- How has access to free blogging tools aided your beginnings as a journalism student?
It has given me access to a much wider audience and allowed me to feel like my work is now up there for the work to see for as long as the internet is a thing. It has given me an ability now to grow and stretch my writing legs much more. I plan to try and keep up my work as it is exciting to think that i can build and grow my blog and watch my writing develop as my skills and experience improve.
2. List briefly discuss 3 functions your phone can provide to aid your journalism?
My phone gives me access to the internet firstly and most importantly which gives me access to social media which is vital. Secondly it allows me to take pictures and edit them as well as videos for interviews vox pops etc giving my work a media rich context. Thirdly it allows me access to my presentations when i am about to present it is a great tool just to run through your work one more time before you present its just really handy its in you hand and can really help in the final minutes before a presentation.
3. List briefly 3 possible downsides the web, smartphones, etc can have on your experience as a trainee journalist.
The first downside is its making our attention spans shorter with video clips and quick cuts as per the MTV music video. Secondly its making it so that we don’t have to work as hard to get information with video being so popular and it being a passive brain activity. Reading has become outdated and archaic old fashioned if you will and this is a problem because this is an important skill for us to master and practice regularly it is resistance training for our brains. Thirdly it is making us less social or at least less polite on social media with keyboard warrior syndrome meaning that you feel more comfortable saying mean or nasty things online that you would never say to peoples faces, I have had first hand experience of this and it is not a good thing.
donalcarrollhack 