Race, Gender and Media Class Reflection 10

As the semester wraps up, I now begin writing my final blog post for this class. While it wasn't your average way to take this course, I still learned a lot about the modern media landscape and what it takes to be a media literate journalist.

Traditionally, this class is meant to be taken in person and be heavily discussion based. Due to unfortunate circumstances, the class was moved to an online format this year, where I have had an interesting time navigating the material. Dr. Everbach let us roam free on how we wanted to tackle this semester, and I think learning at my own pace and coming to my own conclusions without the influence of others was beneficial in a way I might not have seen were I to take this class in person.

When discussing modern day media and the way they shape such sensitive topics such as race, gender, sexuality, etc, you are bound to get heavily mixed opinions on what people think about certain topics. I myself am also easily persuaded to think how someone else thinks if they are strongly opinionated, which I don't think is necessarily the best thing. The fact that I was able to sit down at my desk, study the notebook, documentaries and material all by myself and do my own critical thinking without having other pathways carved in my brain by the opinions of others was very beneficial to the way I received this class.

Out of all the different topics and nuances presented in this media class, I think the biggest takeaway I had was to simply not use the media all that much. Your perception of life and all the experiences that come with it come from just that: experiences. Much like what I alluded to above, your thoughts and perceptions of others, especially those that are different than you, can be easily molded and shaped by the opinions of others, especially if they insist upon it, which has led to stereotypes of people from all backgrounds. 

The only way to truly understand the world and the people in it are to experience it all for yourself and discover the part it plays in your life.


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