Highway Africa's, Future Journalists Programme (FJP) recently hosted the second event on its calendar, the Winter School: Experiential Learning at the National Arts Festival, from 30 June - 10 July 2011.
20 FJP students from different institutions around South Africa once again converged on Grahamstown - this time for an interactive writing workshop. The aim of this workshop was to teach FJPs (as the students are known) the nuances of writing, whilst giving them the opportunity to practise their newly acquired skills. What better place and time to have done this than during the National Arts Festival?
FJPs attended writing workshop sessions in the mornings and navigated the festival in the afternoons as reporters. They were appointed as Cue’s Fringe reporters, writing reviews for the Fringe in a Flash page and also reported on general news surrounding the festival.
FJPs were also exposed to the Think!Fest programme. They attended numerous Think!Fest talks and participated in debates regarding how journalists can be good critics and bridging the literacy and digital divide.
JMS alumnus, Nicolene McLean was the FJP trainer for this Winter School. McLean holds a Bachelor of Journalism and Masters in Journalism and Media Studies degrees from the Rhodes University, School of Journalism and Media Studies. She was instrumental in ensuring that FJPs gained experience in both the theoretical and practical aspects of journalism.
The Winter School was a great success. By the end of the festival, FJPs had gained the confidence needed as a reporter and were comfortable conducting interviews. They were able to conceptualise story ideas by themselves and most importantly had grasped the writing and interviewing skills every journalist needs to possess.
Picture: Nqobile Sibisi