There’s something about the list format that absolutely belongs in a blog post. I’m not sure if reading too many Buzzfeed articles has brainwashed me; possible mental influence aside, I seem to have no choice but to present my last tumblr post in nice, sequential order. Prepare yourself.
1) Writing? Are You There?
This course has led to a couple of discoveries about writing. The first is that writing blog posts isn’t as easy as you might think it to be - there’s a weird pressure to remain both humorous and reflective, as if these posts are a reflection of the deep, dark subconscious. Another thing I’ve learnt
(sidenote: Isn’t it strange that the English say “learnt” while Americans say “learned”? This is the kind of identity crisis I struggle with on a daily basis: to write what I learnt to be true as a child, or conform to what I learned later in life)
is that being a writer in a media is, again, not as easy as one might think. I’m taking a course on “distracted reading” and one thing that we discuss often in class is how it’s now possible for everyone to be a writer. In my mind, this both lowers the caliber of writing readily available and raises the stakes for writers attempting to make a living. In reference to my education, one thing I would note is how difficult it is to view blog posts as actual assignments. Although my mind can acknowledge that blog posts are my grade, and that they are especially important in a course aptly called
(or, as you might say, named)
Writing for Media, it’s very difficult to give the same weight to posts as I do to essays. I think this must be because of how my generation was raised - with a sharp focus on essays. We trained for written exams, and in our English classes we were taught that books are written to be analyzed. It’s clear that this is a mentality that’s going to have to change for future generations (our brains are changing, right?) but right now, I find it difficult. I almost feel like I should construct a thesis explaining why.
Is it bad to say that my biggest struggle was deciding on how much emphasis I should give to the phrase “cunt punt”?
Just kidding! (I’m not - it was a real difficulty) This video was a great learning experience for me. My main task was being the voice behind the video: I edited the speech down and recorded it quite a few times, getting strangely comfortable with its tyrannical vulgarity. My mother always said I could rule the world, and reading this letter out loud a few times made me believe I actually may, one day.
After I perfected the voice-over, we all sat down to splice together images and music. We went through quite a few different songs - one finalist was the theme song to Halo 4, my guilty pleasure - before deciding on the title song to another one of my guilty pleasures: a little HBO show called The Leftovers. Fantastic show. I highly recommend it. Regardless, figuring out iMovie proved to be a real challenge, and attempting to splice together the music in a way that worked logically with the sophisticated narrative structure of my voice-over was equally difficult.
I’m actually really grateful to have a basic understanding of iMovie now. I would not want this video to go viral (especially considering what it was entitled by my peers after I left the editing session) but having a deeper knowledge of editing and recording has inspired me somewhat. I want to make another video, and I want to make it really, really good.
My relationship with likes (and other public forms of approval) is much more complicated than it used to be. I find myself actively caring where I once didn’t, and, as a result, my Facebook posts have been more carefully selected. It’s interesting to think that we only present the best version of ourselves via social media. Once the world understands it all a little more, I would love to get a disgustingly qualified team of psychoanalysts to delve into various Facebook profiles and discuss what can be revealed about each author.
Another thing: going viral. It’s still something I want to do (I’m apparently just narcissistic enough) but this course has affirmed my belief that one has to go viral for the right reasons. If you remember, one of my dreams is to write a book and have the amazingly crafted book trailer for it go viral - this is still a dream of mine. I think that would be the coolest thing ever. That being said, I no longer have secret fantasies about being approached by Jimmy Fallon on the street and turned into a YouTube sensation.
And here we come to an end. My main takeaway from the course is this: there are many different factors that go into the relationship between writing and media, and by the time I understand them all there will probably be another few hundred to catch up on. The nature of this beast is that it’s always one step ahead of you.
(If that’s too pessimistic of a note to end on, let me say that I’ve also discovered the value behind uttering the phrase “Newsflash, you stupid cocks” with a straight face.)
For your viewing pleasure: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=odrr1Kt_p-0
snowghoul
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
izzy806
baratheonpilled
andulkaphoto
2087
pixelskylines
amandla