When I enter the lecture theatre for JOUR1111 on Monday, only one thought is circulating in my mind: "Good god, my giant novelty pen is amazing." Fifty minutes later, the pen is somewhere in the depths of my bag and I find myself fretting over what I could possibly make my blog about. It'll be creative! It'll be aesthetic! It'll be so amazingly witty!
But this thing is being ASSESSED. If I screw this up, my dreams of working for a super-duper-alternative-culture magazine will be foiled, I'll become homeless and lonely and ashamed, and the only publication I'll be near is the Big Issue.
After wading through 21 pages about blogging, courtesy of 'The Online Journalism Handbook', I know I need a niche. Paul Bradshaw and Lisa Rohumaa are onto something. Yes, my lecturer did tell us that we could focus on anything we like, from his favourite example of motorbikes to tea cozies. And yet somehow these focuses he talked about seem less attractive than a niche. NICHE. Even the word is pleasing. Anyone can focus on something. Hell, I could focus on the Tuesday bingo sessions if I wanted. But a niche demands success. To have a niche, is to know what you're talking about and talk about it well.
So what is my niche?
My mind flickers. From my desperate job hunts and filling in applications I'm old hat at writing down my talents and interests: graphic design, exercise, fashion, and photography.
I've hit a brick wall. Taking into account that a blog is created every half second, I think the market gaps for graphic design, exercise, fashion and photography are non-existent. Am I really that boring and generic? Everyone likes pretty things and taking photos and dressing up and pretending they enjoy physically exerting themselves.
I'll have to zone in and be so incredibly specific and uber-niche-y that my blog will be the breakthrough of the century. After slap bands, of course.
Graphic design and photography, I can combine those. Exercise I do, but if you try to talk to me about it I'll get bored and efficiently jog away. Fashion's just a piece of cloth without photography, so I can merge all three to broadcast my views on alternatively designed photography of fashion.
The wall's smaller, but still there. I don't know what alternatively designed photography of fashion means, and it doesn't sound too engaging. The merging was fun though... there's an idea. I'll just compile a few things I like that are unique and interesting and pull the ol' merge-aroo.
I already have a blog, but just a Tumblr so I'm mostly browsing through photos and redistributing them. It does have a focus, though, on the sort of 80s/90s grunge phase and the styles of photography that were connected to it.
And just like that, a little cartoon light bulb pops up above my head. I will MERGE my interests of the gnarly 90s with my experiences in my journalism courses. I will write about writing, and about how - although I'm obsessed with all things modern and hip and NOW - I love those dope days of the slightly-recent past, I love my courses, and somehow I love both simultaneously and symbiotically.
But this thing is being ASSESSED. If I screw this up, my dreams of working for a super-duper-alternative-culture magazine will be foiled, I'll become homeless and lonely and ashamed, and the only publication I'll be near is the Big Issue.
After wading through 21 pages about blogging, courtesy of 'The Online Journalism Handbook', I know I need a niche. Paul Bradshaw and Lisa Rohumaa are onto something. Yes, my lecturer did tell us that we could focus on anything we like, from his favourite example of motorbikes to tea cozies. And yet somehow these focuses he talked about seem less attractive than a niche. NICHE. Even the word is pleasing. Anyone can focus on something. Hell, I could focus on the Tuesday bingo sessions if I wanted. But a niche demands success. To have a niche, is to know what you're talking about and talk about it well.
So what is my niche?
My mind flickers. From my desperate job hunts and filling in applications I'm old hat at writing down my talents and interests: graphic design, exercise, fashion, and photography.
I've hit a brick wall. Taking into account that a blog is created every half second, I think the market gaps for graphic design, exercise, fashion and photography are non-existent. Am I really that boring and generic? Everyone likes pretty things and taking photos and dressing up and pretending they enjoy physically exerting themselves.
I'll have to zone in and be so incredibly specific and uber-niche-y that my blog will be the breakthrough of the century. After slap bands, of course.
Graphic design and photography, I can combine those. Exercise I do, but if you try to talk to me about it I'll get bored and efficiently jog away. Fashion's just a piece of cloth without photography, so I can merge all three to broadcast my views on alternatively designed photography of fashion.
The wall's smaller, but still there. I don't know what alternatively designed photography of fashion means, and it doesn't sound too engaging. The merging was fun though... there's an idea. I'll just compile a few things I like that are unique and interesting and pull the ol' merge-aroo.
I already have a blog, but just a Tumblr so I'm mostly browsing through photos and redistributing them. It does have a focus, though, on the sort of 80s/90s grunge phase and the styles of photography that were connected to it.
And just like that, a little cartoon light bulb pops up above my head. I will MERGE my interests of the gnarly 90s with my experiences in my journalism courses. I will write about writing, and about how - although I'm obsessed with all things modern and hip and NOW - I love those dope days of the slightly-recent past, I love my courses, and somehow I love both simultaneously and symbiotically.