Project Relfection
Bita had recently been to Dandenong and was very intrigued by the cultural diversity there and she thought the Online Journalism project presented a great opportunity to look into this further. I, having moved to Melbourne earlier this year was very keen to explore a new part of the city. I also am very interested in the issues faced by immigrants when they move to Australia, having looked at this before through my studies at Adelaide University. This project allowed migrants to tell their story, which was very important to me. The Dandenong project was a perfect fit for my interests.
With five people in the group, it took a little while for us all to agree on what the goals of the project were. There was a debate about whether we should focus on how the different cultural groups in Dandenong have integrated into Australian society or how the groups have maintained and fostered their own culture in Australia. It was agreed that we would focus on the three issues of cultural diversity, integration, and the issues facing the people of Dandenong. We all agreed that we wanted to present the stories in a non-biased, honest way. We wanted to let the interviewees be the feature.
Personally, I wanted to develop my filming skills. I have never really worked with a camera before and my aim at the end of the project was to be comfortable filming. I am definitely a lot more comfortable with the camera now than when we started. Goal achieved!
I got my housemate to have a look at the site. She has heard me talk about the project a lot of the past couple of months so she instantly knew what the site was about. She was very impressed!
She commented on how the site was very easy to navigate through but would have liked there to be a link back to the home page. She didn’t realise the ‘Dandenong’ link was a link back to the home page. She did like the colours used on the menu bar, she thought it gave the site some vibrancy.
She found some of the articles a bit difficult to read, as the font is quite small and doesn’t stand a lot against the background. She did however think the background looked very authentic and gave the site a real ‘cultural’ feel.
Finally, she commented on the photos used. She thought this, especially on the pages with articles really ‘lifted’ the site and gave a visual insight into Dandenong.
I really enjoyed working on this project. Although it was challenging at times working in a group of five people, everyone was passionate about the project and I think this is what made it a success. The highlight for me was definitely interviewing members of the Sudanese community. They welcomed Monique and i into their home. They were very helpful and more so grateful that someone was taking the time to listen to their stories.
