Mushrooms and Mastur-crasti-nation: A Review

Writer Than You is one of the many debut blogs by Rhodes University's Journalism and Media Studies 1 class. The blog’s uniqueness is declared with a witty pun on its name and fuels the reader’s expectation of the same wit and intelligence. If you're looking for an account on the daily musings of a Rhodes student, this is the blog for you. However, it's increasingly centred in and around campus, with only one or two posts on the national and international, which takes away its unique flair.

Despite this, it makes up for the slightly irrelevant content with posts on topics many wouldn't bat an eyelid over, such as the downside of joke-telling. Of the five contributors, you'll find yourself gravitating more towards Narvissie, with his laugh-out-loud headlines that follow observant blog posts like Mastur-crasti-nation.

In terms of layout, the giant glowing blue mushroom on the page brings to mind an alien-like predator sprouting out of the ground that science fiction movies repeatedly use.  The luminous 'alien-like' blue on a plain black background isn't particularly eye-catching and rather ominous. The virtual fish feeding application and music playlist make up for the lack of colour and some broken links within the posts but the unique factor is lost as numerous other blogs have the same. The voting poll's topic is out of date but nonetheless a clever way for the reader to interact with the topical issues at hand. There is room for ambitious flair but it mushrooms at a glacial pace.