My Blogging Reflection

These past five weeks of blogging has been a new experience for me as a whole. In the past I have always been against blogging despite many of my friends trying to persuade me to start a blog. So at first as expected I was very angry of being “forced” to start blog. However my group decided to start this blog in the hope that it would help future generations of first year students to better and more easily navigate the long and hard road of first year university. Although we have thrown in a little tongue and cheek every now and then. Probably the best part of this blog was working with my friends Lerusha, Thirusha and Dean whose combined creativity has made this blog both possible and enjoyable.

At first I found it very strange and weird that we were studying how to blog for Journalism and Media studies. This is because I always thought that blogs were for attention seeking people with too much time on their hands who write about their insignificant (and often very boring) lives. Sure enough my travels on the internet in search of decent blogs did in fact produce numerous blogs created by attention seeking people with too much time on their hands concerning their insignificant lives. However I also found numerous blogs that reported on events around the world. I found bogs that reported on everything from human rights abuses in Zimbabwe to the growing international economic crisis. So it is now clear to me that blogging can in fact be a tool in which both amateur and professional journalists can spread news around the world. Now I believe that studying blogs and the skill of being a good blogger are an important part of being a journalist.

Being an inherently lazy person who loves to do the bear minimum and with no plan to go into second year Journalism (I am going to major in Politics and History) I had little enthusiasm to work hard on this blog. But not wanting to disappoint my friends and teammates (blog-mates?) and most certainly not wanting them to fail on my account (thus not getting into second year) I have tried to work hard and consistently. Although being mortally afraid of both Lerusha and Thirusha might have also made a slight impact in my “encouragement” to work hard. I do appreciate that the Journalism and Media Studies lecturers gave us a large amount of personal freedom. Yes, some of the posts were set by the lecturers but we could always manipulate and mould the subject into something we enjoyed or found interesting. To make it even more enjoyable we could also post anything we wished to and the subject of the post did not even really have to concern first year university experiences.

Personally most of the inspiration for the posts that I posted were conjured by Lerusha and Thirusha who are far more creative than I am. However they all came from either past experiences or personal knowledge. Some of the posts were factual while others were personal opinions. Some were extremely serious while others were for comic relief. However I do believe that all of our posts fitted together perfectly like one of those large puzzles one has hidden away in a cupboard. Although I usually despise working in groups I really enjoyed both the people in my group as well as working with the group. I feel as though everybody has contributed a little of themselves to the blog itself. We have all brought something important into the blog which makes the blog itself a projection of four different but interesting people.

Finally this blog would not have been possible with all the help given by our Journalism and Media studies tutor Nicole Hyman. She gave us large amounts of help and encouragement during our tuts. However she also went beyond the call of duty on many occasions to help us with setting up and improving our blog. And all this in the last weeks of her final year of Journalism and Media Studies as well as final months in South Africa before she moves to Israel, best of luck dude.

Overall the blog was rewarding and fun to do. I am extremely pleased with its final result. Having watched it grow from a single post with no background into something completely awesome has been great. I feel like one of those over bearing parents that adore their children to much. Well played team we all did a great job.

Till we meet again.

Chris