INTRODUCTIONS TO MEDIA LITERACY
As a journalism student, I have always learned the importance of media and the critical role it plays as the Fourth Estate to hold systems of power accountable. While having talented and diligent journalists is necessary for our democracy, their work renders useless without an audience that actively engages with their stories, research and findings.
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Teaching news consumers and social media users to understand how to use concepts of media literacy in their every day life is one of the most pressing issues of the 21st century. These introductory courses taught me how to begin incorporating different ways of critical thinking into my experiences creating and consuming media, and how to have conversations surrounding the importance of the topic. In Intro to Journalism I learned how to create good journalistic work and in Media Literacy and the Psychology of Inquiry, I learned how to make sure the stories have an impact on my audience.
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These courses also served as an introduction to thought leaders and organizations in media like the National Association for Media Literacy, Project Look Sharp, Common Sense Media and more!
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PSYC 11000 Media Literacy and the Psychology of Inquiry
This course taught me an introduction to the key principles of media literacy, and why the development of research and education in the field is so important in our current digital age. Before this course, I had not realize the depths of the intersections between media and psychology, and now have a greater understanding how media impacts youth development through advertising, representation and coded language. It is necessary to have an understanding on the the impacts on young students to see how they evolve into media consumers into adulthood.
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One of the most important take-aways from this course was Project Look Sharp's key questions for media decoding. These questions helped me become a more active consumer of media, and more critical of the media i was creating. I even got the opportunity to put these questions into action by making my out advertisement PSA as a final collaborative group project.
JOUR 11100 Introduction to Journalism
In the first week of Intro to Journalism we were tasked with the challenge of memorizing the First Amendment, and reciting it over a video. At first I was confused and annoyed with the assignment but as I continued in the course and following years in the program, I learned more and more about the duty of journalists to uphold these rights.
This course taught the fundamentals of storytelling that are needed for journalists of all mediums. We learned how to research, interview and structure stories. I have attached my final paper which was an investigative look on the culture of e-cigarettes in high schools. This was my first deep dive into youth culture using research and consulting health professionals to support and develop my observations.
Entering college in 2017 when misinformation in the Trump era was running rampant, "fake news" was a term that I heard a lot. It would come up in my journalism courses but we only learned how to create work that combatted the phenomenon with our own truthful reporting, and not so much how to spot it in our social media feeds. Broadening my knowledge of media literacy strengthened my skills as a journalist.