Reflection on Four Lectures

Hello fellow followers! I hope you are having a great week and day so far :) As you have seen previously, I have summarised the last four lectures into what we have learnt so far. I would now like to give a quick paragraph on each lecture and my personal opinion and interpretation on the topics presented and how these have affected me.

Lecture  1

This was the very first lecture (introduction) to the topic. Basically a quick overview of what was to come throughout this course was given, with the assessment items quickly listed. The question was asked "what is journalism and communications?" and a very interesting quote stuck with me when the response was given to this question. "Journalism is the first rough draft of history" Let's just ponder upon this statement for a moment. I believe that when studying Journalism and learning about its origins and why this particular study came about, one needs to delve into the true meaning behind communicating through journalism. There is no right or wrong communicating style, history itself can be transferred to the public in many shapes and forms and can therefore have a particular viewpoint on a matter. "Journalism is the first rough draft of history" as this study may not exactly define the meaning behind worldwide events but provides the framework of historical events to come.

 

Lecture  2

As I have discussed before, this particular lecture was about new and old media and the implications of people paying for something they believe they are entitled to continue to have for free. Whilst the lecture continued, I began to question our society's use of media and how people are so reluctant to pay for news online in this day and age. There needs to be a monetising scheme established and old media such as newspaper need to be brought back from the dead. There is an increase of ignorance and a lack of knowledge surrounding news that is published online (ethnocentricity). Readers believe they are entitled to news and this could most definitely result in the death of Journalism. Cheap Web news is in, and newspapers and the classifieds are out!

Lecture  3

This particular lecture was all about the structure of text and how formatting is extremely important when grabbing the reader's attention. The inverted pyramid technique most interested me when listening to the lecture. It is an extremely helpful and clever diagram in regards to the formatting of information. The most important information is always at the top of the pyramid and as the pyramid continues, the least important information starts to form. This pyramid is a very useful tool in the field of journalism, readers need to be captured and interested from the moment they read a story or piece of information. The more defined facts and figures can come into the picture later on but a hook needs to be established from the moment an article is read. Even though the content of a journalist story is very important, the structure and formatting of the information provided is just as important!

Lecture 4

The fourth lecture was probably one of my favourite over this month. It was all about pictures and how one picture can speak a thousand words (as cliche as that sounds!). There are many elements that surround capturing a good picture to match the story told such as framing, focus, exposure etc. However, one point raised in the lecture that got me thinking was the photo shopping or Faux - tography aspect of pictures. Is natural beauty or keeping a picture simple not enough to attract viewers? When did our society become so obsessed with trying to achieve perfection through manipulation? It is time to keep the naturalness of people and photos to achieve a more believable image, rather than faking our way to this so called "perfection".