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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Development of Black Journalists
What role did the department play?
I. CONTEXT
Voice
What role did the department play?
Les Switzer, acting head of department in 1976 (and Head of Department from 1979-1982), speaking about the Journalism Department becoming a place to study for previously racially excluded students. Recruiting black students was considered subversive in the apartheid era. (Grocott's Mail, 2004: 1).
1977: (first intake of black students at Rhodes since the 1950s)
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AFRICAN: 9
COLOURED: 15
INDIAN: 8
CHINESE: 54
WHITE: 2568
The Journalism Department became a vehicle and space of racial integration. Prior to Dr Derek Scott Henderson's arrival in 1975 (Rhodes University's Vice-Chancellor for 21 years), Rhodes had admitted Chinese students since 1963 and in following years, a very small number of Indian students. Black students required the permission of the minister to attend a 'white' university. If this law was disobeyed, it was the individual and not the university that would be punished.
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In 1976, around the same time Les Switzer made correspondence with the then minister of Bantu Education (referenced above), Henderson made a representation to the Minister of National Education, Piet Koornhof, for Rhodes to admit all students of all races based on academic merit. It is important to note that both Senate and Council had supported Henderson with this endeavour [i]. Koornhof promised to look into the matter but had explained that it would take up to three years to change government policy [ii].
However, ministerial permission for the admission of black students to white universities was coming more readily, although students still could only register for courses not on offer at 'ethnic' universities [iii].
The launch of journalism as a course in 1970s at Rhodes provided opportunity for a 1947 Council policy that considered the applications of 'black graduates' for courses not offered at other 'homeland' universities, particularly Fort Hare, to come to action. Although this was strictly regulated by the university through 'Ministerial Dispensation' that revolved around academic merit for admission [iv]. It was only due to Senate's recommendation to Council to accept the new policy of admitting black students on the amendment that black graduates would only be considered for courses not offered at 'native' universities.
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Since the journalism department was a new field to study at an English-medium university, it was one of the courses that black graduates could apply for, depending on their academic merit.
ZUBEIDA JAFFER
In 2005 Zubeida Jaffer writes:
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Rhodes University was a very different place 25 years ago. It was a place wherea handful of black students (African, Indian and coloured) were allowed entry with the special permission of their respective racial authorities. It was a place to which these students could be denied access at the whim of a state official. Grahamstown was a very different place. The only cinema barred all coloured and African students from its premises. The eating places barred all students of colour. The first day when I visited the town with my parents, my mom and I were unceremoniously asked to leave the Wimpy Bar when we wanted to buy a sandwich and a cup of tea. The local people had no hope or very little hope of their children attending Rhodes. Instead, the most they could dream of was being lucky enough to find work as domestics or drivers so that they could put food on their tables [v].
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Jaffer was one of the students that got given special permission as a student of colour to attend Rhodes. Jaffer's mixed heritage was labelled Coloured under Apartheid. As a graduate of UCT, Jaffer went to Rhodes to study Journalism in 1978.
In remembering her time as a journalism student at Rhodes, Jaffer calls for the 'official' histories to acknowledge how different the experiences of so many students were. Conferred to second class status, facing daily oblivion from white students, not treated as full students, defending against apartheid accommodation; Jaffer recalls an incident where a white girl in the residence they shared claimed she had been "told that [they] had a low IQ and so could not understand how [they] were sharing a residence with her" [vi]. This was her perspective even though Jaffer and the other four women had significant academic achievement over the young white woman who was registered to do a diploma in pre-school education because she hadn't qualified to complete a degree.
"What I further cannot understand is why there is this continued pretense that Rhodes University stood up for freedom of association and freedom of speech. Rhodes University did not even defend its own students who were there purely on merit," explains Jaffer [vii].
Context of the mid 1970s and 1980s in the landscape of journalism
In the early 1970s the main units in the African Press (defined as those newspapers and periodicals directed mainly or wholly at Africans), were the Word (daily) owned ultimately by Argus company and Post and Drum owned by Mr. Jim Bailey (although Argus company took over Post). Daily World and Week-end World employed around 50 journalists, most of them African. Post, which had at least as many Indian and Coloured journalists as African journalists — although much smaller, and Drum which had about half a dozen of African journalists. Rand Daily Mail was the biggest employer of African journalists outside the African Press [viii].
During the mid 1970s and into the 1980s the landscape of journalism experienced notable changes, particularly in the accelerated increase of editorial control being granted to black editors in the black press. Alongside this, white English and Afrikaans papers progressively sought to employ black journalists. In 1979, a Bulletin report shows Mr Harvey Tyson, editor of the Johannesburg Star, explaining that it was necessary for major effort throughout South Africa be geared towards training black journalists.
"Commentators propose that both of these tendencies were informed by an increasing awareness of the importance of accessing journalists who had experience and knowledge of communities who were directly involved in the resistance struggle," (Du Toit, 2013: 189).
Literature indicates that black journalists were becoming more radicalised after increasing dissatisfaction with the position they were occupying within news production processes. Not only were they under pressure from security police who would harass them but also from newspaper managements that would exploit them. Influenced by ideas drawn from the Black Consciousness movement they held an opposing position toward the conciliatory policies of editors and the compromised approach to critical journalism that newspapers were prepared to make [ix]. They criticised the rhetoric of neutrality represented in the mainstream press "which was seen as maintaining the news sanctioning of an oppressive political order." [x].
The Union of Black Journalists (UBJ) acted as a mouthpiece for black journalists and laid heavy stress on the requirement that black journalists actively engage and participate in social and political affairs rather than being passive and observing of events. "The UBJ perceived a necessary continuity between journalism and politics, and it did not intend to confirm itself to parochial union matters," [xi]. However, Addison explains, that there was not full agreement on the extent to which journalists should involve themselves directly in the struggle for black rights. The issues around which the debate was centered was that of journalistic objectivity [xii]. There seemed to be a deep divide between the view that journalists should be fully committed to the cause and the view that journalists should remain an independent recorder of events and ideas [xiii].
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This debate was significant for the future of the press in South Africa; already the UBJ had established itself as spokesman for South Africa's journalists (a development which caused surprise and other fractured feelings in the SASJ). The SASJ represented journalists on the English-language press and they began to feel uncomfortable about not admitting Africans as members when more and more Indian, Coloured and African peoples were entering the newsrooms of white newspapers. In 1976 they relinquished its status as a registered trade union in order to open its ranks to Africans but the rise of black consciousness meant that Indian, Coloured and African peoples had begun to find common cause with each other through a Black Consciousness politics which would eventually transform the South African Journalists Association (SAJA) into the renamed Union of Black Journalists (UBJ) [xiv].
II. CURRICULUM
Curriculum aimed towards teaching students about the black press and black journalists started in the department as early as 1975.
A Journalism III Media and Theory course in 1975 includes a reading titled "Attitudes of Black and White Journalists in South Africa" by St. Ledger (1974) [xv]. The article focuses on the vital theme of the role of the journalist, more specifically, the black journalist as compared to the white one. Data were gathered for the purpose of a doctoral thesis on the African press in South Africa and therefore the primary focus was upon the African journalist.
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This continued permeating into the teaching at the department. In September 1977 Graeme Addison, a lecturer in journalism at Rhodes University earlier in his career (1976-81), gave a Journalism I lecture titled "Bias in the S.A. Black Press":
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Recently a sociologist from abroad was in Johannesburg doing research into the black press in South Africa. When a top black journalist heard about this he was very amused. "How can you research something that doesn't exist?" he asked. The question reflects the view that there is no such thing as a genuinely "black" press in South Africa, since even those papers which purport to serve black audiences are owned and controlled by whites in their interests... [xvi].
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The same month (September, 1977), Addison presents another paper titled "The Union of Black Journalists: A brief Survey".
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The focus of the subject is evident in another example of a lecture delivered by Les Switzer in the late 1970s titled "The historical development of the Black Press in South Africa". He begins with "I would like to begin by trying to locate the development of the Black Press within various conceptual frameworks so that you will know what assumptions I hold about the Black Press as a medium of communication in South African society," [xvii].
Evidence of the material being shared to students in this curriculum is in the bibliography of the lecture clipped below, as well as the examination that was given to students regarding these subjects.
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III. PROGRAMMES
Bibliography, Les Switzer lecture, p. 5
III. PROGRAMMES
In 1994, Guy Berger explained that a new dispensation means "a new menu for journalism training" and highlighted the prioritisation of quality programmes aimed at growing the numbers of black journalists [xviii].
The Steve Biko Bursary Fund was a project of the Department of Journalism and Media Studies that was set up with the objective of developing black journalists for media leadership in a democratic South Africa [xix].
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Donald Woods set up this Biko Bursary Fund at the end of 1992 in commemoration of Steve Biko, the much-respected Black Consciousness leader from the Eastern Cape who was murdered by the police in 1977.
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During the dawn of democracy and a time of critical transition in South Africa (1994 - 2000), the changes in the local media and its context had not been matched by growing numbers of black journalists and revealed an imbalance that had to be addressed. The black journalists that were employed were often under-skilled and the Steve Biko scholarships aimed to equip individuals with the intellectual and practical skills to enter the country's media as likely leaders in their field. Press Freedom had to reflect and represent the black community in the media.
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In 1995, the fund was resuscitated by Prof Guy Berger with a major-fund-raising drive in order to enable study opportunities to 57 disadvantaged students between 1995 - 1998. The aim included access for black students, especially women, to a university-level journalism education and "to produce graduates who will contribute to making South African media more representative of the majority of the population - notably through redressing racial and gender imbalances in senior editorial and management staffs," [xx].
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At the time, 1995, the number of black students in the department represented less than 10% of the approximate 400 students registered [xxi]. Few black South African families could afford an individual to study at university in the context of political deprivation, high unemployment and a history of economic deprivation. Other bursaries that could provide opportunity for tertiary education were inadequate and saw students without financial means to study journalism at Rhodes left with few options. The concern was that unless this changed, it would be white South Africans that benefited most from the journalism degree programmes and would perpetuate the white and male orientated media sector that still dominated media industry.
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The curriculum broke down as follows [xxii]: ​
Bachelor of Journalism degree
First Year: Intelligent media consumption
Second Year: Basic media production
Third Year: Media studies and specialised skills
Fourth Year: Advanced skills and specialised journalism
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The Higher Diploma in Journalism and Media Studies
This postgraduate diploma was more practical and had options of a selection of courses.
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The Media Management diploma
This diploma incorporated two editorial-related courses, and two business-related.
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The Steve Biko Media Week was developed in the late 90s and ran through to 2010. It aimed to introduce young people to the democratic role of journalism in the country. It was a competition/marketing strategy that targeted black pupils with an interest in the media to visit the Rhodes University Journalism and Media Studies Department and to experience the practical and theoretical training of a journalist at university level.
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Annual Report, snippet, 2004 [xxiii]
Vulindlela is a Xhosa phrase meaning "open the way" and was the name of the weeklong program that 20 potential recipients and other selected First-year Bjourn students were invited to attend in early February 2005. The week was aimed at providing a space for an introduction to the field of Journalism and Media Studies through developing some practical and study skills, along with other activities, to give students a better idea of what the field is about and its interrelation to other disciplines [xxiv].
IV. DR. TAWANA KUPE
Dr. Tawana Kupe was the first black professor to head the Rhodes department of journalism and media studies. Kupe lectured media theory at the department between 1999 and 2001 and stepped in as acting head in 2000 for almost a year while Professor Guy Berger completed a Fulbright African research scholarship in the United States [xxv].
NOTES
i / RU-C, Cory Library, Council XX, MS 17 846/4, p. 88, 26 November 1976, min. 1.
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ii / Greyling, 2007: 125.
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iii / Shear, M. 1996. Wits: A University in the Apartheid Era. Johannesburg. pp. 34 - 36, 77 - 76.
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iv / Greyling, 2007; Senate VI, 1946: 312 - 313, Rhodes University Cory Library Archives, Special Collections.
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v / Jaffer, 2005: 179
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vi / ibid, 180.
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vii / ibid, 181
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viii / St. Ledger, 1974: 1.
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ix / Du Toit, 2013; Tomaselli & Tomaselli, 1987.
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x / Tomaselli & Louw, 1991: 10.
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xi / Addison, G. 1978. Lecture on "The Union of Black Journalists: A Brief Survey". September 1977, p. 1.
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xii / ibid, p. 1.
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xiii / ibid, p.1.
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xiv / ibid, p1.
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xv / St. Ledger, 1974.
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xvi / Addison, G. 1977. Bias in the S.A. Black Press. Lecture given in September 1977 at Rhodes University for Journalism I.
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xvii / Switzer, L. n.d. The historical development of the Black Press, lecture at Rhodes University, p. 1.
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xviii / Berger, G. 1994. Media Skills in the Making. Rhodes Journalism Review, July: 45.
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xix / The Steve Biko Bursary Fund: Developing Black Journalists for Media Leadership in a Democratic South Africa, 1995.
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xx / ibid, 1.
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xxi / ibid, 2.
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xxii / ibid, 5.
xxiii / School of Journalism and Media Studies. 2004. Annual Report. pg 21.
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xxiv / ibid.
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xxv / Ball, D. 2000. First black head of Rhodes journalism. City Press. September 10th.
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SOURCES
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Bulletin. 1979. Train more Tyson. October, (3): 7.
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Cock, J. 2005. "Reflections on the Relation between Rhodes University and the Wider Society, 1977-1981", African Sociological Review , 9, 1:94.
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Du Toit, J. E. 2013. Journalism Education in Universities: The Global and Local Migration of Concepts between Practice and Discipline. Doctoral dissertation at University of Stellenbosch. Retrieved on 6 Feburary 2016 from http://scholar.sun.ac.za
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Jaffer, Z. 2005. Rhodes University: A Different Place. African Sociological Review. 9(1): 179- 183.
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St. Ledger, F.Y. 1974. Attitudes of Black and White journalists in South Africa. Communications in Africa, 1(5): 1 - 25.
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Tomaselli, K. & Tomaselli, R., 1987. The political economy of the South African press. In: K.
Tomaselli & R. Tomaselli, eds. Narrating the crisis: Hegemony and the South African press.
Johannesburg: Richard & Lyon.
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Tomaselli, K., 1991. The progressive press: Extending the struggle. 1980 - 1986.. In: K. Tomaselli &
E. Louw, eds. The Alternative Press in South Africa. Belville: Anthropos, pp. 155-174.
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