Patrick Schmelzer (centre) with Brenda Leonard and Adrian Louw
We had a special visitor last week: 17 years after his internship at the station, Patrick Schmelzer came to spend some time at the Mother.
After doing his internship, he worked at Deutsche Welle and is now the Press and Public Affairs officer for the European Union’s Diplomatic Service based in Montenegro.
He is in Cape Town to participate in the Tour de Boland and the Cape Town Cycle Tour
From the 14th to the 20th November 2011 you can join us and Fairtrade Label South Africa in celebrating South Africa’s first-ever Fairtrade Week on 89.5FM or via audiostream from anywhere in the world, including from your cellphone.
Bush Radio will also be flighting the features produced as part of a successful co-production by the station and the German international broadcaster; Deutsche Welle (DW) in August 2011. These programmes were made available to all radio stations in South Africa and are still available for free download.
During this week you can catch the following interviews:
Nokutula Mhene and Marcela Guerrero Casas from Fairtrade Africa on Tuesday, 15 November at 10h35 on the Morning Cruise
Boudewijn Goossens, the executive director of Fairtrade Label SA on Wednesday, 16 November – 15h30 on Backchat
Arianna Baldo of Fairtrade Label SA on Thursday, 17 November – 12h30 on Sakhisizwe
Lusanda Bill: YHUUU sis what are you doing here? Pic courtesy of Aarni Kuppamakki
As part of our partnership with the German national broadcaster – Deutsche Welle, Bush Radio had the opportunity to connect one of it’s trainees with an experienced radio and multi-media producer for the South African part of a large international co-production on Fair Trade. From the 22nd August to 9 September 2011, newsroom trainee, Lusanda Bill was selected to join Aarni Kuppamakki from Deutsche Welle in exploring what Fair Trade means in South Africa.
The completed productions are being distributed to all community radio stations in South Africa and can be downloaded via the links at the end of this post.
We asked Lusanda to document her experiences:
Being selected by Bush Radio to be part of a co-production on Fair Trade between Deutsche Welle was a great honour. I must say I had no idea why management chose me. My guess is they probably wanted to get rid of me for three weeks. *wink*
Fair Trade was a word that I did not use in my daily vocabulary. So when I was told that the topic was Fair Trade, my confused face popped up. My initial definition of Fair Trade was “fair trading between countries”, well in the three weeks that I was doing the production I found out how totally off the mark I was.
Lusanda out in the field - Pic courtesy of Aarni Kuppamakki http://bit.ly/nc0Wk2
I had some fears of doing the production and many questions: Would I match up to the standard of an international production? Would I understand the topic fully and be able to interpret it for Bush Radio listeners? And would I cope with the travelling and editing that would be involved?
My partner for this co-production from Deutsche Welle was Aarni Kuppamakki and we had been in contact via emails, sharing our ideas about the production. My job before he came was to set up as many interviews as possible beforehand. When Aarni and I finally met it was off to work from the first day. It was great to work with someone with so much passion and experience.
The best part of the whole production was the travelling – I loved what we called our “road trips”. We travelled to Stellenbosch, Citrusdal, Franschoek and Simons Town. The best experience was when Aarni and I went shark cage diving. Now shark cage diving is not a normal activity for most black people in South Africa.
A funny story that had everybody in stitches, even at the Bush Radio office, is when I arrived at boat, one of the crew, who has worked on the boat for six years, took one look at me and said – in the loudest voice possible – “YHUUU sis what are you doing here, you are the first black person I have seen here in a long time!”.
But you are probably still asking yourself when I will share the meaning of Fair Trade? Briefly, Fair Trade is when a premium is placed on a commodity like wine, bananas, fruit, tea and coffee. In South Africa it’s mostly wine that is Fair Trade, so for a bottle of Fair Trade wine 50 to 60 cents of the total cost would be the premium.
Lusanda and Aarni present their final productions to Bush Radio MD, Brenda Leonard and Marco Schmitt of the German Consulate
On average a bottle of Fair Trade wine costs R39.99. The premium goes to a separate bank account and is managed by the Joint Body of elected worker representatives and farm management. The premium cannot be paid out in cash, so in most cases it is used to improve the lives of farmworkers.
Let me share some interesting facts about Fair Trade: The joint bodies of Fair Trade certified farms received a total of R10,4-million in Fair Trade premiums in 2010 and most of it was used on education. South Africa is the only country that has Fair Trade Tourism. Fair Trade farms are audited annually which normally costs between R15 000 to R20 000, depending on the size of the farm.
Overall the whole experience was amazing and a great learning curve. I am a better journalist and a happier one after conquering one of my fears, sharks.
To listen to the three features produced by Bush Radio and Deutsche Welle click below to download:
We contacted a few of our former foreign interns to give us an update on what they have been up to after they left Bush Radio. (click on the picture below to see their stories)
If you would like more information on Bush Radio’s Foreign intern programme click here.
Bush Radio in partnership with the Deutsche Welle Akademie is currently (18 – 28 July 2011) holding a training workshop at the Bush Radio training facilities to a selected group of talented television journalists, camera operators and technicians from several television stations in Africa. The workshop aims to enable African journalists to “tell their stories” by producing professional TV reports and documentaries, and consequently offering their audiences an African perspective on relevant issues such as environmental protection, economic development, poverty reduction, health, education and good governance.
There are a diverse number of objectives that the workshop aims to achieve, including the improvement of the individuals skills as well as the promotion of African perspectives on social, economic and developmental issues. Trainers, Thomas Rehermann, Robert Donauer, Florian Kroker and Jan Bruck are doing their very best to ensure that the best training is being provided to the participants.
In the first stage the participants are divided up into teams consisting of a journalist, one camera operator and one picture editor. These teams are then given tasks and at the end of the workshop they are requested to produce at least one broadcast-quality report.
The workshop also aims to enhance reporting abilities, including, story selection, research, production organisation, camera work, the basic principles of editing, storytelling and writing for television.
Stages two and three are even more exciting than stage one. In stage two the team who produces the best report in stage one is identified, and then invited to develop these reports in co-operation with editors and technicians from Deutsche Welle-TV. Deutsche Welle will then distribute the reports through various channels to an international audience.
Stage three then allows the top 20 participants the opportunity to visit Germany. During this period, they will exchange views with decision-makers and opinion leaders, in order for authentic African perspectives on international issues to be discussed. This visit will also give participants the chance to learn more about German and European opinions about current issues.
The excitement of the participants is apparent at Bush Radio. Siraaj Larney from Cape Town TV said, “I have truly enjoyed the training thus far. It has broadened my knowledge and it has helped me build my confidence.”
Another participant, Anna Nicodemus from Namibia said, “I have been a journalist for quite some time, and I thought I knew all the tricks to journalism, up until this training. I will definitely be taking back a great wealth of knowledge with me. I hope that I will make it to Germany.”
Pennipher Sikainda from Muvi TV in Zambia said that the course has been excellent thus far, especially because it has been focusing on the training of TV production. She also said that the theme of the course “Africa On The Move” is wonderful since they have seen few stories depicting growth both socially and economically. She said that the lectures are fantastic, because they are sharing great tips that she could use to meet international broadcasting standards.
Richard Khoviwa from Malawi Broadcasting Corporation, said, “I have learnt many things with regard to editing and production. This is indeed useful to me because I deal with technical issues on a regular basis at my company.”
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Bush Radio 89.5FM, in partnership with the Deutsche Welle (DW) Academy, is currently holding a 6-day Community TV and Local News training course (23 – 28 May 2011), for various participants with the aim of strengthening their skills as community television journalists.
The enthusiasm of the trainers, Birgit Keller and Martin Schönian, co-ordinator Christopher Springate and the participants is creating an infectious excitement that can be felt by all at Bush Radio’s studios.
Christopher Springate
Christopher Springate, the course co-ordinator said: “To be specific, we intend to enlighten the participants with their reporting, writing, researching, filming and editing skills.”
Birgit Keller said that as the trainers they are not doing the course to have the participants do things in a certain way, but rather to show them how it works. She also added that they are keen to show the participants how to manage current affairs in order to get ideas on how they can improve.
Birgit Keller
Participants are from various television and radio stations including Bay TV, CTV, Soweto TV, Radio KC, Bush Radio, Community Video Education Trust and the Oguni Solidarity Forum.
Lebogang Kubyane from Soweto TV said: “I am extremely impressed with the course and what it has to offer. The trainers are great people and it is comforting to know that I am able to learn new and interesting things everyday.”
The course started off with a general introduction and ranges from activities like editing vox-pops, writing for television, “on-camera” work and production editing.
Martin Schönian said, “The reason for the course being aimed at community journalists is because they have the responsibility to voice the communities’ opinions more often as opposed to commercial stations. Therefore they need to be highly skilled to do this task.”
Martin Schönian
Birgit Keller gave the final word on the participants and hosts: “I am really impressed with the participants. They are truly bringing forth a great amount of energy and good ideas. I also need to add that it is interesting to be at Bush Radio. The friendly staff and warm welcome which we receive creates a warm and good atmosphere for all.”
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Bush Radio 89.5 FM and Deutsche Welle recently signed a rebroadcasting agreement to continue our partnership which started in 1992.
Brenda Leonard, Bush Radio’s Managing Director says; “We are very happy with the continued partnership with DW as it brings a unique flavour to programming and enhances our training role within the broadcast sector in South Africa and the region as a whole.”
The agreement with the international broadcaster is also inline with the Bush Radio philosophy of building partnerships which will have benefits not only to the listening audience but also the media sector through training opportunities offered by the station.
Naser Shrouf, Head of Distribution Africa/ Middle East at Deutsche Welle says; “We believe that community radio is a very important way to assist in education, for social development, strengthening the civil society and therefore contributing to democracy,”
“Bush Radio through its experience over the years and its commitment in training and scholarships plays a vital role in the broadcasting landscape of South Africa,” says Shrouf. “Deutsche Welle is looking forward to a mutual beneficial, long-lasting partnership with Bush Radio.”
Deutsche Welle is Germany’s international broadcaster that produces television, radio and online content in 30 languages. Its unique mix of news, information and cultural highlights offers insights to international issues. DW has more than 86 million listeners and viewers around the world weekly and offers a wide range of services including podcasting, live-streaming, newsletters, mobile content, apps and RSS feeds.
Lights, camera, action! Those were the words that were often used at the Deutsche Welle (DW) Journalism Community Television training hosted by Bush Radio for the past two weeks.
Maggie Nyaunda from CTV checks her equipment while Timothy Ncube from Bay TV looks on
We had the opportunity to watch the participants, taking pictures. Bush Radio interns also made cameo appearances in some of the pieces they were working on.
Participants came from Bay TV, from Richards Bay, Cape Town TV, based in Cape Town, Soweto TV from Soweto and Tshwane TV from Pretoria.
DW trainers, Patrick Benning and Frank Norden said they want to empower the participants from community television by giving them training and how to make good television.
“When one thinks of television you always imagine the glamorous life, you forget it involves hard work, like not having enough equipment and working volunteers” said Benning.
Bill Mbuyi of CTV gets down to the serious business of editing
Zanele Mthembu who is a producer from Soweto TV agreed with Benning. Mthembu added “there are difficulties that community television faces everyday, like people not pitching up for interviews”.
Working for a community radio station is similar to a community television station. Both share similar challenges, shortage of staff, no funding, lack of advertising and over worked staff.
Some of the videos that Bush Radio has been working on are available on Zoopy. Youtube.
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