To me being a Communication and Media Studies major means learning how to truly understand people. Although that thought may seem more geared to psychology, I have learned in all my classes different ways we as humans interact and communicate with one another through many different forms. This could be social media, verbal communication, non verbal communication and so on. Overall, I would say that is my main takeaway of being a communication major.
The main thing I learned in being a communication major was how people communicate in different environments. Throughout all of my classes I was able to learn this on different platforms. A few examples include, in Health Communication I got to learn how individuals communicate in the medical field and the patient to health provider relationship. In Intercultural Communication I was able to learn how people communicate in different cultures, I also learned how people communicate verbally and nonverbally to create shared and sustained meaning. In Political Communication I learned how politicians are able to communicate with millions of people along with other politicians. In Writing for Media I was able to see how news anchors and reporters deliver news to the public in the most effective way possible. Another thing that I learned was how to effectively use social media in a professional way. I had to create many instagram, twitter, and facebook pages for various projects. The learning I was provided has helped me with internships along with various clubs I am a part of on campus.
Some research I was able to conduct in my classes included, how St. Norbert College students use media and how that translates to the information they receive from the college. The findings concluded that most students prefer to get information from the college via email and the St. Norbert College Instagram. Another topic I was able to research was the bias in the newsroom and its effect on viewers.
Although I am not graduating until 2022 what I would like to go into the broadcasting field. Ideally I would like to start out as a news reporter and eventually be able to be a news anchor! I would be most interested in doing local news but I think sports broadcasting would be fascinating as well! I became interested in this after taking Professor Milbourn’s Writing for Media course. In this class we learned all about how to write news scripts for broadcasting! It was super interesting to me and I really enjoyed the writing part.
Experiences that have helped me outside the classroom include, dance team, women in business, and my last summer’s internship! For the dance team I am able to co run our Instagram page with my coach post regularly. This has helped me become even more familiar with posting in a professional way. For the Women in Business Club on campus I am on the executive board. This has helped me gain a sense of leadership and taught me how to be organized and in control. I also run the Instagram page and Facebook for this club as well! Lastly, over this past summer I had an internship with Novus Glass and I was able to run the Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn pages for the corporate company. I also was able to do a bit of business work and facilitate some marketing projects! The learning I have obtained in my Communication and Media Studies major helped me to be successful in all of these endeavors and I can guarantee it will also help me in the future.
