So it has come to the end of the semester, and therefore the end of Emergent Media in Mass Communications. This semester has been nothing short of crazy, with Covid-19, extending spring break, then learning we weren’t going back at all. On top of that, I live in New York, a hot spot for this infection, and my whole family consists of essential workers, including me! Luckily, the setup for this class did not change at all, so it was nice that I had something I didn’t need to worry about changing. My favorite part about this class has been, you guessed it: becoming more media literate. Since starting this class, I have noticed that I am staring at my phone aimlessly less often, paying more attention to the content I am consuming, and analyzing the news much more in depth. The content I enjoyed the most was in the second half of the semester including advertising and news.
The content in this class that I didn’t enjoy the most was the development of mass media industries and information processing. These were still interesting, but I tended to enjoy reading about the things we talked about towards the end. One thing that I wish was included in our lectures is the chapter in our book about how children are a special audience. I would have enjoyed learning about how media can influence children and what precautionary measures we should be taking with youth in this media-saturated world nowadays. In general, I really enjoyed this class being online. I think the set-up of have a deadline each week but also being able to work on your own time was very helpful for me. As a nursing major with a work-study job, it is great to have flexibility whenever it is possible, which this class definitely was. Thanks for everything this semester, Dr. Magolis!
Maddie Cutler's Blog 