The phrase “Media, Self, and Society” really embodies what this three semester class is all about. Throughout the class, I have definitely learned so much about how media plays a role in my life. Every time the class met, whether in person or online for the end of last semester and this semester, we started out by watching a recap of the news for that day. This really allowed us to focus on the relationship between media and society. Media is all around us from the news to social media on our phones every second of the day. I did not understand how much time I spent consuming media until I did the Media Diary my first semester Freshman year. It is definitely something I need to work on. Media plays such a big part in everyone’s lives.
During the 2020 presidential election, in which we were in the colloquium class for all of, I definitely used the skills I learned to fact check the news during the election. For example, the week of the election last month, there was such differing news about what states were called for a certain candidate. I learned in class that the Associated Press was the news outlet to focus on for election results. The Associated Press and Fox News called Arizona for Joe Biden very early and no other news outlet had called it. It ended up taking around a week for the results to be finalized and these outlets looked bad for calling such a close race so early.
Something I have noticed as a college student that is extremely harmful is social media. Social media can tear a person down. Especially with the level of editing that exists, people, especially teenage or college aged girls, can aspire to look a certain way and want to achieve these unrealistic goals in unhealthy ways like developing eating disorders. People edit their pictures so it can look a certain way and post it on social media. Also, people can hide behind a screen on social media and post rude things that they would never say in person. Another example of media that could be helpful is the news. Being aware of what is going on in the world is super helpful. As much as the news can report sad things that are going on like COVID-19 deaths, the news also reports happy things. For example, during peak quarantine in April, the actor John Krasinski created a web news series called “Some Good News”. He only reported good news happening in the world and that was super helpful to get me through the sad times when no one knew what was going on.
To me, being a critical consumer and producer of media means that someone would be aware of what they are putting out in the world. They would think about what they posted and the consequences before it was posted which can really help the issues I discussed earlier with social media. A critical consumer of media would think about the information they are receiving before sharing it and passing it on. This really helps with the issues of fake news that can be prevented if everyone were critical consumers and fact checked the information they were receiving. A passive consumer means that someone just allows whatever information to go in and out without any fact checks. I think I have become a way more critical consumer in these past three semesters in this class. I definitely fact check information before sharing it to try to not be a part of the fake news issue.
Being in Scholars has definitely brought me into contact with people who challenged my beliefs. I grew up in a household in which everyone had the same views on political issues and most of my friends growing up had these views as well. Being able to talk about politics in a class so freely and able to speak opinions has really allowed me to see other people’s points of view.
I absolutely loved living in a living-learning community. My freshman year roommate and I were both in Media Scholars and I really think it allowed us to get closer by having a class together. We are completely different majors and take completely different classes. Being able to take this class together allowed us to not only connect on a friendship level but an academic level which is definitely special. I lived on the same floor as the majority of the scholars program which let me do group projects and discuss assignments so easily. Our floor group chat would not only discuss issues with the floor but also would help with Media assignments because we all lived together which is a unique experience.
I do think I have made contributions to the Media Scholars community but I think if we had a normal semester, it would have been easier. I have truly loved the discussions that we have during class. I always have been very into politics and yes I am a government and politics major, but this class has allowed me to have deep conversations about the things I care about. I grew up around politics with my dad being involved in politics. I have a unique perspective about the election. I contributed so many times to conversations and on Zoom it definitely was harder to participate as opposed to in person, but I still did participate. The first weekend of Freshman Year I participated in service day which was so meaningful to be able to do at the beginning. I wish the rest of my time in Media Scholars was normal because I wanted to go on the trip to NYC to be able to really contribute and learn about life in Media.
I think I will always remember what I learned in this class. Being in the Government and Politics/Criminology and Criminal Justice field, I will always have to fact check information. I am planning on going to law school and I will always have to rely on the news to inform my decisions. If I ever decide to get into politics, for example, work on a campaign, I will need to decide what news to give to the media or analyze data.
During the 2020 presidential election, in which we were in the colloquium class for all of, I definitely used the skills I learned to fact check the news during the election. For example, the week of the election last month, there was such differing news about what states were called for a certain candidate. I learned in class that the Associated Press was the news outlet to focus on for election results. The Associated Press and Fox News called Arizona for Joe Biden very early and no other news outlet had called it. It ended up taking around a week for the results to be finalized and these outlets looked bad for calling such a close race so early.
Something I have noticed as a college student that is extremely harmful is social media. Social media can tear a person down. Especially with the level of editing that exists, people, especially teenage or college aged girls, can aspire to look a certain way and want to achieve these unrealistic goals in unhealthy ways like developing eating disorders. People edit their pictures so it can look a certain way and post it on social media. Also, people can hide behind a screen on social media and post rude things that they would never say in person. Another example of media that could be helpful is the news. Being aware of what is going on in the world is super helpful. As much as the news can report sad things that are going on like COVID-19 deaths, the news also reports happy things. For example, during peak quarantine in April, the actor John Krasinski created a web news series called “Some Good News”. He only reported good news happening in the world and that was super helpful to get me through the sad times when no one knew what was going on.
To me, being a critical consumer and producer of media means that someone would be aware of what they are putting out in the world. They would think about what they posted and the consequences before it was posted which can really help the issues I discussed earlier with social media. A critical consumer of media would think about the information they are receiving before sharing it and passing it on. This really helps with the issues of fake news that can be prevented if everyone were critical consumers and fact checked the information they were receiving. A passive consumer means that someone just allows whatever information to go in and out without any fact checks. I think I have become a way more critical consumer in these past three semesters in this class. I definitely fact check information before sharing it to try to not be a part of the fake news issue.
Being in Scholars has definitely brought me into contact with people who challenged my beliefs. I grew up in a household in which everyone had the same views on political issues and most of my friends growing up had these views as well. Being able to talk about politics in a class so freely and able to speak opinions has really allowed me to see other people’s points of view.
I absolutely loved living in a living-learning community. My freshman year roommate and I were both in Media Scholars and I really think it allowed us to get closer by having a class together. We are completely different majors and take completely different classes. Being able to take this class together allowed us to not only connect on a friendship level but an academic level which is definitely special. I lived on the same floor as the majority of the scholars program which let me do group projects and discuss assignments so easily. Our floor group chat would not only discuss issues with the floor but also would help with Media assignments because we all lived together which is a unique experience.
I do think I have made contributions to the Media Scholars community but I think if we had a normal semester, it would have been easier. I have truly loved the discussions that we have during class. I always have been very into politics and yes I am a government and politics major, but this class has allowed me to have deep conversations about the things I care about. I grew up around politics with my dad being involved in politics. I have a unique perspective about the election. I contributed so many times to conversations and on Zoom it definitely was harder to participate as opposed to in person, but I still did participate. The first weekend of Freshman Year I participated in service day which was so meaningful to be able to do at the beginning. I wish the rest of my time in Media Scholars was normal because I wanted to go on the trip to NYC to be able to really contribute and learn about life in Media.
I think I will always remember what I learned in this class. Being in the Government and Politics/Criminology and Criminal Justice field, I will always have to fact check information. I am planning on going to law school and I will always have to rely on the news to inform my decisions. If I ever decide to get into politics, for example, work on a campaign, I will need to decide what news to give to the media or analyze data.