CPMS 100 Critical Reflection 1 |
Why I Chose This Assignment |
DC Central Kitchen Reflection
For service day, I volunteered at the DC Central Kitchen. At the kitchen, they take excess food from restaurants and use it to cook meals for shelters and other underprivileged places in the DC area. According to their website, they have delivered 3.2 million nutritious meals to local shelters, nonprofits, and DC schools just this year. They also create jobs for people who need them. After being trained in their kitchen, they place them in jobs and have an 86% job placement rate among the 104 graduates from their training program this year. While we were there, we were asked to help prepare food to be sent out later that day. Me and some others were asked to chop sweet peas by cutting off the ends, cutting them in half, and then putting them in a big container. Others were asked to season food, work with the meat, or help clean the kitchen. As I was cutting the peas, I looked at how many peas we had cut and how many were still left after we were done. We had maybe gotten half way through the peas by the time we had to leave and we had been there working for about 3 hours total. It was then I realized how much work really goes into organizations like these and if we all help a little it can go a long way. Something I learned through this service trip about myself is that I love volunteering. The feeling you get when you realized you helped someone, even if it’s just in a small way, is amazing and I definitely want to do more volunteer work in the future. I also realized how much an organization like the DC central kitchen helps people. When we were walking in, we saw people, many who were most likely homeless, that rely on places like that to get a meal every day. When I was reading the PBS article, where it talks about how Trump is trying to limit the food stamps given out to people in need, I realized that he failed to consider that a $16,000 yearly salary could mean very different things in different states. In a state like Georgia, that might be fine but if you live in a city, like New York City, $16,000 is not going to be nearly enough. Also, he failed to consider that people have expenses other than food, like rent and clothes and if they have kids, then they have to not only feed and clothe themselves, but their kids too. People shouldn’t be worrying about where their next meal is going to come from, and if they can even get one. That is why what DC central kitchen is doing is so important. It is giving people in the community a chance to gain work skills so they can go get a job, and also helping provide free meals to people in need. |
I chose this reflection because it was the first one I ever did in scholars. I figured by including this as a base line, it would show the growth throughout the two years I am in the scholars program. Also, I thought it was a really good reflection becasue it connected community service to the use of media. it just shows how you can connect many things to the media and examine how media impacts many aspects of life.
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CPMS 100 Critical Relfection 3 |
Why I Chose This Assignment |
National Museum of African American History
At the National Museum of African American History, I learned that throughout history, the media has played a big part in the civil rights movement. They have had both a positive and a negative impact. One positive impact media had was by the National Baptist Publishing Board. R. H. Boyd believed that black Baptists needed to produce their own religious materials instead of relying on what white Baptist organizations provided for them. So, in 1896, he founded a publishing company to print and distribute numerous periodicals, song and lesson books, and other spiritually themed titles. It is now known as the R. H. Boyd Publishing Corporation and is one of the oldest continuously operated, family run, African American business that several generations have upheld and expanded. There was another exhibit in the museum that showcased the Power of the Press. It talked about how the first African American newspaper, Freedom’s Journal, was published in 1827 and ever since, African Americans have used the press as a way to “establish an independent voice for black communities and advance the struggle for freedom and equality.” They challenged racism by exposing the injustice they were facing, reporting on civil rights activism and presenting black people in a positive light. The last exhibit I want to talk about is the one about the protest at the 1968 Olympics. Two African American athletes, Tommie Smith and John Carlos had won gold and bronze for the 200-meter sprint. On the podium, they turned it into a political protest, by taking off their shoes, unzipping their jackets (against Olympic protocol), and as the National Anthem played, they raised their gloved fists’ in the air and bowed their heads. This whole event was televised and while Smith and Carlos were never allowed to the Olympics again, this was a powerful moment in the Civil Rights movement. This museum really spoke to me. While I am only half black, back in the times of slavery, due to the one-drop rule, I would have been a slave, which is really crazy to think about. Due to some outside research I did for another class, I probably would have been a house slave which is even scarier to me. A lot of people tend to think house slaves had it easier since they weren’t working on the field; however, house slaves were more exposed to brutalities such as rape, which is very scary to think about. My grandfather was part of the Greensborough sit-ins and when I saw that that was a museum exhibit, I got a little emotional. He had to grow up in a time where the country was still so segregated and what is really sad is, that even with all the progress our country has made, we still have some of those elements of racism. The Ku Klux Klan still exists, and if that wasn’t scary enough, there are still hate crimes being committed against African Americans. The fact that my grandfather still has to see elements of what he tried so hard to put an end to when he was younger still going on in his grandchildren’s generation is ridiculous and wrong. |
I chose this reflection to include becasue I had a deep, personal connection with the National Museum of African American History. I had wanted to go there for a really long time and through this class I was finally able to go. As someone who is half black, it was great to be able to learn a little more about the history of my black side. I also chose this reflection because it gave me the opportunity to connect history with media, and how media played a role in portraying all of that history. Recently, a documentary came out where there was a scene from the Greensbourough sit-ins and you can actually see my grandfather in one of the clips, which is another example of how media plays a role in protraying history.
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The outside of the National Museum of African American History located in Washigton, D.C.
CPMS 225 Activity 7: Deconstructing the Nightly News |
Why I Chose This Assignment |
Part I
Story 1 (Hurricane Delta): This story made the cut because of the threshold, unambiguity, and visual imperative. For the threshold, this hurricane is impacting thousands of people in Louisiana and it is happening right now. It is unambiguous because there is no other meaning, there was a hurricane happening at that very moment and people were being impacted. There was also footage of the impact of the hurricane so that fits into visual imperative. Story 2 (Trump holding in-person events): This story made the news because of its reference to elite persons and proximity. Its reference to elite persons would be the president of the United States, Donald Trump. Proximity factors in because what the president is doing is relevant to all the lives of the people living in the US. Story 3 (militia groups): Unexpectedness and frequency. It was unexpected and very shocking to hear that militia groups plotted to kidnap the governor of Michigan and the suddenness of it and the fact that it fits well with the stories going on in today’s society about the problems with law enforcement (BLM), which have given rise to militia groups that “hate law enforcement.” Story 4: (second wave of COVID): Predictability because it has been talked about and predicted earlier in the year that around this time there would be a second wave of COVID and it can already be seen in places that had it under control. Also, threshold because this pandemic has impacted the entire world. Story 5 (prevention of foreign interference in election): Proximity because this election impacts everyone in the united states, which is also threshold. Could also be predictability because since there was interference in the last election, they knew it would be a big topic in this election. Part II I do think that this list of news values is still relevant today. When I was dissecting the news form the video, I could find multiple values in each news story. Many of these values of common sense, such threshold and proximity, because no one is going to pay much attention to something they don’t have to worry about. Also, reference to elite persons makes sense because people are very interested in celebrities and famous people and what is going on in their lives, which is why we have gossip shows such as Access Hollywood. So, yes, I think these values are still relevant today. |
I chose this assignment because I thought it was really interesting to break down how news outlets choose what to air. It was very interesting to learn about and because of that, I think this is one of the assignments I did best on. Disecting what exactly is in each news story that makes it news worthy also helps show why only more gruesome stories make it, becasue that is what people like to hear.
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I deconstructed a clip from this show, Nightly News with Lester Holt.