My First News Article

My first news article went pretty well I think. Sure, our group had its problems, but then you would’ve guessed that from my last post. Choosing a story is usually an easy task for me, I had to choose one with which I would get a first and meet my varsities DP requirements. This however did not complicate things much, what did complicate things was the fact that it had to be posted on an active internet site, so now it needed relevance, not something I’m so well known for. After a lot of brain storming and gut clenching thought, we had made our final choice, for the first article we chose the ‘Early Morning Market’. Before I continue, I should probably explain that the aforementioned ‘Early Morning Market’ was a local CBD based market; its main focus in what was sold was a number of miscellaneous items you would expect from street vendors, cultural clothes and crafts, food and muthi (a local traditional medicine).

Why the ‘Early Morning Market’? We chose it for a number of reasons, but these, at least to us, seemed like the most important criteria with which the ‘Early Morning Market’ obviously met. First of all, it had to relate to the subject matter of the news portal site, that of course being the FIFA 2010 World Cup which is to be held here in South Africa. And due to the infrastructure improvements that our cities require in order to cope with FIFA, much of the old is being demolished in order to make way for the new. Unfortunately, that means the possible moving (abolishing) of the ‘Early Morning Market’ and its immediate area in order to make way for a new shopping mall. Secondly, the subject(s) of our article had to be associated with Durban, alone this would have been completely reasonable, especially considering the sheer amount of possibilities with which we could choose. Our problem came in our groups sub-choice, such that, our group had to try stay within the confines of the ‘stuff’ category. I bet your now as confused as I was, let me explain, each tut group consisted of multiple smaller groups who would have to separate articles within the range of our chosen category. Sounds simple enough, unfortunately being tut group five, we got stuck with the category so creatively named stuff, and in other words miscellaneous (left over’s). Hmm, so we had to try stay away from the categories of transport, livelihoods, food or fashion; is there anything left? Regardless of the leash we found ourselves in, and regardless of the fact that we were chained to a fence, we found a topic.

The ‘Early Morning Market’ did in fact turn out to be an interesting topic. So we set about getting this article together, I, being the writing genius that I am (sarcastic laugh), was allotted to writing this story. And with enough research, we had found our angle; because regardless of the promises that our government made to us, many of the informal businesses (hence the ‘Early Moring Market’) won’t be effected in any positive way. And in fact, if the plans for the mall are put through, the only effects will be seriously negative ones. So, what did I need to make this article viable? Well photos would be a good start, and here they are, I was hoping for more surrounding area shots and more concise angles, but considering that the other group members left me to my own devices, this one time I would do the same for them. An interview would be the next step; we got one in that we interviewed a Miss Mguni, who at the time and for the foreseeable future, a market vendor was selling clothes, muthi and other handmade craft items. And as she conveyed to us, even if the ‘Early Morning Market’ remains, she would not be at all surprised if her business did pick up at the time of the FIFA World Cup. Because this is all in my relatively short article here, I won’t repeat myself.

Being the writer that I am, and considering that it was indeed my task to do this articles writing, I decided to put an ethical spin on the article. This spin dealt with the negative effects that we might see during and after the FIFA World Cup, strange that the government doesn’t seem at all disturbed with these facts. When we consider the strangely and overly positive facts we’ve been hearing from the government, and again, taking into consideration the fact that academic studies and analysts have put an almost opposite view of FIFA and the World Cup, such that the balance of effects will in fact negative. It seems that the World Cup is only beneficial to the few rather than the many, this of course goes against everything the government has been telling us. The question we have to ask ourselves is, why would the government lie like that to us? We should carefully consider what I’ve said in this post, because people have a right to know why their futures are being compromised for something like the FIFA World Cup, which on the grand scheme of things is relatively trivial. I just can’t help but think that all these infrastructural improvements in transportation, bandwidth, municipal services, and everything else are definitely good. But much of the capital spent on the stadiums, advertising and measures to allow foreign company’s access (which could have been easily met by local alternatives) could have been better spent on the problems we already have.