Photo Credit: lumineimaginis via Compfight cc

As a result of the Labour day, this week lectorial was cancelled (Yay!). As a result, I’ll only be speaking about this weeks readings. This weeks set of readings by David Gauntlett, all followed a pretty central theme. Gauntlett proposes a possible shift in the way we think of media from an industry perspective, and how a change can benefit the industry in the future. At least, I think that’s what he was saying – let me explain.

Allow me to preface this by saying that I’ve never done any form of media studies or education formally before. Everything that I know and have learnt is purely self-taught. As a result, everything that I’ve ever done in terms of media has always been on the creative side. I literally know nothing (Jon Snow) about media as an industry. So when I read Gauntlett’s blog posts about a shift from the academic side of media to the hands-on, creative side of media – I was a bit surprised. As a person who only knows the creative/making side of media, I never knew media could be ‘studied’. How are you even meant to study media? What kind of things do you study? Is it an effective way of practising media? It may be a bit bias coming from me, but ‘studying’ media just doesn’t seem to be an effective way of gaining experience in media. It just seems a bit redundant studying about the composition of visual editing, rather than just actually doing it yourself, and learning about it inside-out (keep in mind that I don’t know if editing is something that is studied, it’s just an example).

There are so many more benefits to the practical side of media than the theory side of it. For instance – simply put, being hands-on tends to be a lot more fun and engaging, especially if whatever you’re doing interests you. And for me; and I’m sure a lot of other people, when something is fun, you tend to remember and retain the information a lot better. The learning experience is also a lot more in-depth. Using the example of making a video, as you undergo the process of making the video, you will be faced with some obstacles and learning curves first-hand, rather than reading about someone else’s experience about their obstacles and learning curves. It’s all just a lot more relative.

It will also allow for new ideas/problems to be brought to the table. If more people are creating media while encountering different problems, eases, ideas and techniques, this will allow for media as an industry to become more innovative, dynamic, and alive. While on the other hand, if people are studying the media of only a handful of producers, the industry may slowly die off as people continue to use the exact same technique and ideas in each of their works.

All in all, I completely agree with what Gauntlett is saying about shifting the way we do media from the theoretical side, to the more practical, creative side. I believe the benefits of the practical-side of things completely outweighs the benefits of the theoretical, and I’m excited to see what kind of changes the shift can make to media as a whole.