Driven by journalism

Initially, I found the idea of journalism to be more interesting than the things I am being taught during my first year at Rhodes University.

Learning about journalism theoretically is as boring as telling a teenager how to drive, as opposed to putting them behind the wheel and teaching them how.

Two months into my Journalism and Media studies course, I had made up my mind that I was going to change majors when I began my second year, but when I came to think about it, you can’t tell a learner driver to press on the clutch if they don’t know what the clutch is, where it’s situated and what it’s meant to do.

So, I decided to be a bit more attentive in lectures, put a bit more passion into my assignments and tie that in with some practical experience at the Benoni City Times.

Luckily the City Times would have me for a week and coming to work here has shown me why I wanted to be a journalist in the first place.

The experience has been an eye-opener, especially since I have not been restricted to the confines of one type of journalism.

The little interaction with the Benoni community to which I have been exposed during this week has shown me a great deal about this beautiful city that I had ignored.

That can be credited to the City Times for treating me as a member of their team and allowing me to dip a toe into all the different types of reporting they do.

The experience has shown me that, in order to be a good journalist, you have to know your community well, by learning what is important to people and how they operate, which will inevitably help you to mould your craft into a masterpiece.

I can’t say that I have learned more here than what I am being taught at school, but it has been a practical consolidation of the many theories on which I write essays.

Therefore, it is safe to say that my week at the City Times has been life-changing, because it has helped me make the decision of what I want to do for the rest of my life.

So, now I will power through the theory-packed first year, until I make it to the practical lessons that I will learn from second year until graduation, in the hopes of becoming as great as the journalists from the City Times from who I have had the pleasure to learn.

This column was written by Mokgatle Thulare, an intern at the Benoni City Times.

You may also be interested in:

What a city, what people