Mother Tongue – your voice, your future

July 18 will see the launch of Caxton’s newest baby, Mother Tongue – a paper for the youth, by the youth.

And like the name suggests, the publication will be written in various South African languages including IsiZulu, IsiXhosa, Sesotho, Setswana, English and Afrikaans.

The first issue will include content contributed by 10 high schools from Alexandra and Edenvale. Mother Tongue will give youth a platform where they can share their ideas, thoughts and interests and have these published for their families, friends and communities to read – bonus.

After Caxton conducted a focus group to find out what the youth wants to read, you can bet this paper will grab and keep young people’s attention and also motivate them to read more often.

“At the end of the day, it’s not about what adults or media companies want the youth to read, but about what the youth wants to read,” said Christopher Mcinga, Caxton branch manager for East and South Division in Boksburg.

This is also a fantastic opportunity for businesses because, through the content of Mother Tongue, they can find out the interests of young people and therefore focus their advertising and marketing in the right direction to attract the youth.

“There is a huge divide in how we [big corporates and businesses] understand the youth, both from a marketing and social investment point of view,” Mcinga said.

“Therefore within this context, Mother Tongue acts as a bridge to connect businesses to the youth.”

For example, businesses can market their brands in a way that appeals to the youth, or host initiatives such as brand activations at schools that will benefit the pupils. “The crux of the matter is that students need big corporates and big corporates need to understand the youth because they are the future of this country.

“Businesses can participate in Mother Tongue by talking directly to the youth through the newspaper.”

The project began with a one-day boot camp held at Holy Rosary School in Edenvale which is one of the schools participating in the venture.

The pupils chosen as representatives of the different schools were given a crash course in the basics of journalism. They were also given tips on how, as ambassadors, they can mobilise pupils in their school and encourage them to be content producers.

Caxton national group editor Irma Green and Chris Louw, the head of digital editorial, co-ordinated the boot camp and Louw gave the pupils tips on how they can make use of the tools available in the digital space to enhance and deliver their content.

“The idea behind the boot camp was not to turn them into instant journalists, but rather to encourage them to write more and also perhaps kindle some kind of desire in their hearts to pursue a career in journalism,” Mcinga said.

The pupils submit their stories via e-mail or in hard copy. They can also send their content via WhatsApp, a mobile app many young people use daily. “We created a WhatsApp group where the students can submit their stories and photos for the paper, making it much simpler for them.”

In the first issue, the youth can expect 16 pages of cool news ranging from lifestyle, entertainment, events happening around their neighbourhoods, fashion, opinion, arts and culture, technology, sport, and more serious stuff such as education and careers. There will also be a feature called Zazise introducing the pupils heading the different teams at the contributing schools.

The paper will be a quarterly publication and pupils will gather news throughout the term and this will be put together over the holidays, and published at the beginning of each term. This will reduce the pressure they would have from trying to balance their schoolwork while having to produce content on a weekly or monthly basis.

Caxton will also add relevant educational news such as tips for preparing for upcoming exams and how to get a car licence.

The first edition will see 10 000 copies distributed to the schools in Alexandra and Edenvale on 18 July which will coincide with Mandela Day.

Any businesses that would like to get involved with Mother Tongue can contact Mcinga on 011 916 5402; christopherm@caxton.co.za