Musings 1 - On Uni

It is 0130am now and Jessie and I have just returned from Yan, Tsu-Mei and Eng Kiat's place just across the street to celebrate Yan's 26th birthday.

My mind is fully awake now as I brew myself a cup of double-bag green tea. I'm in the middle of collating the proposal for our Radio Program for Broadcast Media which will be pitched tomorrow. After a few brainstorming sessions and toying around with a few potential story leads, we decided to do a program on the recollection of two Macedonian's childhood memory. I should point out first that the theme for both our TV and Radio program is Growth. The radio program is a two-people collaboration and my assigned teammate-Megan, is a second generation Macedonian migrant. We decided to interview her father and great-aunt about their lives growing up in post-war Macedonia and as a migrant in Australia. It would be mostly recorded on location to create a sense of intimacy and closeness with our listeners. I think our concept would suit ABC Radio National 360 (our host program) because a lot of their past programs focus a lot on human interest stories. I confess, I had qualms about this project but now I feel much more positive and excited about it. Mm... Can't wait till production begins, though I hope we'd be able to get past the pitch and proposal first. I really hope to produce something substantial and professional.

Mass Media in Asia is so far my favourite course as it is one of the only research-based courses I have this semester. Besides, so far the heated debate about the viable development of an Asian-modeled journalism, its form and functions is rather interesting. This week however, we're moving on to applying normative media theories in Asia, again questioning its suffiency in analyzing Asian media. What most scholars like Altschull suggest is a transitional media theory that can change and evolve based on different socio-political and economical circumstances. I agree to that but with only one reservation- and that is a transitional media theory might be too volatile and temporal. The ability of relatively small and developing countries to cope and constantly update themselves based on this theory is hence questionable.

Communication and Social Relations has been getting a lot of bad reviews among my peers but I think it is quite alright. If you took time and pondered on each week's topic-it can be quite interesting. Take for example, this week's criticism of the ANZAC memorial. ANZAC stands for Australia-New Zealand Army Corps. The ANZAC day is is arguably Australia's most important national occasion. It marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. The ANZAC 'legend' is a prominent feature of Australian identity as it sees Australia coming of age as a nation. However, i too agree with some analysts that much of the excitement surrounding the ANZAC legend is overhyped. I see it as the identity of colonial Australia because the absence of the Aborigines and Women is much too strong. Furthermore, the notion that Australia has 'come of age' due to the war is very much an angle viewed through the Imperialist's lense.

There you go, my uni life in a nutshell.