News Package

While going through the study guide in the beginning of the year, I came across this subject " New Media" and it was quite interesting in a confusing way but I got in the first class  and i just knew that I would love it, mainly because I want to pursue my professional Journalism career in the print media path.

My News Package was based on the elections and was mainly focusing on the "Born Frees" because it was quite significant that they are not only turning 20 this year- in line with our Democracy but it was also their first democratic vote. It was also about the current political system in South Africa and how much it has improved.

What I enjoyed most about this assignment was that I had to interact with my social cedia friends.  It did not even feel like  that much work or an assignment at all because I had to use my Facebook to get people's opinions. However, most people regard Facebook as a platform where only fun is to be had and if you post thought-provoking status messages or opinions, people tend to ignore it because they do not regard what you are posting as fun. So what I did not enjoy the most about this assignment was that as much as some people actually gave attention to my posts, some would just send me private messages on how they find what I am asking my Facebook friends as irrelevant. I then had to explain that it is for school and I was doing it for marks, that was quite my only challenge.

When selecting my story angle, I did not find it as an obstacle because I was aiming on focusing on something that is current and something that most people think about, so I somehow made their thoughts a reality by bringing it out there and making them voice their so long kept close opinions about our 20 years of democratic freedom and how they think the overall elections will go especially for the first time voters. This was a combination of how the born frees think that they deserved to be called "born frees"- whether they are really free or they are in love with the idea of sharing the same number of years with the country's democracy.

As for the interviews, well that was quite easy because I knew my target market because I am also in their age- range so it was quite easy to interact with them seeing that this democratic vote was significant for both me and my interviewees. I took my picture for my News Package on the day of the elections- 7 May 2014, because i found it relevant to capture the young South Africans in action of making their marks at the polling station in my institution at the Ritson Campus.
 
Overall, it was quite a great experience for me, I enjoyed this assignment- flaws and all and I learnt a lot of things during the process, which includes creating a poll on Facebook. Trust me, I have been on Facebook for four years now and I only learnt that during this task. Next time I might use Twitter for my crowd sourcing but I am skeptical about the 140-character rule even though it would be nice to view people's opinions on a different social media platform.