Me, Myself and Journalism Studies

Studying the theory behind journalism can, most often than not, be a real drag. Going through sections like narrative and genre, media interaction, feature stories and having to study academics such as Castell and Thompson can lead us students to have second thoughts on the academic paths that we have chosen. Through Blubble, I wish to turn these catalysts for procrastination into a more enjoyable and entertaining learning experience.

You might want to know how I intend on doing this, and why I’ve decided to do this? To start off, I am an avid fan of satirical, sarcastic, opinionated and comedic media. From articles written by Jeremy Clarkson, who gets his opinions across in the most satirical style of writing, to the renowned British TV comedy, Blackadder. Furthermore, I find myself to be fairly opinionated. In my opinion, media that contains humour and comedy is far more entertaining than other insipid, dried-out, monotonous media that is available. It is understandable why certain media genres and media theory are dull, yet if it were to be tweaked so as to put a smile on the reader’s face, I believe it would be more effective, and easier to learn and contain.

Personally, like most of you I presume, I detest having to go through articles and academic work where you end up day dreaming of the weekend’s events, and inevitably waste time. By simply making an article or piece of academic writing into an amusing, gratifying text, whilst keeping the fundamental learning points, it would make an eye-sore into a pleasurable learning affair. Basically, the goal is to change the overall picture, while still retaining the fundamentally important learning content.

Overall, journalism gives me pleasure and enjoyment, otherwise why would I be studying the subject? Whether it is radio, TV, writing et cetera et cetera, I have a passion for the subject on all levels. I believe that journalism enables us to see the world the way that it is. Whether it has to do with Third, Second, First world countries; the economy, politics or religion; war, peace, or aid. In the end, we want to tell a story, and through the subject of journalism and media studies we are capable of doing so.

That is why Blubble and its authors are dedicated to bringing the study journalism to students in the most enjoyable, entertaining and amiable way possible. 

Thomas Mills

What kind of blogger am I?

Journalism is a broad field that attracts the masses on a daily basis. The world as we know it today has somewhat changed to how it was previously e.g. a century ago. I feel that the principles, morals and ethics of journalism have tremendously changed and mostly for the worse.
Journalism can be viewed in different ways and this often leads to confrontation with the public. A journalist can be used as a voice for the people and this can influence his style of writing. The other method is when a journalist or in this case the writer gives their own opinion or viewpoint. Journalists often forget how much of an impact their articles have on the outside world thus I believe journalism students should be taught the correct principles and ethics from day one. The great Edward Bulwer-Lytton was the first to mention that, “THE PEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD” and I believe this should be repeatedly mentioned to all journalism students. Journalism is probably one of the most powerful tools on the planet which could be used to create or demolish opinions.

Conclusively I would like to state that it might be necessary to rearrange the methods of journalism that we have been raised with and now live with. We are in a technological era where news spreads instantaneously. By making use of major trends such as the use of social networking to gathering vast amounts of judgments to determine what the public feels might be necessary. Instead of being secluded from front page and only viewing it as a third person news we should be involved and try express the events.

My Journalsm

· During the second tutorial based on JMS1 bloging, I learnt that I need to first focus on myself before I can focus on other people, especially when being critical. I need to understand what my own strengths and weaknesses are.
· Secondly I feel that I understand which of my personal characteristics are more appropriate when focusing on different issues, e.g. when naming a characteristic for professional reasons I would rather use terms such as diligent or enthusiastic, but when naming characteristics to a loved one I would rather use thoughtful and understanding.
· Finally I understand I reminded myself why I decided to take journalism and paid attention to reasons why other students decided to take journalism as a subject, which turned out to be an eye opener. Explanations ranged from being attracted by films and books to having relatives in high order positions in similar fields.

What Kind of Blogger am I

By Sean Thackeray

What kind of blogger am I? Words such as cynical, sarcastic, honest, opinionated and surprisingly optimistic come to mind, but out of all these words the only one that is regarded by most as a decent value is honesty... a great amount of people tend to think that being cynical and sarcastic is a terribly weak kind of humour, the lowest of the low, but in my opinion these people are just upset because they just don't get it half the time.

Chuck Klosterman, my favourite author, once made it very clear to me in my favourite book, Killing Yourself To Live, that there are two types of students: The "Pot/Creedence Contingent" and the "Coke/Interpol Contingent", everyone else just does not matter in his opinion, as of right now I am still undecided. Of course this analysis is a bit dated when it comes to life as a student in current times. The "Pot Contingent" will go to the unpopular bars, drink black label, smoke pot and then spend hours talking about how their favourite artists are saying and meaning completely different things and will be leaving the bar by 11:30. This is the time at which the "Coke Contingent" is only leaving their dorms and immediately begin snorting cocaine in bathrooms of semi gay dance clubs; this will be followed by trying to locate better cocaine and more luxurious bathrooms. The upside about being part of the "Pot/Creedence Contingent" is that you get to be intellectual and hungry most of the time and completely alienated from all the people you might want to sleep with. With the "Coke Contingent" you feel awesome, danceable and lonely, pretty much all of the time. Needless to say I am part of the "Pot/Creedence Contingent."

Being part of this contingent I find this may have effect on my writing in the way that I am not interested in "what" happened, for some unknown reason, possibly being part on the "Pot Contingent", I despise writing about the dreaded "what", the "why" is my major interest and it is extremely difficult for me when I don't give a damn about the "what" in the first place, and unfortunately this has been the story of my life as a first year journalism student. Not being able to write things of interest to you feels to me like being hit by a mini moving at an undesirable speed. (for the pedestrian that is) And this makes conversation while sitting in unpopular bars a lot less fun.

This upsets me and I find it hard to be optimistic about.

Myself and Journalism

I have learnt I am a very honest, decisive and opinionated writer; this may work for or against my future as a journalist. These three habits have filtered into my writing style from the work of my favourite two authors; Chuck Klosterman and Tom Wolfe. Being very opinionated is most probably the riskiest of the three; this may distort my first impression of a subject that may alter the way I report the story and this will affect the readers or viewers that are wanting to hear the actual, unbiased facts. But in the case of readers whom may be wanting to hear my opinion of the subject it will be favourable to be opinionated. but this relies on whether my opinion is worth while hearing.

The main reasons I wanted to study journalism was to be a music critic firstly and secondly, on the other side of the scale an environmental photojournalist. The reason for the first being that I like to think I have a very good taste in music and secondly there is no place I would rather be spending my free time than outdoors, in the bush.

Even though the work layout for this year has not dealt with major interests of mine and at some stages sent me running in the other direction this has not detoured my choice of carrying on with the subject.

By Sean "Manbearpig" Thackeray

Why Journalism?

Journalism is one of those subjects I have always been interested in. Watching and reading news became a daily thing during my school years, and knowing what was happening around the world and at home seemed somewhat essential.

I am not studying journalism because I have been forced to, or pressurized to, by family or friends. I am simply studying it so as to broaden my outlook and knowledge on the subject. This would give me a platform to work off in order to gain experience its field, something that would take a lot of time.

Furthermore, Journalism and Media studies enables me to do something I enjoy, to find out what is 'going on' and tell others about it.

Thomas Mills