Meeting the news manager
In our first meeting with Xolani, he spoke to us about the work that we would be doing as members of his news team. Our brief was to help him to strengthen the current affairs content on Masabelane, a talk show that is broadcast every week between 09h00 and 12h00. We would focus on the Monday and Friday edition, which is anchored by Xolani himself. Our job would be to gather news, focusing on content that is of relevance to the poorer neighbourhoods of Grahamstown, which is where most of the station's audience live.
We were very happy with this brief, because we knew it would give us the opportunity to observe the relationship between Radio Grahamstown and the community it serves. We would, in particular, be able to see how Xolani's approach to news coverage is shaping this relationship. This, after all, was what we were there to do for the Engaging Spaces project: to witness an example of social engagement.
We were also very happy to be working with Xolani, because we soon realised that we were in the presence of an inspired leader. It was clear to us that he has his finger on the pulse of Grahamstown, so that he could guide us towards the right stories. Also, he has his own vision for how his station needs to deal with the issues and events that impact on the lives of the local community.
We now understood what we were there to do. Firstly, we needed to the best job possible, covering the news beat for Xolani. Secondly, we needed to keep our eyes and ears open, so that we could bear witness to this experience and, in this way, make sense of the role that a news team at a station such as Radio Grahamstown can play in serving its community...
