MCOM 3223 - Jonah Rathburn

       Literacy is a basic human right. Everyone should have the ability to read and educate themselves. As a child it didn't seem like something so vital. Looking back at the reading requirements schools imposed I had a negative attitude towards reading and learning. Obviously I can read and write at an exceptionally high level when I feel inclined to do so but I felt as if it was a burden. I only began to realize that this was a gift later on in life. In my later high school and early college years I became more appreciative of being able to move at mine own pace and learn about things I actually cared about. I didn't have to wait on anyone to catch up with me and I eventually found that I can learn anything I put my mind to. This led to me learning to play multiple instruments, working on a short novel, and having reasonable success in college. Not everyone makes it to this point and I almost didn't myself. Had I given up on education and embra...

     Social media is a wide reaching web that engrosses the majority of internet accessible areas in the world. I've looked into various apps that are popular in countries other than my own and they all seem to share the same basic structure, my guess is that no one wants to stray too far from a winning formula. I've researched the popular Chinese apps Weibo and WeChat but I found out a platform I had overlooked the first time called Tencent QQ. It is evidently widely popular in China. It's so strange to me that I missed it the first couple times around studying up on foreign social media due to the massive user base it has yielded.         Data reveals that it is the 8th largest social network on the globe. It has over 600 million global users and is considered to be the 2nd most poplar social network in China. WeChat has a larger user base but ironically it comes in at number six and is also operated by Tencent. In 2016 QQ b...

       In the modern age of social and mobile media it's not uncommon for us to get engrossed in our devices. Our heads stuck in screens instead of taking in the world around us. I'm certainly guilty of this but I don't think it's as major a crisis as some older people would have us believe. It's a bit insulting for me personally to for people to assume that just because I'm using a device that I'm goofing around. As a Mass Communications student I do almost all of my research online on a phone, tablet, or laptop and all the content I take in is just fuel for future journalistic fires I'm sure to churn out. Is there such a thing as too much when it comes to media? Not for me personally, I tend to jump around a lot due to my ADD and ADHD kicking in frequently. Multitasking actually helps me focus, in fact I'm also browsing social media and playing Smash Bros as I type this. What media do I intake most, where does it come from?      I suppose I...