I'm Nina, a senior concentrating in East Asian Studies, and this is my very first political science class in my college career. I spent this past summer working at two media/communications companies. One was an extremely established company that most people believe have a monopoly on the music industry and whether or not I agree with that opinion, I will say that I learned an incredible amount during my time there. Headlines, advertisements -- everything published on-air and online was scrutinized, especially when it really counted (Michael Jackson coverage, anyone?). The other company was a small, start-up PR company geared towards a completely different audience from the first.
Much of the work I did was in digital form, so naturally, I can't wait to discuss the effects of the blogosphere on mass media today. Does blogging make us more informed or more misinformed? Are we more encouraged to find the "facts" when they are literally at our fingertips? Are we becoming more or too involved in popular issues? Maybe being this active in the media can be a bad thing, but then again, at least it shows we care about what's going on, right?
Luckily, I feel extremely comfortable with the blogging aspect of this class. I have a personal blog, a blog to recommend music to friends, another one for documenting my findings as I complete my senior independent research capstone on rock music in China, and another for a music class last semester where I tracked my research for an ethnography project. For the next few months, I'll be tracking progress on my final paper. My next post will discuss the top three topics I have in mind to write about. I already have much to say about all topics, but hopefully by next post, I'll be able to narrow down my choices to get to the one that will ultimately be my final paper topic. Until next time...
