Media Production through the lens of a Second Year Student

By Connor Mahon

Introduction

My name is Connor MacMahon, and I am a second-year Media Production student. Throughout my studies so far, I’ve had the opportunity to dive into various aspects of media production, from managing social media platforms and creating websites to writing engaging blog posts. I've also worked on exciting client projects, such as filming a watercress train line and interviewing media experts for a vlog series. These experiences have enhanced my skills and opened up opportunities to collaborate with clients outside of university, setting the stage for even better job prospects and career growth once I graduate.

Audio Modules

I have created podcasts both as part of a team and individually during both years of my course. In my team, I developed a podcast about conspiracy theories related to the sinking of the famous Titanic. For my exclusive podcast, which had to be uploaded to an online platform, I explored the disagreements between the public and critics regarding movies over the years. This included researching the films' budgets, how much money they made or lost, and their cult followings today.

Here is a link to that podcast:

https://youtu.be/NNXKAFM8G24

I think my team podcast was slightly more fleshed out than my individual one, but regardless, I was still pleased with the result despite its flaws.

Videography Modules

The Film module and client work involve more hands-on approaches since they are usually either in teams or solo. Editing is a dedicated module in the first year of Media to get used to the editing software most used by that department.

In that first year, we were assigned to edit together a fiction and nonfiction piece, which we would develop using footage from a documentary and a short film. Out of the two edits I made, I personally prefer the edit I created for the short film, which I put a lot of care into. I prefer working on nonfiction material because it means you can be more creative with how the story is told.

Here is a link to my fiction edit:

https://youtu.be/ldNhvkY8GaY

Outside of Uni, I am a YouTuber who records and edits his own videos on a weekly basis. The content I produce on my channel is for entertainment purposes, and I engage with my viewers for ideas for future videos and potential new appearances in upcoming content.

My university experience has helped me feel more confident in my work and encouraged me to develop it further, create more YouTube videos, and even get my Twitch channel back up so I can stream games like I used to when I first started producing YouTube videos.

Conclusion

One thing I have learnt at university is to embrace my more creative side, not just through my university work but also in my YouTube and content creation fields. I have learnt to branch out to other mediums, such as Podcasts, which I never considered before since my main form of content publishing, I knew, would be video content. But it was great to learn the crucial benefits of Podcast and radio-form content.