Did you know that USF has 46 minors (by my count) that you can choose from to supplement your major course of study? A few years ago I decided to profile our Communication Studies majors who are minoring in another area here on the blog with “Minor Matters.” One of our majors, Kianna Fernandez, is minoring in Media Studies. I asked her to share with us why she chose to minor in Media Studies and what she likes about it. Here is what she said…
COMS Major and Media Studies Minor Kianna!
“Hi everybody, I’m Kianna Fernandez and am currently less than two semesters away from graduating (woohoo!) with a Communication Studies major and Media Studies minor. I chose Media Studies as my minor because I had been really interested in becoming a broadcast journalist. I’ve always loved writing and discovering what other people are passionate about, so the minor let me build on that. Now I know I’m not alone when I say that technology is a huge part of my life. From social media to news outlets to my favorite television shows, I am constantly hearing so many different messages and portrayals of what is ‘cool’ or acceptable within society. I think it is really interesting to take classes in the Media Studies department because each class has you analyze the media outlets you use and really understand what messages they are trying to get you to believe, even when they are not explicit.
Are you thinking about adding a Media Studies minor but aren’t sure? Do it, seriously! This minor pairs well with my Communication Studies major because within the COMS department I get to learn about how people communicate. The classes focus on relationships and different cultural backgrounds and how that can affect communication. Then, in my media studies classes I’m able to not only analyze how people are communicating, but be able to understand what their agenda is. This is especially true when you interview people for journalism articles; for example, I have a set of questions I want answers to, and as the person I’m interviewing is talking, I can better be able to identify cues to determine how comfortable to person is, what he or she likes talking about, etc. (Cue the applause for the “Communication in Everyday Life” and “Nonverbal Communication” classes). What I learn in my communication studies classes are tools to help me better understand the theories talked about in my media studies classes.
Hmmmm…now I’ve talked a lot of the analyzing aspect of Media Studies classes, but there are also classes like journalism, production, and reporting. Initially I knew I wanted to focus more on the journalism aspect of Media Studies, but began to learn that I liked learning more about the messages that are being spread by different media outlets and being able to learn how to critique them. This interest all began in my Intro to Media Studies class with Professor David Silver. This class was super interactive and brought up social media, news stations, newspapers, television shows, Netflix, and the list could go on and on. That class was where I started noticing just how much media I was consuming every day. We even had an assignment to have a media cleanse where we had to try to stay away from all media and use of technology for as long as possible. Some people ranged from a few hours to days, but it was interesting to see how hard it was to break the habits of checking my phone and looking up information on my laptop. Beyond that, Professor Silver is super passionate about having his students be engaged in class and interested in what is being taught. Sometimes, we were able to choose what we wanted to focus on that week which was exciting! If you’re unsure of the minor, take this class! You won’t regret it.”
Thanks Kianna for sharing your experience! Kianna is no stranger to our department blog. She blogged for us during her first semester here! You can check out her old posts here:
https://usfblogs.usfca.edu/coms/2013/10/15/new-student-chronicles-kianna-fernandez/
https://usfblogs.usfca.edu/coms/2013/12/02/the-new-student-chronicles-kianna-fernandez-ch-2/
