Profile: Tamlin Alberts

 Tamlin Alberts:

Upon meeting Tamlin one would most certainly be under the impression that she does not come out much and that she just keeps to herself. However, that is totally the opposite of this colorful character. One of the main interests in her life is most certainly her passion for music. She believes that music has the ability to change your day or even your life. She says: “I know it sounds a bit dramatic, but that’s the way I see it.” Tamlin is the type of girl that tends to hide behind her music sheets. She confides in her music by composing lyrics which best describes her life at that particular moment. Music gets her through most of the obstacles with which she is faced.

Tamlin spends most of her spare time with family and friends. She loves bonding with her piano, playstation and not forgetting the most important factor in her life…her bed. Spiritually, church? Well, that’s still in question.

In the next five years, Tamlin sees herself trying to or making a success of her life.  She says: “As long as I am happy with whatever I’m doing the rest will fall into place. My career is top priority.”

Goals for the future? To have a successful career as a journalist and to acquire a degree in music, as well as to perform in front of thousands of people.

Book Review: The Taxi Driver’s Daughter by Julia darling

The Taxi Driver’s Daughter is about a family who grow to be strangers they then rail against each other and they each find their respective retreats. Caris is the insubordinate, chaotic daughter of Mac and Louise who is busy playing truant from school and get involved in an exotic love affair with George who she meets at the highly symbolic oak tree. George is Caris’ `prince’ who was born in riches. Caris’ former friend Margaret has teamed up with the school bully Layla. Their relationship is based solely on the foundation of hating Caris according to these allies Caris would be the devil if she were a religion. Stella, Caris’ sister with her hair pulled back and her face polished with concealer manages to escape a punishing, threatened regime of school work and cleaning.  Grandmother Nana Price sleeps  in the windowless box room, will all the other abandoned memories that remains of their dreams.

This is a story about a 15-year old Caris and her family told in a manner that verges on the absurdist as a drily comic with an eye for the ridiculous. Caris’ mother is sent to prison for stealing a shoe from Fenwick’s (actually, the prison sentence was for hitting a policeman with it). Since Caris is an adolescent, her preoccupations are elsewhere, or seem to be. She is more bothered regarding the Margaret and Layla situation they constantly knock her down then throw her shoes in a tree, and with George, the posh boy with whom she hangs around with when she’s meant to be at school.

Julia Darling’s writing is inventive and quirky that this slender material becomes a novel of glee, charisma and innovation.  From the very first sentence – `Mac drives like a man in a pot of treacle’ – you can tell you’re in the hands of someone with a sharp eye for the bizarre, tangential detail that makes any picture into one of authenticity and ecstasy. Darling’s novel is emotional portrayal of a family struggling to co-exist. Their dreams of a better life collide with one another. Louise and Stella blame Mac for all that went wrong, whilst Caris despises everything and everyone. She’s sick of hearing how the family needs to pull together to cope. Mac doesn’t know what to say to her; her teacher is at a loss; he even struggles to convince himself that school will help

The characters of The Taxi Driver’s Daughter don’t call upon us to feel passionately for them but they do demand our thorough understanding.  Form a very personal perspective, Darlings novel was rather moving as I could relate to Caris’ character tremendously. I also have a very big family just like Caris, what’s more is when I first started out at high school I was also bullied by seniors just like Caris.

The novel has changed many things in my life once I have read it, it has made me realise that there is always hope out there, and that you should never give up easily. There are always people out there that are worse off than you.

Profile: Yuzriq Meyer, an aspiring journalist.

There is so much more to a person than what meets the eye.  Many people use their discretion of what a person is like, but actually there is more to that person than you know.

A student studying journalism, Yuzriq Meyer, 19, the only son of three children, seemed so ordinary when I just met him. Someone who seemed as if though he didn’t have a care in the world.

He loves reading poetry, especially poetry that is similar to his; it is one of the ways in which he expresses himself. One of his favourite poets is T.S Elliot.

Emotions and past experiences are his inspiration to write. He visions mysterious things and doesn’t give up easily.

Drawing and music has become a daily routine in his life, it seems to keep him occupied during spare time.

Education is a factor to him as he enjoys and prefers to be in an educational as well as fun environment.

Outdoor life, constantly on the road and always active, there is never a dull moment for him. Enjoys socialising and would love to one day have his own talk show about controversial issues.

As they say it’s good for people to laugh, I guess in his case he is very fortunate. Television is a big no in his life all he enjoys watching are documentaries and nature programmes.

Enjoys analyzing issues and always thinks that there’s more to a situation than what meets the eye.  Quite an observant person, and goes very deep into thought.  

"Sometimes in life we all need to make sacrifices in order to prosper in everything we do, success is the key to our freedom."

Why is it important for you to study Journalism to become a Journalist?

To keep our fellow citizens informed

Journalism on the bright side is a light that shines on us to tell what’s happening in our lives.

Journalism is one of the most important and legitimate branches of communication between people. On a whole society needs well- trained journalist to get messages carried over in the most professional and informative manner. As messages are commonly conveyed in the wrong way and people gets the wrong information.

Journalists are the average help for people within a country to carry over the messages with only true meaning and hardcore facts. 

It could be easy for someone to say that they want to become a journalist but to study journalism it’s something else. You need to have a true passion for writing and fact finding, and also have a natural curiosity.

Most people believe that studying journalism is not necessary to become a journalist, but if one sits down and thinks carefully it’s actually unfair. No matter what your profession, you need to study to be qualified. If you do not study journalism it’s almost as if though someone who wants to become a doctor just opens up a surgery and starts practicing.

Journalism is something that you have to challenge yourself to bring out the best in you. I have learnt to push myself to do things as people aren’t going to be there to bring the opportunities to you. It is a way for me to grow.

I always wondered why it’s important for you to be well read and clued up on the world, but then it all made sense to me once this big world opened up to me.

Journalism is giving me the chance to come out of my shell and be who I really am. It is an opportunity to let myself be heard.

So, what does the point you want to become a journalist and not being involved with the wider community and the media? It is one of the most important things in the life of a journalist.

So the question is once more posed, why is it important to be involved? It’s important to be involved with newspapers because you always need to know about things that are happening in the world, and your life as a journalist is based about the world events. You always need lots of “General” knowledge.

Theory is one of the most important aspects in the life of a journalist. It's very important to be well read, which is my perspective.

Journalism is a real fun encounter if you have the true passion for it.  

Book Review: A song flung up to Heaven, Maya Angelou

A song flung up to heaven reveals as Maya Angelou, an African American political activist, returns from Africa to the United States to work with Malcolm X, but first had to go to California (San Francisco) to re-unite with her mother and Brother Bailey. She arrives in California and comes to find out that Malcolm X has been assassinated.

Maya devastated, she couldn’t do anything but she tried putting her life back together. She worked on the stage and in local theatres in Hawaii and even doing door-to- door surveys to the people in Watts.

On a trip to New York, she meets Martin Luther King Jr. who then asks her to become his co-coordinator in the North and she visits lots of Black Churches all over America to help support King’s poor People’s March. (A campaign he started)

But once again a tragedy strikes Maya. Martin Luther King Jr. is killed, and this time Maya was completely withdrawn from the world, unable to deal with this tragic event. Finally someone forces her out of her withdrawal and asked her to accompany him to a dinner party.

The main reason I chose to read this book is because Maya Angelou is a political activist and she was an inspiration to me as nothing tends to get her down, though there were tough times in her life she never gave up hope. She always persisted and kept striving for what she wanted and what she thought was best for her.

She inspired me, as I am an aspiring journalist who loves the idea of politics. It has also inspired me to go out there and experience new challenges, as a youth you always need to be faced with new challenges all the time, because those challenges could give you a different outlook on life.

It has made me realise that women can strive for anything they want and it changed me in the way that I don’t give up so easily any longer. I have learnt to have patience and that things take time to happen, and no matter what occurs you must learn to overlook it and carry on with your life.

People will never carry things to you on a gold platter, you need to go out there and get what is meant for you. This book has made me become a more independent person.

The language in this book is quite formal, and is easy to read and make sense of. I am not someone that is easily attracted to reading a book but this book has caught me by surprise. As they say never judge a book by its cover.

New Media Technology and Journalism

What is Journalism? It’s the timely reporting of events. It can be divided into various categories. One of the most challenging categories is online media, and this goes hand- in- hand with New Media Technology.

New Media Technology is a type of application which purpose is to transfer information via digital networks, computer systems or networks. New media technology was established in the 20^th Century. Most examples of new media technologies include internet- based websites. Any old part of the media such as television, newspaper and magazines does not form part of New Media Technology.

Technology has made Journalism so easy these days; there are so many increasing technologies and even cell phones are one of them which make journalists lives so much easier, they have the internet in their hands, literally.

New media technology started in the early 1960’s when the modern computer was made known. The exchange of information via internet became a powerful resource. The speed and level of media communication has increased as of the ability to access internet.

Types of media such as video and telephone could amalgamate using new media technology. 

Finding sources could be the beginning of a difficult task.

A source is the beginning of something; it could refer to research, observing or just simply interacting with people.

Finding sources might seem the simplest thing to do, but, it can become such a nuisance with time. It becomes very challenging where people aren’t always eager to help you. When somebody finally ends up helping you, what are the chances that the information they giving you are legit?

There are many other challenges that people face when trying to find sources, you really need to dig deep to find what you want. Everybody is for themselves.

Once you have information it can become too much then you need to find what is the most relevant information. Some information could be things that are general knowledge it doesn’t necessarily have to be obtained by sources.

It could be a challenge finding a way of eliminating difficulties in finding sources, if only some people knew the importance of interacting with people and letting out what they know. What they know could be the bread on the next person’s table.