Truth Undresses Journalism

By: Wazi Kunene

A journalism based blog claiming not to be. It’s not a revolution or a rebirth of the journalism but first year journalism students at Rhodes University allow the reader to interpret what the text says and decide what their blog communicates. From the blog title ‘I know what you wrote last semester’ Jennifer, Klub Troskie, The Gnome and Jonny, they prove to reveal a new style of writing then what is usually identified in other blogs.

The creativity and appearance of the blog welcomes you to a world of uncertainty of what it resembles. The sarcastic and highly opinionated blog features breaking news, Politics and humour; in a passive freestyle approach, truly using the opportunity of a space with no boundaries. There is nothing better than having to be a follower of a blog which is flexible with dynamic features, finally viewing Journalism at its most vulnerable nakedness; Issues are scrutinised to engage with the readers.

Truth is the cement and face of the blog while criticism is its identity. It opens a liberating space discriminating fear; they have covered stories such as Racism, Retribution and Forgiveness.(http://iknowwhatyouwrotelastsemester.blogspot.com/2009/10/racism-retribution-and-forgiveness.htmls). Animals Rights;
(http://iknowwhatyouwrotelastsemester.blogspot.com/2009/10/animal-rights-our-consistent.html) and many others that could get you talking.

Unlike newspapers, the voice of the writer is not hidden and by that we get a taste of not just ‘facts’ and ‘assumptions’ of what the reader wants to know, but the raw thoughts of the writers themselves. It’s no longer just words on the screen but words that speak louder than chaos in news.

http://www.iknowwhatyouwrotelastsemester.blogspot.com/

Digesting that of 24

By: Lara van Zyl

The blog entitled “Digestthis24” chose a standard blogspot layout and although it is a conventional layout, it was effective as the writing was easy to read since the background colour had not been too dark. A number of formatting errors did arise – some of the words of were cut in half, making the reading of the text difficult, but there are exceptions, it would appear that it was one member of the group whom had been the culprit. The profile of this blog describes the blog and its members as, “5 journalism students on a quest to unravel investigative journalism...by looking at...the dark and mysterious places where conventional journalism doesn’t dare go”. “Digestthis24” presently has eighteen blog posts to boast about and the posts are both well written and enlightening. It is evident that this group takes journalism seriously and many of these posts are quite riveting. The lack of gadgets used is disappointing, though the use of gadgets within one’s blog is not a requirement, gadgets are able to make the blog more personal and the use of these gadgets enables journalists to use a wide range of media material to get their message across. It had been refreshing to find that not only did this group take a serious stance in their posts, but they also included links that were not broken. All-in-all I found that this had been a blog that is worthwhile and it made for an interesting read.

http://www.digestthis24.blogspot.com/