Coming to Kingston University in 2020 as a mature student has been an incredible experience for me. As part of Kingston School of Art, Media and Communication course, I have been continuously challenged to expand my comfort zone and take up on various assignments that validated the practical aspect of my degree. An aspect I came to really appreciate by the end of my first year.
For our final assignment in the Media Now! Texts, Practices and Events module we were asked to create a podcast. It had to be relevant to our times and of interest to the public, but also to be a representation of how we can implement everything we learned in our first year into a piece of work. It had to equally showcase our interests and passions, but also the module content. While at first, I wanted to do a podcast about the Fight for Climate Justice, in the light of recent events I turned my attention to #KilltheBill movement and the new Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill. No point of focusing on a particular social movement when the future of all social movements in the United Kingdom was put into question. My podcast, while defending a certain position, is mostly informative as I came to realise that not a lot of detailed information on Section 3 of the Bill is available to the public.
While creating my podcast I had to utilise all the skills and knowledge I acquired in my first year. There was a lot of research involved, a lot of critical thinking and reflection on what I learned in the module and how I want to approach this assignment. Respectively, the assignment showed me how equally important and demanding is the technical part of creating a podcast. This was an experience that gave me a lot as a first-year student. I am looking forward to everything the course has to offer.