A journalism major in the Media, Self & Society scholars program.
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Contact me at sesguerr@terpmail.umd.edu
MEDIA SCHOLARS REVIEW
Follow along as I reflect on my time within the Media Scholars community and the things I learned about media and its intricacies.
My time in Media Scholars
I entered my freshman year of college in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, so my experience was very unconventional. I felt as if I missed out on so many things while I was cooped up in my room struggling to meet and talk to people over zoom. However, Media Scholars was the first real community that I became a part of.
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During my time in the Media Scholars program, my academics have experienced a growing shift toward media, which I guess I should not be too surprised about. The program's focus on dissecting the news and how we view it has definitely changed the way I view media. I would usually not think twice about the news and how it was presented to me, but after many Tuesdays and Thursdays of eye-openers, I have gained a greater understanding and critical analysis skills of the news. I have learned to question whether or not the news was representative of my world that day, whether the stories chosen were most important, and why they were chosen to be presented in that way.
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This is a photo of me in a sloth onesie, getting ready for one of my shows in the studio at my internship. My experience at Seacrest Studio has really brought me out of my shell, making me more energetic and comfortable on-air for shows, games, and programs for the kids.
I think the scholars experience has changed the way I tackle ideas and projects. There is so much creative opportunity for students to present ideas in any way they see fit, and I think the assignments have definitely reinforced my interest in media production and creative design.
The Media Scholars practicum was something that intimidated me at first because I didn’t think there was any way I could complete it. However, it encouraged me to apply for an internship at Seacrest Studios at Children’s National Hospital to produce TV and radio content for patients. This experience has had a lot of intersection with my studies of media in the program, so I think they complemented each other really well. Because of this, Media Scholars has taught me to be more confident and proud of my work.
This photo is a screenshot from a 30-minute video I had to create for my internship, which had to be a virtual field trip of a place I thought patients would like to visit. I chose Brookside Gardens in Wheaton, Maryland, so that patients would have a chance to enjoy the outdoors after being cooped up after so long. This photo is representative of my experiences with media production this semester but also figuratively representative of how all over the place I have been this semester. From traveling to D.C. and back to campus because of my internship to going to many off-campus events for the Filipino Cultural Association, I truly have been everywhere I could be in such a short amount of time.
As stated within our program’s name, media has so much to do with our lives. No matter where we go or what we do, we will face some sort of media in some shape or form, whether its newspapers, television news, or even social media. I have become more conscientious of media’s role in my life and how it shapes my views of myself and my world. Learning about media representation and stereotypes forced my to think critically of my place within the digital realm and question how the world viewed my identity based on my representation within the media. The construction of news and how it is chosen has also made me think about how certain channels or snippets of news I see every day shape the way I view the world. The incorporation of media theories into the course’s curriculum was very helpful because it provided more substantial content and structure of media, which can be quite free-flowing. Over the three semesters I have been in media scholars, I have learned that the other inclusions of media, such as music and film, are also very important to society. We consume these mediums in such large amounts that they also have an effect on how we view things, such as racial and LGBTQ+ representation in movies.
Overall, the Media Scholars experience has been very helpful in my advancement in journalism because it has so much impact on what people see. Journalists have the power to choose what stories people see and how they see them. However, it is also important for me to be critical of journalism and other forms of media in order to know how to navigate media in the future. I learned that news can constructed in certain ways, and that I can use those ways to make sure my stories cater to audiences better and that they are truly representative of events and people. However, I also learned to stray from the sensationalism of news and the constructions of news that often makes stories too similar to each other, such as the representations of individuals in crime coverage.
This final photo is from the Filipino Cultural Association's first general body meeting of the semester. This association is the second community I found on-campus after Media Scholars, and it has truly become a family to me. I am also part of the association's executive board, holding the position of secretary, meaning I am in charge of logistics when it comes to booking and reserving rooms for all of our events and keeping track of everything that's going on. This leadership role has been important in my advancement in college and also supplemented my confidence and role in my internship. But more than that, this association has quickly taken over my life in the best way possible. It gave me something to look forward to every day, and these people are why I was able to get through my first in-person semester at College Park.
