Welcome

Welcome to the Activate info blog and thank you for becoming a member of Activate. On this blog you will find all the info you will need to make an informed decision when its time for you to choose which section(s) you are going to be working for. Below you will find a short write-up on each section.

Don't forget to watch your email for the date, time and place the section choosing meeting will be happening. Write-ups on the design and Arts and Entertainment teams coming soon!

What do I get for my R100?

So you – or your parents – just forked out R100 to join the Activate team. Wondering whether that’s money well spent? Just look at what you get:

• Hands-on, practical journalism training;
• A chance to expand your portfolio – this is a good thing not only for your admission into second-year Journalism and Media Studies, but it’s a must-have for when you step into the real world and would like to get a job!;
• A comprehensive workshop programme (more on this later in the booklet) that will teach you how to write, design, take photographs and ultimately sharpen your journalistic skills;
• Social functions like braais and cheese and wines – perfect for blowing off some steam after an intensive work period;
• Access to interaction with other journalists – ranging from first years right through to practising journalists! This is a valuable chance to develop your contacts and start making friends who will help you right throughout your working life.

Most importantly, you’ll get the satisfaction of picking up an edition of Activate every two weeks and knowing that your hard work contributed to something tangible – something that’s read by about 4 500 people.

News

Activate’s News section consists of 3 pages in every edition. We are not always able to publish "breaking news", because we only produce the paper every two weeks. This means that the news team needs to not only report the news, they need to analyse what the news means. For example, we can't just produce a story saying, "The SRC elections are a complete shambles"; we need to provide intelligent commentary, from a range of sources involved, explaining what the relevance or irrelevance of that news event might be.

As a news reporter, you'll be expected to attend a brief weekly Tuesday meeting and to check your e-mail daily for updates. Keeping in constant contact with the news editor is essential when you're working on a story.

The News section is the most deadline-driven section on the paper. A story might break a few hours before going to print, or more likely, you may be called in to change your article at the last minute.

News reporters are confident, curious, organised and well-read. If you’re none of those things but have enthusiasm in buckets – join the News Team. If you're willing to work hard at seeking out and really understanding major campus issues, while constantly improving your writing and reporting skills, then the News section is definitely worth your time. After all, when you score your first front page, it all seems worth it.

Features

The Features section is where budding journalists get to delve into the issues which interest, affect and influence Rhodes students; be it at University, in Grahamstown, nationally or internationally. The three-page section includes two feature articles and one feature profile every edition.

Typical features are 1200 words in length. Much less rigid than news articles, the Features section is ideal if you enjoy unleashing the creative journalist lurking inside you.

The feature profile entitled “To The Point” is a brand-new regular page where an interesting, talented or high-profile individual is interviewed every edition.

Meetings happen weekly, for approximately one hour. It is crucial that you check your email daily. Assigned writers will be expected to plan in-depth, to conduct wide-ranging research and interviews, as well as to liase with the section editor.

Features writers know what makes a good story. They are committed and thorough enough to pull it off in style.

African Affairs

Perhaps the page with the broadest scope in Activate is the African Affairs section. This section widens the news base beyond Grahamstown and focuses on regional and international news from Africa. African Affaris creates space for the analysis of wider themes and issues rather than de-contextualised and isolated events. In this regard there is particular focus on crucial issues such as poverty and social inequality. We examine the hurdles facing African development and highlight the progress made on our supposedly dark continent. We run a cartoon alongside a story each week which enables us to show the quirkier, often ironic, side of African news with a touch of humour.

There is always room in this section for a politically minded, creative and motivated writer who is unafraid to put a bit of themselves into their stories. As African Affairs writers we have a wealth of information at our fingertips, such as university lecturers from whom interviews and comments lend local flavour and interest to our stories.

We hold a general meeting every two weeks which the entire team is expected to attend, as well as a further meeting on the second week of the Activate cycle for those reporters who have been assigned an article. Writers should be dedicated and motivated, keep in constant contact with the section head and be prepared to produce in-depth and analytical articles for a section which is unafraid to voice subjective opinions affecting Africans continent-wide.

Sports

The final two pages of every edition of Activate are dedicated to the sports section. The back page is often seen as ‘the other front page‘, as it is equally significant and sometimes even more popular!

Writing sports articles provide an interesting challenge for journalists as they sometimes take the form of a hard news story and sometimes develop into more of a feature. As a sports writer, you are required to both report events, and analyse related current sporting affairs. Activate sports reporters regularly interview sources, which enables you to hone another crucial journalistic skills.

As a member of this team, you will be required to attend a weekly meeting, regularly check your e-mail for updates and be able to consistently make deadlines.

In this field of journalism, a certain amount of knowledge is required, and can be an asset when adding insight into the sport being covered. Local sport covers the majority of the content alothugh there is still a place for major international sporting news. Sports reporters are knowledgeable, informed and generally outgoing people. If you have writing talent, are adept with sporting knowledge and are hard working, then this is the section for you.

The Subbing Team

Although, as subs, we don’t get to see our names in print in pretty fonts, the sub-editing team has one of the most important jobs at any publication.

At Activate the subs meet on Wednesdays and Thursdays during paste-up weeks (every fortnight) to edit grammar and spelling, to rephrase sentences, rewrite whole paragraphs (at times the whole story!) and to argue over the most suitable synonym for “very nice”. The subs make sure that articles are written succinctly and in a style suited to Activate and to the particular article.

Essentially, the subbing team ensures the articles that go to print are without any grammatical errors and are of a quality worthy of the country’s best student newspaper.

Subbing is a fantastic way to improve your own writing as you quickly develop a critical editing-eye that can change a good story into a great one. Often members of the subbing team are some of Activate’s best writers.

We expect subs to attend either the Wednesday or the Thursday session but those who can make both are especially welcome. If you have a flair for the English language, unlimited patience, can spot a misused apostrophe and know how to use a thesaurus, the subs want you!

The Pics team

The Activate pics team is responsible for providing images for all sections of Activate, as well as a full-page pics spread in each edition. As images are the key to grabbing the reader’s attention and drawing them into a story, we aim to produce powerful, creative and high-quality images which compliment each story.

As a member of the pics team you need to attend weekly meetings, check email daily and be willing to spend time on weekly photo assignments. You must be able to interact with others, work as a member of a team and should be able to take criticism and learn. In addition to photographers, we need cartoonists and individuals with knowledge of graphic work and creative ideas. Due to the nature of Activate’s stories, internet sourcing is sometimes required and you will be assigned this task in addition to live photo assignments.

Photographers will be expected to attend skills and technique workshops during the year. All members of the pics team must have a digital camera. While previous experience is an advantage, it is not essential. If you are a keen photographer, interested in photo-journalism and want to improve your photography – this is the team for you!

Marketing and Advertising

Marketing is vital to a paper’s success. The marketing team is responsible for promoting Activate and increasing the student readership of our fabulous paper.

Advertising involves getting clients to advertise in Activate in order to earn money so that Activate can continue to be printed. Advertising is also about dealing with clients, sales and maintaining a professional and efficient relationship with advertisers.

If you decide to join the marketing/advertising team you’ll be expected to attend one meeting a week. I will send emails to remind you of meetings and important deadlines which means it is essential that you check your email daily!

Marketing requires you:

• To distribute Activate every second Thursday to various designated destinations.
• To put up posters around campus advertising Activate’s latest edition.
• To, on the morning of distribution, spread the word that Activate is coming out.
• To come up with creative ideas and innovative ways to advertise Activate.
• To be involved in the organisation of a cheese & wine, an end-of-year function and possibly a fund-raiser party.
• To be the face of Activate and to be passionate about the product in order to make everyone else passionate about our amazing paper.

Advertising requires you:

§ To approach clients and sell Activate to them in order to get MONEY!

§ To be professional and organised because this is business and letting the customer down means a bad reputation and a loss of MONEY.

§ To be polite but pushy. Make sure deadlines are met and the adverts are in for paste-up.

§ To try to get sponsorship and freebies for self-glory and, of course, the benefit of the team.

Without marketing and advertising Activate would have little readership and hardly any money! Marketing and advertising is not journalism; it is business, ideas and creativity. Out there in the real world, the majority of advertising takes place in the media. This team is for all kinds of students from any faculty and the more diverse the team, the better the creative flow! Be prepared to work but don’t stress, this section is not overly demanding. You could join another section as well as marketing/advertising and still have time to go to the rat regularly!

A word on Journ 2…

The reason I was asked to write this piece is because I’m what some first year Journalism and Media Studies students consider to be a mythical creature: I not only made it to Journ 2, I ended up getting a degree!

The funny thing is, it’s not that unusual – “getting into Journ 2” doesn’t entail any sort of obstacle course; there are no dragons to slay, nor riddles to solve. Getting into Journ 2 requires three things:

1. Good academic results. You can obtain these by attending your lectures and tutorials; doing the readings that are prescribed as part of the course, and actually putting in some serious study time for tests and exams. The Journalism and Media Studies Department is willing and able to help you get settled into “academia” – ask for the Academic Development Co-ordinator at the Department.

2. Vac work. Yes, you’ll be expected to do some work during your holidays. But if you’re serious about being a journalist, you’ll realise that hands-on training and work with other journalists is one of the most vital elements of getting started and breaking into the industry. Phone around to the newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations in your home town, and find out if they’re willing to take on an intern for a week or two or even more. Once again, this programme is co-ordinated by the Journalism and Media Studies Department, and they’ll tell you more about it during the year.

3. Portfolio, portfolio, portfolio! Every time you write something, or take a photograph, or design a page in a newspaper (like Activate!), you’ve created solid proof of your abilities as a young journalist. So it makes sense to do more than just join Activate and hope it’ll look good as one line on your CV. Instead, join a team and get involved – produce actual copy, and watch your portfolio grow!

Tash Joseph

Training and Development Consultant

2006 workshop plan: taking your Activate experience one step further

It’s important that your Activate experience doesn’t begin and end with “simply” producing the paper: our mandate as a student newspaper is to teach new writers, designers, photographers and sub-editors all about journalism.

During 2006, our aim in running the workshop programme is three-fold:

1. to ensure continuity – so that Activate staffers continue to learn and develop throughout the year;
2. to work closely with the Rhodes University Department of Journalism and Media Studies, by calling on the skills of its lecturers and practitioners, and;
3. to ensure that all Activate staff produce work of the highest standard at all times, whether in Activate or other publications

This year – for the first time – we’ll be running workshops for writers, designers, photographers and sub-editors. In the past, there was a lot of focus on teaching photographers and writers, but very little emphasis on training designers and sub-editors.

Our basic plan – subject to change – looks like this:

March 4	Introduction to workshop programme
March 18	General workshop #1
April 22	General workshop #2
May 6	General workshop #3
May 20	General workshop #4
July 29	General workshop #5
August 12	General workshop #6
August 26	Wrap up and feedback

During the year, we’ll be talking about ethics, freelancing, caption and headline writing, design templates (“dummies”), developing sources, interview techniques and much, much more.

Workshops last for two-three hours; smoke/stretch breaks will feature, we promise!

I know the big question everyone’s asking is, “Is this compulsary?”

Well, no. We can’t force you to come to these workshops, just like we can’t force you to attend meetings or really get involved. But, in return for spending a maximum of 24 hours in workshops during the entire year, you’ll be taking gigantic strides ahead of those people who choose not to come.

At the end of the year, we’ll provide you with a letter of proof that states you have attended “x” number of workshops and can therefore reasonably claim to be an “active” member of Activate’s staff. This letter will also look great in your portfolio, and will prove to future employers that you’ve got a number of vital skills to function well in a newsroom.

On Saturday, 4 March, we will be launching our workshop programme. Please come along and take a listen to what it’s all about.

Venue: Zoo Major

Time: 14h00 (plenty of time for the hangovers to wear off!)