Media Analysis Reflection 2020

I have really enjoyed Media Analysis this semester. All of the units brought important ways to think about the media we consume. The biggest takeaway for this semester was definitely when we talked about fake news, deep fakes, and the election in November. It was extremely applicable to a lot of the news and media in the last 6 months. It also cleared up a lot of confusion for many students about what fake news really is and its misuse in the media, especially politics. This class is helpful for everyone, no matter what your interests are. It should be offered at more schools because our society struggles as a whole to understand many of the concepts taught in this class. The lack of knowledge allows for people to be taken advantage of easier. This class would help the younger generations understand the media and protect us. However, this class is not just about the concepts. Allowing us to apply what we are learning to something we are already watching or would watch on our own helps us understand the concepts even better and is more interesting than watching a random movie or taking notes. It also makes it easier for us to identify these things in our everyday lives if we do it as an assignment first. The only changes I would make at the class is to do more blog posts and to allow more options for the blog. I think they are the most useful of all the out of school assignments. It is more meaningful when the shows are more connected to our lives. I would also make the time since being released. I understand that the shows need to be fairly recent but it was pretty difficult to find a show in the past 6–12 months, especially with the coronavirus pandemic. I would lengthen the timeline to the past 3 years. As seniors in high school, I think that we can remember the last 3 years well enough that we could still apply the concepts from class to shows that were released in 2017. It also makes the blogs more engaging because there are so many more options. Overall, I would recommend this course to every incoming senior next year, especially if they enjoy social media at all, even just for fun. It really helped broaden a lot of students’ perspectives on how the media influences our lives.