THE FIRST YEAR JOURN CLASS TUMBLE DRYER

And so the blogging began…….after a whole lot of other beginnings. I began my first year at Rhodes with acute knowledge about what journalism was all about, not only because all I knew was that I just wanted to write but also because the first year theme of surviving first year was very constricting in itself but also because of some of the challenges that came with the course.
And so I tried to navigate myself through the work, and as hard as I tried, it was hard sticking not only to deadlines but the big bad “genre characteristics” that like big bad monsters in a dark room kept constraining me from all angles. Granted that they existed and it took practice, news writing, vac-work, narrative and genre, narrative and genre and more narrative and genre.
And then the blog came, Dig My Rez it was. From working alone to working in a group with different people who had different ideas and different working techniques made life difficult. Until the day I almost lost my quota, adamant to fix it, and fix it I did. With my limited knowledge of the cyber sphere I managed to try and relate our blog character to our actual blog now that was hard work on its own. Trying to relate every piece of writing with it was even harder but alas a small and short lived victory it was.
“Make sure that the target audience is reached, make sure that the character of the blog is reflected, make sure that the polls are up to date and make sure you still post extra pieces of writing to the blog” said the voices in my head during the fourth term of working with narrative and genre and as the theme dragged on and became old so did the story ideas and trains of thought.
Was this even journalism? Confines and constraints in spaces filled with limitations of every kind, be it a word count, a written piece type or the infamous blog character. So many things to say, so little time in which to say them in and offcourse so many other factors to consider when writing about whatever it is I was writing about…… eternal frustration. Then the question arises, is journalism writing what you know how you know it or sticking to rules of writing what you know within the confines of not only the course but the different genre expectations.
Yes…. I have learnt and realised that writing is governed by rules, rules, and more rules and so I learnt to roll with the punches, kicking and screaming at every turn! “Help me, I am drowning” said the voice of helplessness in my head as the workload became too much to bear, the ideas slow in coming and the working slower. And so we tried as hard as we could to compromise, working in a group had its challenges, where going the extra mile was rare and to be avoided like the plague.
And so the struggle continued, as it were, trying to reflect on everything that is not right with the world and everything that was, trying to make sense of it all, Journalism and Media Studies it was. All this and more being done while “sticking to the game plan”.