Wednesday, October 22, 2008
Reflexive Piece
That day I arrived ten minutes late at the library basement. As I entered it, I could hear the audible sighs of relief from my group members. Io had made it. They were beginning to think I would not come, which would have derailed the group’s progress.”Welcome to blogging”, I said to myself as I joined the others. To be fair this term has been an interesting learning curve but it has not been without its hitches. My approach to academic work is relaxed as I often submit my work the day before it’s due. But group work put a stop to that. The work had to be done some time before it was due. Not to mention that my freedom was curtailed by the fact that I was constrained to a particular genre. But to be frank, I was really productive. I remember the assignment I did on a letter to my younger self. It attracted two interesting comments. I realise that my work would be scrutinised by a broad audience. And because of that, I had no choice but to work hard.
Writing is quite challenging, even more so on a blog where it has to be constant. When we got the assignment brief, I got a sinking feeling in my stomach. I felt that it was too constraining, as was the character of the blog. But when I sat down to think of stories, I surprised myself. There were a great many stories I could come up within the context of the defined character of the blog. And imagining my work being read by an audience enhanced my determination to come up with creative ideas. But I sometimes had problems at the formative meetings. Our tutor was quite helpful and the group was really cooperative. But I felt as if I could say more or come up with more yet when someone came up with a ,suggestion, I felt bad about contradicted them, so I kept quiet, even though I thought the one I had was quite brilliant. Generally, I went along with what the group deemed to be the best thing.
They say life is a journey with different stages. At each stage you grow in a certain way. I regard this course as one of the stages of my life. In terms of personal growth, I could not have asked for more. On a scale of 1 to 10, I would give myself an 8. Personally, I learnt to work with a group of different people of different backgrounds and how to get along with them. The members of my group were quite fun. Some had a hilarious sense of humour, some took on the role of the wise ones, and some were feisty and hardworking and other characteristics. They did have an effect on my personal growth. Professionally, I learnt to be an opinionated individual.I can now stand my ground on any matter, which is a useful attribute in any academic field.
I love freedom. To be free one of the best things one can achieve. I always believed that reporting demanded one to have a certain n amount of freedom. I must admit that initially, I did not like working within the confines of genre. There was an assignment brief to adhere to, the blog character to consider, not to mention the imagined audience. But this experience taught me that it can be interesting to work in the confines of genre. You can direct your energies top that particular genre and produce maximum results,. Well, for me it worked that way.
Before this course, I had never heard of blogging. To me , journalism was concerned with the print media and television. But I realise now that blogging is a form of journalism. Journalism has to do with disseminating information to the public. Ands a great proportion of the public now uses the internet, particularly the young. Since blogging is used to disseminate information on certain issues to these people on the internet, I consider it to be a form of journalism. Though now the journalism is between lay people, those who previously exclusively relied on television and the print media. I have learnt that blogging is indeed journalism, though this time around it is a type of journalism restricted to accredited professionals.
For me, the first year experience has been unbelievable. From academics to love, from social functions to other interesting things, I’ve seen it all. So it was a bonus to have a theme about surviving first year. There was so much to talk about. Besides my own experiences, there were the experiences of other first years. This was a great theme indeed. But since nothing is wholly good, there some weaknesses with the theme. Rhodes is not all about first years only. Since I was constrained to the theme, I had to ignore other interesting issues. Even Grahamstown itself had many interesting stories to offer. A broader theme would have made it easy to blog about just about anything and ensure that the blogging is ever interesting. There are so many things you can write about one theme. Like everyone else, I did try my best though.
One of the drawbacks to laziness is that research seems to be a lot of hard work. But since I was blogging to a potential audience, I had no choice but to research. I mainly researched by interviewing fellow first years. Sometimes I picked up things from conversations. And I corroborated the information with some internet research. Io learnt that research is necessary for a good story. I did extensive research on my stories, though in the first days it was superficial. With sources, I had no problem at all. First years are generally a willing group of people. But I had to be careful with how I used the information they gave me, since it would be read by a great number of people.
Everyday we learn new things. Blogging taught me a lot in terms of writing. In terms of organisation, I became a master. I could say I almost made the genre mine. I experimented a lot when I was blogging, tackling first year issues from different controversial angles. I overcame the fear of calling a spade a spade. To be frank though, I had some ethical concerns with the content some of my peers placed on blogs. In my culture, some things, like sex, are spoken off indirectly. I was initially shocked by the blatant handling of some sexual issues in relation to first years. But I got over it.
It has been an interesting course, no doubt about that. A valuable learning curve. A wonderful experience. An insight into a wholly different aspect of journalism. A period of growth. What more could one ask for? For me, the course was in way life changing. To abuse the words of Julius Caesar, I came, I saw, I blogged. And in the process, I learnt a lot.
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