The thing about being a Communications student is one has got to be up-to-date on all matters happening globally, at any given time. Ludicrous, I know.

However, as a Comms student pursuing a Bachelor of Arts, being up-to-date and thinking analytically combined isn't enough. You've got to read.

(Here's a sideline: I love reading. I am, however, very picky on what I read.)

You've got to read scholarly publications. And, academic journals. And, research articles.

I'm pretty generous, by nature.

I'll let you readers sample a taste of my imposed reading appetite.

"The contribution of professional journalism to democratic citizenship is well-established, but the proliferation of online user-generated news begs the question of whether citizen journalism plays a similar role. Use and trust of both professional and citizen journalism were investigated for their associations with political knowledge and participation."

How's that going for you? Tough to swallow? Let me break it down for you.

What the above mumbo-jumbo means to say is that:

"Traditional journalism (newspapers) is a known information contributor to the public at large, but with the increase of online news (blogs, forums, Wikipedia, etc – user generated sites of information), this question arises: Is online news credible? The level of use and trust on online and offline news were tested with political knowledge."

That's paragraph one of page one. Another 20 more similiar pages to go.

*bangs head on the wall repeatedly*