bill by David Espo.
The character and “look and feel” of our blog is that since our blog is supposed to be a semi-formal, relaxed and open blog, basically an informal blog, our layout, design and navigation around the blog is very modern, simple and funky. The language style of our blog will be colloquial and informal, as we are focusing on the messages that come across, and less on language use. The style and presentation of our blog is that we want our blog to come across and a hip, funky and modern blog that the average student wants to follow and keep up with. We picked a colourful theme that we feel would attract our audience and also give a feel of our aims as well. The presentation should show the blog as modern, simple, fun and free.
According to what was previously stated, are aim is to bring freedom of speech to the students and to have the most fun and hilarious blog ever where everyone can take part and the good thing is that there are no limitations in our blog. We listen what our audience are saying because we created the blog for the people not just for ourselves.
We can therefore be seen as sort of an “expose blog”. This theme correlates with our blog name, which is “uve been pind”, because what we are doing is using students’ experiences on campus to pin down the truth. This will bring about a greater consciousness among students of deeper issues that affect people on campus and hopefully solutions can be drawn out because of their exposure.
Our blog’s tagline is “write what we like, and we’ll read what you’ve got”, this is basically a challenge to students to make their posts interesting. We don’t want general campus news, gossip or hear-say; we want to hear about heartfelt issues that cut deep; things that wouldn’t dare be spoken about openly on campus or things that students have found themselves having to tolerate on campus that they feel they have no power to change. We want to liberate students from their oppression and voice their suppression in order to give them back the power: if not to get a change in the situation then at least to have the freedom to speak their hearts with no fear of condemnation.
Posts will be uploaded anonymously, thus ensuring the safety and liberation of our bloggers. This blog gives students the rare opportunity to share experiences, commune and speak boldly with no sense of inferiority or trepidation of what “others might think”, it’s purely about what the individual student has to say at that moment. This blog will definitely be a success because it is on a very personal level, and most of the issues raised will be issues that affect students daily; thus making impossible to ignore.
Audience of our blog:
Our target audience are students, because our blog is about discussing matters concerning students and how they deal with those issues. The audience (students) should discuss their daily lives in and around the campus. Journalism is about digging deep and revealing the unknown, in our blog we are putting that in practice as students have the chance to speak-out anything they want to say. This blog is made for the students and so, they should feel free to make their comments on the matters.
As journalists to-be, we should be able to create what can be said to be news-worthy and not by putting forward the things that matters the most to students. Journalisms students like scandal, exposure and drama and they would like to read a these kinds of blogs because that’s what their career lies and what’s more important they would like. The blog will also train students on news feeding; as they will be informing each other about what is happening around them.
The blog does not target “specific others”, students from outside our campus can also participate on our blog. The students are the blog’s best friends as the blog will always be there to listen what bothers the students.
Blogging references:
The basic theme for our blog is essentially a student’s forum where students can speak out and voice their opinions on issues that are not ‘politically correct’ or not easy to speak about in the open. So when we were searching through other blogs on the internet we stumbled upon Joe. My. God, this blog intrigued us and, made us interested because of the interesting means of display. The writer, Joe, has very open views and seems to accept every comment that has been made on his blog. This is something that our group used to devise our plan on how we wanted our blog to be, we want students to feel free and at ease to say whatever is on their mind and not to hold back for any reason, we want our blog to be a medium for students to truly say exactly how they feel without any sugar coating.
Another example of a blog that our groups became inspired by was a blog that concerned a murder of a Yale student. The blog is called The Huffington post by, we found that this blog interested us because it involved our age group, and we thought that we could incorporate these types of issues into our blogs. Safety on campus is an important issue on campus recently; laptops are going missing like hot cakes on sale. And we thought that if we could have students voicing their experiences and thoughts on the crime rate in an around Rhodes we might have more insight and therefore be more prepared, and those who have had crimes committed against them, can speak to and interact with those who have gone through a similar ordeal.
We also felt when browsing through political blogs, that yes they might not be the most exciting topic to blog about, but we thought lets face it, we are all students that are studying Journalism and the media, so we thought that if we could incorporate some political issues for students to discuss, then it would only be on benefit to ourselves, a good example of a political blog that we used was Health Care Bill by David Espo.
The character and “look and feel” of our blog is that since our blog is supposed to be a semi-formal, relaxed and open blog, basically an informal blog, our layout, design and navigation around the blog is very modern, simple and funky. The language style of our blog will be colloquial and informal, as we are focusing on the messages that come across, and less on language use. The style and presentation of our blog is that we want our blog to come across and a hip, funky and modern blog that the average student wants to follow and keep up with. We picked a colourful theme that we feel would attract our audience and also give a feel of our aims as well. The presentation should show the blog as modern, simple, fun and free.
According to what was previously stated, are aim is to bring freedom of speech to the students and to have the most fun and hilarious blog ever where everyone can take part and the good thing is that there are no limitations in our blog. We listen what our audience are saying because we created the blog for the people not just for ourselves.
Friday, September 18, 2009
Quote of the day:
Good reporters are perennial adolescents – restless, sceptical, petulant, compulsively inquisitive.
- Stanley Karnow “From Packrat to Historian”
from The Writing Life: Writers on how they think and work (PublicAffairs 2003)
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