September 6

Class #1 (Wednesday, September 6, 2006):

Going into this class, I had no idea what to expect as far as what I would be learning. The outline, which I had previously read was very vague. I was looking forward to it, though, as all of my senior peers at orientation had made this class sound very interesting. I was a little nervous upon entering the class as the room was overflowing with other students in the media studies program. I knew that I wanted to be in Mark Lipton’s class because of what I had heard about his teaching style and general superiority within in the school. He also acknowledged the fact that he would be teaching media studies students throughout their academic careers within the university, so it was important for me to get to know him.
My understanding of what I will get out of this course is a better grasp of how media is involved in our everyday lives. So, it makes sense to me that our first major assignment is to address how we presently feel about media and how it affects us. I think that it is going to be a challenge adjusting to assignments such as these where is essentially up to me to interpret the approach of creating something. The word “something” in the outline is what will give me a hard time.
I have to admit that it was very overwhelming coming out of the class having been given all of our assignments at once. But, in a sense I thought that it was good to know what to expect on a weekly basis and also to have the option to work on whatever we think is more important to focus on. It is definitely going to be a challenge keeping up and prioritizing assignments, but I look forward to the material, which we will be learning in this class.