Saturday, April 15

So long, farewell, Auf wiedersehn, goodbye

As you've probably noticed so far, there's nothing I appreciate more than words offered by those wiser and greater than myself, and I can think of no one wiser or greater than the Spice Girls to quote in my final blog update for Online Journalism.

"Goodbye my friend (I know you're gone, you said you're gone, but I can still feel you're here)
It's not the end (You gotta keep it strong before the pain turns into fear"

My sentiments exactly. Dear friends and readers, don't let the deep and aching pain of losing Get REALity turn into fear. I shall continue my passion for reality TV, as I'm sure you will yours, and one day we will meet on the street and share a smile about Divo, Belou or another of our beloved friends.

So. What did I learn. The classic question posed to scholars the world over. The genius behind independent assignments in a classroom, though, is that those smarty pants professors are teaching us without our even knowing it! I update the blog because I have to, but as much of a total nerd as it makes me, I actually liked writing it. Instead of stressing over the inverted pyramid I was able to explore the concept of my voice without sacrificing good work. With a topic like reality TV, I didn't have to take myself too seriously for once and in the process I think I found the most expressive and individual style I've ever written in.

Blogs catch a lot of crap because of this. There's no censorship involved and I speak from experience when I say that it's very easy to forget that through the Internet you could potentially be sparking a dialogue with millions of people. That might not be a realistic figure, but anything could happen. Blogging is free and for the first time in history, any "Average Joe" (haha, I kill myself) can take on the role of a journalist and tell a story in the way he or she thinks might be neglected by the great and powerful Oz of the American media.

Scratch that. By any media. People are blogging all over the world and are finding their own voices in places they may not otherwise be able to. What's more, these people are blogging about more than Kina's blue eye shadow. They're discussing serious issues going on in the world and a new system of checks and balances is being created. Journalists can choose to omit pieces of a story or put their own spin on it, but more and more they have to look over their shoulder and realize that they're not the only ones with the power of having a voice.

Now, don't get me wrong, I for one think Kina's ridiculous make-up choices are something to take notice of. I mean, seriously, get the Lisa Frank make-up set outta here and invest in some subtle browns. How old are you? On the flip side, there are so many things that I feel are overplayed, underplayed, or overlooked altogether in the news so if I were to go back I might discuss some issues of a bit more...hm...relevance? Lucky for you I'm a sell-out and entertainment prevailed over substance, but who knows, maybe I'll dabble in a political blog one of these days.

As for the here and now, I'm not sure if I'll keep up the blog. I keep a link to it in my profile on Instant Messenger and I have quite a few friends who read it regularly who keep asking me to keep it going for a while, but I think we'll have to see what the summer brings. It's an election year so things at City Hall are about to get crunk, hahahaha..I couldn't even finish the sentence using the word 'crunk'...so I don't know if I'll have the time. I wouldn't rule the possibility out, though. I will say that I loved that my friends read it. Or that they're reading it at this moment...um..hi guys?

Reality TV is ridiculous and wonderful all at the same time and I don't think you can find better water cooler conversation than that psycho Tonya throwing Beth's Louis Vuitton purse into the pool. I was surprised how quickly the insults flowed and with what ease I got into the routine of blogging. When I first got to Northeastern I thought I'd never adapt to writing short sentences without any unnecessarily long or complicated words (um, hello? How else am I supposed to show people how much smarter I am than them?) and it really was difficult at first. I wanted to have variety and use words like 'exclaimed' but I got knocked into my place pretty quickly when I realized that pretentiousness has no place in the black and white world of print journalism.

The transition into a more conversational journalism didn't compare at all. Instead of having a distinct beginning, middle and end I fell right into having rants and using exclamations and slang to get my point across.

In fact, it made me a little nervous. If living off of Get REALity was an option, I'd take it.

So there you have it. You've been there through it all. From AI to 'Guna to ANTM and right down into the dirty gauntlet, I've loved writing about reality TV ALMOST as much as I love watching it. They say there's a sucker born every minute, so lucky for us that's 1,440 new suckers born every day that could be the next Puck or Santino. Stay tuned and thanks for stopping by.

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"You don't even know the difference between right and wrong anymore...it's just sad"