Breaking down barriers that exist between journalists and the science community, the South African Agency for Science and Technology Advancement (SAASTA) organised a two-day training workshop in Pretoria for 51 community media journalists from across the country. The main objective of the workshop was to empower and capacitate community media journalists in science and technology reporting.

Freelance journalist and writer and the president of the African Federation of Science Journalists and South African Science Journalists’ Association, Mandi Smallhorne, presented on science and technology journalism in print media and Bibi-Aisha Wadvalla, eNCA journalist, facilitated the session on the radio broadcast.

The main objective of the worskhop was to capacitate community media journalists and 25 Science and Technology Journalism interns. These interns are working for 17 community media houses in five provinces in South Africa.

The workshop included the following modules: revision of basics – what is science; why science matters in print and radio reporting; radio skills - crafting and packaging a radio story; interviewing – how to ask questions to elicit the required response; selecting appropriate soundbites. The scriptwriting and print skills workshop covered topics such as researching the story, short revision for shaping stories and identifying stories.

SAASTA hopes that the community media journalists will hone their journalism skills, especially in science reporting and be in a position to write science stories and engage their audiences with interesting science content.

Science journalism interns from North West, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal and journalists from community media from Phalaborwa FM, Giyani Community Radio and Nthavhela community newspaper attended the workshop. It gave them the opportunity to be exposed to some of the big science projects in South Africa such as Bloodhound SSC.

Day two of the workshop focused on science projects such as the nanotechnology programme and science content such as the Solar Eclipse event presentation, by Shadrack Mkansi in August and presentations about Wastewater Treatment by Dr John Zvimba, from the Water Research Commission and Corrective Action Request and Report System (CARRS) by Goodhope Maponya from the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).

CARRS is a technology platform designed to improve service delivery and incident management, and can assist in the speedy maintenance of municipal infrastructure. The current CARRS project is focused on water incident management and reporting by communities.

Speaking about the Bloodhound SSC project, lead education ambassador in South Africa, Christopher Maxwell, spoke about the objectives and current status of the project.

He also spoke about the science behind the the construction of the supersonic car and mentioned that the latest date for the test run of this car, which will attempt to break the land speed record at Hakskeenpan in the Northern Cape, is 15 October 2017.

The project will create excitement in South Africa about science, technology, engineering and mathematics amongst the youth. It is a global engineering adventure, using a 1 600 km/h world land speed record attempt to inspire the next generations to enjoy, explore and get involved in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Its main objectives is to inspire the next generation, se a world land record speed and share an iconic research and development programme with a global audience.

For more information on the Science and Technology Journalism Programme visit:

http://www.saasta.ac.za/programmes/nurturing-talent/youth-journalism-programme/

http://www.saasta.ac.za/programmes/nurturing-talent/youth-journalism-programme/projects/

http://www.saasta.ac.za/programmes/nurturing-talent/youth-journalism-programme/intern-profiles/