Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Concerning First Years

Had a discussion with the first years on 'Media and Sport' yesterday. Well, actually it was on the 'Construction of sporting personalities in the South African Media'. I wrote down three names on the board - Carlos Alberto P, Hansie and Luke Watson and I asked them to break into groups and discuss one of them. My original lecture was going to be on Media legislation pre and post democracy but the projector and I seemed to be at odds. I lost this round, but four years of lecturing has taught me to always have a backup plan.
I find that the best way to teach media studies is to use examples that the students can relate to. So when I do a lecture on say Media coverage of the war in Iraq, when I handle the anti war movement I will play songs that the students know. I think the key element for being a media student is to be critical of any text that you come across. Herein lies the problem. Sometimes you become so critical that you lose touch with 'popular taste'(Archtype pointed this out when he disagreed with my gaming preferences - wait till you see my list on mydl tonight - theres no final fantasy there at all)

MJ

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