2nd March, 2013
“Procrastination is the thief of time.” Who said that? Someone plunging into the world of blogs for
the first time, I suspect. Well, there’s
no point in dilly-dallying. The time has
come to pitch myself into the enticing, if slightly forbidding, waters of JN1001.
Perhaps a good place to start this adventure might be to tell you
a bit about why I’m embarking on “The Journalist in Society.”
Firstly, I’m interested!
For too long now I’ve grumbled about the media that I do access
(newspapers, TV news, and the internet) without having much understanding of
what underpins them. And what is this
discipline of journalism anyway? How can
I use it to enhance the quality of my own life and to progress the quality of
life of others?
Secondly, I want to try and conquer some new skills. I can’t watch my four year old grandson
effortlessly migrating round his iPad any longer. I’ve got to join the twenty first
century! It would be great to access
diverse sources of information and opinion more effectively, to find out about
(and use) social media, to write good articles and to make them interesting and
intriguing for my readers.
Thirdly, I want to try and stave off mental decline! The current wisdom in the journals of gerontology
– the study of old age – is that there is no sure way of preventing dementia at
this time but there are several “protective strategies” that seem to strengthen
the capacity of older people to avoid it. Keeping
socially involved, getting regular exercise, and developing new skills
involving new path ways in the brain probably top the list. JN1001
should fit the bill on all counts!
Fourthly, and perhaps most importantly, I think it might be
fun! How nice it will be to be getting
to know a completely new group of people with different life experiences
to mine, with different skill bases, with fresh ideas and with that openness to
the new that youth often brings. I hope
I can contribute something positive to the mix by bringing to the class some of
my past experience but, like everyone else, I guess I’ll need to earn my
stripes.
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