By meaggymurphy
Blurb: Most of us get a little nervous before a big presentation in front of our peers/coworkers. This past week, I gave a presentation that was the culmination of lots of research and hard-work, and I think it's safe to say I was nervous. Luckily, there is a happy ending to this story. Also, I got to be reminded of the greatest feeling in the world: walking out of a room after giving a presentation and realizing that you're allowed to breathe again. #GWU #GWAbroad #finals #publicspeaking
The end of the semester, be it at home or abroad, always seems to bring projects and exams along with it. This semester has been no exception, and I have had a series of presentations that started last week and will continue until next week. One of these presentations, for my hardest class entitled "Communication for Development," took place last Thursday and I am over-the-moon happy that it is over, for many reasons.
Firstly, this specific project began in August, a.k.a. about 3 months ago. We were given the task of investigating any topic relevant to communication and media within or relating to the developing world. Luckily, this type of topic is what interests me as an International Affairs major concentrating on International Development and minoring in journalism. I was extremely lucky in that I happened to pick group members who were equally as interested in and dedicated to this type of research as myself. Also, I found two groups members who were very patient with my constant flow of questions (What type of font should I use here? How does one reserve library books? ¿Cómo se dice...?).
In August we began researching media coverage of the chemical attacks in Syria, specifically comparing two Spanish newspaper, El País and El Punt/Avui. We started by analyzing all of the articles about Syria that were published between two specific dates, using a number code to label variables like the type author, the section, and the theme of the article. It was definitely a lot more numbers than I was expecting, and after collecting all of the data, we entered it into a computer spreadsheet and analyzed it. In the end, we had read and analyzed 97 articles.
The conclusions we drew from the study were pretty interesting; for example, El Punt/Avui (which is a newspaper from the region of Cataluña) published more photos with more violent/realistic themes than El País (the largest newspaper in Spain). This was surprising and went against one of our early hypotheses. So, after going through the process of reading, numbering, analyzing, and writing a report came the fun part: the presentation.
I don't really know anyone who loves doing presentations. I certainly don't, but I also don't over-stress about them. This presentation, however, was different. It was in Spanish, which made it more intimidating. Also, after so many hours of working on the report and the presentation itself over the course of 3 months, I didn't want to be the one to screw it up.
So Thursday came, and the first group had done their presentation, and next it was my group's turn. We got up and did the presentation, and 15 minutes after showing all of our graphs and charts and explaining our methodology and conclusions, a project that started when it was still hot and sunny out was finished. It felt amazing to be done, and even more amazing that the professor liked our project.
I don't think I'll ever be afraid to give a presentation again. Talking about something technical in another language was daunting, but I did it and it went well! And luckily I didn't stutter or trip and fall or forget what to say/how to breathe.