Working towards a goal

In this week's Wednesday workshop, I took the group through interviewing techniques. This time around I also focused on using the recorder. The idea was to prepare them for the task we’d planned for them this week, but recorded interviewing is, of course, a skill they’ll need to sharpen for their radio show. The time will come when they’ll have to conduct interviews individually without the help and support of either a fellow Upstarter or a radio student. During the presentation I asked to give me instructions on how to assemble the field recorder. In this way I was able to have their full attention, making sure it would be almost impossible for them to forget what they were learning.
Their task for the day was to interview a staff member at the Journalism and Media Studies department. They were split in to two groups of three and each group interviewed a staff member. The focus for the interview was ‘When you were my age’. The task not only gave them a chance to practice what they’d learnt during the presentation but it also helped solidify a sense of solidarity amongst them.

The one group consisting of Anelisa, Sinovuyo and Thoban were able to get a relative broadcastable interview, in terms of the technical quality. The recording by the other group consisting of Roche, Ziphozihle and Anesipho wasn’t of a good technical quality; they weren’t able to put into practice the principles we’d taught them in the presentation.  We can take away from this task that more practice is needed to make sure that the Upstarters would independently be able to contribute broadcastable content for their show.  There are simple details like mic rumble and mic distancing that we’ll need to revisit to ensure that once we as the radio students have left, they’d be able to get recording that would need minimal editing. We want to instill a certain standard of professionalism, in terms of technical quality, because quality content is not broadcastable if technical quality is poor.

 Sinovuyo and Anelisa of Upstart asking Jeane from the School of Journalism Media Studies, what she got up to when she was their age.

Roche and Anesipho of Upstart speaking to Jude from the School of Journalism adn Media Studies, about what he got up to when he was their age.

Due to Yung Amplified already having its own anchors, we don’t have to urgently train the Upstarters to be anchors. We have however, started to introduce them to live radio and being interviewed on air. We are hoping that they’ll get to a point where they don’t momentarily panic before they have to say something on air. A couple of the Upstarters like Anesipho, Anelisa and Ziphozinhle have no problem with responding to the anchor on air and thinking on their feet. For the other three, Roche, Sonvuyo and Thoban a little more time will should be spent to try and to get them a little less nervous.

Our hour on air at the moment needs more content. At the moment Yung Amplified is still driven by music, as a rule we pass time by playing music  two songs after a segment or an interview. In my view we need to get to the point where we are producing enough content so that we’re only playing at least two songs in that hour and that we get to interact with our audience. This, as I see it, should be our top priority; since our show is by the youth and for the youth, it is imperative that we encourage audience involvement.

I also think an important opportunity for encouraging such involvement is through drawing on social media, in order to hear what our audience is saying. We need, for example,  to make use of Facebook, and we have in fact started doing so in the last show. Mxit is another avenue we need to tap into in terms of interacting with our audience. I must profess though that I have a phobia for this networking service. For the Upstarters this is something they’ll need to be using as an interactive measure during and after the show.

As I see it, our hour long slot on Yung Amplified must disseminate material that will both inform and entertain our audience. Our duty as the radio students is teach the Upstarters how to identify stories and issues that they can use for the show. They need, in particular, to recognize that content is something that is constantly around them, in their schools, in their weekly Upstart workshops, in their communities. They need to start thinking of their own social contexts as something interesting enough for the radio airwaves. And  then they also need to be able to come up with creative ways to package the stories that they see around them. I think producing content like this would be easy for the Upstarters and would be interesting for the audience to listen to. For now we, the radio students are coming up with ideas for content but as time goes they’ll need to step-up and start suggesting ideas that we could explore. As they get used to being responsible for what goes on air, they’ll be able to produce content on their own.

At the moment it is way too early to let the Upstarters run things independently, they haven’t shown any signs of taking ownership of the Yung Amplified hour yet- I think this is partly because the past two shows they have been treated as guests for the show. I think that once they show an interest at making that hour theirs and taking ownership of it, then we’ll see them break out of their mold.