You’d think it would be easy to tell the ways you get your news, but when I think long and hard about all of the possible gateways
to information surrounding me, I’m a tad bit overwhelmed. How did I hear about Trump’s latest racist outburst- my mom’s post-grocery shopping phone call?Or some sarcastic Onion article that my roommate shared this morning?
News is all around in the realest sense, on my Twitter feed, Facebook timeline, TV screen. It’s hard to miss, even impossible to escape, but it’s here. And we are constantly bombarded by media messages (whether or not they’re biased is another story that would take me far longer than 400 words to write about), which help me be the well(ish)-informed citizen that I am today.
Speaking of which, I’m Kate Toporski, a junior at the University of Michigan. I’m majoring in Communications, probably because I change my
mind about what I want to do once a week…Comm seemed safe enough, and broad enough, to explore all of my interests. In addition to my major, I’m minoring in CASC (Community Action and Social Change) and Writing, which feed to my interests of social justice and spewing my messy thoughts across some webpage at the early hours of the morning. I currently intern for the Center for Entrepreneurship, where I write about student and faculty startups. In addition to writing for work, I write for personal pleasure as well. I run my own blog- Hurricane Kate– which has recently turned into more of a “Oh look, Kate wrote another rant about boys” thing, but I’m okay with that for the time being.
Since coming to college and realizing that my liberal views were no longer suppressed by my ever-conservative hometown, my interests in politics, news, social injustices, and business have flourished. I watch the news (when available, considering that I’m currently cable-less), read different newspapers online, and constantly consume social media news, whether that’s BuzzFeed articles or tweets from Shomari Stone. I’m immersed completely and fully in the happenings of each day, which isn’t how I grew up.
It was a strange situation, to grow up with technologically-sound parents. While my other friends’ parents couldn’t copy-paste, my dad was writing code on an iPad while my mom explored the social realm of technology, following me on ever social media outlet known to man (insert eye roll here). While they knew about computers and internet and wireless printers, they seemed to never engage much in the media, besides petty social endeavors, such as who friend who on Facebook and “Did you see
that picture your cousin posted?!”. I’m not sure if it was because engaging in any form of non-conservative political banter was outright ludicrous in good old Kent City, but they strayed from the conversation and articles that I was eager to discuss, whether that be online or at the dinner table. Coming to college liberated me in many ways, as I was able to freely research, watch, read, and discuss the things that I found pressing in the news.
So, join me in this journey of Comm 439, as I discover the ways that political journalism surrounding the race to the White House is manipulated, changed, and morphed in today’s digital age.
ktoporski439.wordpress.com 