It's so haaaard to say goodbyyyye.....

First off, I would like to say that I came into this class seeing it as an excellent opportunity to learn a wide assortment concerning race, gender and the media, and it didn’t disappointment. I had taken the race and elasticities class offered through the sociology department in a previous semester, and I loved it, so I knew I’d get a kick out of this one, too. Just like I stated in my very first blog, I knew the class discussions would be my thing, and they didn’t disappoint. I also knew there would be some people out there that would say something off the wall, and get funny looks, and that didn’t disappoint, either. All-in-all, it was a great experience.

I think that as students, we all have learned something, and some truly utilized this class in the right way. They put all their effort into the discussions and blogs, and it really showed. It is frankly refreshing to see people open themselves up to other strangers in such a unique way.

As anybody who has read my blogs probably already knows, my true love when talking about race, gender and the media is race. I’m not saying that gender inequality isn’t a major concern in today’s world, but race has just always molded the way I think about life outside of the media world, let alone in it. As a potential media professional, I think a class like this was necessary. Unlike some others, I don’t think a class like this can teach a person to not be racist. Teach them to not be sexist. That is unrealistic. What is realistic, though, is to provide us students information that helps us see there are flaws in what we want to call our field of work. These are flaws that have been around for long amounts of time, and until they are addressed, they will still be prevalent.

One thing that does make me think is this, though: We students now have an abundance of information on how race and gender are misrepresented, underrepresented or unrepresented in the media, but who (if any) is going to step up to the plate to do something about it? That’s a bold question, but a question that needs to be asked. If we don’t take the initiative and remain passive, it not only does a disservice to the constituents to whom we are inaccurately reporting/representing, but to ourselves, too. The word naive runs rampant throughout my blogs, but it is certainly a word that fits. I know it’s not in Merriam-Webster’s thesaurus, but “naive” and “lazy” are synonyms in my book.

I actually loved the usage of blogs in this class, although I think everyone else’s confusion on them during the beginning of the semester caused me to get confused. I loved being able to read more than fifty other people’s opinion on the exact same topics whenever I wanted. Whether we agreed or disagreed, I can honestly say that I learned something from every person’s blog that I read. Hopefully the same can be said for the people who read mine. It is also a nice touch that we were required to include some sort of link. Words can be a powerful tool, but adding visuals to a blog help drive your point home, and make it more interesting.

In conclusion, the discussion the other day of making a class like this mandatory really got the wheels in the ol’ noggin of mine turning. I don’t think EVERYONE has to have a crash-course on this material because some of us are LIVING it. Some of us have grown up watching TV or reading the paper and see a lack of people that look like us, or we see an inaccurate portrayal of us. It’s a problem that we must work on to become the best professional we can be.