Has it really been two weeks already? Like no way I remember just writing about my first week and now I’m writing about my second week. I’m sure most of the time when you hear someone say “wow time went by fast” you think that it’s cliche and just a form of exaggeration by most people. Even I have thought that, people just say it over and over for no reason. But now having been two weeks in AYA and just one way from the end of the program I see now what all those people mean. TIME really does go by fast and sometimes too fast to be able to enjoy and take in everything that has happened.
By now we have gone through so much stuff as a cohort, from starting our zines or infographics for a group project and now getting ready to create our own podcast with our groups too. Even making a radio show and news broadcast in our Journalism class, this week has been one to remember for all its activities that really show us the whole point of the entire program. To be able to use both communication and journalism as a form of civic engagement with youth and to build our skills to think as leaders.
Infographic to Podcast
In our Communications class we have been split into different groups to each find an issue we want to talk about. My group has dived into one of the biggest problems that many youth face which is their mental health. Our focus for the infographic is to find what type of impact does social media have on the mental health of teenagers. When looking for what topic we wanted to talk about it we simply thought about this one and chose it because we understand how much mental health can affect someone in their adolescent age. Youth and teens are the ones most vulnerable to the influence of social media and through our infographic we want to be able to show how they could find a way to not spend that much time on social media by doing other stuff.
We then decided to stay with that topic going into our podcast project. But the difference in this one is we decided to talk about what exact content is showed on social media and how it influences the minds of these young users. During the process of recording this process we want to offer types of resolutions to teenagers feelings instead of them relating to posts online that just make them feel worse. My role during both of these projects was to gather and bring research to the rest of the group to be able to use. Looking for different websites and studies that can help us complete this project as a group.
I n0w look forward to record the full podcast and be able to hear it when it’s completely done. Also to be able to present our completed infographic next Tuesday to the rest of the cohort. Both of these projects have helped me to understand more what communications really is and how differently we can communicate with other people.
Radio Show to News Broadcast
Our journalism class also had it’s fair share of exciting project we get to complete as a cohort. Last week having focused on our Vox Pops where we asked many people a question we thought of and merged it all into one recording. Now we get to each combine our Vox Pops into one Radio show. This project made me feel very excited as I’ve never been in a studio before recording or having that experience of speaking into a microphone with headphones on listening to my own voice. At first I was nervous to do the recording since I thought I would mess up a lot and need to record it. But when the moment came, it just took a deep breath to be able to calm down and say my part smoothly with no mistakes or do-overs. Hearing myself speak confidently into the microphone, it just felt like a completely different experience to me, the sound of my voice felt in a way amplified and isolated into my ears.
But the radio show wasn’t the only thing we were able to do, we also came up with our very own broadcast. From choosing the stories to writing the scripts and then actually recording it. Me and my partner got the topic of ICE showing up at graduations with our script made to call attention to the fact of ICE appearing to graduations of many families and causing a scene at a special moment. When recording the broadcast many of us who weren’t the anchors or part of the production team just followed along to see how the whole idea of this broadcast worked. Both experiences are ones I never expected to have but now that I have its definitely something I will remember about AYA.
This second week has been amazing with its experiences and I can’t wait to see what our next and final week has to bring.
Communicating Change 