Me and my annotated bibliography!

"you will be required to write an annotated bibliography"

I will never forget that phrase! I was sitting in my Effective Writing class in college and we were discussing an upcoming assignment.

The assignment was to write an essay about a particular topic of interest to Media students. My mind immediately went into overdrive, so many options flew through my head and I was panicking as to what topic I was going to pick. Thankfully, my predicament only lasted about 30 seconds before the lecturer put a list of optional topics on the board - I was very grateful, to say the least!

There were various options to pick from, they included: Reality Television, women in the media, crime drama and Citizen Journalism and the effect it has on the professionals.

I was considering the reality television option but then my mind strayed and I decided I would like to investigate citizen journalism. Considering I work as a News & Sport Journalist at the weekend, I thought it was the most fitting option.

With an annotated bibliography, you are required to use academic journals as the main source of your information and research. I wasn't really sure where I was going to start with my research, I had never searched academic journals before so it was all very new to me. I decided, with some guidance from my lecturer, that I was going to use Taylor and Francis Online to research my topic.

I figured the best way to start was to type the words 'Citizen Journalism' into the search bar. Who knew it was that easy? Within seconds I had over 40 articles presented in front of my eyes, I immediately thought "this is going to require  a LOT of reading".

I started to download articles to use for my essay. I found so much information on Citizen Journalism and I discovered a lot about the topic. It's more common that I had first thought. There was so much information, case studies and research that had already been carried out. I knew this was going to be a huge help for my final essay and I was glad I had picked the topic I did.

At this point, I was still slightly confused as to what EXACTLY I had to do with this annotated bibliography. So, I decided I would quiz my lecturer, a little more than usual. I had an idea what I was doing and I thought up of an example in my own head of how to explain it if I was asked.

"It's just a mind-map for the essay"

Correct! It's basically a mind-map for the essay. Or, a trailer for a movie that hasn't been made yet, is how one of my classmates described it! Thankfully, I now knew exactly what was required of me so I began reading the articles I had downloaded.

I have a bit of a problem with summarizing information (you may have guessed by how long this is) but, I always feel like I'm leaving the most important bits out. So, my annotated bibliography ended up being 7 pages long, but we wont dwell on that!

I submitted it for correction and was delighted with my final mark. (71%, just incase you're wondering)

Now, the next step is to write the actual essay based on my findings. It's only 1500 words, it can't be that hard............right?

I'm beginning to like 90's music, i think!

I was born in the 90's so presenting a 90's music show is kind of ironic. I was on-air for 3 hours tonight with non-stop 90's music from 7-10pm. 

I'm not too familiar with that particular music era. Admittedly, i like most of it but i wont lie, there a lot of the songs that I've literally never heard before. 

It was funny, there was a particular song on my list tonight that i wasn't very familiar with - I had to laugh when I played it because i had a Doogle from Father Ted moment (you were wearing your blue jumper). I hadn't a clue what the song was by its title but once it started I knew it straight away, if that makes sense! 

The 90's was a great time, the music is very catchy and I'm beginning to listen to it more. There are a few songs that I have to admit went onto my YouTube playlist in the last couple of weeks - just songs I hadn't heard of before and that I instantly liked. 

Most people my age would jump at the chance to get their voice on the radio and I really do it enjoy it, playing 90's music non-stop for 3 hours showed me how much I enjoy it.

So, with one 90's show done, here's to this night next week when hopefully I discover some more great tunes from 20 years ago! 

Friday, 7-10pm, KCLR96fm.com 

The first is always the worst...or, so I'm told!

So, here goes.....I started college in September, 2014. Since then, I've wanted to blog - but where do you start? Well, as a student of Media and Public Relations blogging shouldn't be a problem, us folk are meant to be interested in writing and expressing opinions, I think! I read other blogs online and they all make sense, the content is interesting, relevant and amusing, at times. I feel I will never have anything interesting or worthwhile to blog about, I mean the life of a Media and PR student isn't all that exciting!
Outside of college, I work in my local radio station, KCLR96fm. I'm currently enjoying buckets of farming fun producing the 'Glanbia Farm Show'. I also read the news at weekends, present sports bulletins throughout the day and the odd time I can be heard presenting music shows. I remember reading my first news bulletin, my diction wouldn't have been the best, being from Carla (Carlow) you tend to mispronounce words. I'm pretty sure I said waaaherford (Waterford) and buher (Butter), don't ask about the butter story! That's where the name of this first blog came from because I remember coming out of the news studio and saying to a colleague, 'first is always the worst'? - thankfully, I've managed to lose the diction problems and have been reading bulletins for the last 2 months without breaking anything (touches wood).
I will probably look back on this particular blog in a few weeks, months or probably hours and cringe about how stupid it sounds, but look, everyone has to start somewhere!