Greetings!

Welcome to my Journalism blog. Here is where I will discuss the valuable things I've learned in my Introduction to Journalism and Communications course, run by Dr Bruce Redman, and will post content I find interesting or relevant to the course. The course so far, JOUR1111, has been informative and fun, and I must say has become one of my favourites so far. We have begun learning basic practical skills, as well as background information to our field. We have also been discussing and learning about the exciting, fast approaching future of journalism with the Symantic Web ('Web 3.0'). The future of journalism appears to be somewhat unstable and uncertain; exciting, nonetheless.
But enough on that right now. I shall get started on discussing what I have learned in the first lecture of this course. 

Lecture One - Introduction to Journalism and Communications

This lecture discussed administrative issues and provided a general introduction the course and what we will be studying. We were introduced to our lecturer and tutors and given instructions on how to contact them. We were given a brief run down of the course content and outline ('Telling Factual Stories') - we will be discussing topics such as the impact of the web on journalism, commercial and public media, news values, ethics and political economy. We had a basic rundown of what exactly journalism and communication is and entails, and provided will valid reasons as to why we should study it (such as the fact that it 'is part the very fabric of social life', and that it is a job where you have the power to speak to the world and influence it as desired).
We also discussed some of the current challenges of journalism; the possible future death of newspapers due to the rapid growth of the internet, proposed paywalls, user generated content and social media. There are many threats to journalism and limited solutions; one simple to solution is to get people from the general public to subscribe to the media they love; the public will benefit by never missing content from writers that inspire them, and the journalism industry benefits from the public's contribution.
I found this initial lecture very informative and it made me feel secure that I am doing the right course to achieved my future desires.

Dr Bruce began his first lecture with some of his favourite journalism quotes; and I shall end my first blog post with some of mine.

'After Watergate, which happened when I was in college, I became increasingly inspired by journalism as a way to change the world. It sounds corny, but to wake the public up, to serve a higher cause.'
- David Talbot

'And I believe that good journalism, good television, can make our world a better place.'
- Christiane Amanpour

'By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.'
- Oscar Wilde

 
Until next time,
Lauren.