3 posts tagged “blog”
When I first started the Broadcast Journalism program at Mohawk College, I never anticipated learning so much about the Internet in this program. I knew that I'd be learning a lot about the media, the foundations of journalism, and I was excited to gain print, radio, and television experience. Learning a lot about the Internet in this program I consider an added and welcome bonus.
I compare what I've learned about the Internet in this course thus far to my knowledge of guitar. I've been playing guitar for about 5 or 6 years, and after awhile, I felt I hit a plateau in my playing abilities. I was good at what I had learned and practised, but I wasn't entirely sure how to move forward in order to adapt other skills. I tried different instructors, different music and difficult techniques, but I always found myself reverting back to what was comfortable. When I started this course, I knew what I knew about the Internet, and I found myself living in a repetitive cycle of continually visited web-pages and activities. This course has really opened my eyes to some great aspects of the Internet, and how to manuvre and use these newly acquired skills to my best advantage. One area of the online universe I've become very interested and aware of... is blogging.
In our Online Writing course earlier in the semester, we learnt different web-related techniques and websites, and I personally found it very educating and informative.
Also, through our actual journalism classes, I've decided that bloggers are without a doubt, journalists. In this day and age, anyone has the capability of capturing and broadcasting any information they choose on a multitude of different online forums. With cellphones, digital cameras, iPods, and other forms of technology commonplace, the average citizen is quickly becoming an incredibly important part of broadcasting news.
Blogging is not just an online activity, it's an online culture. Anyone with a computer or access to the Internet can write a "blog" for millions of others to potentially see. Being able to express ones opinion in a public forum and debate on different issues, to me, is an empowering form of journalism.
I consider blogs to be 'online journals', and I find no coincidence in the fact that all the word 'journal' needs, is an 'ism' at the end to create a word that's the cornerstone of our program at Mohawk.
I've found an interesting video on Youtube that takes a look into blogging and 'citizen journalism'. It's an interesting watch and I find the content of the video very relevant to our course.
As far as my guitar playing goes, I'm beginning to move off that plateau...
Cam Brown
I've really enjoyed this assignment, and even though I've procrastinated a few of my blogs, I feel I've learned a lot and intend to keep blogging after completion of the assignment. The following are links to my Flickr and Del.Icio.Us accounts detailing my photos and bookmarks/tags I've created.
Cam's Delicious Tags/Bookmarks
A few more blogs to go and all will be complete. Except for Icyru's goal of becoming a level 60... In due time...
Cam Brown
'41'
At long last, I'm finally sitting down and posting my first official Internet blog. I'm no stranger to message boards and I suppose some of what I've written before could be considered to be a "blog". Most of the posting I do on a daily basis revolves around my fantasy basketball league message board on NBA.com. For those who aren't familiar with fantasy sports, it's a hobby I enjoy in which I build and comprise a team made up of real NBA players. I then compete against other fantasy managers based on those players' actual stats during actual NBA regular season games.
The current league I'm involved in is made up of 12 teams, and is a very competitive and vocal fantasy league. I'm very confident in my basketball knowledge and make that well known to all the other managers on a regular basis. This generates a lot of "trash" talk, and makes for a very interesting and entertaining NBA season. I recently made two trades in this league that I feel will put me over the top in competing for the championship.
Fantasy leagues come in various formats. From NASCAR, to the PGA, Internet users all over the world can involve themselves, interact, and compete with other sports fans in the league(s) of their choice. Fantasy sports is just one of an unmentionable amount of benefits that Web 2.0 presents.
I'm looking forward to investigating, learning, exploring and sharing different ideas and creations through this assignment and the discovery of Web 2.0.
Cam Brown
'41'
