Gus Silber visits Benoni
Gus Silber advises young journalists to familiarise themselves with reading and writing.
The Pages and Wine book club hosted Gus Silber, an award-winning journalist, at Smith’s Café in Northmead on March 30.
Silber, also an author, editor, speechwriter and scriptwriter based in Johannesburg, introduced his book Electric Graffiti: Musings On A Facebook Wall to the audience at the event.
The book contains 90 dispatches that convey diverse topics on the lives of people that the author has met and places he’s visited.
According to Silber, he did not plan to write the book; it just happened, adding that the book is a collection of his Facebook posts.
His career as a journalist began in 1978 at the age of 21, with only matric and a distinction in English to his advantage.
“I didn’t study journalism. I just joined a media company and started working as a journalist without any qualification.”
“When I was a journalist, I didn’t know what journalism was until I enrolled myself in a university.
“The first question I asked was ‘What is journalism?’ I then started to learn what journalism was.”
“I started working at West Rand Times, then went to Sunday Times and later worked for Style magazine, a Caxton publication,” Silber said.
“Seeing your story in the newspaper is a great achievement as a journalist,” said Silber.
Today, Silber is a freelancer, focusing more on writing books, speechwriting and scriptwriting.
The 66-year-old has worked as a magazine editor and also a media trainer over his 30 years in the media industry.
“My biggest achievement was obtaining my Master’s of Arts in Journalism and Media Studies with distinction from Rhodes University in 2022.
“According to the award-winning journalist, journalism is the art of trying to make sense of the chaos of the world.
“It is a way of finding, telling and sharing stories that have meaning and that can make a meaningful difference in people’s lives,” Silber said.
He advised young journalists trying to find their feet in the industry to read lots of books, magazines and newspapers.
“Be very curious and have an interest in everything. Be open to the media industry and do not limit yourself.
“Also, be very active on social media and engage with people through your posts. Lastly, practice your writing often,” he said.
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