#NMN reflection

I am finishing up my Masters program in Public Relations and I have to say that this course was one of my favourites over the past two years of study. Partly because I feel it is so practical, everything we studied this term is something I can use in my job in the future but also because its challenged me and made me explore and learn out of pure interest. 

From the start, it’s been a challenge. The first week when we had to complete the podcast, I reread the syllabus at least five times because I thought the date was wrong! But it was just a sign of things to come and for that I am really grateful. Creating a podcast, editing together a video/story for Inanimate Alice, developing an online petition, analyzing selfies, discovering Twitter fiction and tweeting and blogging has been incredibly interesting and challenging.  New media has always interested me but this course has sparked a new interest in the area. One that is more critical and reflective thanks in part to the required readings but also in part to the discussions we’ve had over the term as a class.  But to me personally this class was successful because we as a class, were so participatory in the process and thats what new media is all about.

I think the one area that really surprised me was the whole conversation about Twitter fiction and I think trying to create a story as a class is something worth exploring in the future.

The last weeks readings on gaming has motivated me to reinvestigate gaming; it was always an area of interest to me but I fell away from it.  The readings encouraged me to rethink games, to consider how they have their own spatial structure and can create their own physical space while establishing themselves as serious storytellers. Thinking about opening up the engine to allow users to contribute to the story, constantly changing and manipulating its development is exciting. I discovered that I am a Seeker in terms of Audience Archetypes,

"This group is all about going deeper into the story, exploring different worlds, and learning new things—making them voracious information seekers. They want more back-story, more bonus content, more sneak peeks—more, more, more. And they want it without distraction; Seekers are least likely to use a second screen (for any reason — including looking up related content, emailing, shopping, texting, etc.) while engaging with a story, but they do express more interest in checking out related content at other times."

In fact, there’s much in the readings from this semester that I will revisit in my leisure time.  In particular, biophilia, Twitter Narratives and futurecasting are areas I will be reading up on.  Passive or active narrative experience? It really is our choice and I feel that this course has made me aware of this and for that I am entirely grateful.