Having just completed Writing Media text in the spring course, I think I can fully agree with Adrain’s views on having blogs in media education. Prior to my education here in Australia, I’ve always thought that Media studies would just mean essays after essays. It’s not like I dread doing them, but it’s more like a once off thing – like usually, truthfully I must say.. It’s only done 2-3 days before deadline. There is only so much that you can absorb in that few days. However having to complete a journal in WMT meant documenting the entire process / lectures / readings made the whole experience a lot more enriching. However blogs is a really different thing..

Later on Elliot mentioned about the Espoused theory that I could relate to it oh-so-well. Especially when it comes to essays submissions, I always tell myself to start early but there just isn’t any motivation? However when it’s like 2 days before it’s due I suddenly find myself really inspired and motivated to do.. I’m pretty sure I’m not alone on this…. Right?! I found myself thinking more about it on the train back home. Basically we know that we shouldn’t be doing that. In our minds we have the logical and right way, yet we don’t act on it. It’s not that we are uneducated and we don’t know the consequences of last minute work, so why does it still happen?

With blogs in education, it’s a really new thing for me. Although I guessed it shouldn’t be, especially since I grew up in the technologically savvy generation, we practically grew up with it!. Another thing mentioned during class that got me cringing immediately was that how everything we do on the Internet pretty must stays and is out there for everyone to see! Now if only our parents/teachers back in primary school were slightly more educated in this and could warn us of such consequences.. oh dear me. I hope those embarrassing old blogs and friendster/myspace/twitter accounts never come back to haunt me.

Anyway, back to the readings..

I particularly like this sentence : “As students write
themselves through their blogs they develop an online persona which they control. ” I feel that in this Media Industry, creating your own personal identity is the key to setting yourself apart from everyone else.. Everyone can write and have a blog, but what makes you so different from them? What sets you apart from everyone else? I think that’s where your online identity shows the clearest? Many of the writers I love have their distinctive voice, and personally I feel like I’m engaging with them, and this leads me to become a fan of their blogs. Creating my own voice would prove useful for me in the media industry..

Along with others, I’m probably still at the stage of searching for “myself”. I’ve never managed to keep a personal blog for more than 1 year..  It’s gonna be interesting to see how things will work out!

Credits : Marketipe