MIDTERM REFLECTIONS: A Mass Media Breakdown

1. After studying media for eight weeks in this class, what have you learned? Please be specific.

I have learned that the media has issues that I was not aware of before taking the course. I imagine the upcoming part of the course about media censorship will be even more eye-opening in that regard. So far, I learned that many films vilify Arabs and it started before the second war in Iraq. I wonder if this is a broader issue than just with Arabs and if one could make a similar documentary to Real Bad Arabs about Caucasian Americans.

2. What is the most important thing you have learned about yourself as a critical reader, a writer, and a thinker in this class so far?

I have learned that my critical reading skills are not quite up to snuff. There is a lot of reading in this course so it provides challenging exercise for my brain, but I am still slowly improving. I think my writing is solid, clear, and concise and my thinking skills are entirely unmatched

3. What’s one thing you would do differently this first half of the semester if you were to take this class again?

I would try to stay more connected to the blog. I have tended to only check in when something is due, so I have fallen behind it a little bit. I am interested in blogging and immersing myself in the media will help me become more aware of it.

4. What’s one thing you would like me to do differently this first half of the semester if you were to take this class again?

The heavy reading in the first two weeks was overwhelming but seems somewhat necessary (read: completely necessary). Perhaps one of the books (FEED or AMUSING) could be replaced by a movie and/or revisited later in the semester.

5. Please comment on the usefulness of the power tools, our quizzes, the course blog, your personal blog, our films, and our books (AMUSING, FEED, MEDIA/SOCIETY) as learning tools.

Power Tools – The power tools are very important and help me understand the true meaning and what is really going on with our media culture. I think, above all, they apply most to our media lives out of the classroom compared to anything else we cover in class.

Quizzes – The quizzes are a good way to expose us to new forms of media and practice applying our power tools, but I often get distracted from the media txt and would argue that we often aren’t experiencing the texts the way they are meant to be experienced. Maybe if we simply watched video clips and held a power tools-based discussion, for example, it would be more beneficial.

Course Blog – The course blog is difficult to follow and keep up with, but it is helpful for the course. As I mentioned, it’s a great way to immerse ourselves in the media.

Personal Blog – The personal blog is a unique way to complete rather simple assignments and really let us let loose and express ourselves. We can even practice writing interesting blogs if that’s something we want to do.

Our Films – I enjoyed Real Bad Arabs because it was slow-paced and interesting, but I didn’t really like some of the YouTube clips we watched like “The Machine is Us/ing Us”, which made me downright uncomfortable and confused.

Books – I think FEED was an excellent book to include and focus on and I felt a tight connection with it right away. I felt the opposite about Amusing Ourselves to Death because it was a bit bland and seemed to cover things that I already noticed about our culture. Media/Society is a decent class textbook, but I think it is a bit broad for our course. For someone who has already taken Mass Media and Society as a course, I think I already have learned the basics of the media culture and I am now trying to delve deeper.