New Media III Reflective Piece

Mdunge Skhumbuzo

Attending New Media III has taught me two things: First, I learned about how to tell one story in various ways by integrating text, video, and still images in one article. Then secondly, I grasp how to use social media, especially Twitter and Facebook, to source various information effectively.

Module Description

I did a total of seven assignments that required the joint effort of group members, but some were required to be accomplish individually. In addition, I also wrote a test that covered everything we did during the year, including the identification of different articles such as Disinformation, Misinformation, and Mal-information.

I found it interesting to acknowledge that there is nothing called as Fake News because the word ‘News’ itself automatically justifies an article with the verified information. So, if the word ‘News” is associated with Fake, Dr Rene Smith suggested it’s sounds contradicting, and I fully agree with her.

Microblogging tasks

The assistance lecture Mrs. Khumbuzile Mbuqe, has deposited great effort to teach us about how to microblog effectively when I go into a story. I learned that preparation is very important. If I don’t prepare, I’ll end up taking pictures of everything and just Tweet about anything without any providing context. I also learned that it’s very important to tag the relevant people when I go out and Tweet into a story.

Utilizing Facebook as a search engine.

During the course, I also learned about how to identify a news story on Facebook. Mrs. Mbuqe once said if I saw a post in a community group, I must also check what other people are saying in the comment section because that can also be a story in itself. I further learned that every piece of information that appears on my feed is determined by algorithms and who also I follow as my friends.

Below see the example of how to identify a news story in the comment section.

The biggest challenge that I had was working with colleagues who had different views about our group assignment. So, to arrive at the final decision, I had to justify why I proposed that my idea was good. This opportunity has allowed me to grow my confidence.

In conclusion, I think New Media is the future of Journalism because it permits all journalists to be multiskilled. Now, when I go out into a story I can take pictures, videos also write an article.