Rhodes Journalism’s Fabulous Festival Media Powerhouse

What would the National Arts Festival be without Cue newspaper, available from a friendly vendor every morning and helping thousands of festival-goers plan their day? Now in its 23rd year, Cue is an institution, and the longest running independent festival newspaper in the world.

Produced from the dynamic Africa Media Matrix Building, on the Rhodes University campus, Cue is, however, no longer simply a newspaper. The undertaking has grown from humble beginnings to become CueMedia, under the chairmanship of Brian Garman. CueMedia incorporates not only the familiar tabloid-style paper but also CueOnline, established as new media began to make its presence felt in South Africa, and which draws in and creates a virtual home for CueTV, CueRadio, and CuePix.

In fact, the Africa Media Matrix transforms for the duration of the Arts Festival into a fully fledged news agency, staffed predominantly by the Journalism and Media Studies students. This provides an unparalleled opportunity for them to gain hands-on experience. Jude Mathurine, Digital Editor of CueOnline and coordinator of the New Media Lab, says that there are a couple of occasions during their third and fourth years when Journalism students come into their own. The first of these is SciFest, early in the academic year, and the second is, of course, the Arts Festival, where students give up two weeks of their vacation time to work as part of CueMedia. "The Arts Festival is a coming- of-age for the journalism students," Jude explains, with most fourth year students required to work their specialisations during the Festival.

Reviews, profiles and stories are written by writing and editing students from second, third and fourth years,as well as some from the Postgraduate Diploma in Journalism course. Advertisements and pages are layed out by students in the third and fourth year design specialisation. CueTV student crews film inserts, both on location and in the Matrix's well-equipped studio and these are uploaded to the Internet and made available to, among others, SABC.com, the Dispatch Online and the Herald Online. Photojournalism students take literally thousands of pictures over the course of the 10 days, which, explains Brian Garman, are given to the festival organisers who make them available to performers. If requested, they are sold by CuePix to the media.

CueRadio students produce packages for SABC stations in three official languages, English, Afrikaans, and isiXhosa. These are flighted on stations such as SAfm, RSG and Umhlobo Wenene.

The New Media Lab of the School of Journalism produces CueOnline. Students take content from the newspaper and re-purpose it to be more accessible for the Internet audience, as well as generating their own stories and running audio podcasts, slideshows and twitter accounts.

The practical experience gained during these two weeks complements the theoretical aspect of the Journalism and Media Studies degree, allowing graduates to enter the world outside academia with confidence in their ability to perform to deadlines in high-pressure environments. In addition, students have the opportunity to work alongside experts in the field of arts journalism.

Many professional journalists make Grahamstown their base during the Festival, mentoring students and imparting industry knowledge. Well-known names involved in the 2009 Festival include Darryl Accone, long-term co-editor of Cue and a well-respected author, reporter and critic. Jayne Morgan, currently of Podcart and with radio industry experience in both the UK and South Africa, will be working with the New Media students to set up festival-related podcasts.

Robyn Sassen and Gillian Rennie (Cue co-editors), will be joined by Peter Frost, editor of Ticket, Cue's Fringe supplement, Adrienne Sichel (formerly of The Star and described recently as the doyenne of South African Arts arts journalism) and Zoe Henry will all be adding their expertise to the creative powerhouse taking shape in the Africa Media Matrix.

Constantly innovating, CueMedia is, for the first time this year, introducing CueCinema. This project will see the Journalism TV students collating all the clips and inserts they have filmed and then presenting them on the large screen in the Barratt Building. It is hoped this will increase the visibility of these projects, which, in turn, will encourage greater sponsorship. Finally, continuing on from previous years successes, CueBlog will again be running as a joint venture between Rhodes University and the School of Journalism, Utrecht, The Netherlands.

Story by Jeannie McKeown