Enrolment of first year students in journalism leaps up by 30% in 1979. Why?
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"Possibly because the Information scandal has made journalism seem like a glamorous profession." At least this is the opinion of Journalism staff who compare the jump in numbers with a similar phenomenon at journalism schools in the United States after Watergate.
Of course, the increase may also be linked to the growing reputation of the Rhodes department, the only one of its kind at an English-language university in South Africa.
Bulletin, 1979 (2): 3
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About
Who am I? And what is this website?
Purple Truths (& more) is a digital public history website. It curates and presents a multivoiced history of the School of Journalism and Media Studies, the first English-medium site of journalism in South Africa. Its emphasis lies particularly in its mapping of how the department was experienced and affected by the people who have inhabited it. Through the use of digitised archival documents, contributed crowdsourced material and historical ephemera, "Purple Truths" (& more) highlights the School of Journalism and Media Studies and the many individuals in this story of journalism history. It bases its historical inquiry on perspectives, plurality and your participation.
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My name is Jesamé Geldenhuys. I am a second year Masters researcher @ Rhodes University; working in the journalism department as a research assistant while I complete this project. I began my academic journey in this department in 2012; often on the sidelines, before discovering my love for its archives. My aim is to reach and connect to you reading this. Through sharing archives, perspectives and multivocality I hope that you share your story because this history needs your voice.
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Read more about the provocations for this project here.
Voice
This button is pinned to some web pages on this site. It is a prompt to "reach out and share". Clicking it will take you to various questions where you can actively comment, engage, share and contribute to the history. There are other tools, buttons and cues on the website that also request your participation to build on the digital historical narrative. How, and if, you participate is up to you.