Electives... (1 Viewer)

[roseangel]

Okay. I'm just finishing my first year of Journalism, and I was just wondering if any of you second or third year students would like to enlighten me as to which electives for next year are good to take and which aren't.

Any help is appreciated!

 

[braindrainedAsh]

Online journalism is terrible if you actually have a reasonable idea of how to use a computer.

I really liked Radio Journalism.... Print Features was also quite good.

Some of my friends did Editing and Publishing and some hated it others thought it was ok.

Apparently TV is alright if that's what you want to get in to, a lot of group work and arranging shoots and stuff though.

These are all the "1" subjects I'm talking about.

At the 300 level next year when I come back from London I'm doing Investigative which is apparently really good and Radio 2.

As for non-journalism subjects, I've heard good things about political theory, creative non-fiction, psychology, genocide studies, cinematic cultures.

 

[Jinglebell]

Keeping in mind that I come from a Social Inquiry perspective:

Australian History & Politics: Can be fairly dry, but I learnt some useful things.

Political Theory: I absolutely adored this subject, possibly because I was in a good tutorial but I just found it really fascinating.

Social Theory: Great if you're into that sort of stuff, but if the mere thought of Foucault and Bourdeiu makes you want to die, probably not a good choice.

Communicating the Social: DON'T DO IT! One of the most painful experiences of my life, including CIE and MIS.

Psychology: I really enjoyed this subject, mostly due to the lecture skills of John Carr, I imagine if he was my tutor rather than the batty woman we had, it would have been even better...only downside was John's fondness for the in-class exam!

 

[braindrainedAsh]

I think I will be doing political theory in second semester when I get back from London. Along with investigative j and radio j 2. I've heard a lot of good things about political theory.

 

[midnight]

I have no idea what to choose! It's sort of stressing me.
I like print journalism the most, but I don't think I'm very good at writing features, and I was absolutely awful and TV and radio. I don't particularly want to get bad marks when we will be graded for things. Grrr.

 

[braindrainedAsh]

In print features you learn how to write features, you don't have to be able to write them when you walk in the door, so if you like writing and print journalism it is probably a good path to take. The thing is, these subjects teach you how to do things. In J2 you just brush over everything- you spend more time learning the skills in these subjects so don't stress.

If you like print journalism, editing and publishing 1 could be very useful down the track. Apparently EP1 is pretty cruisey as well so I've heard... not too tough on the brain cells, but you learn how to use In Design which is the industry standard layout tool.

 

[midnight]

Thanks for that advice, it really helps.
I'm glad that they focus more on the teaching in the electives, because I really didn't like in J2 how it was so "come in, sit down, do your assessment without any real explanation".