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27 December 2021
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Story Jóhann Thormählen
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Photo Supplied
The Kovsie Annerie Dercksen is one of South Africa’s most promising youngsters and climbing the cricketing ladder.
She enjoyed every second of playing with some of her heroes and believes the exposure to international cricket will help her become a better player.
Annerie Dercksen is one of South Africa’s most promising youngsters and climbing the cricketing ladder.
Star from Beaufort West
This second-year Education student from the University of the Free State (UFS), who dreams of playing for the Momentum Proteas, represented the South African Emerging Women’s team three times in 2021.
The star from Beaufort West toured with the side to Bangladesh and also played against Zimbabwe and Thailand in One Day and T20 matches.
According to Dercksen, it is an incredible honour and privilege to be a part of a side.
She soaked up the experience and says everyone was willing to share their knowledge.
“I would have to say, sharing the field with some of my heroes and getting to work with some of the best coaches in the country are some of the highlights.”
She says each tour brought its own challenges and this helped her grow in the way she views and approaches the game.
“In Bangladesh we played against a well-established team in foreign conditions while facing a lot of spinners in spin friendly conditions. Personally, it was quite a challenge and I had to come back and work on some options, especially against spin.”
“Each tour brought its own challenges and this helped me grow in the way I view and approach the game.” - Annerie Dercksen
Coming through the ranks
The all-rounder has come through the ranks. She represented South-Western Districts at school level, played for the South African U19 side and is currently representing the Free State.
But Dercksen didn’t always dream cricket, especially not when playing ‘backyard’ cricket with her brother on the farm.
She didn’t even play for a team at school. “Until a boy from our primary school’s team got sick before a game. A teacher came to class and asked, ‘who can play cricket’, and I put up my hand.”
Photo manipulation in journalism: evil, crutch or lifebuoy?
2017-09-04
Albe Grobbelaar, veteran journalist and lecturer in the
Department of Communication Science at the UFS.
Photo: Rulanzen Martin
Since the 1800s the manipulation of photographs has been common practice, and who can forget the OJ Simpson Time magazine cover in 1994? Albe Grobbelaar, lecturer in the Department of Communication Science at the University of the Free State (UFS), asked in a special lecture on 18 August 2017 whether “Photo manipulation in Journalism” was an evil habit, a crutch or a lifebuoy.
“As a journalist I have always been interested in photography. And the principle of photo manipulation or tampering with photos, as we call it, is something that has interested me ever since,” Grobbelaar said. Photo manipulation is an area that has garnered many academic interest and is not a new trend but a practice that started in the 1830s when photos came into popular use. “It is not always done with ulterior motives, artists played with photographs to get unique effects.” Photo manipulation is not only to create fake news, but is sometimes used to convey novelty and create shock to news readers.
Different viewpoints for different circumstances
He talked about the spectrum of viewpoints on photo manipulation. Some conservative journalism schools say photos should never be retouched while other feel it is fine to tamper with pictures. “What I tried to convey in the lecture was that one should consider different circumstances differently,” Grobbelaar said. As a journalist he believes that news photos should never be manipulated.
He mentioned the example of the mugshot of OJ Simpson that the Los Angeles Police Department released to the media. “Newsweek and Time both used the photo on their front pages, but Time deliberately darkened the picture so that OJ, a black man, would appear more sinister,” Grobbelaar said. It is, however, common practice in the fashion industry to retouch images that are used in fashion magazines.
Use own judgment to validate photos
In the age of social media it has become easy to manipulate photos and which has been labelled fake news. “I would advise people to use their own judgment when validating the authenticity of photos,” Grobbelaar said. It is important to verify whether they are from a reliable news outlet.