Monday, March 31, 2008

Radio journalism -South Africa

You hear less and less of the term Radio Journalism nowadays.

During my postgrad we spoke of nothing else. TV was for those flash lot, but radio was real journalism.

Has that changed much???

Anyhow, I'll be posting the doc First Time Voters which I made for BBC Radio 4 during South Africa's transition.

On hearing it for the first time in ages ( 10 years) I think it stands up pretty well, and in some way you can spot the influences in Videojournalism.

The premise was simple. I'd found a couple of alpha males/females in SA whom I thought would make great interviews. Back in London, I wrote an article for the BBC's internal magazine, Ariel.

A BBC producer ran with the idea and we got the commission - a programme I'd probabaly put in my own top ten of personal favourites for many reasons, not least it was also aired by the SABC - South Africa's pubic radio - on the eve of the election.

Like many many people I too believe that radio is a much more powerful and immediate medium than its sibling TV/video.

I go to bed with the world service and awake to Today.

Video [podcasts] may get all the attention at the moment, but getting to grips with the mechanics of radio packaging can go some way in influencing the VJism.

My evidence, after the BBC Radio 4 I had a welter of ideas how to produce VJ pieces- such as this one -and this here

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