INDUSTRIAL ATTACHMENT REPORT

By

Tafadzwa Matiza (H160461X)

Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree
BACHELOR TECHNOLOGY Hons
In the
Department of Software Engineering
SCHOOL OF INFORMATION SCIENCES AND TECHNOLOGY
HARARE INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
ORGANISATION: Media Monitors
WORK SUPERVISOR: Farisai Chaniwa
ATTACHMENT COORDINATOR: Mr. Mukosera
ASSESSOR: Mr. Mambodza

MAY 2019

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 I. Declaration
I, hereby declared that the presented work-related report was uniquely prepared by Tafadzwa
Matiza after the completion of my internship which I have conducted at Media Monitors as
compulsory component of the Bachelor of Technology Honors Degree in Software engineering.

I also would like to confirm that, the report is only prepared for my academic requirement not
for any other purposes.

II. Acknowledgement
I would like to express my most profound acknowledgements to Harare Institute of Technology
for granting me the chance to study Software Engineering with their institution. I am also
indebted to Media Monitors for awarding me the opportunity to do work related learning at
their organization as part of my studies coupled with their provision of resources to use for the
compilation of this report. I also wish to record my extreme gratefulness to Farisai Chaniwa and
Courage Ndeya for guiding me through the period of tenure.

III. Preface
This compilation is a fulfillment towards the completion of a four-year Bachelor Hons
Degree in Software Engineering. It encompasses all practical experiences that the student
encountered during his work related tenure with Media Monitors. The write-up makes
conclusions and recommendations drawn from the link between theoretical concepts learned
during the first two years at school with the practical ideas acquired during work related
learning. For clear articulation of ideas the report adopts a number of published literature work
so as to come up with agreeable and justifiable perceptions. This report has been compiled to
reflect the content and philosophy of the experience I had during my work related with Media
Monitors. It details the organization using values, core services, products produced and
operational culture that were in use. Special emphasis is given to the student’s development of
skills to adapt to the organizational culture and ethics and validate them to current studies. It
also implores a consolidation of challenges, job description and tasks that were done by the

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student and gives an analysis of how the student managed to cope up. The report also uses a
holistic approach to highlight and pinpoint strengths and weakness (SWOT) of the organization
towards the degree of study and come up with recommendations for the organization and also
to Harare Institute of Technology school of Information Science and Technology, specifically the
Software Engineering department.

IV. List of Abbreviations

OCR - Optical Character Recognition.
MM – Media Monitors.
MMPZ – Media Monitoring Project of Zimbabwe.
MAZ – Media Alliance of Zimbabwe.
MISA – Media Institute of Southern Africa.
SADC – Southern Africa Development Community.
UN – United Nations.
SE – Software Engineering.
VMCZ – Voluntary Media Council of Zimbabwe.
UNICEF – United Nations Children’s Emergency Fund.
NGO – Non-Governmental Organization.
PIRF - Public Information Rights Forum.
IDE – Integrated Development Environment.
HIT – Harare Institute of Technology.
IT – Information Technology.
ICT – Information and Communication Technology.
CPU – Central Process Unit.

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 V. Executive Summary
In the Software Engineering degree program, the student is passionate about software
development, data mining and system administration. It was a great opportunity for the
student to do his internship within Media Monitors. The internship was concentrated on
software development, data administration, online library system administration, and IT
systems management and maintenance. At the beginning of the internship the student had set
several learning goals pertaining to the improvement of knowledge and skills on software
development and system administration. During the internship program the following tasks and
activities were assigned to the student this contributed to the achievement of the student’s
goals.

● Software development
The student was given a project topic (software program to search multiple pdf’s) to work on.
He researched the project topic and got detailed information about the topic. After the
research, the student started working on turning the concept into a product but the student
didn’t manage to complete the project so he recommended another software to solve the same
problem.

● Online library system administration

The student was responsible for all aspects of keeping website content and design fresh,
backed up, and fully functional.

● Data administration
The student was assisting with data capturing, data archiving and data provision. Data capturing
was the task to assist in the monitoring of the recording process and ensure that recordings are
on the server and audible for monitoring. Under data archiving the student was responsible for
following up with the delivery of newspapers, scanning of newspapers, scanning of magazines,
digitization of video records and running OCR on scanned newspapers to make them

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searchable. Under data provision the student was responsible for assisting with providing data
to the Research and Monitoring department members for them to monitor and research.

● IT equipment management
The student was mainly working on fixing hardware issues such as, replacing bad keyboards,
internet cables and mouse; attending to internet issues such as correcting conflicting IP
addresses; installation of software, updating machines drivers, optimization of machines for
better performance and configuration of new computers. The objective of this was to ensure
that the uptime, performance, resources and security of the organizational computers meet the
needs of the users.

In conclusion, the internship was a useful experience. The student gained new knowledge and
skills. The student achieved many of his learning goals such as software development.
This internship has given the student motivation to pursue a career in data mining, software
development and system administration. The student managed to find out his strengths and
weaknesses. To effectively prepare himself for future career the student can improve several
things. He can work on his communication skills so that he will be able to present and express
himself more confidently. The student must also advance his experience on programming skills,
system administration, software development and other related areas.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
i. Declaration---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------1
ii. Preface--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------2
iii. Acknowledgements----------------------------------------------------------------------------3
iv. Abbreviations------------------------------------------------------------------------------------4
v. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY-------------------------------------------------------------------------5
1. Introduction -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------7
a. Organizational Background---------------------------------------------------------7
b. Organizational Structure------------------------------------------------------------8
c. Organizational Values---------------------------------------------------------------11
d. Organizational Vision----------------------------------------------------------------11
e. Organizational Mission Statement------------------------------------------------12
f. Organizational Motto----------------------------------------------------------------12
2. Nature of Industry------------------------------------------------------------------------------12
a. Products and services----------------------------------------------------------------12
b. Target markets-------------------------------------------------------------------------13
3. Expectations and Industrial Reality---------------------------------------------------------13
a. Expectations vs Reality---------------------------------------------------------------13
b. Conclusion-------------------------------------------------------------------------------14
4. Personal and Professional Development--------------------------------------------------15
a. Key skills developed-------------------------------------------------------------------15
b. Personal Development---------------------------------------------------------------16
c. Professional Development----------------------------------------------------------17
i. Technical Skills----------------------------------------------------------------18
ii. Non-technical skills----------------------------------------------------------20
d. Handling conflict between personal and organizational objectives-------22

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 5. Tasks performed and their relevance to Degree Program-----------------------------22
a. Data Administration-------------------------------------------------------------------22
b. Online Library System Administration--------------------------------------------29
c. PDF-Searcher Software Development-----------------------------------30
d. IT Systems Maintenance and Management------------------------------------37
e. Minutes----------------------------------------------------------------------------------37
6. Recommendations-----------------------------------------------------------------------------38
a. Problems/ Challenges Encountered---------------------------------------------38
b. Recommendations to Media Monitors-----------------------------------------38
c. Recommendations to the HIT-----------------------------------------------------39
7. Conclusion---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------40
8. References---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------40

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 1. Introduction
This chapter comprises of the description of Media Monitors’ organizational background,
structure, values, vision, mission statement and motto.

a. Organizational Background
Media Monitors (MM) formally Media Monitoring Project Zimbabwe (MMPZ) is an independent
Trust that works to promote freedom of expression, access to information and responsible
journalism in Zimbabwe. It aims to achieve these through monitoring and analysis of the news
and current affairs output on domestic radio and television, and the print media. Its findings are
made public through the publication of regular media reviews and other thematic reports. MM
started its operations in 1999 and became an independent Trust in its own right in March the
following year. In addition to its media reviews, MMPZ produces various reports on media
coverage of current issues, especially elections. The organization monitors all news and current
affairs output of the publicly owned media (the national broadcaster, ZBC, and Zimbabwe
Newspapers (1980) Ltd group), as well as the privately owned media. However, the publicly
funded media remain the main focus of MM attention since they are obliged to reflect all
shades of opinion in Zimbabwe in addition to reporting issues fairly and accurately.

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MM is a member of a number coalition that group in lobbying regional and international
bodies. MM works with the Media Alliance of Zimbabwe (MAZ) (which brings together the
Project), MISA- Zimbabwe, the Zimbabwe National Editors Forum (ZINEF) and the Zimbabwe
Union of Journalist (ZUJ), among other media-related groups – to promote freedom of
expression and a diverse independent media community – as guaranteed by Zimbabwe’s new
Constitution – in a coordinated campaign to bring an end to restrictive laws and practices that
will contribute to opening up Zimbabwe’s media and Information environment.

MM is also a member of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum – a coalition of local human
rights defenders, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network that seeks to promote culture of
holding credible, democratic elections. The MM collaboration with these and many other rights
groups extends to lobbying local-making institutions for laws and policies that protect and
uphold the ideals of a true democratic culture, including a free and diverse media protected by
a constitution guarantee of their right to exist.

MM has established a national Public Information Rights Forum (PIRF) outreach network
comprising members of local community – based groups as part of its local advocacy campaign
to promote civil liberties, particularly those relating to free expression and public information
rights. MM is a member of the Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum – a coalition of local
human rights defenders, the Zimbabwe Election Support Network that seeks to promote a
culture of holding credible, democratic elections, and the Media Alliance, among other civil
rights groups extends to lobbying local policy-making institutions for laws and policies that
protect and uphold the ideas of a true democratic culture, including a free and diverse media
protected by a constitutional guarantee of their right to exist.

b. Organizational Structure
MM like any other organization has a hierarchy and it is this hierarchy that seemed to drive
even the management style. The management seems – like most organizations of its kind
including to follow Henri Fayol's theory of management which is seen as the first

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comprehensive concept applicable university. Fayol (1949) proposed that the main
management roles or functions are to forecast, plan, organize, command, co-ordinate and to
control all activities relating to the organization. Senior management usually delegates duties;
organize how they are to be done as well as coordinate those duties between employees since
all the departments have this inter-linkage. The management would then control how
information has to be sent out.

From what the student observed, the MM organizational structure shows a kind of division of
labor-based system with various department working together for the smooth flow of
information and duties. The structure is a pyramid, hierarchical structure with a semi-autocratic
management style and a clear chain of command with short span of control. Here, everyone is
obligated to report to someone above, where senior management reports to the Director at the
apex but the Director also reports to the board of trustees. Theoretically this kind of double
obligation scenario means that there are short spans of control in the organization where no
single senior person has control over a large base expect the Director.

This is generally the chain of command, delegation of tasks and responsibility and the obligation
to report to a superior. These are the pillars that the theory is inherent in organizational
systems with classic tendencies. MM uses such an administration structure which focuses on
the two basic structures – the line and the staff, to allow a smooth flow of information and an
easy delegation of duties. The three departments in the organization coordinate well in their
respective and individual duties but they all contribute towards the organizational goals and
objective. To achieve maximum performance, any organization has to have a structure that is
organized according to its functional areas.

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Figure: Media Monitors structure

Board of Trustees

Director

Data Capturing and Research and Finance and Human

Archiving Officer Monitoring Officer Resources Officer

Programmes Programmes Programmes

Assistants Assistants Assistants

Interns Interns Interns

At the apex of MM administration is the board of trustees or the governing council. The
trustees include:
● Mr. Tinashe Mukadzambo (Chairperson) is a strategy, corporate governance and
finance expect. Mr. Mukadzambo is very active in resource mobilization and community
development programs.

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 ● Dr. Charlton Tsodzo (Vice Chairperson) whose main focus is on International
Development Strategy. Dr Tsodzo is also a renowned startup evangelist and an
entrepreneur.
● Ms. Tsitsi Maradze – an Organizational Development practitioner, gender and human
rights activist. She is also involved in government and leadership development, planning
and design of social development projects and M&E systems.
● Martha Tumani Rukuni –She is an accountant by profession.
● Victor Mudzimiri – Seasoned IT professional with comprehensive technical skill sets and
expertise in Data Center Solutions, Systems Architecture, Cloud Technologies, Mobile
Applications, Mobile Payments, Financial Services and e-Commerce Systems.
● Petronella Nyamapfene – She is a Lawyer by profession.
Director
● Ms. Patience Zirima
Senior Staff
● Sharon Chigame - Finance and Grants Officer
● Prisiel Samu – Senior Research Officer
● Farisai Chaniwa – Data Capturing & Archiving Officer
● Sharon Mawoni – Programs Assistant

The Director, Patience Zirima is responsible for the day to day running of the organization but
reports to the board of trustees. However, anyone in the organization can work directly with
the Director at any given time. She delegates duties to the senior staffers who in turn delegate
the required duties to the subordinates. She works with the seven members of the board and
provides managerial guidance to staff and is responsible for top financial management.
Furthermore, the director does the scheduling and coordination of organization proposals,
plans and arrangements to facilitate the smooth implementation and monitoring of the entire
project including budgeting.

c. Organizational Values

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 ● Evidence- based interventions - Interventions are based on accurate information derived
from research findings.
● Professionalism – Ethical conduct based on professional research standards.
● Impartial – MM strives to be politically impartial.

d. Organizational Vision
Informed citizens effectively engaging in development and democratic processes in Zimbabwe

e. Organizational Mission Statement

To conduct media monitoring that promotes evidence based interventions for societal
development.

f. Organizational Motto
Putting media into perspective

2. Nature of Industry
This chapter intends to give a detailed description of Media Monitors’ core services, products
and markets as understood by the student during work related learning period.

2. a. Products and Services

Media Monitors provides services anchored mainly on media practice, democracy, governance,
and communication support and services.
In its work on media practice, democracy and governance, Media Monitors seeks to create an
evidence base on the standards of professional reporting in Zimbabwe by providing information
on the following:
● Media and Elections - Media Monitors has monitored election reporting in Zimbabwe
since 2000, providing information on professional and ethical standards on reporting

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 elections; as well as media practice and elections that include reports on hate speech
and human rights violations.
● The media and reporting poverty - Media Monitors has developed a baseline survey of
the quality and nature of reporting in the local media for 2016, looking at professional
considerations in reporting poverty.
● The state of the media in Zimbabwe - This has included a radio landscape report that
analysis radio in Zimbabwe on its history, ownership, content and geographic coverage.
Media Monitors has also reflected on the media reportage of key events that include
the 2016 protests.
In its work on communication support and services, Media Monitors seeks to provide useful
communication data that aids planning, execution of activities and evaluation of results to
achieve specific organizational goals. In support to its partners, MM supports communication
initiatives and offers some of the following services:
● Press clipping service - Our press clipping service gives evidence of media coverage of
communications or mentions in editorial content.
● Impact Assessment - Media Monitors provides tools for impact assessment through
assisting, identifying and measuring key indicators of success from media content.
● Sentiment mining - As the Media Monitoring People we are able to help find out what
people think and feel about an organization, its products and services.
● Competitor Analysis - The competitor analysis provides detailed measurement of
organization’s performance in the media versus the performance of its competitors.
● Ad analysis - This service analyses brands, competitors and adverts by sector.
● Brand tracker for print/electronic media - Media Monitors helps track brands in print
and electronic media through our keyword searches that allows tracking every time
some product, service, brand and key personnel are mentioned in the media.

2. b. Target Markets

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MM target markets are media organization, citizens, government and intergovernmental
organization as well as small to large business.

3. Expectations and Industrial Reality

3. a. Expectations vs Reality
Before being employed as an intern at Media Monitors, the student compared his passion for
software development, programming and system administration with the operations carried
out by media monitoring institutions. Firstly, the student expected both negative and positive
experiences. The student was afraid to be undermined by fellow workers but they did not do
that.
The student’s expectations for personal and professional development was to get more skills
and knowledge on the following:
● applying programming skills to the real-world problems
● software development and project management
● working with servers
● maintaining IT systems
● communication skills
● Putting theories into practice.

Through the internship the scholar’s expectations to gain more skill and knowledge in software
development, project management and applying programming skills to the real world problems
were met through the multiple PDF-searcher (using keyword) software project that the student
worked on. The organizations’ online media library project gave the student more insight on
how Word press actually works behind the scene through participating in the library system
migration from local host to the server.

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The student worked closely with the IT consultant as well as his supervisor in the maintenance
and administration of the organization’s IT systems. Through this the student helped to ensure
performance and security of the organizational IT equipment needs of the users.
The organization helped the student to improve both his oral and written communication skills
through minute taking, weekly reports and IT equipment procurement.

3. b. Conclusion
The internship equipped the student with new skills, knowledge and experience in a more
practical way to complement the theoretical knowledge acquired from school. The student’s
expectations were met through the duties and tasks that were assigned by the supervisor. New
knowledge and skills were gained from the immediate supervisor and from the researches the
student conducting through reading books and internet searches.

4. Personal and Professional Development

This chapter is going to tell about the key skills developed, personal development, professional
development and how the student was handling the conflict between personal and
organizational objectives during work related learning period.

4. a. Key skills developed

Skill is defined as an ability and capacity acquired through deliberate, systematic, and sustained
effort to smoothly and adaptively carryout complex activities or job functions involving ideas
(cognitive skills), things (technical skills), and people (interpersonal skills) [17]. The student
managed to develop the following key skills.
● Programming skills – is defined as the skills required to write a programming so that
data may be processed by a computer [18]. The student managed to improve his
programming skills and adopt a number of crucial steps in writing a computer program
by developing multiple PDF-searcher (using keyword) application for MM. The crucial
steps the student had adopted towards writing a computer program include the ability
to analyze the problem clearly when encounter a bug, think twice about how to solve a

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 problem especially when designing algorithms, gather complete requirements in order
to have clear goals of the end product which in turn will save time, write a thorough
implementation plan this will minimize the debugging time, and comment code liberally
in order to make the code easier for human understanding and make code tell more of
why than what. The student was now able to write smart code which is well structured.
● Project Management – studies show that project management seem to be more of a
soft skill than a hard, technical skills, but project management is critical for all technical
projects [19]. Being a good project manager means being a good leader and this
measures the success of each project [19]. The student was responsible for defining and
setting up project scope, take necessary steps to avoid or come out of problems and act
as project spokesperson. The student ends up being able to effectively convey vision,
ideas, goals, issues – as well as produce reports and presentations.
● Troubleshooting skills - The student’s core duties were to attend to user queries or
problems relating to or concerning hardware, software and network. The student
managed to adopt the business language and negotiate with coworkers when their
immediate needs took longer to fix. In addition, the student managed to understand
that one has to identify the problems, note the possible solutions then eliminate the
possible solutions to leave one which will be the perfect one. The execution of the
chosen solution should be done on the test environment then implemented on the live
instance.
● Analytical thinking - is a critical component of visual thinking that gives one the ability to
solve problems quickly and effectively [16]. Software development and online library
system administration tasks contributed a lot to the development of the student’s
analytical thinking skills. The student was solving most of the challenges he was facing
through conducting researches and this made him to be an effective researcher who
assembles information in a timely manner. He was also supposed to detect useful
information from a volume of information, this put the student’s problem solving and
creative thinking skills into practice.

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 4. b. Personal Development
As life progresses, we are guaranteed to face a variety of circumstances, changing
environments, and new roles that require us to adopt to them. Studies shows that personal
development plan helps a lot on handling the pressures that come with the continuous changes
and challenges, so that the individual will be well-equipped to excel in all the areas in his or her
life. Self-improvement have what it takes for us to be successful in life. The reason is simple.
Personal development attracts better relationships and an increase in wealth. Personal
development was also proved to be useful when it comes to the improvement of the overall
running of the business.

The student managed to improve and developed the following personal development through
practicing them on a daily basis.
● Time management – the student put his time management skills to test as he had to
keep up with deadlines, orders and tasks by keeping track of how he spent his time on
each task. The student also found out that time consciousness comes with a lot of
benefits and help the individual to become more productive, efficient and less stressed.
● Enhanced listening skills – throughout the internship the student learnt that good
listeners are good speakers. Some of his daily activities at MM put his listening skills into
practice. The student learnt that active listening to coworkers and asking questions for
clarification will help him perform his tasks effectively and efficiently.
● Self-awareness – the student got a better insight to his strengths and weaknesses
through participating and venturing in different activities that are carried by the
organization from time to time. The student learnt how to exploit his strengths and cope
with his weaknesses and stay motivated. He also learnt that working hard to develop
the skills around the job you are working on comes with great benefits in life and leads
to career success.
● Built and improve relationships with people at work – throughout the internship the
student learnt that good relationships in the workplace benefits the running of a
business, harnesses high performance teams, encourages support among each other

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 and gives each employee a sense of belonging. The student put his relationship with
people at work at test as most of his tasks was affecting coworkers’ performances
directly and indirectly. To achieve this, the student was practicing being likable, friendly
and helpful to coworkers. This helped him to improve his interpersonal skills.

4. c. Professional Development
Studies shows that well-crafted and delivered continuing professional development is
important because it delivers benefits to the individual, their profession and the public. The
rapid increase of technology makes it crucial for the individual to focus on both technical and
non-technical skills while setting up goals for professional development. The student managed
to develop a number of technical and non-technical skills through the tasks he was carrying out.
4. C. 1. Technical skills
The student attempted to develop the software but it was 45% complete thus it was not fully
developed but on part he had done these were skills used:
● Net Beans IDE – Net Beans is an integrated development environment (IDE) from Oracle.
The student used Net beans to work with java for the development of Multiple PDF-
searcher software.
● Jasper reports - is an open source Java reporting tool that can write to a variety of
targets, such as: screen, a printer, into PDF, HTML, Microsoft Excel, RTF, ODT, Comma-
separated values or XML files. The student used this tool to implement the reporting
capabilities of Multiple PDF-searcher application.
● Java – the student used java to development of the software. He used Swing
technologies and AWT library for the development of the software user interface.
● PhpMyAdmin - is a free software tool written in PHP, intended to handle the
administration of MySQL over the Web. We used phpMyAdmin on exporting and
importing database for the migration of online library system from the local host to the
online server.

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 ● Word press - is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) based
on PHP and MySQL. The online library system (Newseum) of MM is based on Word
Press, so we were doing the administration of the library system from the backend of
the Word Press.
● Linux operating system – the local host machine for the library system was using Linux
operating system. The student was using the terminal to do some of the tasks such as
installing software, troubleshooting network issues and sometimes connecting to
MySQL server.
● Eye TV software -  a program that allows users to watch and record live TV directly on
their computer; contains a video recording of a TV program and related metadata files.
The software communicates with the antenna which captures television waves. The
organization uses eye TV software to record ZBC television live. The student was
assisting on the monitoring of the recording process .
● VRS Recording System - is a professional, digital audio-recording application with
robust recording options in a simple interface for easy day-to-
day recording. VRS can record multiple audio channels simultaneously with automatic
level control and digital signal processing to improve voice intelligibility. This system
work along with the capture card that replaces the sound card of the compute and the
areal. Capture card capture radio wave and the VRS Recording System is the interface
for accessing and controlling the capture card. The organization uses this system to
record live radio directly. The student was assisting the Information and Archiving
Officer on the monitoring of the recording process.
● Adobe acrobat - Adobe Acrobat is a family of application software and Web services
developed by Adobe Systems to view, create, manipulate, print and manage files in
Portable Document Format. The student was using this software package to edit
newspapers that were to be uploaded to the online library system (Newseum).
● Team Viewer - Team Viewer is proprietary computer software for remote control,
desktop sharing, online gaming, web conferencing and file transfer between computers.
The organization uses Team viewer to access organizational computers remotely.

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 ● Windows operating system – most of the computers in the organization based on
windows operating system. The student was assisting coworkers on the maintenance of
the computers. This helped the student to know more about windows operating system.
The student was also working on installing the operating system on the computers that
have crushed.
● Coding and Programming skills – through working on the development of PDF-Searcher
application for easy monitoring since in some cases the monitoring team may need
specific information (e.g.: mining issues),the student managed to improve his
programming skills. It was now easy for the student to write effective and efficient
algorithms in solving a problem programmatically. All this developed from the challenge
the student was facing while developing the PDF-Searcher application. The skills of
solving complex programming problems such as handling the memory issues while
working with java and on working with third party libraries also improved. The student
was now able to use java threads for multithreading. The student also managed to
improve his skills on integrating changes and updates into existing software by
participating on the maintenance of online library system.
● Technical writing – the student practiced technical writing by writing software
(SeekFast) documentation.

4. C.2. Non-technical skills.

The student managed to improve the following non-technical skills.
● Confidence – Confidence to make decisions and interact with older professionals was
developed. During the rest of the attachment period the student was able to conduct all
duties assigned with a great deal of confidence and assurance knowing that the period
was meant for him to learn and acquire some skills relevant IT industry.
● Punctuality - Punctuality is very much expected by the company. This was not only for
coming to office timely but also deliver product in time. Most of the days the student
came to office before 08:00 and for any reason if there was any delay, the student was

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 informing his team leader as quickly as possible. The student was working hard to
accomplish his tasks.
● Communication skills – communication is the ability to convey and share ideas and
feelings effectively. The purpose of this is to exchange key information related to
organizational and situational specific problems and perspectives in an effort to solve
key problems. The student’s “People skills” has greatly improved through this
internship training. The modes of communication in the training from verbal
communications to mail communications have strengthened the student’s
communications skills to a better level. The organization helped the student to
improve both his oral and written communication skills through minute taking,
weekly reports and IT equipment procurement.
● Problem solving - Conceptual skills are vital in solving problems. From day one of the
training, to the last day, several training sessions have involved problem solving that
require the mental ability to analyze and diagnose, for a solution. Most activates the
student was doing under IT system management and maintenance task helped the
student to be able to effectively use his technical skills to solve problems such as
system failures. The student’s participation on the migration of online library system
(Newseum) from localhost to the server forced the student to be able to think
outside the box.
● Teamwork – A concept of working together cooperatively was highly encouraged. It
was important to listen carefully to coworkers’ ideas. All the workers were of the
same value, no one was said to be better than the other therefore we were all
supposed to participate in the tam and support the ideas from others with respect.
● Business awareness – is one of the skills regularly flagged up by employers as being a
skill they value, but which many graduate’s lack. To improve his business awareness,
the student was attending organization workshop and other activities the
organization was organizing such as World Freedom Day. This gave him insight about
the business operations

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 ● Tolerance – By mere observers some users were not precise on problem presentation
and took no time to understand basic IT operations, it was up to the student as the
service provider to be patient. Polite communication skills to all staff, as IT is now on
the mainstream of business environment almost every hick up at work is blamed on
IT. Senior colleagues were exemplary the bet communication skills to angered staff.

4.d. Handling conflict between personal and organizational objectives

In an organization the concept of conflict may be understood as collision or disagreement.
According to Chaung and Megginson conflict is “the struggle between incompatible or opposing
needs, wishes, ideas, interest or people”. Task conflict is the main conflict that interns
encounter in an organization during their work-related learning. According to Graves, task
conflict arises among members of team and affects the goals and tasks they are striving to
achieve. This type of conflict mostly arises when the individual objectives and goals contradict
with that of the organization.

As a worker the student set up his objectives in a way that maximize the learning process and
make meaningful contributions to the organization, however due to organizational policies
there were limits. At times the pressure of work made it impossible for the student to
implement some of his objectives, therefore the student had to create his own space time at
nights and weekends to study. The student was willing to do whatever the task he was asked to
perform for the organization to catch up with the deadlines with limited time and resources.
5. Tasks performed and their relevance to Degree Program
The student worked under Information and Archiving department and his tasks were more
focused on IT systems administration, data administration, online library system administration
and software development. The student was expected to carry out a wide array of duties in the
organization and he was doing them diligently and with passion to continue learning more.
Since data is the backbone of MM, data administration (data capturing, data archiving and data
provision) was a daily duty. In the next subsections each activity is discussed in more detail.
5. a. Data administration

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Data administration is the process by which data is captured, maintained and managed by a
data administrator or organization [13]. Data administration allows an organization to control
its data assets, as well as their processing and interactions with different applications and
business processes and ensures that the entire life cycle of data use and processing is on the
same level with the organization’s objectives [13]. It is an organizational function working in the
areas of information systems and computer science that organizes, plans and controls data
resources.

At MM Data administration comprising of data capturing, data archiving and data provision to
ensure that the entire life cycle of data use and processing meet the organizational objectives.
The student was assisting on data capturing, data archiving and data provision on a daily basis.
The detailed explanation of the components of data administration at MM are given below.

5. a.a. Data capturing

Capturing live ZTV using eye TV
Eye TV is a line of products for video-recording which record video from over-the-air antennas,
satellite TV or mobile devices. These are products of a consumer technology company called
Elgato headquartered in Germany. It is sold as one package with both the hardware and the
software to facilitate the recording process, which are briefly described below:
● Eyetv hardware – this is a small USB-powered device that contains a cable tuner and
a hardware encoder to convert television video into an MPEG-4 format for
displaying on a computer. It also has coaxial and CRA ports to connect to with a VCR
or camcorder. The ones at Media Monitors have dual tuners for receiving the
television broadcasts which can be used simultaneously for an optimized signal as
well as allowing receiving signal for more than one television stations, where one
tuner is used for recording one and the other tuner for recording another station.
However, currently it is being used for signal optimization since there is only one
local television station being broadcasted in the country, and being recorded in the
organization.

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 ● Eye TV Software - initially, the Eye TV Program can be installed just like any other
package on Mac. Once the Eye TV hardware is connected, one needs to configure
the software to record a station of choice. It has its own player that can play live
recordings as well as recorded videos. After recording, Eye TV Program has an option
of exporting the recording, which is nothing but the conversion of the video into
various video and audio formats.

Figure 1: EyeTV Recording and exporting ZBC TV recordings to the local recording Mac desktop
computer

With all that having been said, there is still some missing information on what role the student
was playing in the whole video recording process. He was responsible of setting up the Eye TV
hardware under close supervision of his supervisor. The student’s duty was to ensure that the
process was running for eighteen hours of the day that is from 6AM to 12AM. If recording for
some reason stopped, the student would have to troubleshoot and determine whether it is a
software or a hardware problem and deal with the issue accordingly. During his time at the
organization, the student had become familiar with some of the causes for the recording
process to stop, which included the moving of the antenna, exhaustion of storage space on the
recording computer as well as removal of power for the Eye TV hardware, although this became

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the least possible cause as the its power became protected from other people or an ordinary
power cut when it was connected to an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS).
Every morning, the student was to rename the recordings, export them to MP4 videos and
organize them so that they can be uploaded to the NAS and then delete on the recording
machine those that were existing on both the server and the recording computer. This was to
create space on the recording machine as well as avoiding having redundant data as there was
a central storage where all information was supposed to be.

Capturing live radio stations using VRS Recording System.

MM record six radio stations as they are broadcasting using a software called VRS Recording
System on Windows. An antenna that receives radio signals from various stations is connected
to a computer using a USB and the software records the broadcasts, converts them into MP3
files and stores them on a local disk. The software is capable of recording various radio stations
simultaneously on one computer, and just one desktop computer is dedicated to record Power
FM, Star FM, Spot FM, Radio Zimbabwe, National FM and ZiFM. Before stopping broadcasting,
Channel Zim, the seventh station that Media Monitors has recordings for, was being recorded
on Eye TV

Figure 7: VRS Recording System recording radio broadcasts from the six stations

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The student’s duties were to assist on the monitoring of the recording process, making sure
every morning that all stations were recording and that these recordings were successfully
transferred to the server and deleted on the local recording computer.

5.a.b. Data archiving

MM archived data in its servers for future use and supporting the projects the organization
conduct for the clients. MM achieved information from six radio stations (SFM, Radio
Zimbabwe, Power FM, National FM, Star FM and ZiFM), old magazines and 15 local newspapers.
On data archiving, the student was responsible for:
● Monitoring the delivery of newspapers by keeping and maintaining delivery register for
the newspapers on a daily basis.
● Scanning one daily newspaper and three weekly newspapers to convert hard copies
into electronic soft copies for archiving.
The scanning of newspapers and magazines was the daily duty of every intern and we were not
supposed to miss any scans since this had consequences for the Research and Monitoring
department which need scanned documents for most of its tasks. The Information and

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Archiving department was responsible for running Optical Character Recognition (OCR) on
scanned newspapers using Foxit Phantom PDF or Adobe Acrobat software for the scanned
newspapers to be searchable using keyword search. The storing of captured radio and
television recording was also part of data archiving.

5.a.c. Data provision

For data security reasons directly data access from MM servers was limited to Information and
Archiving department only. The department of Research and Monitoring get data for
monitoring and research from the server through the Information and Archiving department.
As the department of Information and Archiving we were responsible for providing the
Research and Monitoring department with data on a daily basis for all the projects they were
working on. The Research and Monitoring department members were provided with scanned
and searchable newspapers, radio and television recordings.

5.a.d. Digitalization
Media Monitors was given video recordings by ZBC that are stored on VCR tapes. These
recordings contain ZBC TV broadcasts from 1999 to when Media Monitors started recording
ZBC as it is being broadcasted. The author will refer to this period (from 1999 to 2016) The Pre-
Live Recording Era, and will term the period from 2016 when Media Monitors started recording
ZBC video as it is being broadcasted The Live Recording Era

The hardware required for video digitization include a computer, a VCR player that will be
playing the tape and the Roxio Video Capture USB, which connects the VCR player to the
computer on a USB 2.0 port. It also includes the SPART adaptor, which connects the SCART out
connection on the VCR to the standard RCA audio and composite video. The VCR tape player
will be playing the video on the tape and the output will be transmitted through Roxio Video
Capture USB and displayed on the computer. When the output is on the computer screen, the
Roxio Easy VHS to DVD 3 software records the video, which can be watched as it will be playing,
exported to a DVD or stored on the local computer.

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Figure: Roxio Easy VHS to DVD 3 Plus recording video from a VCR tape

The student’s role in this video digitization process was to setup the equipment and install and
configure the digitization software on various workstations. He was also responsible for
monitoring the process as it happened to ensure that it was going well. After the digitization
process, the student had a responsibility of ensuring that the digitized information was
uploaded to the server and stored in their respective directories

The activities the student was performing under data administration proved to be relevant to
degree program (SE) in the sense that the student was exposed to useful software packages for
recording broadcasting radio and television. The most interesting software packages the
student was working with was eye TV software for recording television and VRS recording
system for recording radio. This expanded the student’s technical knowledge. The student
managed to understand the effect of information communication and technology on solving
real-world problems.

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 5. b. Online Library system administration
MM online library system is a media library established in 2017 with the goal to provide access
to information and knowledge on the media in Zimbabwe. The online library system (Newseum)
aims to facilitate access to diverse sources of historical information, news and materials from
the media in Zimbabwe in a searchable digital format from international and local perspectives.
It contains digital information comprises of newspapers, radio and television.

All the members under Information and Archiving department were library system
administrators. Our main responsibility was to maintain, upload content and update the online
library system. The content uploaded on to the library system were comprises of news video
clips and current affairs video clips from ZBC television, local print publications, old magazines,
and radio current affairs clips. News video clips, current affairs video clips from ZBC television
and radio current affairs clips were obtained by cutting them from in-house recordings. We
were cutting these current affairs using Format Factory program. The local print publications
were obtained from their owners. The print publication has to be edited before uploaded to the
back-end of the library system. To edit the print publications, we were using software packages
like Adobe acrobat and Foxit PhantomPDF software packages. Editing was done to combine the
pages of the newspapers to make a single complete paper and optimize the newspaper for web
viewing. After uploading the content to the back end of the library system we were then
creating posts and linked the posts to the front end of the site. We were achieving this through
the use of Wordpress plugins to create links for the papers to be accessed from the front end of
the website. We were also making sure that the library system was well presented and error
free.

The student participated on the migration of the library system from the local host to the MM
server where the site was to be hosted from. The student did manual migration using
phpMyAdmin to export and import the database and FileZilla software to copy files of the site
from localhost to the server.

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The activities the student performed during his internship on library system administration
were on point in letting him put some of the theories and practical’s he has learnt in class into
practice. He employed and improved the knowledge and skills of data communication skills and
advanced database to successfully migrate the online library system. He used advanced
database knowledge to properly import and export database of the library system from
localhost to the server. This also improved the student skills on working with phpMyAdmin and
databases. He also acquired the skills and knowledge on working with WordPress plugins from
the Information and Archiving Officer. Library system migration gave the student insight of
Wordpress architecture and the development of Wordpress themes. The student acquired
knowledge and skill on working with servers and perform different actions such as
installing/installing software on online server.

5.d. IT Systems maintenance and management

System administration is responsible for effective provisioning, installation or configuration,
operation, and maintenance of systems hardware and software and related infrastructure.
System administration covers a lot of tasks and is crucial in today’s organizations due to the
technology field which is growing every day.

At MM the student’s work as system administrator was to assist in ensuring that the
performance, resources, and security of the organizational IT systems meet the needs of the
users, without exceeding a set budget. The student was doing the following:
● fixing hardware issues such as, replacing bad keyboards, internet cables and mouse
● attending to internet issues such as correcting conflicting IP addresses
● installation of software and updating machines drivers
● optimization of machines for better performance
● configuration of new computers
● keeping a register to check in and out IT equipment’s and generally overlook them
● Acquisition of IT systems.

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This was relevant to the degree program (SE) because the activities the student was performing
were directly put into test his ability on apply the theories he learnt in class into practice. For
example, attending to internet issues was putting into test the skills and knowledge he got in
data and communication skills class. The student was also practicing the use of computer
architecture knowledge and skills to solve organizational computer problems such as
performance issues. He managed to enhance his knowledge of working with Linux and
Windows operating systems and debugging skills on both operating systems. I also get insight of
the architecture of the network.

5. e. Minutes
Every Monday we conducted meeting and interns were expected to take turns to take down
the minutes that would then be submitted to the senior management. Minutes were there to
ensure there is constant monitoring and update of progress on all issues affecting the
organization as well as client services. During these minutes everyone was expected to report
progress on their progress on their duties and this was very mind opening and good because it
managed to empower us with confidence with every week that passed.

6. Recommendations
6. a. Problems/ Challenges Encountered
● Application of theory into practice is not as easy as writing an exam as the industrial is now
realistic.
● One of the challenges faced by the student were the assumptions that the coworkers had
about the student. They were anticipating that the student was well equipped with both
theoretical and practical philosophies of IT so they expected the student to fix the systems
as soon as possible. It was difficult to tell them that I am not aware in front of the
supervisor.
6. b. Recommendations to Media Monitors

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While MM stands as one of the leading civil media organizations in Zimbabwe at the moment,
there are a lot of areas of improvement that will aid in furthering its services as well as
increasing its visibility for its new programs.

MM should also increase worker development programs for students on work related learning
and also include them innovative programs such as team building initiatives and strategic plan
meetings. Students can embark on the process of making changes to something established by
introducing something new while adding depth to what is already in place. The company should
also try to expand such that they will monitor the whole Africa rather than monitoring within
Zimbabwe. Since technology is moving very fast I urge the organization not to lag behind so
that they will remain competitive enough to withstand stiff competition in their industry. The
company should also try to work on data mining to make use of their data since they capture a
lot of data. Furthermore, MM with its numerous challenges has proven to be the link between
pages and reality. The student personally got exposed to solving real-world problems by putting
the theories and practical learnt in class to practice. This contributed a lot to the student
personal and professional development. Every student should be allowed a chance to get this
experience.

6. c. Recommendations to HIT
Work related learning was very beneficial to the growth of the student and he feels that all he
learned was of great help throughout. However, there are areas that he feels need to be
addressed as they have an adverse effect on his performance as an intern as well as individual.

The Department of Software Engineering should visit the internee where he or she is doing
internship not more than three months after being employed, so that the department can be
aware of what their student is doing and let the student know if the work he or she is doing is

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relevant or otherwise, before it is too late for the student. This will also motivate and help the
student to feel confident and consciously do the work.

Furthermore, the department must do more of the practicals in their approach of imparting
knowledge to students. More practical lessons should be conducted in courses that require
particles because the student noticed that it becomes difficult to solve technical problem using
the theories learnt in class without knowing the actual architecture of the machine.

HIT should also give students public speaking and communication skills on addressing the
public, skills which are more than just class presentations but skills that can enable them to
address professional individuals at the different meetings and workshops that may attend
during their work-related learning period. The student finds it useful for HIT to do more
initiatives which help students to develop their non-technical skills.

7. Conclusion
In conclusion, the internship was a useful experience. The student managed to gained new
knowledge and skills. To be attached to an organization of such great repute was not only an
honor and privilege but a lifelong experience that will forever shape the student’s professional
life. This was one of the most fruitful periods in the student’s life, both academically and
personally as it assisted the student in assessing his abilities. Most of the theoretical and
practical knowledge that the student learnt during his first two years at Harare Institute of
Technology were put into practice in solving real-world problems and prove to be worth the
challenge. The student was presented with a lot of opportunities that he would have missed
without work related learning experience and he managed to find out what his strengths and
weaknesses are. This helped the student to define the skills and knowledge he has to improve
in the coming time. Furthermore, the student experienced that non-technical skills and
personal attributes are as critical as technical skills for productive performance in today’s
workplaces. At last this internship has given the student new insights and motivation to pursue
a career in software development and system administration.

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 8. References
[1] Fayol, H. (1949) General and Industrial Management. (translated. C Storrs). London: Pitman
[2] Fourier, P. J. (2005) Towards linking Normative Theory: Communication Policy and
Audiences in South Africa Communication Research, England, Longman
[3]https://projectmgmt.brandeis.edu/downloads/
BRU_MSMPP_WP_Feb2012_Balancing_Proje[4] Engineer Career Center
www.egr.uh.edu/career

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[5] www.thecareerbalance.com
[6] www.mediamonitors.com
[7] Professional development at www.wikipedia.com
[8] Systems administration at www.wikipedia.com
[9] personal development at www.wikipedia.com
[10] Comcowich, W. J. (2010) Media monitoring: The complete guide, at www.cyberalert.com,
Accessed (13/09/17)
[11] Keyton, J. (2011). Communication and organizational culture: A key to understanding work
experience. Thousand Oaks, CAS: Sage.
[12] Software development at www.wikipedia.com
[13] Data administration at www.wikipedia.com
[14] https://www.techopedia.com/definition/28399/data-administration
[15] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_administration
[16] https://www.visualthinkingmagic.com/framework/competencies/analytical-think
[17] http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/skill.html
[18] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_programming

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