Reflective Essay I Siyabonga Mapuma will be retelling my time spent at the offices of Nkqubela FM or otherwise known as KQ FM on radio frequency 97.0. The Structure that I observed at KQ FM is there is a strict work first play later type of philosophy embraced in that station. There is family type feel but also like when you are part of a family and have responsibility, you must come correct with your work on time and accurate with the news you hand to your fellow colleagues they need to have faith in you whatever they will report to the listener is factual and will be accurate news to filter through the airways. This has been in practice in the KQ FM offices for us to be always reading and keeping with the news, as we are aspiring Journalists should be keen to always read to have every little information every little story coming up. Practicing more reading is great skill for the brain to exercise itself this also helps with your personal diction as with regular reading, you will learn an unfamiliar words and their meanings to help you master your communication skills. The organisation structure is spear headed by 2 people with huge roles Sivuyile Rasi aka Ta Svigi who is the station manager he comes across with a very strict energy as his serious with his work and holds everyone accountable of their actions at work and future hopes. On the other hand, there’s Makazizi who makes sure that office is squeaky clean she has light energy as she brings laughter and chilled type of vibes, she takes the edge off when we are all in serious rush to knock down our work. She would tell us stories light-hearted or even serious stories of her life’s work to calm distract us so our or brains can somehow at least calm down and be relaxed so we can work well to fulfil our duties. Then comes uNdimphiwe Ndingiswayo aka Ta ndira is the bigger brother when ta svigi is not available the man to find as he knows the truck of the trade of that office due to being there for years has it all and is always available to guide you the to the right direction no matter the hassle. He tried encouraging us to join him in isiXhosa news but thankfully we knew our limits as that would have not ended well. There’s also Siyo and Yonela they host the Youth Paradise show from Monday to Friday in the morning they are direct opposites as Siyo is more outgoing and louder while Yonela is more in her shell she usually chimes in on conversations that are more debatable often. My expectations heading into that office were that I was reading to get worked hard and to be able to be open for any surprises and added information as this was all a new experience for me. There is enormous difference in what I thought I would be walking into and what I experienced I consider many expects to be important in the field I worked in like how to be firstly professional in your attire because you represent an organisation not yourself. To show up on time as everyone's time is valuable so when you come in late you do not respect the sacrifice the others made. You need to take pride in your work so your colleagues can see your hard work and have faith in you delivering. I have taken away an appreciation of working hard first and having trust that you and your colleagues have one bond and that is to always deliver the best work for the listener as the listener fuels the success of the radio station. I have learnt a new motor for myself. If I work in this order everything will go according to, I work for my colleague's respect, I work for my station managers trust, work for the appreciation of the audience I believe if I do everything will go accurately as planned. The organisation works at selling AdSpace to local shops from butcher houses to local bed stores and so many more other stores. The relationship between the organisation is a good and strong relationship as people would light and be eager to help when I mentioned I worked for KQ FM meaning there is a good trust there. The station sells awareness promoting products of local business this contributes to the sales and the local resident's awareness of new specials at those shops for them to get great deals and save money. This helps generate awareness for every shop that is played on air. The ads are made from the station by the sound engineers with voice over participants they do a great job to capture the sense and idea of selling what the respective companies are trying to get across to the audience. Th nature of the industry developments and its most important features like finding stories that are newsworthy type of stories that people can pay attention to them. As journalists we weigh up a lot of potential stories and pit them against each other to see what would fit and what is more important at certain time for the reader or listener to be introduced to that story. Also, from publication to publication we cannot all write and report the same story the same way or there would only be need for one news outlet, so your individuality must stand out and be clear from everyone else. Things to consider in the workplace is being adaptable that is gold mine as you can prove to your employer that you can wear thousand hats which will make you very valuable to the running of the station. Adjusting quickly to working with new technology represented to you is great quality as you will be required to fill in for someone sooner or later. Be quick in reading a story so you can be able to report on it and not leave out important information for the listener. With every story always consider its impact and proximity to the audience do not just feed them international news, people want to know what is going on around them. My strengths where being able to go out and talk to people and hearing the opinions, I enjoyed meeting new people. I also was able to work efficiently at finding stories to be covered on the airways. I was able to work efficiently at cutting clips for my colleagues. I enjoyed interacting with my fellow colleagues I met good people with good hearts at that station. My Weaknesses were I never felt comfortable reading on air at first, but I grew in that aspect, as time went. It took me time to figure out how exactly to move around with how to capture the audience attention with how I write to grab attention of the audience, running away from repeating myself and not getting my message across quickly across. I have had conflict between my own personal/organization objects a huge example was following the Zenizole Vena death, I had pre-determined idea that the nurses should have at least try to help her in her time of need. As I was working covering the story the nurse's rep put everything clear for me. She educated me on the law that nurses legally cannot touch a rape victim before they first go and conduct a rape kit from the police. This information should be open, and more awareness should be raised on this as not a lot of people aware of that. There should be more clinics to help offload the stresses of the workload, also higher more nurses and pay them on regular without skipping months. Key skills that I learnt were cutting clips and recording myself on the RCP system used there. I cut clips and recorded meetings and interviews this was taking minutes and luckily, I avoided technological failures where technology falls through. In meetings we had to write down a lot of the weeks layout and who would travel to cover what stories in pairs or individually. Looking into the future I have learnt the most important thing was to be able to adaptable and be ready for any type of encouragement take chances and be ready to go with the flow more than before I did first place. I will appreciate my time more in future setting than I have now. The experience I have gathered will shape me forever for my future occupations learning how to interact with my colleagues and bosses.
