Media Industries 1 was very much about proactive learning and eventhough we were all in groups, individually there is a lot of work to do and throughout the course progresses were made. In this course the research was one of the harder tasks I had to do this semester as most of the other tasks were mostly debates in essays. In tutorials we were urged to select a topic that we were interested in and a topic that might be relevant in the work field we might be seeking in the future. As the presentation progresses our group worked well since day one as everyone was on the same page. The workload was distributed equally and we all had a good sense of responsibility. Since the formation of the groups we did not have clashing opinions, only separate, good ideas that were combined together well for the final presentation. The roles in our group was separated equally as we had four people, two of us did case studies and the other two members did the introduction & history, brief & presentation and website. We all did our parts individually and combined them together compiling them to a useful report. My role was doing the case studies, focusing on the political and NSA data mining, writing up the report. I have also provided tidbits to the presentation to make it more engaging. All of us took part in the design and building of the website, although most of the credit for this goes to one group member of mine. In the group meetings our group members met weekly and discussed our work and I’ve been present to all the group meetings, giving input every now and then and participating in discussions.
In the progress with my research capability, I have learned to be more critical in writing the report instead of writing up an essay that rambles aimlessly. There is a lot of practice of using relevant reference when it comes to the report and it helps to improve my writing skills. I also have a better understanding in terms of ways to improve writing an annotated bibliography. In collaborating the group it was a useful experience as it urged me to sharpen my collaboration skills and communication skills. Through the group project I’ve learned to be more critical in the analysis of case studies and articles. Another part of what I learned is to be confident with ideas, as some random ideas ended up being useful. When it comes to problems and strategies, most of the problems faced were as a collective but only during the selection of topic, as we found it hard to narrow down the topic and it was a bit difficult to relate it to the audience. What we did was we narrowed it down so that it was more targeted to our audience and it becomes more personalized.
As for research strategies, our group explained it in ways of making it simple yet also reminding the audience that the matter is not going away also – relying it on case studies to let it speak for itself since the issue has caused some controversy regarding privacy and ethical concerns and this worked for our group. What didn’t work was using too many of the case studies for the presentation. The solution was to cut down the case studies. In my own part of the research I found that for me a good strategy was to keep reviewing my own work to see where it goes well and where it doesn’t, and reviewing the wording of the sentences. A personal problem would be trying to understand the case studies in detail and making sure all the points were correctly written, especially when it comes to political cases, baseball, predictions, number crunching, that were cases I wasn’t to aware of before. As a resolve, I tried to find summaries regarding the case to understand it better then slowly work my way to the more specific and detailed parts of it. In tracking our group progress, I tend to lose track of it and often needed re-confirmation from my group mates. This wasn’t a big issue as I frequently check the Facebook group for updates and seek my group mates whenever in doubt. Finding relevant peer-reviewed references were a bit difficult as most of the research papers were too in-depth and weren’t what our group needed hence, I could improve my referencing skills and in creating the annotated bibliography.
When it comes to connections and interesections I felt that the value of this course is that Media Industries doesn’t only provide knowledge of how the industries operate. The course also allows us to have some an insight to what it is like to work in a media industry. It was all very proactive learning, as it urged us to think for ourselves and coming up with our own content. Our tutors guided us to an extent, analyzing mostly about the relevance of the content, making sure it’s not too broad and mostly let ourselves decide what to talk about. Being a third-year course it’s like a little insight to how it would be to transition from university students to actual working media practitioners. In my own group research the term Data Mining isn’t new to me however it was still a very vague concept and through this research I’ve been able to understand a greater deal of it and how it is relevant in this technological era that we are now. I’ve also learned that Data Mining is not an issue that will go away and have myself used the solutions suggested in our own research, as a way of protecting privacy.
As for learning from my other classmates, in the tutorials and the final presentation, the issues that were looked into were interesting as they are now all happening in the world. Through the case studies by other students there were comparisons between the different media groups such as Advertising, journalism, activism, Social Media, political, etc. This was informative as there were more insight to the different media sectors and different work that they would do. Almost all the case studies had one thing in common which was Online. This gives me a better understanding of the future of online media, including Social Media, which is something I am keen on, was one of the most discussed issues and from the studies it can be known that Social Media isn’t just something for leisure and from the bases of Social Media, it is able evolve into a legit career. During the presentations, there were even solutions suggested that can be used to prevent or solve the negative issues, and also tips on how to make the best out of the Media that we have.
Overall I felt that our research topic was well chosen, as it was still regarding online media but still distinctive. As a collective my group worked well together, and in doing my individual part of the research I felt I have don well in relating the issues to Data mining, and at the same time learning more about the topic as well. Through Media industries I have gotten an idea of the issues surrounding Media Industries and learn to be more confident and critical whether independently or in a group. It has also urged me to look into relevant issues and familiriaze with these issues. They are the kind of issues surrounding the career path that I am in and all this will be relevant for my own personal use when working in a professional environment.
