The first Networked Media lecture, or ‘unlecture’ as they have now been dubbed, was definitely a different experience from my three other debut lectures of the week.

I think the most important things that I took away from Adrian’s lecture was the importance and emphasis of ‘trial by error’ in this course, and how it’s better to try or say something and get it wrong, rather than not do anything at all. Just like the ‘I have no idea what I’m doing’ dog, we have to try something new, even if we have no prior knowledge or expectations, in order to get something worthwhile in return.

The other thing that really stood out for me was what Adrian said about using blogs for assessments, as opposed to the classic essays. He stated that we could pretty much be guaranteed that we would never have to write another essay in our professional lives after uni, but, as we are all communications students, we will most certainly have to maintain a blog in some shape or form.

I think this pretty much served to justify the whole course in one sentence. Although it seems a bit odd and unconventional to have so much weight placed on the blogs, it’ll probably be the norm in a few years. Many of us already have experience in using a blog, but we haven’t really had this experience of making one for uni assessment before, with time constraints and the like.

The final point that I got out of the ‘unlecture’ was that of the ‘T-Shaped People’, with the vertical axis representing the individual’s speciality in one area, while the accompanying horizontal one serving as outside skills and knowledge in many different areas. This is how we must be now in the media industry, with speciality and skill in one are no longer being enough.

For me specifically, my interests lie in journalism, and the print media, but with the current situation, knowledge in new media, PR, and the networks of this media is more than necessary, and that’s the main reason why I’m taking this course.