Within my group, my role was to study the advantages of citizen journalism. I interviewed online journalist, Abeer Mishkhas, and provided an analysis of her views on citizen journalism. Initially, I was overwhelmed and felt personally archaic because of the advantages that I had discovered the internet could provide me with. Ok, so I always knew that one could blog, be an online journalist, buy things online like art and books, take educational courses, network and potentially promote themselves online. All these advantages had been placed infront of me for years. Why did I not take advantage of them? I didn’t even hold a facebook account before the module. Once I was obligated to use the different virtual communities available to me I was in some sort of state of ease. Somehow I felt that something had been resolved in me. It was simply, I later realised, that time was clicking. Many things that I wanted to achieve were at the tips of my fingers and it was acceptable for them to be so virtually near and geographically far.
At the beginning of the module, I was unfamiliar with the technical side of multimedia. In truth I did not master it, nor did any of my class mates but to learn another language, another world, with its own numbered mentality was very interesting. I was introduced to the language of HTML which in short, was the beginning of a new experience. I was able to set up a basic website which I wish to develop in the future. The group wiki website had most of what the NAFA group had learned during the module. The colours were pleasing to the eye and they continued to repeat themselves to create a pattern. This made the wiki look professional, organised and user friendly. My own wiki page could have looked better but the wiki program didn’t provide all the technical advantages that other programs may have. For instance, the image used on my wiki page is of different planets. I initially chose this image because I wanted have a hyperlink to the different areas of the module, e.g. my blog, the group blogs and the NAFA wiki page.
I guess in a way, as we were at such a beginner’s level, it was much simpler to use a more basic program.
I was also disappointed with the templates my blog was offered. I changed the colours and outline of my blog several times but in truth, I’m still not particularly happy with its outline. I think I shall change this soon again. One member of my group created her own using Photoshop but, at this moment, I unfortunately only know how to use Photoshop to edit my photographs.
I was initially very excited about blogging. I always considered blogging but never thought I had a reason. The module gave me a reason to blog. More importantly, it made me realise that I should always have a reason. I should always question my life, goals and expectations of the world around me.
The fact that, through blogging, my thoughts were made public gave me a stronger will to write with an aim. Perhaps not so much with a solution, as it is not always easily reached, but with a question. As I have a somewhat interest in writing, I realised that blogging was an education, a formless education with boundaries, if any, that I could dictate. I had the freedom to not be filtered or regulated in any sense and by anyone. So here it was, I became an addict to writing and could never master summarization. Then I remembered that I didn’t have time to summarize; it was easier to write and write and much more complex for me to declare a premature full stop.
Overall I’m pleased with my blog, but in truth, I had, at many times, wished to have more free time to write other blogs. Perhaps now that that my new found hobby is like water on a humid day, I shall push myself to find reasons, personal reasons that will benefit me in my life.
Having never visited my home country Iraq, I have always found myself to be not fully developed. I always feel a certain distance between my country and the country I live in now. Perhaps when the beauty of kissing the dust of your grandparents’ street will not result in instant death, I shall be able to write a blog on Iraq. When, I don’t know. Yet even the waiting is worth writing about.
Overall I feel our group has worked exceptionally hard on our project. Our wiki page is quiet but elegant. Our content is relevant to what our initial aim was, to find the possible advantages in virtual communities. Of course the module was rather short, or perhaps it seemed so because I enjoyed it so much, but it would have been interesting to further our knowledge on the internet. I guess I can do this in my own time but it was great to be introduced to the internet in such a way as all our other modules are very academic. Ok, they are important and enjoyable but they are so closely knit to each other that it was refreshing to study something like the multimedia module.
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