Dustin Easter

IPS 304-12

If I were to describe contemporary media literacies to someone, I would start off by

explaining that the term literacy itself might have more meaning than people think. Most people

think of literacy as solely traditional literacy or written literacies, but contemporary literacies are

the culmination of all of the other forms of literacy that people do not realize are literacies. Some

examples of contemporary literacies in everyday life scenarios are things like social media,

television, speaking with others, and seeing visuals such as billboards. All of these examples are

common uses of literacy forms that make up what contemporary media is all about. While taking

this contemporary media class I have noticed that I can see changes in the way that I see things

all around me. When I search the internet, I now pay closer attention to the websites designs that

I visit and notice how much work goes into getting the website to look like that. I have also seen

a change in the way that I view interactions with people and the possibilities to spread literacy

awareness through the means of projects in this course and throughout other courses I have taken

in the IPS program. I have learned through the means of this course which literacies suit me the

best and which ones that I have a harder time utilizing which has helped me work on my

weaknesses by utilizing my strengths. I am stronger with traditional forms of literacy because

that is what I am the most familiar with, but I have been trying to push my limits this term and

become more proficient with other forms of literacy such as verbal literacy and rhetoric. I have

always been able to speak freely with people that I know well, but I have trouble presenting

information in front of a group of people. Because of the nature of this course, I have slowly

been able to work on this and have in turn become a better speaker and I now feel more

confident to utilize my verbal literacy in person and not just online.

As I mentioned earlier, I have now been able to see literacies throughout my everyday

life, and I have noticed the distinct types of literacies that people use for political gain and social
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media awareness. Both political and social literacy forms take place through the use of visuals

written literacies and through the use of rhetoric to draw the attention of others and spread the

message that they want to share. Even in everyday social interactions such as a group of friends

talking literacy can be observed to be evolving and spreading. This can be seen clearly when

cultures come together, and people develop changes in the ways that they speak in order to fit

into the social groups that they want to be associated with. When we pay attention to why people

change their literacy, we can learn a lot about why literacies are the ways that they are in

different areas around the world and in knowing this we can then make changes to the way that

we promote ourselves or form projects to help others. This is where the true value from learning

contemporary literacy can come into play. Once we understand contemporary literacies, we can

then utilize them by observing the community and then acting in an appropriate manner to

communicate with the audiences that we are targeting.

After taking this contemporary literacy course I can now see uses for applying my

knowledge towards future classes and through my career in several ways. In my career I can see

uses for the knowledge that I have learned through this course in designing a website for my

business, and by being able to self-promote my business better either through the use of rhetoric

or written visuals that would be better suited for my target audience. As for my academic

endeavors I will now be more aware of the way that I present myself when giving a presentation

and I will be able to understand the subject I am covering more thoroughly and be able to address

the target audience with a tone and theme that will make sense to them. In my past IPS courses I

can see where I would have benefited from understanding contemporary media literacies. The

class that comes to mind that I would have benefited most from contemporary media would have

been in my global awareness course. That course was very intense over the subjects of
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understanding written literacies and how to evaluate and apply them into global aspects. If I had

taken this course prior, I feel like I would have been able to better blend my research information

in with my peers in the final group research assignment. I also feel like I would have been able to

communicate with my group members in a more meaningful way because I would have a better

direction on how I would want my information to be presented.

When I first began practicing speaking assignments in this class, I did not have a clear

picture on how I wanted to present myself, but as the class went on, I found myself becoming

more accustomed to speaking and soon found a pattern that I would follow before presenting. I

start by thinking of the topic that I will be speaking about and then type out the speech so that it

will be in my mind better and so that I can make changes before I actually start to speak. Then

While I am speaking, I pull up bullet points to help me stay organized throughout the

presentation and remind myself what the next topic I am supposed to be covering is about. I have

come to like this writing process better than the process that I have tried to use in the past

because it helps me remember the information better and allows me time to get all of my

thoughts on paper first. If I were to change something about my speaking process it would be to

practice my speech more before I actually present it for class. I work a lot of hours and do not

find a lot of time for practice, and do not get to work on my weaknesses as much as I would like

to. Some of these weaknesses that became known throughout this course would be that I am not

good at using gestures during my presentations because I am constantly trying to remember what

I am talking about. I often get tongue tied as well because of this same problem of forgetting

where I am in the speech. In the future I plan to work on these weaknesses by taking more time

to practice and become more comfortable as a speaker.

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When I speak about my job, I feel much more confident because I know exactly what I

should be talking about. This is different from talking at school because when I am talking in

school, I am usually talking about something for which I am not fully prepared. This again

comes down to me just not remembering the information well because I have not worked with it

for as long as I have with the topics of my career. When writing for school however, I am able to

generate innovative ideas and spark innovation in myself that I am just not able to do through

work. This is due to me finding joy in writing about new topics because there is time for me to

think about what I want to say and there is not a risk of me getting tongue tied such as when I am

speaking. Throughout this course I have seen improvements in both my writing and speaking

because I now understand how literacies can work together. This understanding has given me

added resources to draw from to write about and to talk about in my project.

While working on my website project I can think of several times that my knowledge

from contemporary media literacies has helped me to curate my design and format of my

website. The first example that comes to mind is my utilization of appropriate fonts and the size,

color and orientation of the fonts chosen. Another example that influenced my website design is

when I was looking over the white spaces throughout my final website. I wanted to limit the

amount of white space but also create a clear background for my font to come through on. These

decisions came about because of our website analysis project. After completing the website

analysis project, I look at all websites with a new understanding and see the hard work and

dedication that was actually put into them. The best part about working on my website and

presentation was the confidence that it built within me. I might not have the best website or

presentation but just by completing them I feel accomplished and invigorated to take on brand

new challenges I would not have thought possible before. The most challenging part of both the
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website and the presentation was organization and design. I had trouble trying to get my

presentation organized and flowing the way that I wanted to and had trouble adding detailed

designs to my website. I am not a very artistic person so I generally just get all of my data or

information correct and do the best that I can with the designing. After completing both of these

projects I feel like I have unlocked a new tool that I can use in my career and in my future

academics and that I will now be prepared for anything that comes in the future.

My goals for the future after this class involve me graduating from UNCG with a

bachelors in IPS. I then want to take my education a step further and get a masters in perfusion.

My current goals are to achieve the highest GPA possible and learn the most that I can from each

class. I just recently got inducted into the UNCG Marshall program and I am now more

motivated than ever to do well in school. My goals in this class were to learn something new

about literacy and have a deeper understanding of what literacy really means after completing the

class. During this term I feel confident that I have met both of my goals of maintaining a high

academic GPA while also learning what I expected to learn from this course while also learning

more than I thought that I would. If I could change something about my student life now it would

be that I would work less and focus more on school, but I have to pay bills and save for my post

graduate program so that is not currently possible. What I would have changed from the past is

that I would have taken school more seriously and tried harder. I performed poorly at my

previous college because I did not push myself to become the best student that I could be and

instead just did enough to get by. I now Have a newfound motivation to prove just how far I am

able to take myself in life and I plan to do the best that I can to make that a reality. Getting to talk

with my classmates throughout this semester and past semesters has helped me to see some of

the struggles that other people face and how they overcome them. In this class especially I have
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gotten great feedback from other students that has helped me improve in my public speaking.

After completing everything and finally submitting my last projects I feel confident that I have

learned and accomplished what I was meant to learn and accomplish from this course. You have

helped me grow tremendously by giving me quality feedback that has helped guide me in the

right direction throughout this course and I hope that you have seen a change in my work

performance throughout the course. I had never been shown how to effectively use APA format

until I took this class and instead of just telling me I was wrong you helped me find the resources

and explained to me how to fix it in the future. Your guidance was inspiring to me, and I feel like

this course has helped prepare me for the future more so than any other IPS course this far.

Thank you for everything.