Coming into J198 this semester I wasn't really sure what to expect. I knew I'd be tweeting and blogging and making some videos, but I definitely think I underestimated how time consuming it would be. A pleasant surprise though was the basically zero amount of reading we ended up having to do.
As far as blogging goes I have to admit that I do not think I'm made for blogging. I love to write, especially about things that I'm passionate about and enjoy, and yes, I do enjoy working out and feeling good but I do not think I knew enough about fitness to write a blog article on it three times a week. That was of course my own bad judgement and luckily I found enough healthy recipes, workout plans, and healthy living tips that stayed consistent with my blog.
Twitter wise, I definitely feel I improved since the beginning of the semester. I did not understand what a hashtag was or how to find people or reach my "tribe" until a few weeks into the semester. I also had problems remembering to tweet about my blog in the beginning but I got the hang of it eventually. Before Multimedia and Reporting, I saw twitter as just another silly tool of social media where people could "follow" celebrities. This class definitely opened my eyes up to a whole different side of twitter though--a more serious side that allowed anyone and everyone to act as reporters.
My favorite part of J198, and what I think I improved in the most considering I had no experience at the beginning of the semester, was definitely making video news stories. From the filming itself, to interviewing people, to editing and eventually "publishing" on youtube and our blogs, I really surprised myself with how much I enjoyed this aspect of the class. It was definitely frustrating at times if people were not very cooperative or if just the slightest thing went wrong, but for some reason I always felt very proud after finishing a video.
All in all, I think this class was a great opportunity to really learn about and take advantage of every platform of social media. My one regret would be my lack of enthusiasm in my blog but besides that I really impressed myself with my ability to produce news stories, make google maps, tweet meaningful (and not-so-meaningful) tweets, use storify, flickr… you get the point! I feel like this class has given me the tools I need to tackle any field of journalism or media for that matter and I look forward to seeing how I apply my newfound knowledge.
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