My senior year at Alma College, I took a two-part series of courses to fulfill my New Media Studies major requirement. The second half, the Senior Studio, was extremely project based. However, the Senior Seminar, was paper and theory-focused. I wanted this paper to be the greatest culmination of my undergraduate studies. To choose a topic, I revisited some common themes in the literature. One such theme was the use of the term “addiction” to describe the way people use social media. I considered writing my paper on why society and scholars are choosing to label the usage in this way, but I ultimately chose to break this argument down. From an annotated bibliography to a literature review, I skillfully crafted an argument against the use of the term “addiction.” I started by breaking apart the very term by its Latin roots and multiple definitions, including scholarly and lay sources. Based on a foundation of scholars’ arguments examining why people use social media and rely on it so heavily, I hoped to better understand why people see it as an addiction. To conclude my argument, I suggested calling it what it is, we use social media to satisfy our human, social needs. I have decided to include this paper in my Communication portfolio because it is one of my best works showcasing my ability to think critically and deconstruct an argument. I also believe this piece represents my technical communication and writing skills. This is a field I fully intend on pursuing, and I am very proud of this piece. Therefore, I am including in my portfolio.
In the Winter Semester of 2019, I took a Gender and Communication class that greatly influenced my perspective on the world. The class introduced me to issues of communication that people face daily in terms of gender and sexuality. All of my assignments for this class required critical thinking, but my Gender in Film Analysis was particularly challenging as it was a culmination of both of my undergraduate majors, New Media Studies and Communication, in terms of the analysis of films and the application of communication theories. The Gender in Film Analysis required the watching of two films, Kissing Jessica Stein and Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and an in-depth analysis of the communication styles and patterns of the characters. Even more important to my studies of communication, it required me to apply several theories such as biological, psychodynamic, queer, and cognitive development. Ultimately, I chose to include this paper in my portfolio as it depicts my ability to think critically and apply important communication theories to different media. This paper also represents my ability to synthesize and compare two texts and their theory applications. The Gender in Film Analysis will help me in my future studies and career endeavors as the content of the paper explores concepts within Digital Rhetoric and Professional Writing, my intended postgraduate studies.
On average, there are over half a million children in the United States foster care system. Often, these children feel abused or neglected, and society views them as broken. The foster care system as a whole tends to have a bad reputation. However, using the power of an interactive documentary, I tell the story of a house that built many. The story I am telling is through some of the 89 children who entered this house. To some, they were born into this house, and to some this house represented only a stop on their journey through life, and to others the house became their home when they were adopted. There were sad endings, and there were happy ones, too. Children of all abilities entered this house, every child was given a chance. Some presented more of a challenge than others, but they always had the opportunity to have a home and a family. Their lives were built by this house in rural Ohio. This family may not have had much, but they always had a home. Regardless of their background, these children were taken in and cared for by a loving woman and her kind husband.