Jada Wooten

4/30/2022

IPS-304

Critical Reflection

Contemporary Media Studies

How I would define Contemporary Media Studies is “ the concept of how you analyze

media messages, text, and images”. Although, Contemporary Media Literacy isn't just about

your analysis of text but also your access to these concepts and ideas. With access, you can use

the concepts and ideas discovered through media to make a difference or impact in the world.

What I’ve learned about my own interactions with contemporary media literacy is my lack of

knowledge within it. Before this class, I did not know the lengths of how far Contemporary

Media Literacies can go. This means, Contemporary Media Literacy goes beyond your presence

through media, it also covers awareness, intention, and expanding your definition of literacy. The

literacies I feel most comfortable with are the Socio-Cultural and Critical approaches to literacy.

The Socio-Cultural approach to literacy believes that defining what makes a person "literate'

based on a set of cognitive skills ignores racial, cultural, and other forms of social difference.

The Critical approach to literacy “maintains an emphasis on the social, but with an overt

epistemology grounded in critical theory, and with a rationale to analyze interrogate, challenge,

and change forms of oppression and privileging of certain groups in society through critical

pedagogies” (35–36). In other words, both approaches suggest that being literate stems farther

from just being able to read, write, and speak. Being literate is being able to analyze social issues

and understand social/cultural differences. There is no literacy without cultural and social

context. I tend to be the most comfortable with these approaches because I understand their
definitions the most. Being that I am a person of color in America, my culture is something that I

hold true to myself. Therefore, I try to incorporate my social and cultural background into almost

everything I pursue. This includes literature and my understanding of it. Therefore, I feel I

experience Social-Cultural and Critical literacy on a first-hand basis. The literacy I would like to

see myself improve on is Traditional Literacy. Traditional Literacy is based on your knowledge

of reading, writing, and speaking. I believe I can improve on Traditional Literacy because when

it comes to reading concepts, I am not particularly the best. For example, recalling information

and answering questions based on what I’ve read are things I am constantly looking to improve

on. Recalling information, reading, and writing is what defines traditional literacy, therefore,

practicing fundamental skills will only help improve my stance. I want to improve in Traditional

literacy because Traditional Literacy sets the groundwork for all concepts of literature. Without

Traditional Literacy, other literature approaches would lack exposure. Therefore, it’s best to

work from the ground up when it comes to understanding literature and its vast definitions.

Contemporary Media Literacy is important to examine because its definitions are continually

changing. With our society constantly growing, the idea and definition of Contemporary Media

Literacy are constantly evolving. Therefore it is always important to examine the idea of

Contemporary Media Literacy. In the future, I do see Contemporary Media Literacy as a part of

my personal, professional, and academic life. Due to the ongoing advancements in technology,

it’s almost impossible to avoid Contemporary Media Literacy. Most work, school, and jobs use

technology and media in order to process information. Therefore, Contemporary Media Literacy

will be implemented in almost everyone’s life personally and professionally. I can connect the

concept of Traditional literacy to the idea of Traditional Values in American culture. We have

covered these values in WGS-250. Traditional literacy believes knowing how to read and write
makes you literate. Traditional values believe men are politically above women. These ideas

connect to one another because both older concepts are continuously changing with society.

Traditional literacy and values are now being questioned due to ongoing societal changes. Things

like technology, social norms, and cultural practices are now forcing us to question if old

definitions are right or wrong.

Writing and Speaking

I approach speaking assignments and tasks by creating a script. I create a script with

bullet points that highlight the topics I want to cover. Creating a script helps me sort out my

thoughts and ideas. It also helps me analyze the flow of my videos and makes sure I am covering

the essential points. As for my writing process, I tend to create an outline before I start any

assignment. With an outline, I get to organize my ideas while putting them on paper. Through

this course, I have realized how essential outlines are to my writing process. The terms we cover

in this course can be confusing at times, resulting in me writing out definitions for a better

understanding. I then transfer my definitions to my outline and start building from there. If it

wasn't for my outlines, my work wouldn't be as organized or as structured. Something I would

want to change about my writing process is using the internet. When asked a question or doing

an assignment I tend to turn to the internet for guidance. I’ve gotten so used to having the

internet at my disposal that I use it frequently for inspiration. I use the internet because most of

the time I believe my ideas aren't good enough. Therefore, in the future, I would like to eliminate

my use of the internet for assignments and become confident in my own ideas. One of my

strengths as a speaker is my tone of voice. I tend to be loud enough for everyone to hear and soft

enough for the occasion. One of my weaknesses is eye contact. I get nervous when speaking in

front of an audience so the first thing I want to do is look away. To improve, I will continue to
practice my eye contact through video recordings and communication among others.

Communicating with others will help me practice eye contact and eventually get to a point where

it comes naturally. The relationship between writing and speaking for school is definitely

different than my writing and speaking for my personal life. My writing and speaking for school

come from a more professional standpoint. For school, I am completing assignments for a grade,

therefore it's crucial to sound professional and put your best foot forward. On the other hand, in

my personal life, I tend to not worry about my professionalism when it comes to speaking and

writing. Writing and preparing presentations did help me tackle the complex ideas about

Contemporary Media Literacies. Through my research, I had to connect my topic with a concept

we covered in class. By drawing connections between Contemporary Media Literacies and my

research topic, I realized how apparent Contemporary Media Literacy is within our lives. Writing

and creating these presentations helped me understand the importance of Contemporary Media

Literacy and how crucial it is for our success.

Your Final Website Project and Presentation

An intentional decision I made while curating my website was to include pictures of

myself. I decided to include pictures because I felt like the readers should know the person

behind the website. Another intentional decision I made was to include my personal connection

to the topic. Including my personal connection to the topic helps establish trust through Ethos

and Pathos. Telling a personal experience gives the reader an opportunity to connect with others

on an emotional level. Therefore, I felt its important to include my personal connection with the

topic at hand. The best part of creating the website was the creativity. You were able to make the

website your own and make your own decisions about what you wanted it to look like. The best

part of the presentation was being able to pick the way you wanted to do it. This took the
pressure off the assignment because we got to do the presentation our way instead of being

limited to one choice. The most challenging part of the website was limiting the number of

words on the site. When you go to a website, many do not want to read paragraphs. Instead, it's

best to use small sentences and attention grabbers when creating your welcome page. This was

challenging because I felt like I was not saying enough. I wanted to write more but I had to limit

the number of words on each tab. Limiting your word count is definitely encouraged because you

don't want the reader to get bored of your topic. The most challenging part of my presentation

was keeping eye contact with the camera. Eye contact has always been difficult for me when it

comes to public speaking. Hopefully, eye contact will become easier with more practice in the

future. If I had more time I would choose a better setting for my presentation. For example,

doing this presentation in a computer lab would have helped persuade the audience more. With a

computer lab connecting to my subject, the audience would get a better understanding of my

topic. This project has helped me further my personal, professional, and academic goals more

than any other project. One of my professional and personal goals was to improve my public

speaking skills. Practicing for my presentation gave me the opportunity to enhance both my

speaking skills and confidence. This project has also furthered my academic goals. One of these

goals included learning how to cite correctly. Therefore, with references being required, I was

able to educate myself on building the correct citations in any given format. Overall, this project

has helped me take one foot further in reaching my goals both academically and personally.

This Class

My goals for my education are excelling in my classes, staying focused, and completing

work efficiently. I want to excel in my classes because I believe this leads to better learning. I

also believe that excelling and getting good grades to help boost your confidence and self-
esteem. Staying focused is another goal of mine. By staying focused on a task, you are

guaranteed to get things done more efficiently and put your best foot forward. Lastly, completing

work efficiently. By completing work efficiently you create the habit of always trying your best.

My goal for this class was to start assignments in advance. Since this is an asynchronous class

we were given the opportunity to work at our own pace. Therefore, at times it was easy to

procrastinate and wait until the last minute to complete assignments. To contribute to my goal, I

began to start assignments prior to the week it was due. Starting prior, gave me more time to

prepare and organize what I wanted to accomplish. Something I would do differently in regards

to my student life is asking for help. When I have questions I tend to try to figure them out on my

own instead of communicating that I am struggling. I like my independence but I’m learning that

it can sometimes get in the way of my own success. My conversations with my peers actually

enhanced my experience in the class. Hearing people's positive feedback made me feel confident

in my work. Their educational criticism also helped me improve my writing and speaking skills.

As for final thoughts, I hope you can see the hard work demonstrated through my project.

Making a website with all of these components is new to me but I tried my best. Hope you enjoy

it!