I have never had this much difficulty writing a paper for school. It only has to be 350 words, and I am scrambling to get one coherent sentence out.
WHY?!
It isn't even a paper, really. It is a blog post. About why a journal mattered. Why it is important to the communications practitioners. I write blog posts all the time.
The difference?
I'm writing it for a grade, not just to express myself and my thoughts.
The thing is, maybe I've over my head with this class. I'm not a communications practitioner. I'm a 24 year old, sitting at my dining room table, wearing a sweater from Old Navy and socks my Grandma knitted. Let's get real.
Why does this journal matter?
Because it's real. It discusses real issues that are often overlooked by my small Alaskan brain. Terrorism is bigger than the middle east and those who practice it. It causes real hurt and pain and frustration and anxiety. It makes people want to join forces with terrorists so that they can protect their families and eat regularly.
Everything we do affects things globally. The USA declares war on terror, and political cartoons in Kenya reflect that. A potential terrorist is tried for attempted bombing of a plane, and newspapers in Nigeria write all about it, but twisting the events - framing the events - so that it doesn't look so bad on them. Trying to make sense of what happened.
That's what communication practitioners do: we make sense of things and tell other people about how they make sense. If we are unable to do that, well, we failed.
If everything is connected, we need to think about how our writings and publications affect others. But more than that, we need to think about how WE can affect others. How we can make a difference.
Maybe this journal doesn't matter. Maybe it only matters to me.
Or maybe I just don't have the words to explain the panic rising in me over the fact that people are suffering... and so often we do so little about it. So often we don't even notice. Too often, we don't even care.
WHY?!
It isn't even a paper, really. It is a blog post. About why a journal mattered. Why it is important to the communications practitioners. I write blog posts all the time.
The difference?
I'm writing it for a grade, not just to express myself and my thoughts.
The thing is, maybe I've over my head with this class. I'm not a communications practitioner. I'm a 24 year old, sitting at my dining room table, wearing a sweater from Old Navy and socks my Grandma knitted. Let's get real.
Why does this journal matter?
Because it's real. It discusses real issues that are often overlooked by my small Alaskan brain. Terrorism is bigger than the middle east and those who practice it. It causes real hurt and pain and frustration and anxiety. It makes people want to join forces with terrorists so that they can protect their families and eat regularly.
Everything we do affects things globally. The USA declares war on terror, and political cartoons in Kenya reflect that. A potential terrorist is tried for attempted bombing of a plane, and newspapers in Nigeria write all about it, but twisting the events - framing the events - so that it doesn't look so bad on them. Trying to make sense of what happened.
That's what communication practitioners do: we make sense of things and tell other people about how they make sense. If we are unable to do that, well, we failed.
If everything is connected, we need to think about how our writings and publications affect others. But more than that, we need to think about how WE can affect others. How we can make a difference.
Maybe this journal doesn't matter. Maybe it only matters to me.
Or maybe I just don't have the words to explain the panic rising in me over the fact that people are suffering... and so often we do so little about it. So often we don't even notice. Too often, we don't even care.
2 comments:
You could have used this for your response.
I ended up writing a real paper, and got a good grade :)
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