Reflexive Piece

The blog that my group members and I have worked on has been the cause of moments of elation and moments of frustration. At first the idea of setting up a blog seemed futile and tiresome as it was a group project. One of the major constraints for me throughout this term's course was time. Although most of my submissions adhered to their deadlines, time did limit my level of productivity. Had I more time I would have liked to explore blogging's potential to a greater degree. Most of my story ideas were laboriously and desperately scraped together from shards of sources. I was continuously held back by the theme of first-year experience; a topic I have no interest in embracing. I feel that my creativity and potential were heavily reined in as a result of theme restriction, not to mention the time I wasted on disentangling my convoluted first-year experiences.

My group members were great throughout the course. From the beginning we synthesised our ideas and always moved forward in a progressive and productive way, albeit sometimes slowly. Our meetings typically gave us the opportunity to gain perspective on issues such as the needs and expectations of our readers (or audience) as well as how to incorporate our textual and visual content into the character of the blog. Working with group members has been the greatest source for my personal growth. Besides furthering my writing skills, which is a task I value above most others, I have gained valuable experience by dealing with 'production' issues with colleagues under moments of pressure. I am in my prime when alone, so this was a good learning curve for me.

Several times throughout the course I wondered what blogging has to do with journalism. I have come to realise that journalism is not just about writing and the level of skill attached to this. It's a life-style. It's a continuous awareness of what goes on around you, and a network of contacts and connections that give you the upper hand at the end of the day. Blogging has given me the push in to the maze of technological possibilities and data sources. The means are there for me to 'create', I just need to embrace and 'produce'.

The theme of my blog called for experience on my part rather than the assimilation and integration of facts. The honour of my statements and textual content was therefore dependant upon the integrity of my experience. My audience would only have reason to question the imperial validity of my content if they could find a distinctive flaw in my character. For the rest, my information was solid and my facts (in the case of an interview).

The blog as a genre allows critical thinking and subjective writing that incorporates audio and visual. The generic narrative formula is therefore very productive and makes allowance for the authority of the individual artist. It is for these reasons that I would describe my blogging experience as empowering; the ability not only to put my thoughts out there but to formulate them in a coherent and attractive way on a medium that is globally accepted. Contemporary media genre such as blogging however, is still an evolving genre as technology continues to change and progress, not to mention the needs of the consumer. Blogging as a form of media perhaps requires us to change along with it and progress simultaneously. Regardless of its relative recent birth, blogging has grown exponentially and continues to do so as it serves as a means of global communication.