Race, Gender and Media Class Reflection Part 5

This week, our class took our midterm exam, which required us to write 10 short essay questions over various topics that we've been looking over throughout the semester.

As I was taking the exam, I was refreshed on some of the content that we had to write about, and was reminded of how interesting they could be. One question asked us to use examples from the film "The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords" and analyze what they did for the Black community at time when prejudice was high. I went and skimmed a transcript of the documentary and found the bit of information that said how the Black Press propped up its community, which was essentially through humanizing them. All of this to say, I felt inspired being reminded of what a community who is facing hardships can do for each other in order to keep spirits high.

Another question I enjoyed answering was on how corporate ownership of news organizations affects media output. One thing that I haven't looked over much in this class and one thing I think is and will grow to be a huge issue is conglomerates and how much further they will consolidate their control onto all of the corporations that they own. 

In the last year, I have really turned my focus off of listening what mainstream media tells me. Since I became heavily invested in politics and news in 2016, I feel like I've spent so much energy and brain power into understanding current global events and listening to what the media tells me, and yet it has all ended up being inconsequential. I think a big reason for that is because corporations that control most companies want to control public opinion, so they will always put flashy and eye-catching topics on news broadcasts and other forms of media to keep people invested in news that ends up draining them.

Once you know that it's only a few companies behind everything, it becomes easier to turn your attention to bigger issues, and not the ones that conglomerates want you to believe.

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