Digital Portfolio
Historical Foundation
Journalism and digital media storytelling is a huge aspect of the historical foundation of Communications. Using Emotion, ethics, and logic in your creative work in your technics creates influence. Radio and Television have been the major influences on society. From President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s fireside chats to the repeal of the Fairness Doctrine have shaped media in politics and sports. The social media platforms have been the principal agencies for information distribution. Politicians, including our president, use Twitter to reach large audiences.
You can see how the era of digital technology is affecting our societies in different ways. With the advancements in technology, it will continue to change how our views develope. Building relationships with other journalists or passionate activists help expand our points of view. Maintaining to involve yourself in intelligent conversations and having an open mind about different beliefs is how we are going to shape our future textbooks. An essential part of our history that I enjoyed researching was about the Wilmington Race Riots in 1898. It is one of our most forgotten pieces of history, and it showed me the correlation between those events and the racism that still occurs today.
Presentation Skills
My presentation skills have improved drastically since high school, and now because of public speaking training, I feel confident talking to professionals in a work setting as well as writing proper papers or emails is very important to have an appropriate grammar. Also having a bigger vocabulary can make you stand out of your competitors in job interviews. Practicing your skills and even collaborating with your professors to always improve your style. I have now been able to talk in front of an entire lecture hall of students and professors containing large amounts of information relaying the vital information.
Engaging your audience is crucial because it will decide the fate of the reader's interest in the topic. I did just that with a motivated group that went smoothly in talking about Team Decision Making in Organizations. A presentation that taught me how to collaborate prepare and practice. With some videos and pictures, we were able to help the audience understand. Reviewing with our professor and sorting our opinions accelerated the process to keep the audience engaged. I feel this was successful in working in a group aspect as well as providing sufficient presentation skills to future employers.
Writing
Writing is one of the most critical skills I continue to learn with each paper I write. With different contexts, narratives, and objectives its been a roller coaster trying to fulfill each document. Fact checking on reliable sources took up most of my time in the history of Journalism course forcing me to build credible relationships and where to find them. One of my most creative pieces came from my blogging allowing me to be myself and reflect years later. In Journey towards wellness, we had personal journals for our overall health and stress management. My favorite writing assignment was for "The Perfect Life." This paper allowed us to be creative and think about what the perfect life for us would be. This made me see my expectations and outline goals that I want to achieve.
One of my favorite pieces that I wrote was an investigative piece where I had to Interview my parents on how they to met when they got married. It was fun interviewing both my parents separately and then at the same time as seeing how details changed and investigating what really happened. This taught me how to write investigative journalism. Learning how to Writing it was fun because I was able to be creative with the storytelling, writing it like a love story making a good read for those romantics out there. This helped me for future writing such as possibly at a news agency where proper storytelling and grammar are important but also need experience in creative writing to further engage your audience.
The Perfect Life
How I met your mother
Digital Media
Journalism and Digital Media taught me how to bring my writing to life with content analysis and visual storytelling. I can recall a contest to turn the most creative story into a short film. Professor Joseph Cornelius conducted the Advanced digital media class. I made a couple of rough drafts trying to make my story perfect giving me the incentive to do well. It forced me to think about original content. Inspiration and collaboration with classmates gave me great ideas. I used all of my skills from Intro creative writing to expand my creativity. Many stories were submitted, but only one made the cut.
From producing to directing and editing videos took many hours of my time trying to make my projects and media packages the best they can be. A large portion of my digital media experience came from my experience to Rio in 2016. We created media packages related to the controversial events and learning how to make captivating storylines. Here in the video below, I was assigned to create a video for a suicide prevention PSA. Here I shot and edited a creative piece giving awareness. I hope to use these digital media skills to one day become a director of my own where I can be in my own professional environments and displaying my creativity to inspire others.
Research
My researching skills have improved with every page written to portray important events in history. As a photographer, I was assigned to research Larry Burrows, A war Photographer for Life Magazine that won many awards for his depictions of conflict during Vietnam, Lebanon, Iraq, Congo, Cyprus. In 1967 he was named British Photographer of the year and picture of the year. I really enjoyed researching this because it inspired me to pick up my camera and go out and photograph important events around Charlotte, NC.
The photo below is at Freedom Park where patients from the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore enjoy the anual stroll-a-thon. This is event takes place all around the country raising money for patients diagnosed with Retts Syndrome. Patients had the opportunity to meet their favorite Disney character Bell from Beauty and the Beast and walk with friends and family in strollers to raise awareness for the cause.
Larry Burrows Research Presentation
Charlotte, NC – April 8, 2017 – Patients from the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore (CHAM) for Rett Syndrome come and enjoy a day at Myers Parks to raise money in the annual Strollathon April 8th, 2017.
Communication Discipline
In my discipline, I wanted to go for a literary journalist style course study. As a student-athlete, I was still interested in sports, so I implemented it in one of the final research papers I wrote. I did this exploring the correlation between a fans identity and social media influence. I had the opportunity to analyze the history of sports and its relationship to culture.
In a presentation that I gave in Sports Media and Culture, I talked about how sports creates communities of those looking to escape in a culture of power structures and history. Fan identification has become easier with the creation of social media allowing us to implement social interaction. The formulation of individual fans, teams, and society, as well as the relationship between games, media, and culture, derives a perspective to embody the person with the sport. Sports Marketing is undoubtedly an interest now having done this research concerning a market of advertised sports apparel.
Sports Media Presentation
How Social Media Influences Fan Identification
Global Perspective
My team and I at the
local beach events
Queens students gather to visit Christ the Redeemer.
My global learning started with my trip to Rio; Brazil uncovering stories surround the beautiful Brazillian culture shining in the light of the Olympics. It was there my colleagues, and I started to understand the voices that wanted to be heard. Domestic issues such as poverty and transportation angered the city, and with the popularity of the Olympics, it was a good time to take advantage of the media presence. When we were caught in the of riots filling the streets with political activists, we heard the voices and decided to act on it to show the world.
In one of the media packages, my team and I were able to produce a story about building character by playing futbol in the favelas of Brazil. It's a piece that shows pride in the people of Brazil. This experience has ultimately broadened my understanding of world issues and helped me take a different perspective from what exposure to politics coming from America. International politics and Sports Journalism was a match made in heaven for the excellent opportunity this gave me. I was watching the culture shock of Olympic fans while sporting events brought exposure to small areas of the world.
Futbol in the Favelas
Futbol in the Favelas
Ethics and Communication
The ethics in a new age of technology are developing through events of Facebook's privacy management. I have been taking into account my identity that I present online because staying professional on Link-In and Instagram. Some would say that the terms and conditions are to blame because of its lengthy dissertations using big lawyer words. However, legally we do accept regardless making many worried if any of this is ethical. In a business course with, professor James Foster Jr., we had excellent discussions talking about the ethics of business communications.
A paper I wrote for him spoke about the Facebook Privacy debacle recalling Mark Zuckerburg. Having an education in journalism helped me understand the history of political business and how it affects society. I am more aware with political standpoints occurring in sports regarding police brutality issues bring those affected to their knees. It made me see how society shifted its views on war and suffrage over time.
Community Service
Community service was highly valued on my experience at Queens. My coaches and professors always encouraged us to give back to not just the communities you live in, but those you don't and that stuck with me. I was able to take part in volunteer service to raise money for cancer. Swim Across America is what my teammates and I represented on behalf of Queens. Having been affected by cancer, I think volunteering time for the advancements in research and treatment falls close to me and others.
I enjoyed volunteering at the local North Mecklenburg animal rescue. We would walk the dogs and play with them, allow them to interact with the other dogs, and look for homes. Some of the stories that came with these beautiful souls were emotional yet inspiring. Finding the animal's homes was always worth it while we watched them grow. The rescue made it a priority to give the best chances to make them pets and a best friend.
Social and Civic Engagement
My experience at Queens has taught me to be socially aware in different types of environments. Organizational Communications taught me how culture is derived from the workplace professionally. This class helped me see the perspective on company goals and to be on the lookout for similar traits I hold with them. Being critical to these environments is essential as they are changing. I also learned that culture formed in Family Communications.
Dr. White and our class had informative discussions describing the factors taken into account when problem-solving in families. Power, influence, and decision making through storytelling is what I did in a podcast talking about Family Communications showing relationships within systems developing choices. Storytelling is used once again to pass down traditions within communities which is where you see geographical separation in politics views. History connects you to the past and writing our own stories is how we change our futures.