As this semester draws to a bittersweet end, I feel that now is the time to evaluate and reflect on the three months passed.

My preconceptions upon beginning university was that you don’t make friends, the workload is enormous and you will be broke by the end of it.

I’ve found only one of those to be entirely true. I am very broke.

This semester has been emotionally and intellectually challenging, and I’ve learned more about myself in the last 13 weeks than I have in the past 18 years. I’ve learned more, period.

One of my biggest learning curves was probably Project Brief 2. That was one of the biggest challenges for a media student with little to no experience filming and editing a production. I had something to prove to myself. I wanted to prove that I deserved to be in this course surrounded by these incredibly talented people. While it wasn’t a spectacularly stand-out production I was proud of myself for exercising all available resources and learning how to operate a camera for the purpose of film and editing with Premiere Pro CC.

PROJECT BRIEF 2

This semester really emphasised how I learn and the environment in which I am most efficient. The most terrifying prospect of uni for me was dozing off in a lecture theatre, passively absorbing dry content, so I was lucky that Media 1’s Lectorials were engaging and found a balance between providing information and completing activities. This is the environment in which I am most productive and able to learn. This was most prevalent in Week 5, when we looked at ‘The Art of The Interview’ with Louise Turley. She really engaged us throughout her lecture and had my undivided attention throughout, which is a truly difficult task!

THE ART OF THE INTERVIEW

The most challenging aspect of the course up to this point has definitely been my self-doubt. I found that I constantly had to remind myself that I was smart enough and talented enough to be a Media student. I fell into the trap of comparing myself to my fellow classmates, which undoubtedly caused more harm than good. I think that the task that challenged my emotions and skill set the most was Project Brief 3. My chosen subject was evidently very close to my heart, so naturally I wanted to do it justice. I was truly so proud of the final production and with that came my ability to overcome my insecurities.

PROJECT BRIEF 3: FOR RICKY

The most important thing that I learned, or rather consolidated, this semester was my chosen career path. This became most clear in the final weeks of this semester, particularly Week 7’s Lecture on Collaboration and Week 9’s Lecture on Audiences. Learning about collaboration was integral as I hope to become a Public Relations Consultant, and working alongside people and bridging the gap between company and consumer would be the core of my career. With that comes the need for a profound understanding of who audiences are and what they expect and desire from companies and advertisers. Moreover, Project Brief 4 required me to apply these skills into a real-life situation, which challenged me to work collaboratively and incorporate the ideas of four people into two productions. I rose to this technical challenge and was able to write a script, record an audio voiceover, edit with Audition, and help to create two productions that I feel worked with the constraints and criteria effectively, which are responsibilities that I haven’t had before and were major learning curves for me.

PB4: REFLECTION

Retrospectively, I have successfully overcome each and every obstacle that has been placed in my way thus far, and I will continue to do so. All of this reflection has brought back a flood of memories from the beginning of this semester, when I was crippled by my own self doubt. Now, considering where I was, and where I am three months on, I have become considerably more confident not just with who I am, but also what I am capable of, and Media 1 is what has enabled me to do so.

WHO AND WHAT AND WHY

I feel more accomplished as a media maker, as I have dipped my toes into so many more aspects of the media field. I am significantly more comfortable with my position in this course and in the world of media, and I now have extended my horizons beyond Print Production, which,
for me is a tremendous feat.

As you can see through my learning graph below, I didn’t have a smooth start to this year, which in turn meant that I didn’t start off this course on a good foot. But with one semester down and five more to go, my goal of “simply graduating” is becoming more and more of a reality.

I aspire to become a Public Relations Consultant, and I feel that this task has assisted in furthering my organizational skills and communication skills, which are essential to a career in my chosen field. Additionally, I have learned how to collaborate in a way that a “happy medium” can be found, which often involves listening and taking the time to intersect your ideas with that of others. I can admittedly be a control freak at times, but this task required me to take a step back and ensure that each individual within the group had a fair say. As a PR Consultant, it would be my job to bridge the gap between companies and consumers, which requires a profound understanding of both groups and the needs of people in general. PB4 assisted me in developing these skills through the task of working with constraints and understanding whom our target audience is.
Upon completion of PB4, I ideally wanted to have produced two essays that I was genuinely proud of, and that were a reflection of each of my group’s members and ideas and to produce two essays that reflect us in a way that is parallel to the constraints of the task. I feel that we were able to exceed even our own expectations and create two productions that honestly express what we have learned in this course and I am so proud of my group and our final essays.

In this week’s lectorial we were tasked with completing a ‘learning graph’ to give ourselves a retrospective visual representation of how far we’ve come this semester. Each line represents a different aspect of the course and area for educational growth: technical skills, conceptual/theoretical skills, professionalism and sense of media practice.

Each aspect of the course seems to have progressed positively, which is relieving to see on paper.

Here is mine: 

This is the conclusion of the audio essay, which essentially encapsulates the entire contention.

The recipe for a successful children’s narrative will include a sense of moral guidance regarding issues that relate to them as an audience such as family disputes or sibling rivalry, as well as a comprehensive and gratifying structure shown through the three-part narrative concept, and an ending that is satisfying, gives closure, overcomes said hardships and provides insight and wisdom to the children absorbing the text. A successful children’s narrative gives it’s audience the realistic perspective that endings don’t have to be “happy” to be satisfying as hopefulness provides equal gratification.

Today was our final PB4 meeting before we all disband for the mid-year break.

We met for two hours after the lectorial and worked through finalising our scripts and getting all our ideas and thoughts in order.

I’ve finally completed the audio script, and I’m quite happy with it. In the audio essay, our primary focuses are Narrative, Text, Textual Analysis and Narrative Structure, so my task was essentially to define these and to elaborate them in a way that isn’t too dry for listeners.

After having previewed some of the Audio Essay drafts in last week’s tutorial, I am now hyper-cautious of overloading the listener with information, which is what some of the other groups seemed to do.

I hope that I have found a perfect medium between informative and engaging.

Today we discussed the concept of ‘Institutions’ in the lectorial. An institution is basically an enduring organisation that comprises individuals working towards a common communicative goal. The following is a flow of notes that I jotted down during the class discussion:

• Facebook – designed for ‘everyone’ – very involved for the audience, connectedness, sharing, information/data collection, professional business space to promote yourself, shared fan space – create your own community, huge corporation= trust, casual/informal/collectiveness (we’ve missed you), personalised (ads etc), default communication, owners of Instagram, many websites say “log in through Facebook” etc.
• ABC – more trustworthy because it’s non for profit, enduring (been around for a while, part of Australian culture, not commercialised, public broadcast/free to air, audience engagement by ‘call-ins’, designed as family TV (ABC kids, news, Spicks and Specks) and usually educational, They seem to care more – regional news… regional areas are important too, persona ‘Aunty’.
• HBO – Produce new ‘original’ idea TV shows, enduring, “HBO not television” tag line, Provocative/adult TV, Long form television
• Community Media – Run by the community for the community, legitimacy/trustworthy, not about profit – more about experience and the love of it/intern, embracing a wider range of voice – diversity, less commercialised, smaller scale, okay to make a mistake (training ground), Volunteer

While doing some research for this week’s topic, I stumbled across this little gem.

I think it is so important to emphasise individualism when discussing audiences as no viewer is the same as the next. Everybody has their own beliefs and values and I think that this is the hurdle at which media producers are most likely to fumble. By assuming that everybody will consume media in the same way, producers open themselves up for a lot of heat, some viewers may be offended by an advertisement, while other’s are entertained.

It is essential to find a middle ground when communicating with audiences to create something that is informative, engaging, and credible.

In this week’s lectorial, Brian discussed one of the most critical elements of media: audiences.

This lecture brought back fond memories of Year 12 Media and the study of Audience Theories. I maddened myself trying to memorise each theory before the SAC, what it was, who established it, whether the communication was linear or non-linear, whether the audience was active or passive.

The point of discussion that struck me the most was when Brian posed the question: who cares about audiences?

Me. I do. I have to.

I want to pursue a career in Public Relations and Marketing, and a huge aspect of a job like that is understanding what consumers want, and rallying that information back to companies so that they can provide their audiences with what they desire, thereby making money and contributing to economic growth. I want to be a part of that cycle.

So Brian really had me here, and his lecture got me thinking about what I want as an audience member. How do advertisers communicate with me and how to I respond to this?

From the spam emails in my inbox, to the endless flyers and catalogues strewn in the streets, all the way to the Sham-Wow ads on TV, I am constantly an audience member as much as I am a media-maker.

And with that label comes a more profound understanding of how I will communicate with my target audiences.