vague electronic transmissions

I’ve decided that I’ll be bringing the inflatable alien I inherited from my ex 2 years ago into the Labsome space this week. No reason in particular, I just think it will be funny to see stress-frenzied students wig out at this thing during the more deadline-heavy times throughout the year. I’m nice to my peers, no?

I’ve also been thinking about the latest blog suggestion for this week – and requirement for Thursday’s class - the first draft for our thesis’ abstract. Here is what I have  so far:

The Howard government’s defeat in the 2007 Federal election came as a victory for the Australian news media. During the months leading up to the Coalition’s last stand, print, television, and talkback radio coverage played arguably the most crucial role in shaping public perceptions and popular opinion. Therefore, the supposedly unbiased role that these so-called ‘gatekeepers’ play – particularly during election time – has been thrown into question more than ever. Politics and policy aside, if it had not been for the major media outlets’ uniformly pro-Labor stance, the Liberal Party would almost certainly still be in office.

Clearly it still needs work – but hopefully ya’ll can get some idea of the direction I want to steer this 12000 words in.

3 things I hope to achieve:

-To push myself as far as possible in terms of intellectual boundaries
-To further my love and understanding of Communications as a whole
-To integrate fully within the RMIT community by becoming an active ambassador for its scholarly ethic

Seeing as one of year-long core subjects is dedicated to the very purpose of Research itself, it seems only fitting that we would be asked to identify exactly what it is.

Research, in my mind, carries with it very laborious, arduous, tiresome connotations. On the other hand, however, it carries the huge satisfaction of discovery and enlightenment – especially when you are researching a topic of interest, and you happen to uncover some info that is crucial to your argument or study. Depending on the subject matter at hand, research could go either way in terms of enjoyment. One thing that is certain is how crucial it is in the academic process – you certainly can’t graduate without acquiring some sharp skills in terms of sourcing articles, books, studies, expert opinions etc. Lastly, research has what I would term a cascading effect – in that it gives way to more research, findings, discoveries, inventions, ideas.

Well, here goes. Part I of the III blog posts we have been prescribed this week:

Truth be told, I am not yet quite sure what to make of Honours. It seems surreal that I am even enrolled in this course, that somehow I will be submitting 12000 words (and that aint the half of it) of Academic merit come October this year. The contact hours are extremely misleading; when you tell someone you only have class for 6 hours a week, they assume you have it easy. Wrong. There is so much morer self-directed learning prescribed that you can’t even begin to explain. The other students are all really focussed and dedicated – that’s not to say I’m not – but I think my passion for the discipline overrides either of those. It’s thrilling and overwhelming and above all, testing – The term ‘survival of the fittest’ springs to mind. I can only hope I measure up in some fashion…