I came into the course with the attitude that I’d done all this before and that I would drone on through the subject as it was something that I ‘just had to do.’ With the mindset that I’d been blogging for three years in my Journalism course, I was taken aback with how little I knew about everything behind it.
The discussion of the Public Sphere and Media Effects model were two topics that I found the most interesting as I had come across them previously, but never really knew what they were. Prior to the lectures I read David Gauntlett’s ‘Ten things wrong with the effects model’ which applied heavily to the work I am studying regarding the roles of the media in society. This combined with new formed knowledge of the Public Sphere, I found myself intrigued to learn more about the industry which I’ve been both working and studying in.
Having never heard the word semiotics in my life, week three was a large eye-opener for me. The tutorial exercise where we had to dissect images and what they represent was something that puzzled me. I was contributing what I believed the images meant, but skipping the steps as to how I got there. By believing I knew what the text was trying to communicate to me, I completely disregarded the use of denotation and connotation which in fact, swayed what I thought I was seeing. The reading from Mitchell Hobbs placed semiotics in a format which I could understand, helping me to grasp the concept and appreciate why this analysis of images is so critical.
By reading and commenting on other people’s work, I found myself taking tips and techniques they used and applying them to my own writing. I think the fact that everyone was in the same boat and all had things too improve on, it made it easier to respond to the challenges I faced by consulting and getting feedback from my peers.
I look forward to reading everyone’s work in the future!
References
Gauntlett, David. ‘Ten Things Wrong with the ‘effects model’, in Approaches to Audiences – A Reader, Roger Dickinson, Ramaswami Harindranath and Olga Linne (eds) Arnold: London, 1998 http://www.theory.org.uk/effects.htm
McKee, Alan. The Public Sphere: An Introduction , Cambridge University Press: Cambridge 2005, pp. 1-31.
Mitchell Hobbs, Semiotics: Making Meaning from Signs’ in Communication, New Media and Everyday Life, Tony Chalkley et al. Oxford University Press: Oxford, pp. 83-95.
First Year Again. 