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		<h2><a href="http://www.theharbinger.co.za/wordpress/2008/11/04/a-small-lesson-from-a-big-interviewer/">A small lesson from a big interviewer</a></h2>

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		   		<em class="date">November 4th, 2008<!-- at 06:12pm--></em>
   		<!--<em class="author">Anton</em>-->
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		<p>Legendary American journalist and interviewer Studs Terkel never got a driving licence. That was the most interesting thing I learnt from an interview with a close friend of his after he died last week. And it is something I will tell all my students.</p>
<p>Why is that relevant? Because, according to his buddy Scott Simon, interviewed on National Public Radio in the US, it meant he got to know his home town, Chicago, from the point of view of ordinary people using public transport.</p>
<p>And he often asked his subjects for a ride – thus changing the way they related to him.</p>
<p>NPR played a recording of Terkel himself telling a similar story: how it would help if he forgot to turn the tape recorder on. It isn’t that I did it on purpose, I was just inept, he said. But if a person pointed out to him that his tape wasn’t on, they would see him differently – not as this big person come down from Olympus with a tape recorder, but just another “goofball”, he said.</p>
<p>Simon said: “He put himself in a position where because people had to help him out, it change the whole identity of the interview, it appealed to their better nature, and made them more confident. And that is what made a lot of his interviews not just interesting, but extraordinary.”</p>
<p>Terkel was famous for his oral history technique based on interviews with ordinary people, collected in books such as “The Good War” and “Working”.</p>
<p>His attitude was that everyone had a story to tell, Simon said. “You just have to give them a chance, he would say, just let ‘em sing, let’em sing.”</p>
<p>(From <a href="http://www.npr.org/rss/podcast/podcast_detail.php?siteId=5593972">NPR Shuffle</a>, a daily podcast of the best of NPR, 2/11/08)</p>

		<p id="filedunder">Entry Filed under: <a href="http://www.theharbinger.co.za/wordpress/category/1/" title="View all posts in Anton Harber" rel="category tag">Anton Harber</a>, <a href="http://www.theharbinger.co.za/wordpress/category/journalism/" title="View all posts in Journalism" rel="category tag">Journalism</a></p>

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	<p class="header"><strong>1.</strong>

	
	Thabo &nbsp;|&nbsp; November 5th, 2008 at 3:11 pm</p>
		<p>I can&#8217;t wait to hear that Prof. It sounds a big &#8217;story&#8217;.</p>
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	<li id="comment-2" class="comment">
	<p class="header alt"><strong>2.</strong>

	
	McClintock &nbsp;|&nbsp; November 8th, 2008 at 2:12 pm</p>
		<p>Nose Week ran an article last week that seemed unusually vicious and salacious. I phoned to speak to Martin Weltz to tell him I thought the article about a psychiatrist&#8217;s affair with a patient would have  been better suited to The Sun. I was told he was on sabbatical.<br />
Max du Preez is editing Nose Week at the moment.</p>
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<h2><em>Anton Harber: Media</em></h2>
<div align="center"><img src="http://www.theharbinger.co.za/wordpress/wp-content/themes/blix/images/anton4.jpg" width="205" height="90" border="0" alt="Anton Harber">	<br></div>
			
			<p>
		Professor Anton Harber directs the Journalism and Media Studies Programme at Wits University. He is former editor of the Mail & Guardian. <br>
	 <a href="http://www.theharbinger.co.za/wordpress/index.php?page_id=24">Full bio</a> 
	 </p>


<li id="linkcat-19" class="widget widget_links"><h2 class="widgettitle">Media sites to watch</h2>

	<ul class='xoxo blogroll'>
<li><a href="http://www.shirky.com/weblog/" title="No-nonsense, no-bells-and-whistles blog by provocative thinker on new media technologies">Clay Shirky</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.cpj.org/" title="New York-based organisation that highlights the harassment of journos around the world">Committee to Protect Journalists</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.editorsweblog.org/" title="Produced by the World Editors&#8217; Forum, full of angst about the print industry, particularly the challenges and threats it faces.">Editorsweblog.org</a></li>
<li><a href="http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/globalvoices" title="Local bloggers aggregate the best local blogs around the world in the interests of global dialogue.">Global Voices</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade" title="Lively blog by former editor and newspaper commentator">Greenslade</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/media" title="Wide coverage, from media celeb-watching to the state of British newspapers. Interesting columnists and an email service listing media stories in the London papers.">Guardian Media</a></li>
<li><a href="http://journalism.nyu.edu/pubzone/weblogs/pressthink/" title="Leading journalism teacher and new media commentator&#8217;s blog">Jay Rosen&#8217;s PressThink</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.buzzmachine.com/" title="Leading journalism teacher and new media commentator&#8217;s blog">Jeff Jarvis&#8217; BuzzMachine</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.journaids.org/index.php" title="Resources, debates, factsheets for journalists covering Aids in SA (Okay, a declaration of interest: a project of my Wits Journ Programme)">Journ-Aids</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.journalism.co.za" title="For the journos of Southern Africa, from my own Wits Journ Department">Journalism.co.za</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.poynter.org/" title="US institute with lively website containing a wealth of news and insight about journalism and training">Poynter Institute</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.journalism.org" title="A credible, authoritative and non-partisan body which evaluates the performance of the press. Home of the fascinating annual State of the News Media report.">Project for Excellence in Journalism</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.rsf.org/index.php?page=rubrique&#38;id_rubrique=2" title="English site of this international organisation whose slogan is the simple &#8220;For press freedom&#8221;">Reporters sans Frontiers</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.newsdissector.com/" title="The irrepressible media critic with long links to South Africa">Schechter, News Dissector</a></li>

	</ul>
</li>



<h2 class="sidebar-header">Department of Useless Information</h2>
<p>Daily newspaper sales, South Africa<br />
(Ave sales Jul-Dec)<br />
1960 - 681 053      (Population 17,3m)<br />
1970 - 723 566      (22m)<br />
1980 - 803 229      (27,5m)<br />
1990 - 1 214 396    (35,2m)<br />
2000 - 1 117 886    (44m)<br />
2006 - 1 600 000    (47,3m)<br />
2011 - 1 310 000    (49m)</p>
<p>(Sources: ABC and nationmaster.com)</p>

<h2 class="sidebar-header">Worth Reading</h2>
<p>&#8220;It was pure political theatre. The excited room was filled with government officials, government consultants, quasi-government agencies, politicians and pupils from government schools. As if on cue, the room rang with applause as one education victory after another was claimed. This was, after all, the annual drama in which the minister of basic education appears on stage to announce the Grade 12 National Senior Certificate (NSC) results &#8230;&#8221; - <a href="http://www.iol.co.za/news/south-africa/western-cape/matric-razmatazz-conceals-sad-reality-1.1209349">Educationist Jonathan Jansen, one of the few with the credibility to look critically at this &#8220;celebratory orgy of mediocrity&#8221;</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;The (Incwala) ceremony is cloaked in secrecy and marks the (Swaziland) king’s return to public life after a period of withdrawal and spiritual contemplation. Among its highlights is a symbolic demonstration by the king of his power and dominance in a process involving his penetration of a black bull &#8230; But last year’s selected bull, according to a recent account from a whistle-blowing Incwala initiate, objected strongly, and threw off Africa’s last absolute monarch.&#8221; - <a href="http://www.southernafricareport.com/Member/SecurePages/SecureNews.aspx?niid=12064">Some surprises in this (un-bylined) account of Swaziland politics in Southern African Report</a></p>
<p>&#8220;When the Great Zucchini arrived that Saturday morning, Don had no idea who he was. Frankly, he didn&#8217;t look like a great anything. He looked like a house painter, Don thought, with some justification. He wears no costume. He was in painter&#8217;s pants, a coffee-stained shirt and a two-day growth of beard. He toted his beat-up props in beat-up steamer trunks, with ripped faux leather and broken hinges hanging askew.&#8221; - <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/18/AR2006011801434.html">A classic of magazine profiling, by Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post.</a></p>

<h2 class="sidebar-header">Other writings</h2>
<p><a href="http://www.theharbinger.co.za/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/diepsloot_ruff22.jpg"><img src="http://www.theharbinger.co.za/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/diepsloot_ruff22-150x150.jpg" alt="" title="diepsloot_ruff22" width="150" height="150" class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-810" /></a><a href="http://www.jonathanball.co.za/index.php?name=News&#038;file=article&#038;sid=2021&#038;theme=Printer">Diepsloot</a> (Jonathan Ball, 2011)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theharbinger.co.za/wordpress/2011/08/07/of-frogs-and-fractals/">Diesploot: Of Frogs and Fractals</a>, a public lecture at the University of Johannesburg, 4 August 2011</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theharbinger.co.za/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/troublemakerscover1.tiff"><img src="http://www.theharbinger.co.za/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/troublemakerscover1.tiff" alt="Troublemakers - The Best of South Africa&#039;s Investigative Journalism" title="troublemakerscover1" class="alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-714" height="200"/></a><a href="http://www.jacana.co.za/book-categories/current-affairs-a-history?page=shop.product_details&#038;flypage=flypage-ask.tpl&#038;product_id=448&#038;category_id=32&#038;keyword=harber">Troublemakers - The Best of South Africa&#8217;s Investigative Journalism (Jacana, 2101)</a>, edited by Anton Harber and Margaret Renn</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theharbinger.co.za/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/introductiontotroublemakers.pdf">Introduction - The Troublemakers</a>: An account of the rise of a new wave of investigative journalism in South Africa.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.theharbinger.co.za/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/whatisleftunsaid.tiff"><img src="http://www.theharbinger.co.za/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/whatisleftunsaid.tiff" alt="" title="What is Left Unsaid - Reporting the South African HIV Epidemic" class="alignnone size-thumbnail wp-image-724" height="200"/></a><br />
<a href="http://www.jacana.co.za/index.php?page=shop.product_details&#038;flypage=shop.flypage&#038;product_id=447&#038;category_id=24&#038;vmcchk=1&#038;option=com_virtuemart&#038;Itemid=198">What is Left Unsaid: Reporting the South African HIV Epidemic</a>, edited by Kristin Palitza, Natalie Ridgard, Helen Struthers and Anton Harber (Fanele, 2010)</p>
<p><a href="http://www.cceia.org/media/5057_eia18-3_harber.pdf?PHPSESSID=56ed92fbc2672485861%3Cspan">Reflections on Journalism in the Transition to Democracy</a> - <em>Ethics &#038; International Affairs 18, no. 3 (2004).</em></p>
<p><a href="http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/default.asp?11,22,5,188">Journalism in the Age of the Market</a><br /> - Harold Wolpe Memorial Lecture, Centre for Civil Society, University of KZN, Aug 2002</p>
<p><a href='http://www.theharbinger.co.za/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/the-untimely-death-of-sas-finest-daily.doc'>The Untimely Death of SA&#8217;s Finest Daily</a> - Sunday Times, May 2005</p>
<p><a href='http://www.theharbinger.co.za/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/xenophobiafinal.doc'>&#8220;Two Newspapers, Two Nations? The Media and the Xenophobic Violence&#8221;</a> from Go Home or Die Here, edited by Shireen Hassim Tawana Kupe and Eric Worby (WUP, 2008)</p>
<p><a href='http://www.theharbinger.co.za/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/goedgedachtoct08.doc'>Remarks at Goedgedacht Forum, October 2008</a></p>
<p><a href='http://www.theharbinger.co.za/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2008/11/2an-anton-harber-media.doc'>The rise of social network journalism</a> - From The 2009 Flux Trend Review (Macmillan, 2008)</p>

	<a href="http://www.journalism.co.za" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.theharbinger.co.za/wordpress/wp-content/themes/blix/images/journcoza.gif" width="205" height="70" border="0" alt="BIG BLOGGERS"></a><br>

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