As a journalist something you frequently have to do,
depending on the topic, is voxpops.
I have done countless voxpops, but recently I
have come to know what the slang term actually stands for – voice of the people. It is when you go up to the average Jane or
Joe on the street and find out their opinion on a matter.
We’ve done several voxpops on Blessers, #Doekgate, the
Public Protector, municipal elections and recently about the Free State. Each
gets done for various reasons, either to find out what people think or for
research.
They all have purpose...
However, there is a difficulty and anguishing side to
voxpops that I really want to talk about, the rejection.
Newspaper journalists have it a bit easier because when they
do voxpops, the person just becomes another name in the newspaper. There is no
image of the person who said this opinion, especially if the person’s name
happens to be John Smith, Kevin Peters or Ashley Johnson. There is a level of
anonymity.
As a video based journalist, we don’t have that luxury. You
are putting a face to the name and those remarks can be directly attributed to
someone. You know who they are because you see their face.
That scares people, and in my experience it happens often.
When your opinion on something is directly attributed to
you, you become responsible for those comments, and you need to be confident in
your opinion to feel okay with it on camera.
Whenever we (those of us who do video voxpops) go out, it
gets roughs, especially when recording it on a phone.
You have to put on your best people person attitude, go
out and charm strangers to talk to you. This is particularly difficult if you
are not in a good mood, or exhausted. Whatever you feel has to be put aside
because you have a job to do.
You have to interrupt (read ambush) people on the street and
sweet talk them. If you have anxiety about these things (as I do), it means you
have to work yourself up to it, but still even when you do that, you experience
constant rejection.
It hurts when you have been sweet talking and charming this
person, and they are willing to do it, until you tell them “this will be on camera”.
Sometimes you tell them this in the start, and they go off talking, but then
when you press record they are like a deer caught in headlights.
Video voxpops have the added dynamic of profiling. You have
to get a balance of men and women, then you need to get in various race groups,
and then across age (depending on topic).
Many times I have counted people on my hands like:
“Okay, we have a
white woman, an Indian guy, a coloured girl, and a black girl.
We still need an
old white guy, and a black guy.”
Yet, for every person that says yes to you, 2-3 people have
said no.
The rejection you experience is worse than when you see a
hot person out, and try to flirt with them. In that situation you only
experience rejection once or twice depending on how many people you try to
flirt with.
For me, and others who endure voxpops, you experience rejection
often; by the time you come back to the office, you feel like a lowest form of a human
being. It also sucks when you are trying to stop one person to interview and they flat out ignore
you; like you don’t even matter.
Every single time you get rejected, you can feel your
insides squirm, and you want to shrink, but you just smile and say “Thank you
for your time though,”
It is humbling, often humiliating, experience
that I encourage everyone to do at one point. Promotions people know a bit of this when you are promoting a item on the streets, and people wish you would disappear.
No matter how often you do it, the rejection still hurts the
same, and my goodness is it great for your ego (sarcasm).
It is a very unusual yet common experience.
By the time you get a person to say “Sure” you are near
willing to actually kiss them.
I think the level of rejection we experience while doing
voxpops is why these days we go in pairs or in a group of three. In that way
you get to negotiate with your colleague.
“I got rejected by the last person; it is your turn now.”
You share the pain, and you share the joy. Everyone gets to
feel equally humiliated and uplifted.
Such is the life of a
voxpop.
Pretty much what we do when we get back from voxpops
I had hoped to write this post sooner, but I have been
extremely busy with work.
The Grahamstown’s National Arts Festival rolled into the
Cape Times #ElectionsTrek and finally Elections itself. I have very actively
lately complaining about how tired I am.
I am actually hoping
to take off soon, but besides my
complaints, my recently work activities did make me realise how fortunate I am.
I had never been on an aeroplane before until I was selected
to go and cover the National Arts Festival in Grahamastown. The whole Arts Fest
experience was so amazing and eyes opening, to quote the slogan it was “11 Days
of Amazing”.
I won’t recap too much of what I did because I did write a
live blog for work which you can find here, but it was a truly wonderful,
sometimes stressful experience where I learned a little more about myself.
It was so great learning about a town that I had never been
to, and if you ever want to learn about a town in a short span of time, the
Arts Fest is it. You have shows across the town, and it forces you to be a
little adventurer.
What I loved most about the whole experience was that it
ignited this desire in me to travel more.
I’ve always had this desire to travel, but it did so in a
completely different way.
I had only been back in Cape Town for about a week before
going away another week-long work trip.
It was part of the Cape Times’ election
coverage where a reporter, a photographer and I travelled to a few of the
smaller towns within our province to find out how people felt about elections.
It was enlightening because you are driving to towns, which
people usually drive past.
We visited 5 towns in a week, and visiting these smaller
towns made me appreciate them. I will never shy away from just stopping into a
little town while on a road trip because you can never know what you might
learn.
The people I have met through my trips, the stories I’ve
heard and the experiences I had are all memories that I will never forget. All
of these things have given me a greater insight into the world around me.
A super awesome friend and I are actually tentatively making plans to go on a Euro-tour in about two years, and I cannot wait. Sure I would love to go overseas before then, but I am not above hard work to get myself there.
I will definitely encourage others to explore the area and
world around them because you never know what awaits, and for myself, it is
something I look forward to exploring further.
March was all about new experiences because I started my
first ever job.
April has been pretty
much the same...
BUT April was more about feeling extremely out of my depth
and feeling more incompetent than anything really.
Part One: “Why am I so useless?”
After working extremely hard at the Jazz Festival, we pretty
much jumped into the new month by being assigned to spend two weeks in the
newsroom and work on our writing skills.
If there was ever a time to be thrown into the deep end it
was during this time.
With the Jazz fest I could at least take comfort in the fact
that there were other people equally feeling out of their depth and having no
clue what we were doing but we were all stuck in the same boat, doing the best
we could.
The newsroom was nothing like that because I was on my own.
If there is a ever a time to feel useless and like you’re
incompetent spend some time in a newsroom where you are a stranger at your desk
trying to make yourself useful while trying to not be in the way of experienced
reporters.
I was assigned to the newsroom of The Daily Voice when my Cape Mojo team started time in the
newspapers started.
The Daily Voice often gets given this label as not being a
hard hitting newspaper because they deal with stuff that comes across as silly
and deemed not newsworthy. I am aware the publication is labelled as a "tabloid" but that doesn't mean that there isn't anything of importance and value in the paper that the hard hitting newspapers do. The only difference is the angles taken in their stories.
The Daily Voice go out on stories that people
within the Cape Flats are interested in and also want to read about. If a newspaper is meant to connect with its target market
and inform them about what’s happening in their areas then The Daily Voice is
doing exactly what it should it.
It was recently revealed in AMPS figures (which is a big fancy group that does a survey on readership) that in the
second half of 2014, the Daily Voice readership grew from
468 000 daily readers to 516 000.
In climate where newspapers are battling against the internet, that is very impressive.
I can really say that I learned a lot about my time at the newspaper.
Newspapers don’t just appear every morning magically created
for your consumption, in fact journalists go out the day before either on
stories that they were assigned by their editor or, what is often the case,
they go out on stories they’ve been informed about from contacts and people who
shared the information with them.
They scout out information about their stories and then once
they think there is enough they go out in search of what the true story is,
from all the relevant sources.
A super funny reporter I sat opposite.
This can be quite a laborious process and sometimes things
don’t always go your way but you do the best you can.
Part Two: “What to do when opportunity
knocks?”
I had been shadowing the reporters for about a day when an
opportunity for me to write my first article came up.
It wasn’t that a story was assigned to me or anything, it
happened because I took a chance.
This is just my version of how I remembered it happening:
Journalist:
“I still have to file both these
stories when I get back to the office.”
Me:
(Nervously)
“Uhm...I can help...uhm... if you want. I’ll
write one and you can write another if you want?”
Photographer:
(Jokingly)
“Hey don’t come and try to steal
food from [journalist’s] mouth, freelancers don’t a set salary like you. They
get paid per article.”
Me:
“Oh sorry, of course I don’t mean
to do that –laughs awkwardly- I just
thought that I could help with the workload.”
Journalist:
“We can share the byline.”
Photographer:
“Can you? Do you still get your
normal rate?”
Journalist:
“I still get my normal rate
whenever I share a byline with [another journalist] so it’s fine. Which one do
you want to do?”
Me:
“I feel more confident doing the
first story the first one we went out on so I can do that?”
Journalist:
“That’s fine. You can do the
first then just send it to me when you’re done so I can have a look over it?”
Me:
“Thanks.”
And that was basically how it happened.
I took the chance of speaking up and saying,” I don’t mind
helping; I can do it” and that was how I landed my first byline.
As soon as we got back to the office I had to write my
article and while I had all my notes, I had no clue how I was going to do it.
Eventually I typed down what I had into a coherent sentence
which then into paragraphs and it led to a completed story.
Part Three: “Who does the editing?”
Once done, I emailed what I had to the journalist and sat
beside them as they make hectic revisions, learning about the newspaper’s style
in the process:
1.The fact that they prefer to have more quotes of
what the people actually said instead of you telling the reader what they said.
I quickly learned to write fast and take down what some said. I would come to use
my phone as a recorder because that just helps you so much to get down what
someone says verbatim.
2.Framing the story in a particular way, meaning
that instead of having one angle, you use another.
3.Getting a comment from the official
organisation/people to add in another side to the story.
4.Making sure you have the correct spelling of
things – Sidenote, this is vitally important you have to make sure you get
someone’s name and surname spelt exactly correct, make sure you get where they
are from and also their age.
5.A journalist’s note taking skills have is where
your credibility can live or die. If someone wants to sue you, you’re note
taking could be the very thing that saves you.
The edit the journalist did helped a lot, and while my
original story changed a lot to the one they sent to the editor my name still
remained in the byline because I had contributed to the story.
I thought that what I had ended up contributing was a waste but
the journalist thanked me because I helped save them a lot of time. So our
article was then emailed to the editor.
Interesting to note that the article that appeared in paper
had also undergone significant edits to it as well but there was also quite a
large chunk of what we did and in the end we received our shared byline.
One that would be my first.
Part Four: “When? Now??”
Sure some see a solo byline as their first, but I see the
shared one as my first because it taught me so much and helped me when I
finally wrote my first solo byline which funny enough came the following week.
I arrived early in the office because it was just something
I did. I could have arrived late because everyone only got into the office
between 09:20 and 11:00. I was in by 08:40 so I just read the papers and tried
be aware of what was happening.
One this particular morning, a photographer came in and he
was about 5 minutes in the office when
he came up to me and said.
Photographer:
“I heard Tony Yengeni was making
an appearance in the magistrate court today and no other journalist is in. I’m
not sure if it’s something the paper would be interested in but I say we take a
chance and go? If we wait too long then the story could be over already, it
could be over already, but at least let’s go see.”
Me:
“Uhm, okay.”
Now while that response seems calm, my mind was racing at a
mile a minute.
I had no clue what I was doing, no clue of what I was going
to do when I got at the court and no clue of how I would get the story but
adrenalin and nerves were rushing through my body so I just went along.
As we made our way to the magistrate court, the photographer
was giving me a crash course in court reporting:
1.Make sure you nod to the judge as you enter.
This is very important.
2.Sometimes things might be confusing if you’re
arriving late so don’t be scared to ask fellow journalists what is happening.
3.Put your phone off or keep it on silent because
you can be in deep shit if they catch you recording anything.
4.All the information is in the court, you just
need to know the correct places to go find it.
And he explained more stuff which I have forgotten because I
was like “oh my fuck, this is happening.”
So we get to the court and then he says well go for it.
I’m like “oh okay, shit.”
I then rush inside only to see “oh damn I had to hand in
everything” so I dash back drop my bag and only keep my wallet, phone, pen and
notebook on me as I have to dash to courtroom 16 –which we learned from another
journalist outside.
I got in and as the security guard is patting me down, and he
feels a tag (which I forgot to take off). I explain it’s my UCT tag and then he
starts a chat about the fact that I went to UCT. It was great but his timing
sucked.
I got inside and then I had to find my way.
I turned down a passage and then got the
vibe I was going the wrong way, I turned back and stopped at a security desk
asking which way I had to go to get to the Tony Yengeni court case. She
directed me down the alley, and as I enter I see a throng of people coming my
way surrounding someone.
I had no clue what Tony Yengeni looked like, well in my
subconscious I probably did but in my conscious mind I had no clue. I turned
back and followed the people because my gut was all go with them.
I exited the court with all the journalists and I was about
to follow the man who I thought to be Mr Yengeni but the reporters were by his
lawyer so I just stuck with them.
I knew there was no way I was going to catch all the
information as quickly so I immediately did the only thing I could think to do
and just pulled out my phone started recording everything.
The fact that I did that earned me my first solo byline.
The other reporters asked questions and I made sure to catch
everything while I was totally confused because they were using lawyer terminology
I just recorded everything.
The lawyer finished and I had no clue what his name was so I
asked one of the other reporters who told me his name and that was it.
In 10 minutes everything was done.
The photographer took his picture and so we just went back
to the office.
My editor hadn’t been in for two days and I now had a story
with which I had no clue what to do with. The editor of the paper was in and so
I summoned the courage to make myself known to him and tell him what I had.
He said okay and that I should write him a short piece on
it.
I then got down to listening to the recording transcribing
everything while opening a million tabs on Google Chrome so I could research
more about the story (something which would have helped had I had the time to
do it before hand but I didn’t).
After that I remembered, I had no clue what the editor meant
by “short piece” so after I asked him he said 200-220 words.
After that I got to it and finished my story within an hour
and 15 minutes making sure I had everything I needed. Understanding everything
that the lawyer spoke and getting input from another journalist to frame the
article in an interesting way.
That was it.
My story got filed and appeared in the paper.
All because I happened to be in the office early and was the
only one there that by pure coincidence I managed to land my first solo byline.
Part 5: “Where am I now?”
The rest of my time at the paper had my shadowing reporters
and even writing two other articles when the opportunities presented
themselves.
It was a great experience and taught me so much. I had made
a few mistakes and made sure to learn from them, but it was a experience that
forced me to go out of my comfort zone.
If there has been anything that this month has taught me
it’s that I have to embrace the awkward moments.
My job is filled with them- attending the funeral of someone
I never knew or met, asking strangers questions and for their names and ages,
getting into awkward places (like kneeling in front of people to hold a
microphone, and sometimes that people may be the Mayor of Cape Town) and many
other awkward instances that will continued to happen.
My only next thing to learn is to not give a shit about
them.
That doesn’t mean I won’t be respectful and treat some
situations carefully, but I just need to focus on doing my job.
I am only two months into being a journalist and it’s been
like climbing a Kilimanjaro without any preparation, but that aside, everything
I have been doing is preparing me to become better equip to be not just a
journalist but a good one too.
If I’m being honest, I feel like I could have done more
while I spent time at the news papers. As I look back at the time I’m still not
entirely sure how I could’ve done that, but I feel like I could have done more.
I also feel like I need to rediscover how to be curious.
I used to be a very curious kid and want to know what was
happening but I was raised that being nosy about other people’s business was
wrong. Now I feel like I have found the curious person again, he is still there
because I still feel glimpses of him peeking through whenever something
exciting happens.
I just need to allow him to come out more. (Yes, I’m
speaking about aspects of myself in third person, it happens)
As a journalist, a skill you need is to be able to ask the
right questions.
An important lesson I
learned at University and The Daily Voice is that you need to remember your
5W’s and H:
1.Why?
2.What?
3.Who?
4.When?
5.Where?
6.How?
These will do really help and they exist for a reason*.
Sometimes sticking to these will lead you to a story that could give you the
edge.
Part 6: How to Mojo...
After finishing my time at the papers, I rejoined the Mojo
(Mobile Journalism) group of the company and it was more difficult that it needed
to be.
I would pop in and check in on my fellow colleagues while we
spent time at the paper but someone our two weeks apart had left us feeling
disjointed.
Maybe it was the fact that we had just clicked with each
other when we had so many other people join us for jazz fest and we had to
learn how to work with strangers and not get so much time together with each
other; then we had two weeks apart which just left us to do our own thing but
either way, coming together again felt weird and we were out of sync with each
other.
A week has passed and I feel like we’re good again. We are
getting back to where we were with each other and getting familiar with one
another again but such is life, sometimes things can take a while.
A video I helped put together...
The fact that we were out of sync with each other made me
feel a bit weird and uncomfortable too but sometimes you just have to have a
word with yourself in the mirror and “pull yourself towards yourself”.
I am excited for what the next few months hold ahead for us.
If the past two months are indicative of anything it is that
expect the unexpected and that life will had you unexpected moments that lead
to wonderful experiences so don’t be scared to step out of your comfort zone
because that is really where the magic happens.
Now if only I could remember that...
Theo. Over and
Out.
*PS - The order is
wrong on that but on purpose because I wanted it to match the sections of the
blog post. (><)
Also in case you are
wondering since I removed the journalist’s name from the byline in the pic, I
am very grateful to the journalist because the person is really so so lovely,
but I removed it because of the story that I explained from my perspective.
It is humbling, often humiliating, experience
that I encourage everyone to do at one point. Promotions people know a bit of this when you are promoting a item on the streets, and people wish you would disappear.
