Pitching ideas ( in the absence of those just pitching)

After a week of hard work it's time to get some feedback not only from Jim, whose opinion we value immensely, but from a real expert in the field, Katherine Corrick. Pitching a group blog which we've been handling from barely a week can be quite stressful. I honestly do think that our idea had a good potential. Outlined to be a commercial blog top ten for dummies is easy to navigate, creative and dynamic without any expectations to change to the world, but simply to entertain. Six top ten lists are updated on a daily basis. Each day a different topic, around which the posts will develop, is chosen and then labeled to be organized into categories.

While enjoying writing our top tens we all realized that six posts per day are quite a work load. Working together as a group was fun and easy and I think that shows a lot through our posts. The harmony of our group was threatened when Kieran continuously attempted overtaking Stephan's position, but Stefanie is a very democratic editor and warmly welcomed all of Kieran's suggestions. I was happy with Katherine's verdict even if our idea wasn't her 'cup of tea' she still did think that it was the most commercial one which was our main goal in creating the blog.

group reflections

Top ten blog is finally over, and I don't want to see a top 10 for the rest of my life. Just kidding, i loved it, for the first time since I got in this university I could write about anything and it was goooood. Although it is useless to deny how stressful it was at the same time. On top of uni work, jobs and extras we were posting a top 10 a day each and some of them were nearly 1,000 words.

Usually I am brought to strongly dislike group projects. Maybe because I never had a positive experience with a group project and because I always got stuck with people i seriously dislike, which I am aware does apply to quite a few people. Anyways this time being in a group was a positive experience.

Everyone brought something to the group: Stephan while being organized is the most democratic editor I have ever seen and reveald himslef to be a great mediator when there was a bit of tension in the group,Kieran was the perfect sub-editor spotting all the mistakes ( of which I made alot), helping people to get their posts in when they were running late and simply making sure our blog looked presentable, Lillianne despite not always being in class did a lot for the layout of the blog improving it sensibly and Elle added the female angle to our blog as for me.... well that is for others to say.

If i wasn't so lazy I'd be a pefectionist

A 55 per cent, how depressing is that? I'm pretty sure that if I had told my 10 year old cousin to do this assignment he would have done a better job. Most of all I can't believe that it's always for the same bloody reason: I'm careless. I never double check spelling, even if I know I'm really bad at it, get distracted while writing the article, and the distraction can seriously come from virtually anything and then i am furious, at myself for getting such an awful mark and that's the point.

Being careless generally implies that you don't care, while I do. Well, most of the times anyways. It's like being stuck between the desire for producing something amazing and the desire to slack-off, party and sleep-in. Sometimes I feel the whole learning from your mistakes deal seriously doesn't apply to me.

But on a second analysis, I do learn ,I do improve just not on the carelessness/distraction front. The first article I wrote was a 43 per cent, my English has improved enormously (believe it or not) and I am up to date on the news agenda of a country I knew barely anything about. So, I guess that while I still need to get my acts together I have learned that something I have learned.

forming a group

On Thursday we had to pitch the ideas to the class for a Blogzine, commercial group blog. There was a tiny issue: how can you pitch something that isn't there? I did think about it, but I seriously didn't have any ideas. Well, not any good ones. Can you imagine standing in front of your classmates and saying something which you know to be unimaginative nonsense? Then it hit me it's like doing a presentation! People bored out of their minds kindly try their best to pay attention to one of their peers whom is falling asleep while presenting the thing.

By the time I realized this, most of the class was done pitching and we had to pick our groups. I would have chosen Marianne's idea since I am interested in international news, I want to be a foreign correspondent and all that, but then I had a second thought, I know what you are thinking. This girl can actually manage to elaborate two separate thoughts? I'm aware it's impressive. What if I don't want to be a foreign correspondent what if I don't want to be a journalist at all? I chose all my second year theory modules because I knew I wanted to be a serious dedicated journalist , media law, globalization, multiculturalism, international journalism and political economy, that spells boring out of me I'd say. So lets try the top tens!

AS for now the most valuable lesson I learned is that not only "serious journalism" is hard work. It took us more than anyone else to finish our first post and not because we are stupid, at least not excessively. As a group I reckon we work quite well, sometimes silly, but we always get the work done and it's not just done I honestly think that are all first posts were well, written, creative and most of them original.