My Personal Journalistic Philosophy
The nature of the community wherein I will be operating is a small town community, that also has a lot if history, of both Xhosa and British. The town is very old and there are stories to be told everywhere. The town is known for its military history, and as in all South African towns/cities there is the very evident scar of the apartheid years. There is a visible divide between the haves and the have-nots. Any story can be found in Grahamstown, and chances that one will find the story from more than one angle are quite high.
Grahamstown is geographically isolated; one must travel at least an hour and a half to get to the closest city, because of this Grahasmtownians live in a bubble, and are seldom aware that much is happening outside of Grahamstown. It is also situated in a bowl, which enables us to at all times see across the valley to the township (depending on where you are situated in the town). Because of this there is an ever present reminder of the divide between the haves and have-nots.It is a journalist’s job to try to tell the truth, and to be the middle-man between what is happening and the public.
A journalist must always try to tell the story that is closest to the truth, and through doing this must achieve objectivity.However, it is my own personal belief that there is such a thing as objectivity in journalism, or in any situation. Absolutely everybody has their own bias on stories and life, it is humanly impossible to be 100% objective. No matter where the journalist is operating, whether it is in a small community or large urban area, there is no possible way to get an objective angle. The word angle in itself, or focus point, is the beginnings of biasness.
Journalists are constantly choosing what to put in a story and what to leave out. Information that may not be important to the journalist may be important to other people involved in the story.There are so many interesting and different people that live in Grahamstown. Because of this there are so many stories to tell! So many stories are told about the struggle of the poor, and while these are necessary stories, and ones that need to be heard. I believe that people are growing tired of hearing them. I would love to tell stories about the other heroes of Grahamstown, the ones who work for hospice, and for recovering alcoholics and drug addicts. I want to tell the stories of those who are forgotten about.
