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After much anticipation, the Media Committee hosted the Digital vs Print Media workshop with guest presenters: the Herald’s sub-editor and production editor Catherine Richards and Digital Reporter and Video Producer, Deneesha Pillay.
It was absolutely fascinating to hear that the editor meets with a team of people to decide on the cover story and headline for the newspaper. After those articles are researched, written, submitted to the senior editors, facts checked and changes made; the layout is done. The newspaper is then sent to the printers at 23:30, and is delivered by 03:30 to the stockists of the newspaper, all so that by the time people head to work from 06:00 they can grab a newspaper on their way… This really conveyed the tight deadlines that journalists need to meet and shows the level of dedication and passion they have towards getting the paper to their readers.
Ms Richards explained the layout of the newspaper to us and also outlined how over time people have become more interested in digital media, with videos becoming the most popular form, instead of reading articles. She detailed that nowadays people would rather watch a 30 second to one minute video or read a very short paragraph on a website about a topic, rather than read an article of approximately 600 words, so that they can know enough for their daily conversations. This was thought-provoking as it shows us that people, especially our generation are becoming even more dependent on technology. We learnt about the significance of a headline and the wording of articles. Ms Richards also brought along notebooks and pens, which were put to good use as those who attended the workshop furiously took down notes from the presentation, including Mrs Gerber!
Ms Pillay prepared a wonderful video for us, which was thoroughly enjoyed by the girls and had many interested in the journalism field as it showed that journalism is not only about writing articles but is also about video editing, digital reporting and researching. Imagine our delight when we realised the video really was just for us as the video showed mention of Riebeek girls on the computer screens at the Herald offices. Those interested in journalism were excited to find out more about the occupation and those that were not considering journalism, have been convinced that they should not rule it out of their future study options. Nicole Rhodes states that “The workshop was very interesting and informative… I’m actually even considering studying journalism after today!” It was great to see the inspired minds absorbing the information that was presented to us.
The atmosphere during the workshop was one of enthrallment, as the girls lapped up every second of the fascinating talk and after the presentation was done, there were many questions from learners desiring to find out more. Very thought-provoking questions were asked and answered and the learners left with new knowledge and much respect for those in the journalism and newspaper production field.
We were encouraged to write letters to the editor of newspapers as young voices should be heard. We also heard about making informed commentary on current affairs and social capital. We now know we should not wait to graduate to become writers, but should be building up a portfolio of our published letters, articles and photographs.
“Fill your paper with the breathings of your heart” (Anonymous), truly describes this afternoon, as we learnt that journalists follow their hearts when chasing a story, as they want their readers to know the truth and the love of their job is truly admirable. We were all inspired that we could all be journalists, as we all have a story to tell and all we have to do to tell this story, is to fill our page with the breathings of our heart.
Special thanks to Ms Richards and Ms Pillay for coming to speak to us. We have been inspired by these ladies!