New Communication Technologies: A Critical Reflection

Prior to my first lecture of New Communication Technologies, I was unaware of how truly broad and abstract this subject can be. But through the course, I have started to realise that aside from the history of communication and media theory, how relevant all this truly is to our daily lives. We all use Microsoft Word and many of us have blogs. The very concept of blogs in fact, was something quite alien to me before our first tutorial. But through the course not only have I managed to establish one and update it quite regularly but my skills in what I consider to be everyday applications like Microsoft Word and Excel were honed through the tutorial tasks. Mail merging for example, was a completely new concept to me despite having used Word for years. Photoshop is another area I found very interesting we did in tutorials. Never again will I look at a picture in a magazine and digest it at face value, now that I know what is possible with the humble mouse and keyboard.

This being my first semester of university, I found that the essay and the processes of coming up with a topic and searching databases for information has laid a foundation for work similar in my other subjects. Moreover, my essay has taught me about the many possibilities of the internet but more importantly the many potential pitfalls such as excessive internet use and obesity that are associated with this medium. Exploiting the net for its informational, recreational and communication purposes I believe sits as a core value of this course anyway.

Media theory and the history of the internet and computer appeared boring to me at first, to be honest. It was only during the later part of the semester as I was studying for the exam that I realised how far we have come in technology and how significant some of those events are in shaping communication as we know it today. The telephone's point to point transmission (as opposed to radio's broadcast transmission) being a forerunner to today's internet for example, struck me as being almost revolutionary. In fact, it is largely due to this that news today is an interactive process rather than a centralised, concentrated, commercialised, and, ultimately closed avenue, as Habermas tells us. The notion of interactive news and citizen journalism was a topic that interested me so much, that I chose it was a topic to explore further in my Effective Writing Academic Essay.

Overall, I think the course was very interesting and worked well. This is partly because the tutorials through creating the blogs provided first hand experience in understanding the power of blogging and the web. Videos shown during the lectures were also interesting and provided insight to the concepts covered in the lectures. The tutorials however, could probably be improved by again reviewing what was covered in that week's lecture so that knowledge is constantly refreshed. This would ensure less 'cramming' closer to the exam and questions to be asked in a less intimidating circumstance. :)