COMM 372T Final Reflection

For my Intro to New Media Technologies course, I was required to write a final reflection.

Which assignment in COMM372T was your favorite? Why? 

My favorite assignment was the Application Analysis. This was a short paper in which we were tasked with analyzing an app’s engagement with Bogost & Montfort’s five levels of digital media: Reception/Operation, Interface, Form & Function, Code, and Platform. I chose to analyze Love and Deepspace, a Chinese otome mobile game. I enjoyed this assignment because it encouraged me to think critically about how each design choice of an app was made with the end-goal of making more money. I will take any opportunity I can get to talk about how corporate greed is becoming more and more pervasive in every part of our lives, especially in our technology.

Have you changed the way you engage with media since taking this class? Why or why not?

I wouldn’t say much has changed about the way I engage with media since taking this class. I remain as distrusting of new media technology as I was coming into this, though I am perhaps slightly more informed about my reasons to be wary. As an English major, I am constantly thinking about what message or story something is trying to convey, both overtly and inadvertently, and how it goes about telling that message. What this course has taught me is that there is as much hidden intention behind media as I had imagined. Things like authenticity, impression management, and advertisement tracking betray the man behind the curtain, and sometimes the insidiousness of technologies I don’t get the choice to consent to or not.

In what ways do you think you have improved your professional online presence after completing or curating your COMM 372T ePortfolio this semester?

Curating my ePortfolio for this course got me to publish more of my thoughts in my blog, which I appreciate. Much of my writing resides in the papers and assignments I’ve submitted for courses, but not much of it has made it online. When you go through the rest of my ePortfolio, you’ll find my bio as well as my professional experience and previous projects, but they don’t necessarily give the ePortfolio a personal feeling. It might even come across as too professional, to the point of being impersonal and overly curated. Having this blog allows me to directly inject my voice and share my values and beliefs. Reading these blog posts will show you who I am and what I stand for.

What advice would you give to future students about potential uses or designing a COMM ePortfolio?

For future students of COMM 372T, I would recommend putting this ePortfolio on your resume. If you engage with these assignments with a level of critical thinking, you will demonstrate to potential employers that you are capable of intelligent problem-solving and you have an awareness of the technologies that our world operates on. These are essential skills in any workplace and will lay the foundation for your success not as a mere employee, but as a professional and expert. I’d also recommend adding your projects from other classes/internships/etc. to this ePortfolio, showing employers the work you’ve produced, the kind you can produce for them.

In conclusion, I have thoroughly enjoyed exploring new media technology in this course. There have been a few eye-opening moments for me in the readings, such as Baym’s explanation of how polarizing online spaces and communities can become. It seems topics on social media are becoming less nuanced by the day, and this likewise feels like a reflection of our current political climate. Truly, technology affects and dictates how our society operates as much as society affects and dictates how we use technology.