I have loved my time as a Communication and Media Studies major, and I cannot say enough good things about this major. There is a reason why I have talked to so many students, especially fellow English majors, about picking up a Communication and Media Studies major. To be a student of Communication and Media Studies means to learn to be open and inquisitive. Through this major, you learn to pay attention to the messages you are receiving and sending, both on the individual and societal level. You learn to really understand how the messages we create affect people and how we can improve in creating these messages.
Being a student of Communication and Media Studies has truly changed my life, as dramatic as that sounds. On the Media side of things, I am much more aware of the sort of messages that the media is trying to send and the societal ideas that it is perpetuating. I am also very aware of product placement at this point! As a student of Communication, I have learned how to be a better, healthier person. The way that I approach conflict has improved tremendously (though I am still always improving here), I no longer believe that things like openness are always the solution (communication is much more complex than that), I have learned to be less of a people pleaser, and I have learned that I don’t need to stay with the status quo, to live the master narrative, in order to have a healthy, happy life. Sometimes, it’s a lot healthier to do things differently, because most things are functionally ambivalent. My time as a Communication and Media Studies student has made me realize so much and has improved my life in ways that I can’t even fully express. I went from being a quiet people pleaser who was engaged in many toxic and abusive situations to being a much more confident person who can better navigate relationships. I know that the work I have done with this major has been a huge part of that change, and I know that it has given me some of the tools to continue growing.
I personally had a concentration in Communication, and I studied a lot of things that were very personal to me, often things that I wanted to personally improve on. On the Media Studies side of things, I took a couple of classes on how media and gender ideas intersect, with one of those classes being taken at SNC (Gender and Media) and one being taken while abroad (Contemporary Feminist Media Cultures). On the Communication side of things, I studied a lot of the things that I wanted to improve on. For example, I took Conflict Communication, knowing that I did poorly in conflict, always either avoiding or appeasing. I took Nonverbal Communication, as I wanted to improve my ability to perceive such things and, more importantly, to better send my own messages nonverbally. I wanted to better be able to connect with people across social identities, so I took Social Identity and Intergroup Communication. I knew that I had grown up surrounded by a tremendous amount of unhealthy familial communication, and I knew that I wanted to be able to have healthier familial relationships as I got older, so I took Family Communication in order to grow. And finally, I took Mental Health communication, knowing that I struggled with my own mental health and wishing to gain some tools to better support many of my loved ones with their own mental health. In all of this work, I leaned on a lot of research, often under the interpretive paradigm. In my later work, for example, I leaned on a lot of the work of Kristina Scharp.
My Communication and Media Studies Classes, taken at SNC:
- COME 124, Principles of Mass Communication, Spring 2020
- COME 180, Research Methods, Spring 2020
- COME 122, Interpersonal Communication, Fall 2020
- COME 331, Gender and Media, Fall 2020
- COME 315, Conflict Communication, Spring 2021
- COME 323, Nonverbal Communication, Fall 2021
- COME 305, Social Identity and Intergroup Communication, Fall 2022
- COME 328, Family Communication, Fall 2022
- COME 312, Mental Health Communication, Spring 2023
- COME 427, Communication Theory, Spring 2023
So much of my life has been chosen for me by my situation; I now have the freedom to make my own decisions and choices. Thus, after graduation, I plan to soak that in and see where life takes me. I would like to spend a year doing Americorp or earning money, but then I have been exploring various options, such as museum archivist work, getting a PhD in Communication, or getting a PhD in English. I don’t feel rushed to make any of these decisions, though, which I take as a sign of growth.
Finally, along with my class work, I was also able to spend a lot of time working on the school newspaper, the SNC Times, which I began my first year as a copy editor. My sophomore year, I became Head Copy Editor, and my junior year, I became Co-Editor in Chief and also held the position of Entertainment Section Editor, through which I was able to write articles about media as well as help others write articles on entertainment.
I have loved my Communication and Media Studies major, and I am so proud to be graduating with this degree. Thank you so much to the amazing faculty who were able to support me and teach me along the way. You have made an immense difference in my life.
