http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/neuroskeptic/files/2015/08/mirror_capgras.jpg
Well, that’s it! I’m 1/6th of the way through my bachelor of communication (media) course at RMIT. It’s honestly been such a great experience – creating content, learning about its theories and applications, and just simply meeting new people (some that I like and some that I dislike). I’ve learnt and been through so much already, so let’s take some time to reflect on it – shall we? Continue reading
A graph of my progress throughout the year
Why is it empty?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SWOT_analysis
I’m really proud of that title.
Quick run-down before I give you my personal SWOT analysis. SWOT analysis – which is used in a number of groups (small and large), is a way of assessing the current status and position of an individual, group or organization. It is a way of identifying ‘where we are now’ and ‘where we want to go’. SWOT is an acronym that stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Quick run-down over – LOOK AT MY SWOT ANALYSIS! Continue reading
No witty introductions from this time, let’s get straight to the point.
Media one students recently had to create a self portrait of someone else. If you haven’t seen my one yet, click here! Below, you will find my reflection on the project itself, so… enjoy?
First of all, I really want to express my happiness in the way the interview turned out. Continue reading
In this weeks workshop, we covered a number of things. First of all, we all showed our finished self-portraits, and it was very interesting to see everyone else’s idea of ‘identity’. I was fascinated about how everyone approached this task. Some were abstract, some were quite simple, and others were just weird (like mine!). One thing I did notice was that a lot of people used a birds-eye view of themselves walking. Another common shot was a close-up of tea/coffee being poured.
Photo Credit: alideniese via Compfight cc
If you haven’t recalled, project brief one gave us media students the task of collecting multiple ‘media artefacts’ that represented our identities in some way or form. Here’s a link to that project, if you haven’t already seen it. Why am I mentioning this project? Well, project brief two required us to – again, recreate our identity using media. Only this time, we had to edit all the media artefacts as one cohesive piece using Adobe Premiere Pro.
Photo Credit: Jim Frazier via Compfight cc
Today’s lectorial covered two topics of interest. First of all we covered the importance of editing. We learned how the most minute changes can greatly affect the result. I will cover this topic in a later blog post, sometime during this week.
What I want to discuss today is the second topic; the importance of media. Today’s class began with a very important question – what is media? Upon hearing this question, I was actually stumped. You would think that a student undergoing a media course would know what falls under the umbrella of ‘media’. However, I found myself struggling to give a simple definition of the term ‘media’. As individuals, we were told to come up with the first five things that we think of when we hear the word ‘media’. As I did with a similar task that we did in the first lectorial, I ended up with less answers as was instructed. Oops. As a class, we discussed the different types of media and its effects on its audiences. As I jotted down the answers of the other students, my list of three media related things soon turned into twenty. By the end of it, one thing was made certain by this activity. Media is everywhere.
As my first week of uni has come to an end, there is one word that is been constantly repeated in both my media and cinema studies classes to the point where I can’t think of anything but that single word, and that word, ladies and gentlemen is “blog”.
Blog. Blog. Blog. Blog.
It’s a weird word isn’t it? Keep saying it over and over again and eventually you’ll get to a point where you’ll doubt it’s validity as an English word. Such a short simple, 4-lettered word, and yet, it holds so much value for students undergoing this course. Our blog, is the basis of which our entire university results are based on. So it’s unsurprising how much our lecturers have emphasised the term. So much so, that our first reading was based on the importance of blogging, and why our entire curriculum is centred around blogging.
Photo Credit: Hashtagadvertising via Compfight cc
Hey Reza,
You still find that meme funny?
If you’re reading this, either two of the possible outcomes I could think of has happened:
If it’s the former – go away. If it’s the latter – continue to read.
Monday 29th of February was many things to me; my first university class, my first media one class, my first lectorial ever – however it wasn’t the first time I have reflected upon my inability to focus.
We covered the topic of ‘deep attention vs hyper attention’; two opposite ends of the pole. To summarise – deep attention is a state of mind where the individual can focus on a single object for long periods of time, while blocking out all other forms of information. Hyper attention is the cognitive mode where focus is switched rapidly between multiple objects. Upon learning about the two cognitive modes, I immediately identified myself with being more hyper attentive.In theory, hyper attention sounds like the most advantageous of the two. The ability to focus on and complete multiple tasks in a period of time makes it sound as if it were a superpower. I wish it were as simple as that. Speaking personally, I know hyper attention is nothing like that. Continue reading