Dear Diary - 'Networked Media Assignments'

On my first days of each media subject we were introduced to our lecturers and modules. Importantly, all of the lecturers I met on this day seemed very enthusiastic and charismatic teaching the subject. For MEDS 1101 and 1102 we were given a Module Handbook which would last us the whole academic year.

Assignement 1: Written Report

Leaving my first Networked Media Lecture I felt slightly overwhelmed. The course definitely interested me but part of me thought "Can I keep up?" The syllabus for Media in University far differed from the kind of thing I had experienced at GCSE and A-Level. I suppose this was mainly due to the decrease in imagination and creativity and the increase in theory and understanding of media. Then again, as a university degree, what else did I expect from the subject! My confidence began to grow, however, once I went home and began to read into the assignments I'd be having to do throughout the course. First of all we'd have to do a report on an article by media scholar Henry Jenkins, which concerns 'Eight Traits of the New Media Landscape'. Although sighing in discouragement at the title of the piece, I read on and found "...as it relates to your own media use" within the assignment outline, which was an immediately appealing aspect of the assignment. This was due to the fact I wouldn't be simply struggling to make sense of Jenkins work in my writing, but I could relate it to my day-to-day use of all the media around me. 

8 Essay questions for
Assignment 2.

Assignment 2: Essay

Secondly, we were assigned a 2000 word essay, worth 40% of our final module mark. Dissimilarly to A-Level and GCSE essays that had been set for me in the past, we were given an option of 8 questions, rather than 1. This interested me as not only did i feel as though i'd been provided with more freedom than before, but I had been given the opportunity to either completely challenge myself, or decide on something comfortable. More so, it allowed the student to choose what they would prefer to research and develop their knowledge in, rather than it be chosen for them.

Assignment 3:
Reflective Journal

Our third and last assignment was one which excited me most. 'A Reflective Journal' was written at the top of page 11 in the Module Handbook for MEDS1101. The reason that this assignment in particular interested me is because of the creativity and freedom it held. The 'Journal' would be exhibited on a blog through the popular website www.blogger.com, which I had used in A-Level to present all of my work for my A2 Music Video Project, wherein we had to create our own music video for a song of our choice. You can visit my blog at by clicking here. I hope you enjoy it. From my this previous assignment I knew how much creativity could be used within this assignment in terms of the presentation of my work and the multimedia capabilities through links, pictures and videos. Furthermore, I was eager to really make this blog attractive, formal, but still reflective of my personality.

After reading about my assignments I was ready to get started on my course and excited to see what I'd learn in the weeks to come. Stick around and you'll find out!