The semester has flown by, and being my last semester ever of college has really gotten me thinking about past classes I have taken, what I have learned... and still remember, and most of all in what ways this knowledge, that I have invested the past five years of my life in, will change me and actually take form in my future. I truthfully can't tell you if what I am about to say next occurred simply because I am currently in this class and it is the most current class I could recall or what, but the first class that I could recall that has truly impacted me was race, gender and media. We spend so much time learning politics, science, mathematics, sociology, psychology, all to come to understand how. How government works, how the human body works, how nature works, how people are conditioned, how people are socialized, how businesses are ran, just a whole lot of hows. But where are the whys? They are so often left out, not accounted for, or very minimally explained. I think this class made a difference because it got down into the why.
It is easy to go through life and not ask why people are treated differently and where this train of thought has come from. We get so wrapped up in our own small problems that we often choose not to acknowledge others problems that are grander than ours. This class has forced me to step outside of myself and at the very least hear others out about how different their situation is, and to do my best to understand what they go through and the difficulties others face. At first, this was all I was doing, listening, trying to understand, but the more and more I heard and learned about how misrepresented and ill treated other races are in the media and in the world, it was impossible for me to not be changed. Now, when I watch a show, read a magazine, watch the news, or even stop at the convenient store, I can't help but see differently. The major change for me this semester is the simple act of becoming aware. It sounds small, but it makes all the difference. Knowledge is power in this world, and putting it into action is only the next step. So as I go out into the world, whether I get the opportunity to work in the advertising world or not I will have the knowledge to see when woman are being continually sexualized, different races being underrepresented, or ethnicities being stereotyped, and take a stance and do my part to change these problems.
Whenever I first heard that we had to blog in this class, I was everything but excited. I had not idea why people liked blogs so much and I had no interest in doing one myself. Much to my surprise, in the middle of the first blogging assignment I began to see why. I felt so free to just write, put my thoughts and opinions down and no care in the world if others agreed or disagreed with me. It was liberating and slightly therapeutic to voice your opinions for anyone to see, and it really made me think about what we had been discussing and apply it to the world around me. It was insightful to read the opinions of others and to come to understand their thoughts on the same topics.I have come to understand why blogging is so important to some people and why so many people are doing it. I think I will continue to be one of them. So I am thankful to you Professor Flippin-Wynn for presenting this medium to me, it has certainly made an impact on my life.
I have one last thing to wrap this up. I really enjoyed getting to know the other people in my group and I think that group work is one of the greatest ways to teach. We all have to learn to work with others well, and it is particularly useful for this class in that you don't always get grouped with people that are just like you. It teaches us to understand others, and that's one of the most important morales in life... understanding.
I hope I have made it obvious how I feel about this class and the way it was taught. I would suggest this class to anyone because I think we are all taking more than just a few credit hours away from it.
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