In retrospect: Looking back on the Blogging course

The end of the year is upon us, and it seems like yesterday that I came to Rhodes with a combination of excitement and nerves as I set out on my university journey, to live the ‘rhodent ‘ life.
This year has been a continuous growing process for me. It has been one that has been filled with moments of glee and pride, and knowing that there is nothing more rewarding than having a goal realised. These include having my first article published in the Oppidan Press as well working at RMR. While there have been frustrating and trying times, these have helped me grow as an individual and are indeed life lessons learned.

When looking at the journalism course, and focusing particularly on the blogging section, a number of mixed feelings arise. Although I feel that the course had good intentions, it ended up becoming more of a drag at times. I always try to maintain a good work ethic, and I like to get work done sooner rather than later, however with the blogging course I found it challenging to keep this approach constant. I always found that there was yet ANOTHER comment to be done, and I striking a balance with other subjects became difficult, because although the comments did not have to be long, they had to incorporate certain ‘genre characteristics, and I constantly had to bear in mind that I had to mention ‘Todorov or Propp, and ultimately it became monotonous. On the other hand though I think that the objective of the lecturers in piling up assignments served as practice because in journalism stories arise at any moment and routine is not something that you can really have.

There were times when feelings of apprehension and anxiety were plenty. There was always what felt like 10 things to do every week, and group work which meant having to work around everyone’s timetables. An example would be when we had to do the photo comic. It was fun to do but as I said, it meant having to work around group members timetables, and I also had to put other work on the back seat, to ensure that blogging took top priority. The course did teach me adequate time management and also that caffeine and Berocca are essential for those late nights, finishing the work I had put on hold for the blog. This course was five weeks long, but it has felt more like five months.
I know it seems harsh, but surprisingly I do think that blogging is a useful tool. It was nice to be able to write about issues and have an international audience to read the posts I wrote. In theory it is a nice and for leisure but in terms of blogging being a course, especially in the fourth term, which is exam term, this course was not an ideal. I do not feel that I learned any new substantial journalistic work, and I was annoyed at times, because I would go to lectures, and leave feeling I had not learnt anything new. I also don’t see where genre and narrative fit in with expressing ones views, so I found that I had to incorporate my opinion or construct it into a genre. Does that make sense? Surely my opinion is exactly that and should not have to be restricted because it has to incorporate structuralists? In spite of this I did enjoy putting my fingers to the keyboard and giving the world a taste of who I am and a taste of my thoughts. It is a pity that my thoughts were restricted though. I say this because each blog had to have a character and had to take a particular stance, my blog took the friendly approach. Having a blog character and even a specific target market can be limiting because I found that I had to first think of what I wanted to say, and check to see if the audience would be interested in what I was saying, I also had to be careful of how I said what I did; particularly on the seal clubbing topic. That was what I found to be disempowering and limiting about the blog. Another problem I had was the exhausted topic of ‘first year life’, that too is now an exhausted topic, that started in first term.
As I have said this course was time consuming, as opposed to other courses but I do feel that I was productive; if anything the course has reiterated the importance of productivity. I was productive and ensured that all my assignments were done and submitted on time. In terms of group dynamics, I was fortunate enough to be in a group with no ‘free riders’ and I did generate ideas regarding layout of the blog and during the photo comic production. I contributed to discussions at group meeting, and if my ideas were not used, we found a way of incorporating them into the idea that had majority support. This made for a good working environment and cooperative atmosphere to be in.
While interviewing I found that research is very important. What I said had to be substantiated with fact. With regards to the interview I found that I had to research my interviewee so I could get to know her better and to be professional. Although my interviewee was very candid about her character she however did not want her full name to be given, and this is where respect and ethics came into play and I only used her first name. In that way enabling me to utilise journalistic integrity and respecting my sources wishes.
I think that although blogging is not journalism, this course has taught me how to better handle stress and to strike a balance. I have grown in that regard and learnt the importance of doing things as soon as possible, which is what I like to do, and also been giving insight into the blogging world.
Andz