RU student journos make headlines in Joburg

The weekend of 12 August, Rhodes University Professor Anthea Garman accompanied a group of journalism students to the annual Duke Menell Media Exchange (MMX) in Johannesburg.

MMX is a two day media conference hosted by Duke University.

The event is open to students, journalists and media junkies from around South Africa and the world. Five students from the fourth-year writing and editing class had the opportunity to work in MMX’s student newsroom. Students from Rhodes as well as other universities were mentored in content production by professionals from Duke University, eNCA, SABC as well as other outlets.

The students began their time in the newsroom on 10 August, and worked through the end of the conference on 12 August. Despite feeling exhausted at the end of each day, students were in awe of the opportunity to work alongside inspiring professionals.

In the midst of running between deadlines and interviews, Rhodes student Kayleigh Damita said “I really enjoy interacting with people from different universities, because you get to hear about their programmes and what they study.”

Damita’s portfolio from MMX can be found on the event’s website, along with work by other students involved in the newsroom.

During the conference, participants were inspired by speakers including Zola Brunner from eNCA’s Backchat. Brunner’s comment on 12 August – “young journalists are not the future, they are the now” – received thunderous applause from people of all ages in the audience.

Rhodes University alumnae Krivani Pillay (SABC) and Yusuf Omar (CNN International) also made appearances discussing new approaches to storytelling and reporting.

Saturday’s lively MC, journalist, and host of PowerTalk on PowerFM Iman Rappetti stated that, “our primary role, and the objective of a meeting like this, is to be a clear mir- ror and a loud megaphone to where people are in their own lived experience”.

Wherever the five journalism students from RU are in their lives, they gained invaluable experience and support during this exhilarating weekend away from Grahamstown.

With RU’s top-notch reputation for journalism, there is no doubt that these students will go very far in their current and future careers in media.