The last full stop.

“You are going to have to set up a blog in order for you to submit your assignments” our tutor, Tracey, explained to a bunch of first years mirroring my expression-bewilderment. Personally, I didn’t even know what a blog was a year ago. And now, they were expecting an entire class of journalism 1 students to know how to do this. I was sure I was not the only one.

Due to the fact that we were studying narrative and genre in the third term, it was only natural that the fourth term’s more practical course would be confined to one genre - blogging. During the onset of the course, being put into groups was comforting, as the general feeling was that of confusion.

I found blogging to be quite an interesting and fascinating genre of journalism. I, along with the rest of my group did not find this genre at all limiting, if anything, it was quite flexible. The fact that we could communicate by means of text, music, slideshows, photos and by editing our profiles made it that more diverse. The only thing that might have curbed our inspiration was time constraints. I usually work very well under pressure, except for the fact that journalism is not my only subject and having up to four deadlines, for one subject, per week, was a little rough.

Last Saturday night, a friend and I were busy putting the final touches to our JMS 2 applications, when a frantic “gtalk” bubble popped up screaming, “The comment is due for tonight!!” Flat panic. It was 22 45. That left an hour and a bit to find a blog to comment on and write something substantial. The constantly changing deadlines not only put a curb on our productivity, but it sent most of us into flying fits of rushed confusion. We immediately rushed off to our own rooms to complete the assignment only to find out the next morning in class that the assignment was due for that night, Monday night.

Coming up with story ideas was not a problem for me. The assignments that we had been given throughout the term, I thought were interesting and I enjoyed them. We had not been given this sort of creative freedom before, as our previous writing course had been confined to the news genre. However, I did feel that the theme we were given was a little overdone; we had dealt with our experiences as first years in our news writing course. This was a little off putting, because whenever I read the assignment brief, my energy for the new piece would deflate as I realised I would have to link it back to my first year. Thus, I feel that confining a theme to one year is a little creatively limiting.

In terms of writing, I feel that I learnt a great deal about the different styles of writing, for example, the letter, the profile (although we did this in the first term), the photo comic strip, the opinion piece and now the reflexive piece. However, I was a little disappointed when I realised the reflexive piece was about our course, and not about, once again, our first year experience. To be quite honest, I had become used to writing on this subject and was looking forward to it, or at least somehow relating my story back to my first year.

I didn’t do any in-depth research for any of my pieces, apart from interviewing a couple of people, and browsing the odd internet site and so I didn’t really have to worry about verifying my facts as I did so while doing the initial researching. Neither did I experience any difficulty with my sources, although I did find it challenging while interviewing one particular source. I had decided to do my profile piece on a friend, whom I believed to be a true survivor of not just first year varsity, but her personal life as well. I had to interview her at 7 30 in the morning as she was heading home for a couple of days. I remember watching her sitting on her chair in her purple Roxy shirt recalling the events of the past two years with a smile on her face. I found this slightly unsettling as the last two years and not been easy for her, although at the same time it was uplifting, as instead of becoming wrapped up in a world of uncertainty and sadness again, she told the story as though she was an outsider with an insider’s perspective.

On a Wednesday morning, I attended my journalism lecture as per normal, and as per usual I sat in the same spot. There is always something unconventional that happens in our lectures due to the odd practices of our one lecturer, but, I definitely wasn’t expecting what was about to happen. I listened, gobsmacked as this one said lecturer read out aloud a student’s polite, diplomatic email. In the letter, she explained how she felt that the workload for this specific class was slightly heavy and how she did not appreciate it when this said lecturer generalised that all students will go out, party and get drunk before they even consider their work. She divulged personal information in this email about why she was having difficulty meeting deadlines, only for it to be read out to the entire journalism 1 class. This lecturer then covered up by saying he had done so by way of example for our next piece, the opinion piece. This is the only ethical concern I have faced in the duration of this course, as I believe it is a violation of privacy. Nobody sends an email to a lecturer expecting for it to be read out in class.

All in all, I feel that due to my experiences in this course, deadline mishaps and unethical practices included, I have learnt a great deal, not only about journalism, but life as well. I realise now that journalism is not just about writing stories, but about the message you leave behind once you type that full stop.

Your Point?

Your blog is very similar to mine. I am a first year student taking journalism and media studies, and our course work for the fourth term requires us to create a blog and post all our assignments onto it. I was interested to see how you voluntarily decided to write about your first year. You see, us journalism students have been writing on the same subject matter (our first year experiences) all year long and its getting a little bit old. As we have all discovered, there is a limit to how much you can write on your first year experiences, especially when that is all the creative freedom you are given. Anyway, back to the point. When I found your blog, I was immediately intrigued when you stated that you weren’t quite sure why you had created your blog-I found this to be inspiring, and so I carried on reading. Throughout the post, your recalling of memories from “Freshers Fortnight” brought back memories of our version of that, “O-Week” (Orientation Week). And so, thanks, you helped me draw inspiration for my last journalism assignment for this year, a reflexive piece. I hope you “stick to this”...

Feed my mind!

You want my opinion? On any”common belief about first year”?

Hmm… well how about the one thing that I know is plaguing a large majority of JMS1 students: the Journalism department.

“I’m just sooo over journ! I mean, I came to Rhodes to study JMS and now I actually couldn’t care less about getting into journ2!” is a not an uncommon sentiment among students.
But why is this? I came to Rhodes, burning in anticipation of having the freedom to study what I was interested in. And I was not disappointed. Not initially anyway. Rod Amner’s Introduction to News course really got me revved up. I consumed newspapers like never before and even tuned into SAFm. Suddenly the world was opening up; I was studying at the best journalism department in the country and I was going to become a true, hardcore journalist.

Yea right! At the moment, the thought of enduring another three years at a department that seems to think it houses the second coming is not really on the top of my “want to do” list.

Fact is, I'm bored.

Now I know that university in not supposed to be a circus (hmm…), but if it’s not here that we learn the deadline-tight-rope-dance and the ability to draw a bunny out of a hat, where are we supposed to learn? School did help, a little, but not enough to prepare us for the real stage; the “real world”, where there are no dress rehearsals and backup stage hands. As graduates, we are expected to be fully qualified magicians, able to skilfully work at the speed of light, maintaining a practiced balance between work and play. Out there, if you don't have at least one ace up your sleeve, you’re done.

Instead, more than a month into my final JMS1 course, I have five pages of lecture notes. To someone who is accustomed to taking a minimum of three per lecture (jotting down fact helps me remember) this is highly concerning. And threats of being sent to the front row if I quietly voice my irritation does nothing for my optimism for the course. Sure, the concept of blogging is a fantastic one, and I’m generally satisfied with the assignments. But the lectures… now that’s another issue entirely.

A JMS1 student vehemently vehemently states “that all lectures for first year Journalism and Media Studies students should be compulsory”. If that were the case, I think I’d almost willingly lose my DP. What I find even more disconcerting is the fact that I know that I do not speak for only myself. The idea of learning more about journalists and the blogosphere was initially very exciting. But within a week all I felt was irritation. I sat (and still do) in lectures, waiting for the hat trick – for our lecturers to be transformed from the highly patronising – and sometimes seemingly incompetent - into inspiring fellow journalists. They have much to offer, no doubt, but somehow something is lacking.

One of the core concepts that I will take away from my Drama 1 course this year is the idea of always raising the stakes, always pushing the boundaries. I want, no, I need to sit on the edge of my seat, pen in hand ready for the next invaluable point. This simply is not happening.

The “How to start your blog” lecture was almost physically painful. To me, spending an entire lecture going through something that should take any literate person a matter of minutes is a gross waste of time. And letter writing? Definitely helpful – to those still school.

Most students are paying between R60 – R75 per lecture. In light of this, and my meagre pages of lecture notes, I really don’t feel that I’m getting my money’s worth. I fully support the core concept of the course, but just not how it is being presented.

I’m not saying that the course should be impossibly difficult or unrealistically demanding. But it would be nice if our two ring masters would stop appearing to think that we know nothing. I didn’t endure 12 years of school just to be retaught what I could have managed with before hitting high school.