Developing My “Voice” through Media and Community
Media and Community has truly been a step outside my comfort zone and box not only as a biology major, but as a blogger because I tend to air my thoughts through conversation rather than online media. However, through this class I uncovered a hidden interest of creating interesting blog posts that allow me to connect with a larger community. I kind of feel that Media and Community allowed me to step into a different realm as I explore the power of my voice. However, my voice has not been challenged because of our class community, but encouraged to grow and explore other ideas in each post. I have grown in this course as a writer, scholar, and community member through finding my personal voice and my ability to use media as proof in conversation.
As a scholar I have always used textual proof and evidence to help further expand on my ideas, but very little experience using other forms of media. In academia you gain thorough experience using quotes and how to properly use them with introductions and quote analysis. However, I feel that this class has allowed me to use various forms of media as a means of making my point. In my inaugural post, The Truth: Is Exclusive Objectivity Possible? in Bechdel’s Fun Home, I neglect all of the words in the Bechdel’s Fun Home cartoon and create my arguments dissecting my tracing of the images that Bechdel drew. I draw on the the use of straight lines vs jagged lines and the character’s physical expressions to provide evidence for my idea that Bechdel truly can’t be fully objective in matters regarding her father and her story. My ability to use different forms of media grew throughout the course as my first post was only the beginning. In my inaugural post, I simply slapped the photographic media and cartoon at the beginning of the post and followed it with my analysis. Later, in my Multimedia post, I incorporate the media within my argument instead of simply dropping it in the post. My multimedia post also uses the media in the form of a sandwich and explores different formats for using that media. In my polished “Twitter’s Punchline Response vs Facebook’s Full Critiques of the Trump Administration Travel Ban” post I was able to incorporate Tweets and Facebook posts in order to explore the idea of Facebook allowing people to develop full critiques that put them in conversation. I was able to use screenshots of both social media posts and analyzed them and interweaved their posts and my analysis to enhance my posts.
Through the course I was able to create the important bloggers voice that helps me create a deeper connection with my audience and readers. I see my voice’s growth in congruence with Rebecca Blood’s The Weblog Handbook: Practical Advice On Creating And Maintaining Your Blog where she talks about the development of a personal voice: “As you honestly stretch yourself to meet the world, describing it as best you can, your voice will begin to emerge.” I feel that the ability of this course to stretch me into different topics I have seen that my voice has developed more from my inaugural post where I met the analytical voice I have developed in academia. However, as I gained more experience as a blogger talking about topics that weren’t necessarily inside of what I considered my comfort zone before. I was able to establish my voice in an online setting. Through my voice I feel that I will be able to connect deeper with more media consumers as I continue to freelance write outside of Media and Community.
My journey through Media and Community have truly been fitting to the name of the course because my major takeaways have been using media as evidence and creating my voice in the community. Through my journey I have developed into a more experienced blogger who stepped into a new position outside of his normal comfort zone, but I turned out to enjoy the ability to create. I’ve developed a further passion for creating posts and using media as a way to interact with my viewers.
