Monthly Archives: March 2015

Portraits of America

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I follow a page on Facebook called “Portraits of America,” which has the same purpose as the much more well known “Humans of New York” – to provide a small glimpse into the lives of complete strangers in the hope that people may become a little more thoughtful and compassionate in their everyday lives.

One particular post, shared on 7 March, caught my attention. A man spoke about his experience growing up, expressing his opinion that “You have to reach a certain level of intelligence to avoid the control of the media. At a young age, you’re very susceptible to influence.” He then relayed his personal experience, explaining that a commercial on television led him to believe that because he was from a violent neighbourhood, he wouldn’t live past age 25. This had a deep psychological effect on the man. Reading a glimpse of one man’s story, I was shocked by the effect the media had on his life. I also started thinking about how many other people had been similarly influenced and to what extent this affected the way they lived their lives.

In a few of my tutorials for different classes, we have discussed how the media can have an impact rather than just “reflecting” society at a given moment in time. The example I saw on “Portraits of America” is a perfect representation of the power of media. If you hear something enough times, from enough sources, or presented in different ways, ideas start to sink in.

This man’s story also illustrates the importance of education in making well-informed decisions. The media can provide a skewed perspective for a multitude of reasons – advertising purposes, catering to a particular audience (left- or right-wing, for example), biases of the media producers, etc., which means that we need to periodically take a step back and exercise common sense to asses how media content should be interpreted.

I don’t necessarily agree with this man’s word choice that the media “controls” people, because the media cannot take away a person’s free will, but I do think it is much harder to escape today than ever before.

Our First Media One Tutorial

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I worked on setting up my new blog today in my first tutorial. It’s still very new but I’m looking forward to using all the available features to document my progression through this course.

It was nice to finally be in a more relaxed setting and to talk to others in the Media course about their interests and what areas they hope to work in after finishing their degrees. A lot of people seem very interested in film, which is different from my main interest (written communication) so I hope I can learn from them this semester and beyond. I also think that the diversity in our class will motivate us all to think in new ways and expose us to techniques and functions of media we had not previously considered.

After we were given the first project brief, I started thinking about how I could best represent myself through different forms of media. I am currently brainstorming the most important aspects of my life and how I can creatively depict my personality.

I have also been thinking a lot about the recent changes in my life and how these changes have affected the way I will approach this task. For example, I moved back to Australia from Shanghai – the place I refer to as my “home” – only two weeks ago, so my aim is to portray how my experience living overseas influenced my life. I’d like to have this theme running through a few of the media components in my work as influenced my upbringing, my beliefs and my understanding of the world.

Introduction to Media One

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Introduction (Class One)

Dear Future Self…

The following are 10 things I want to be able to do/be better at/know by the end of my Bachelor of Communication (Media) degree.

1. The standout qualities employers are looking for in the field of media

2. The best way (for me personally) to spark ideas that develop into creative approaches to project briefs

3. Working well in groups

4. Communicating effectively with classmates and lecturers/tutors

5. Effectively getting ideas onto paper/developed into a final product

6. Create a network to open up job prospects

7. Understand the context of classroom learning and how this can be applied to jobs internationally

8. How to effectively utilise technology to work on varied media project briefs

9. Figure out my postgraduate/career pathway

10. Gain practical experience working with a range of media platforms

During this first lectorial, I also had time to reflect on how I learn and I will keep this in mind as I progress through the course. It has been almost one year since I was in a classroom environment, so my first step will be to refocus academically.

I know from previous experience that I work best when I write by hand and specifically when I create mind maps to clarify the ideas and questions I have. I then find it helpful to discuss topics with others to gain insight from different perspectives and interpretations. I also know I work best in short bursts of focused work, broken up by short breaks during which I make sure information is sinking into my mind. I find it helpful to keep my laptop closed – if possible – when working, to avoid distractions. I also prefer to work with hard copies for reading and annotating tasks.

I believe the most challenging aspect of the course for me will be sparking creative ideas for project briefs and developing them into clear plans in my mind.