With my Media Scholars colloquium over, I find myself with the opportunity to reflect on what I have learned, what I have completed, and what I have experienced over the last three semesters. From the first day I came to school until now, Media Scholars has been the only constant with me the entire time. The program’s name itself: Media, Self, and Society, really does reflect real life and how media affects all parts of humanity. At the beginning of my time in the scholars program, I had no idea how many facets of life were directly correlated with popular media. I thought people just lived based on their surroundings and everyone made their own decisions with few outside influences. Now that I have been learning that is untrue for the past eighteen months, I now know that media of all types affect every aspect of society. Different mediums such as billboards, sitcoms, news shows, songs, etc. can all have immense impacts on how individuals make every choice throughout their day. As time went on through the program, I became more cognizant of this fact myself and started to notice how I bought things I saw in the most ads and movies, blindly agreed with what was being said about my favorite NFL teams by celebrities on social media, and formed my opinions based on what I saw on TV, read on social media, and heard in music.
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One of the largest parts of Media Scholars was learning how to critically analyze media that was presented to us. Whether it was a movie, a tweet, or a radio show, we were put in a position where we had to question the validity and value of the media. I have been using this in my real life to determine the validity of tweets since the first time we had to analyze whether or not certain articles were fake news or not. Specifically when it came to election time this year, I was able to use the skills I had learned to tell whether or not reports were true. For example, I saw tweets posted by reporters at Fox and CNN tweet about results that were not final yet, so I had to dig deeper to find out if they were actually true. This directly relates to how the role of the media has become misunderstood in this country. I had always thought, along with the rest of America, that the main purpose of media was to entertain and inform, whereas all along the purpose of media is to influence. The fact that reporters were jumping the gun to report on the election just proves how far they are willing to go to try and convince the public of what they believe. While some media such as TV shows are obviously still meant to entertain, it is becoming more and more prevalent that they try and subliminally push a message. And when it comes to mediums that were created to inform, such as news programs, it is no longer possible to find a source that just informs without trying to influence its audience. Whether or not this is good for society I can’t say now and probably won’t be able to for a long time, but I’m incredibly appreciative that the critical analysis skills I learned in Media Scholars prepared me for and taught me the new age role of media in our lives.
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For me, a critical consumer of media as opposed to a passive consumer is centered all around questioning what you consume. As a passive consumer, you just sit and observe whatever type of media you are consuming and don’t give it a second thought. It’s really all about enjoyment for a passive consumer and there is nothing wrong with that seeing as I am often a passive consumer myself. But when it comes to really consuming media and retaining valuable information, being a critical consumer is very important. It means as you are listening, reading, or observing your media, you are actively thinking about what is presented to you. This makes it easier to analyze what is being said, as well as allowing you to form your own opinions about the subject. This concept is especially important when listening to news programs and making sure that whatever they say is not only true, but not so biased that it is going to sway your opinion too far in any direction.
Scholars constantly brought me into contact with people who challenged my previous beliefs and opinions. The opinions that were challenged were not necessarily political, but more along the lines of what I thought the appropriate and best forms of media were for different situations. I was constantly arguing that Twitter was the best way to get real time information because of its incredible variety and viewpoints, whereas my peers brought up good points about the credibility of news sources in the news app. Since then, I have been getting more up to date on my news outlets and occasionally checking the news app for stories I find interesting. Twitter is still by far my most used app for getting news and I still believe it is the best, but without these other students challenging my opinions, I would have never discovered another worthy media to enjoy.
Interacting with other scholars students as much as I did really helped me learn a lot better than I would have had I not been as active in the community. Living with them was an especially advantageous experience just because I became good friends with most of the people who lived in my hall who also happened to be in the same scholars program. It made learning easier because when it came time to have the interactive discussions in class, I was far more comfortable with my fellow scholars classmates than any other classmates because I was so used to speaking with them outside of class. Also, when your friends are in the same class and you are all doing work together, the class itself is infinitely more fun which makes learning a lot easier. I really feel like the system of putting all the same scholars classmates in the same housing together improves the experience for everyone and should be continued as long as the scholars program is in existence.
I believe that I had plenty of opportunities to contribute to the media program. Most of the time this was in the form of projects I did that could be used in later years, but even going as far to say presenting during class time or answering a question is a decent contribution to the program. When it comes to projects, my first semester final project where I made a promotional video for the program I feel is my biggest contribution to Media, Self, and Society. I think it describes the essence of the program above all else and puts it in a creative and entertaining form. Another contribution I feel like I made towards the Media Scholars program is through the community service that we did. My most memorable experience is the first service day when my group went to a youth center to fold donated clothes, organize bedding, and hand school supplies to underprivileged kids. It has stuck with me this entire time despite being the first thing I ever did in the scholars program. My contributions to this specific trip are some of my largest and most important to the program, which is why I felt necessary including it.
As far as my future, I know my scholars experience will help immensely with my next two years in college. Whether it is doing research for a paper and acknowledging the validity of my sources, or critically analyzing a movie or TV show, I know the skills I was taught in Media Scholars will be evident and extremely helpful.
Scholars constantly brought me into contact with people who challenged my previous beliefs and opinions. The opinions that were challenged were not necessarily political, but more along the lines of what I thought the appropriate and best forms of media were for different situations. I was constantly arguing that Twitter was the best way to get real time information because of its incredible variety and viewpoints, whereas my peers brought up good points about the credibility of news sources in the news app. Since then, I have been getting more up to date on my news outlets and occasionally checking the news app for stories I find interesting. Twitter is still by far my most used app for getting news and I still believe it is the best, but without these other students challenging my opinions, I would have never discovered another worthy media to enjoy.
Interacting with other scholars students as much as I did really helped me learn a lot better than I would have had I not been as active in the community. Living with them was an especially advantageous experience just because I became good friends with most of the people who lived in my hall who also happened to be in the same scholars program. It made learning easier because when it came time to have the interactive discussions in class, I was far more comfortable with my fellow scholars classmates than any other classmates because I was so used to speaking with them outside of class. Also, when your friends are in the same class and you are all doing work together, the class itself is infinitely more fun which makes learning a lot easier. I really feel like the system of putting all the same scholars classmates in the same housing together improves the experience for everyone and should be continued as long as the scholars program is in existence.
I believe that I had plenty of opportunities to contribute to the media program. Most of the time this was in the form of projects I did that could be used in later years, but even going as far to say presenting during class time or answering a question is a decent contribution to the program. When it comes to projects, my first semester final project where I made a promotional video for the program I feel is my biggest contribution to Media, Self, and Society. I think it describes the essence of the program above all else and puts it in a creative and entertaining form. Another contribution I feel like I made towards the Media Scholars program is through the community service that we did. My most memorable experience is the first service day when my group went to a youth center to fold donated clothes, organize bedding, and hand school supplies to underprivileged kids. It has stuck with me this entire time despite being the first thing I ever did in the scholars program. My contributions to this specific trip are some of my largest and most important to the program, which is why I felt necessary including it.
As far as my future, I know my scholars experience will help immensely with my next two years in college. Whether it is doing research for a paper and acknowledging the validity of my sources, or critically analyzing a movie or TV show, I know the skills I was taught in Media Scholars will be evident and extremely helpful.