“June, she’ll change her tune
In restless walks, she’ll prowl the night”
– Simon and Garfunkel
I’ll admit that in the last year, I’ve been very into 60s Folk– especially Simon and Garfunkel. One of my favorite songs by them is called “April Come She Will”, a song reflecting on a girl’s changing moods illustrated by the changing seasons. Their description of June represents my thoughts in some respect through AYA. In short, I’ve grown in my understanding of media and journalism, which has “changed my tune” to see what it really is.
In my communications class, we have been learning about Intentional Design. This concept means that the things we make and create come from much thoughtfulness. On the one hand, we can be assured that the utilities we buy are (or at least should be) constructed in the best way possible and that many people have thought about and ensured that every button/ page/ and whatnot is necessary to the item. On the other side of the spectrum, Intentional Design also means that many things we consume and see, from technology to billboards, have been clearly calculated. For example, in class we watched a movie clip depicting this idea. In the movie, a man puts a pair of glasses on and realizes all of the propaganda and hidden messages billboards, magazines, and stores were trying to tell him. While today we don’t have those kinds of glasses, we can still be aware of what we consume and question how much we are being influenced by media.
The second thing that “changed” my mind was when our guest speaker came in and talked to us about Investigative Journalism. What I learned was that Investigative Journalism is the same as Journalism but it has a primary focus on finding out things that powerful politicians/ celebrities/ companies want to keep secret. As a class, we dove into the Watergate Scandal by reading sections of All The President’s Men. I found it very interesting and particularly enjoyed discovering what it means to interview a person. One thing I liked about the session was that I saw the power the press has to check and balance people in power. While this idea of the press was certainly shown in the late 50s, I’m skeptical if the press is the same today. Like many young people today, to some extent I “mistrust” the press. I think this is partly because news today is seen to have much bias/ opinions and it seems like each company is trying to press their own agenda. However, through our time, my eyes were opened to see that, arguably, the press was at one point “objective”. Although it no longer is today, as a student at AYA I can only hope that it will become what it once was in the future.
Finally, let’s talk about Journalism! This week we learned about print vs broadcast journalism. The biggest takeaway I got was that there is a lot of work going into articles and stories on TV. Toward the end of the week, we put on a newscast, which was super fun. Even though we’re beginners, I found it kind of crazy that it took 26 teens to put on a 5-minute cast! I guess that goes to show how much I don’t know about this field XD. If you were to ask me two weeks ago what I thought about journalism, I would have never imagined that there was this much research and refining that goes into it.
In conclusion, Simon and Garfunkel were right– June has changed my tune and opened my eyes to this whole world of communications and journalism!
Communicating Change 