Beginning my minor late in the game as a junior in college, this experience is still relatively new to me as a second semester senior. However, the time spent in my communication and media classes have been the times in class that I know I am in the right place. Picking up the minor of communication with a concentration in media I didn’t realize all that encompassed media and all that I would be studying. I assumed the concept of social media would be most prominent in a media study. The influence media has on communication has been a particularly interesting topic and realization to me.
In all my media classes I have been taught to think critically about every piece of media; newspapers, magazines, books, movies, radio, apps, internet and the context in which they are presented. As well as, the means in which they influence communication and norms in society. I always knew it was an influence, but not until being forced to sit and learn about it did I ever realize all that media does influence and how.
A specific example that has shaped my respect and awe for media studies is in a gender and media class. Learning how much children’s programs, which I have not even given a second thought to since before even middle school, still influence adult thoughts and practices today. The influence we discussed regarding this was labeling and identity. In my experience I watched and played more with boy associated children’s programs and it was always compared to my sister’s choices of particularly girly programs. Because of this I always labeled myself as a tomboy and opposite of her. Today still it is a comparison made in the back of my head which I did not note until this lesson. When I must describe myself I choose to focus on the less girly aspects of things I like because since a young kid the media I chose labeled me as less girly. This identity subconsciously became a part of me and also influences how I perceive others as more or less alike myself. Until actually learning about children’s programs I never would have considered thinking critically about them.
I relate back to this children’s program example as a prominent lesson in my experience as a media minor because as an art major cartoons and digital illustration are my areas of interest. Being inspired by cartoons, I would consider a dream job of mine to work for a company like Pixar that creates such detailed imagery in animated movies and shorts. If not for my media and communication classes explicitly exposing me to the reasons children’s programs are so important, I would not think as critically about the content that inspires me and my own work outside of an art sense. This is important to me because it also further connected my major and minor in my own path seemingly in a critical way.
Courses taken
- COME 122
- COME 124
- COME 331
- COME 352
- COME 364
- COME 467
