My good friends, Rotimi Kuforiji, Vishal Tripathi and Jamie Mercer have completed their final year broadcast journalism project, a documentary entitled 'The Future of News' I served as the researcher on the project. The documentary focuses on the impact of new media platforms on long established platforms i.e. how blogging, citizen journalism, the internet and news sourcing sites like Twitter affect the newspaper, TV and radio industries. They interviewed folks from the BBC, Sky News, Sunderland Echo as well as relevant lecturers from the University of Sunderland.
Please be sure to check it out.
http://www.vimeo.com/5119298
Showing posts with label University of Sunderland Public Relations. Show all posts
Showing posts with label University of Sunderland Public Relations. Show all posts
Thursday, June 04, 2009
Saturday, May 30, 2009
The End is in Sight
So, I just completed an amazing two weeks at the National Glass Centre in Sunderland, I experienced the making of glass for the first time in my life, and it is an amazing experience. I saw space-dust..99% air, 1% silica: one of the most amazing objects you'd ever see, and I worked with some fantastic people in a fantastic building.
I produced these videos, which I think you should check out- http://www.vimeo.com/user1820558/videos
I mostly pleased that the problematic placement palaver that plagued me these last few months is over. I just have to complete the relevant placement related essays and I'll be done as an undergrad. So wish me luck in these last days.
...and I promise a childhood reminiscing blog soon, those are always fun to write, and I hope fun to read as well.
I produced these videos, which I think you should check out- http://www.vimeo.com/user1820558/videos
I mostly pleased that the problematic placement palaver that plagued me these last few months is over. I just have to complete the relevant placement related essays and I'll be done as an undergrad. So wish me luck in these last days.
...and I promise a childhood reminiscing blog soon, those are always fun to write, and I hope fun to read as well.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Almost there
As most of you know, I have completed my dissertation, the most important work I've ever created in my life. My final degree classification will largely depend on the quality of this dissertation.
Completing the dissertation does not mean uni is over, no, far from it. Still 5 essays to be handed in over the next two weeks. When one has just completed writing 10,000 words, a 2500 word essay looks benign.
I just secured my placement at the National Glass Centre in Sunderland, and I started the placement yesterday (yes, my first day of work was a Friday) I'll be working there over the next two weeks, helping them promote their glass studio.
I saw how glass blowing works, it's a very labour intensive process, involving lots of heat and twisting pipes, oh, and a folded wet piece of newspaper- in fact the wet newspaper is one of the key tools in moulding glass. It looks easy...but I doubt it is.
Yeah, so I just wanted to keep all of y'all up to date with the proceedings in my humble life. I'll be done in the first week on June, and hopefully the weather would be beautiful and allow me to celebrate by taking pictures at the beach (I can't get tired of the beach)
Completing the dissertation does not mean uni is over, no, far from it. Still 5 essays to be handed in over the next two weeks. When one has just completed writing 10,000 words, a 2500 word essay looks benign.
I just secured my placement at the National Glass Centre in Sunderland, and I started the placement yesterday (yes, my first day of work was a Friday) I'll be working there over the next two weeks, helping them promote their glass studio.
I saw how glass blowing works, it's a very labour intensive process, involving lots of heat and twisting pipes, oh, and a folded wet piece of newspaper- in fact the wet newspaper is one of the key tools in moulding glass. It looks easy...but I doubt it is.
Yeah, so I just wanted to keep all of y'all up to date with the proceedings in my humble life. I'll be done in the first week on June, and hopefully the weather would be beautiful and allow me to celebrate by taking pictures at the beach (I can't get tired of the beach)
Thursday, March 19, 2009
The Young and the Beardless
I possibly have to have a meeting at PR firm Robson Brown on Monday for my 2 week placement.
I know I normally look like Jonas Savimbi, so I decided to shave off the beard and mustache today. I feel naked without my facial accessories, that's why I shaved it today, so by Monday I'll have a thin film of beard.
Everytime I shave my beard off, I'm always surprised by the way my 'naked' face looks, I'm not accustomed to my beardless face.
Anyway, wish me luck for the informal interview.
My beardless face
I know I normally look like Jonas Savimbi, so I decided to shave off the beard and mustache today. I feel naked without my facial accessories, that's why I shaved it today, so by Monday I'll have a thin film of beard.
Everytime I shave my beard off, I'm always surprised by the way my 'naked' face looks, I'm not accustomed to my beardless face.
Anyway, wish me luck for the informal interview.
My beardless face
Friday, December 12, 2008
What University is all about
Although I'm studying Public Relations, the optional modules I do are not closely related to PR, I decided to do this to broaden my knowledge base, what's the point of coming out of uni and not knowing anything but Public Relations, so this year I'm doing a module on popular music, and since I'm a hip-hop aficionado, and African-American studies is a topic I have huge interest in, I decided to do my essay on the representation of Black women in Hip-Hop, hugely fun, and it is quite surprising that our uni has quite a number of relevant books on the issue, taking into account that we don't have a degree on African-American studies, anyway, I just thought I should blog about this, I'm taking the pics at a wedding tomorrow, so I got to go get my suit ready.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Signs you're in the 3rd year or Signs that Julian is going crazy
Well I'm going to be doing my dissertation in PR this year, it's due on the 30th of April, and I've upped the research to another notch, hoping to start writing mid-December. Of course, this being 3rd year there are still other essays to be done, I have one on my popular music module, where I'll be discussing the representations of African-American women in Hip-Hop music.
All these essays have profoundly changed my life, I can't walk through the library anymore without grabbing some book and searching the index to find if it has anything relevant in it regarding my essays.
Last night I went to bed with my mp3 player on, sprang up in the middle of the night, I just had a eureka moment regarding a song I could discuss in my essay. I keep on jotting down new ideas in my phone and making mental notes of discussions I have with people in which they may have said something of note.
Wow..anyway, it's 11:26 I can't have a shower yet because the maintenance guy just came in and changed the rubber lining in the shower and I have to wait for a few hours for it to set, so it's just me and the music. Well, dissertation first and then music essay, then nap, then more work.
Such is life my friend, such is life.
Oh, and the new Kanye West joint "808s & Heartbreak" is too good for words
All these essays have profoundly changed my life, I can't walk through the library anymore without grabbing some book and searching the index to find if it has anything relevant in it regarding my essays.
Last night I went to bed with my mp3 player on, sprang up in the middle of the night, I just had a eureka moment regarding a song I could discuss in my essay. I keep on jotting down new ideas in my phone and making mental notes of discussions I have with people in which they may have said something of note.
Wow..anyway, it's 11:26 I can't have a shower yet because the maintenance guy just came in and changed the rubber lining in the shower and I have to wait for a few hours for it to set, so it's just me and the music. Well, dissertation first and then music essay, then nap, then more work.
Such is life my friend, such is life.
Oh, and the new Kanye West joint "808s & Heartbreak" is too good for words
Saturday, August 30, 2008
I'm coming home again!
So, just finished an amazing five weeks at redheadPR, sad to be leaving, but brother and pops are lonely at home so I'm on my way. Help is at hand.
Just got myself a new mp3 player, can you imagine, I've been rolling with a 128Mb till 2008, my day got me the 128Mb Samsung I think in 2003 for 99 Euros, and I got this 2Gb today for £29. Times change.
Got myself some massive headphones, only downside is the cord is 6 metres...i have to figure out how to shorten it.
Also got a green keffiyeh (bought a white and black one a month ago)
Anyway..my flight is at 8:30, landing in 'Msterdam at 10:40, so by 13:30 I should be in the comfort of my room.
A month to go before uni restarts and the daily grind re-begins.
Just got myself a new mp3 player, can you imagine, I've been rolling with a 128Mb till 2008, my day got me the 128Mb Samsung I think in 2003 for 99 Euros, and I got this 2Gb today for £29. Times change.
Got myself some massive headphones, only downside is the cord is 6 metres...i have to figure out how to shorten it.
Also got a green keffiyeh (bought a white and black one a month ago)
Anyway..my flight is at 8:30, landing in 'Msterdam at 10:40, so by 13:30 I should be in the comfort of my room.
A month to go before uni restarts and the daily grind re-begins.
Friday, August 15, 2008
This is London
Août, I always think that's the weirdest month in French. Anyway, it's August, it's England and yes you guessed it it's raining.
The week ending July was fine, and the beginning of August was sunny, but now the winds are cold, the rain is unending, and the wind has already claimed a life, felling a tree on a car at Clapham Common.
I'm still hustling, having to wake up at 6 (Yes I'm complaining, in Uni the average wake up time is 10) travel for 1 and a half hours, watching folks go about the daily grind in the City known as London. Get on three different trains, commute with hundreds of people, all minding their own business, reading a copy of the Metro, white earphones hanging from their ears, some have their music turned up too loud, but nobody says anything. We are in London, no time for small talk, people only react in case of an emergency, we are arguably in the capital of Europe, where you are guaranteed to hear a foreign language spoken on the trains. We are in London, each person to himself, busily shuffling to work, and at five shuffling back. Oyster cards swiping, tickets entering and ejecting, people mutter on their cell phones, some divulging rather personal information.
We are in a city, networked with what must be miles and miles of rail track, Underground and Overground, countless engineering works, and many fatalities on the track.
We are in a city deluged with tourists, you can spot them, all sorts of cameras in their hands, walking slowly looking at buildings. Some go for large high-tech Canons and Olympuses, other prefer compact versions, while some snap away on their phones.
I love this city, I loathe this city. It's brilliant, and it's boring. It's uniting, yet also very fractioned.
I've been giving a lot of thought into moving to London when I gruaduate next year, surely working in PR in the capital would be many people's dream, and it is mine, yes, one of my dreams, but I'm stuck in a paradox, there is something appealing and unappealing about big city life. The drone-like routine bores me, the choreographed commute, the lifeless souls. I don't know if London is for me, but time will tell I guess.
An island is what I always dreamed of, a small island, not like Britain, a small island like Fiji, like Bermuda, Barbados...but if I lived on a small tropical island I doubt it's public relations I'll be doing.
This is just the ramblings of a young man, currently tuning his dial to the final frequency at which his life would be set at for years to come.....I'm still tuning
The week ending July was fine, and the beginning of August was sunny, but now the winds are cold, the rain is unending, and the wind has already claimed a life, felling a tree on a car at Clapham Common.
I'm still hustling, having to wake up at 6 (Yes I'm complaining, in Uni the average wake up time is 10) travel for 1 and a half hours, watching folks go about the daily grind in the City known as London. Get on three different trains, commute with hundreds of people, all minding their own business, reading a copy of the Metro, white earphones hanging from their ears, some have their music turned up too loud, but nobody says anything. We are in London, no time for small talk, people only react in case of an emergency, we are arguably in the capital of Europe, where you are guaranteed to hear a foreign language spoken on the trains. We are in London, each person to himself, busily shuffling to work, and at five shuffling back. Oyster cards swiping, tickets entering and ejecting, people mutter on their cell phones, some divulging rather personal information.
We are in a city, networked with what must be miles and miles of rail track, Underground and Overground, countless engineering works, and many fatalities on the track.
We are in a city deluged with tourists, you can spot them, all sorts of cameras in their hands, walking slowly looking at buildings. Some go for large high-tech Canons and Olympuses, other prefer compact versions, while some snap away on their phones.
I love this city, I loathe this city. It's brilliant, and it's boring. It's uniting, yet also very fractioned.
I've been giving a lot of thought into moving to London when I gruaduate next year, surely working in PR in the capital would be many people's dream, and it is mine, yes, one of my dreams, but I'm stuck in a paradox, there is something appealing and unappealing about big city life. The drone-like routine bores me, the choreographed commute, the lifeless souls. I don't know if London is for me, but time will tell I guess.
An island is what I always dreamed of, a small island, not like Britain, a small island like Fiji, like Bermuda, Barbados...but if I lived on a small tropical island I doubt it's public relations I'll be doing.
This is just the ramblings of a young man, currently tuning his dial to the final frequency at which his life would be set at for years to come.....I'm still tuning
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Essay Spirit
Essay season brings out peculiar behaviour in me. I become rather superstitious or ritualistic, I have to perform certain activities before I can begin studying, note-taking or writing an essay.
The first ritual that had to take place was the acquisition of a 60 Watt bulb for my tablelamp. My tablelamp had been bulbless for a while and I felt that the central room light was just not enough for my studies, I had to wander around town looking for a bulb (Tesco has an aisle clearly stating 'Bulbs' but there are no bulbs there) I finally found my bulb and studying could commence.
Second ritual is that I need to eat first before I start working. I go down and prepare a large meal, eat, watch something on BBC iPlayer and then begin making an essay plan.
Once the essay plan is done, it's time to begin writing the essay, but first I must take a shower. It doesn't matter what time of day it is, just before I start an essay I take a long cold(ish) shower- I feel it helps me focus better. I get lotioned up, comb my hair and sit at my laptop- play a randomly selected song and then begin the writing process.
My breaks are often 5-10 minutes long, and I can do a various activities ranging from simply staring out my window, to reading about a country on wikipedia, to grabbing Sophie (my camera) and actually going outside to photograph a seagull eating a crab (a photo-op I spotted from my window)
But essays are done, and boredom sets in..a boredom that is relieved by watching programs on iPlayer or reading random facts on wikipedia..yesterday I was reading about- Bermuda, Bora Bora (French Polynesia), The Odyssey, Paul Robeson...Wikipedia is a great source of knowledge, and I urge everyone to go on it everyday and pick up a random bit of knowledge, I know it's easily vandalised, but it's still quite reliable in most cases.
Saturday, February 02, 2008
It's Official
From now on I will not be blogging as a way of putting my mind off uni work, blogging WILL be uni work. See, I'm doing a module about Weblogs, and one of the assessment fields is that we have to write and maintain a blog. Now many people will just be starting blogs, but I've had this for over a year, and I don't intend to stop. When I think about the future I smile, knowing that in about 15 years, my children will be able to go online and read their father's thoughts when he was a teenager, I have no idea what the implications would be, as far as raising my children. The internet has revolutionalized the world, it is not surprising that parent-child relationships are bound to change, when children can google their parents and see them in not-so-flattering situations....I'll wait and see, I'll wait and see
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Julian-1 Murphy-2
Been working very very hard lately, group projects to be done. Murphy has been on my back. We had to produce a newsletter for a school, and we had to do it on a program known as Adobe InDesign. Well the program is only on the school computers, and worse still, only on the Apple MACs (with their annoyin disability to right click) and the program costs like 500 dollars so..eh buying it was way out of the question. Which meant that students had to come all the way to Uni to work on their projects.
Well this boy here wasn't having non of that, Apple was not going to ruin his life, No Sir. Trusting good old Bill Gates (he gives money to Africa, does Steve Jobs?? huh..Steve, haven't seen you on Vanity Fair cover)..I decided to forget about inDesign, i was going to use trusty old Microsoft (I love that name Microsoft...it's small and it's soft...Microsoft...) I used Microsoft Publisher..tried and tested.
On Monday we decided to meet up to see our progress, we met up and they were expecting to see some grand design from me, I was like people: "You haven't given me any words, I cannot conjure up a newsletter like that"...anyway, by the next day, I Publishered the work and it was looking sweet. Sweet as can be.
Went to Uni to print it out..guess what, the computers didn't have Publisher (how stupid)...so we decided to convert it to PDF..did that, but the file started tripping and closing randomly. Man, we went around university campuses (how come th plural of locus is loci, but campus is not campi)..lookin for an A3 printer..basically our 'great' uni has one A3 printer connected to an Apple computer that does not have Microsoft Publisher...Wow!!
Anyway, my group mates were despairing, because we had been strongly advised to use InDesign, we feared we might be reprimanded for using Publisher. Group mates considered confessing our sins, but anyone who knows Julian, knows that I never back down, I never accept defeat until it's spelt out, even when it's obvious, I still doubt. I insisted that we could work it out. So off I went to the technician, and asked him if we could print out a PDF file on A3...he said it would be difficult, but he could try...and try he did. Voila....our newsletter was done! and we got a darn good grade for it too.
I had defeated Mr. Murphy..but he was not done. Oh No! I bought stamps to post my passport pics home, went shopping, and I think somewhere the stamps fell out. How pissed was I when I felt my pocket only to reveal cotton....but Murphy will be defeated soon...very soon!
Well this boy here wasn't having non of that, Apple was not going to ruin his life, No Sir. Trusting good old Bill Gates (he gives money to Africa, does Steve Jobs?? huh..Steve, haven't seen you on Vanity Fair cover)..I decided to forget about inDesign, i was going to use trusty old Microsoft (I love that name Microsoft...it's small and it's soft...Microsoft...) I used Microsoft Publisher..tried and tested.
On Monday we decided to meet up to see our progress, we met up and they were expecting to see some grand design from me, I was like people: "You haven't given me any words, I cannot conjure up a newsletter like that"...anyway, by the next day, I Publishered the work and it was looking sweet. Sweet as can be.
Went to Uni to print it out..guess what, the computers didn't have Publisher (how stupid)...so we decided to convert it to PDF..did that, but the file started tripping and closing randomly. Man, we went around university campuses (how come th plural of locus is loci, but campus is not campi)..lookin for an A3 printer..basically our 'great' uni has one A3 printer connected to an Apple computer that does not have Microsoft Publisher...Wow!!
Anyway, my group mates were despairing, because we had been strongly advised to use InDesign, we feared we might be reprimanded for using Publisher. Group mates considered confessing our sins, but anyone who knows Julian, knows that I never back down, I never accept defeat until it's spelt out, even when it's obvious, I still doubt. I insisted that we could work it out. So off I went to the technician, and asked him if we could print out a PDF file on A3...he said it would be difficult, but he could try...and try he did. Voila....our newsletter was done! and we got a darn good grade for it too.
I had defeated Mr. Murphy..but he was not done. Oh No! I bought stamps to post my passport pics home, went shopping, and I think somewhere the stamps fell out. How pissed was I when I felt my pocket only to reveal cotton....but Murphy will be defeated soon...very soon!
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