Campaigning Sou African journalist wins place on 04 summer course

A journalist from South Africa who infiltrated drug dens as part of an award-winning campaign, will be taking part in this year's Thomson Foundation summer course with sponsorship from telecoms company Vodacom.

Viasen Soobramoney, who is a general reporter on the Post, part of the Independent Newspapers group, secured his place after winning the South Africa Vodacom Journalist of the Year Editors' Choice award.

His success in winning the national award followed a series of stories he wrote focusing on the drugs trade in the Chatsworth area of Durban. His investigation involved working undercover, infiltrating drug dens and gathering information on drug dealers.

I worked closely with the South African Police Service and set up a model that has now been adopted in various parts of South Africa as an effective mechanism to curb drug dealing.

It entailed setting up platforms for our readers to blow the whistle on drug dealers and operations in their area.

Working undercover Our readers would send us information pertaining to drug dealing and I would go undercover, verify the information and work closely with police in setting up sting operations.

He says the campaign was immensely successful. In three months, we were able to seize about R10 million rand (£588,000) worth of drugs which would have been destined for the streets of Chatsworth. It also led to the arrests of some of South Africas biggest drug lords.

Viasen says the media industry in South Africa is changing rapidly with the focus now on digital convergence.

Previously you had journalists and photographers doing their specific jobs only. Now journalists have to write the copy, get a picture, upload a video to their website and tweet about it.

While there is still a huge market for newspapers, he says, broadcasting remains the most popular medium.

Viasen hopes that the summer course will allow him to develop skills that will enable him to work across other media. At the moment I work in the print media industry.

I have always dreamt of working as a broadcast journalist so I am quite excited about the skills I am going to pick up on the course.

Convergence

He says that with the media industry in South Africa shifting slowly towards a convergence of all mediums, it is important for journalists to have the skills to make the transition.

Multi-skilling is essential for this shift to occur and it is something that the entire industry is grappling with.

A multi-skilled approach to journalism is the future for the South African media and I believe this course will enable me to be at the forefront of that transition.

LINK:	http://www.thomsonfoundation.org/news-and-features/2014/04/29/campaign...
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