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Critical Reflection Essay

I would define contemporary media literacies as a new form of literacy that goes beyond

the traditional print or text-based media and makes you rethink what being literate means in this

world. I have learned a lot from my interactions with contemporary media literacy especially

when it comes to my workplace. Throughout my time in this class, I have analyzed a “workplace

literacy” issue or a communication issue that is causing problems for not only the company but

the individuals working there as well. I wasn’t even aware of this being an issue involving

contemporary media literacies until I started to do the research to connect my topic to the

readings in class. I personally feel most comfortable with dynamic literacies because I’ve grown

up in a digital age where technology has constantly been improving. That’s why it’s nearly

impossible to succeed in today’s technological world without some knowledge or even

proficiency in digital literacy.

On the other hand, I’d like to improve on autonomous or traditional literacy because I

have more experience with digital literacy and would like to be more comfortable with

print-based text. Digital and traditional literacy both occur in a social and political context. In the

social context, we use both traditional and digital literacy to have interactions with others

whether that be through written letters or text messages. In a political context literacy is the

ability to achieve a goal or function in society through either traditional or digital literacy. I

believe contemporary media literacies are important to examine because it allows us to create

opportunities for ourselves and develop skills such as reading and writing which are essential for

life. As far as professional life it’s really important to have skills involving contemporary media

literacies because you need the ability to adapt to advancements in the workplace. For example,

at my current job, we use tablets to take orders which requires a form of both traditional and
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digital literacy. And I did notice a connection between this class and my “conflict

transformation” course. As I was doing research for my presentation about the communication

issue at my workplace I was also completing an assignment for my conflict class which required

me to write a paper discussing a conflict in my professional life. The research I was already

doing for my presentation allowed me to have another perspective of the conflict and the

reasoning behind it.

For speaking assignments, I always prepare an outline of what I’ll be saying or the

required components of the assignment. When it comes to recording myself for speaking

assignments I make sure I’m wearing professional attire and my background is clear of any

distractions. It’s also important to give yourself plenty of time for any speaking tasks because in

my case it always takes multiple videos until I’m satisfied with the final. My writing process also

involves creating an outline based on the required elements of the assignment. I like that I go

through the rubric to make sure I’m staying on task because this prevents me from getting points

taken off for simple things such as page requirements.

I would like to improve on my process for starting a writing assignment because I’ve

always struggled with creating an introduction that will hook the reader. I believe my “strengths”

as a speaker would be my ability to speak with a clear tone and explain my topic in an

understanding way to the audience. My “weaknesses” or something I’d like to improve on would

be my ability to implement visual aids into my speeches. Until this final presentation, I haven’t

used any visual aids for speaking assignments because I struggle with finding a visual that will

aid my argument instead of just being a part of my presentation. To address this weakness I could

start digging deeper into my topics to find graphs, images, or other elements that will benefit my

audience by giving more insight into my thoughts.

When it comes to writing and speaking in school I have to ensure what I’m discussing

relates to the assignments and the text or speech must be written or spoken formally. Along with

this there can’t be any distractions in my background and I can’t break off into a tangent or the

purpose wouldn’t be clear to the audience. Writing and speaking in my personal life look a lot

different because I don’t have guidelines to follow on how to address topics. My professional life

does involve writing and speaking formally such as in school because at work there's an

expectation to follow or create. These writing and speech assignments have allowed me to gain

more insight when it comes to ideas involving contemporary media literacies. For example, in

my proposal regarding workplace literacy, I had to connect my topic to a theory in class and I

decided to address multimodal theory. Completing the research for my proposal assignment

allowed me to get another perspective of the theory and understand the concept better.

For my final website and final presentation, I made plenty of intentional decisions while

curating my work. For example, the background of my website is white with the writing in black

text except for the home page. I did this so the initial view of the website stands out and hooks

the reader's attention. An example regarding my presentation would be the colors I used for my

slides. I made sure it was blue and white, the company’s colors to relate to my topic. I also

implemented images of the company logo and employees who work at the company to give the

audience a better understanding of my workplace.

The best part of doing the website would have to be choosing the fonts and creating an

outline because I love organizing and being creative. On the other hand, the most challenging

part was finding visual aids such as images or graphs to give more insight into my idea. The best

part of the presentation had to be pretending I was presenting to the CEO of my workplace

because it made me feel confident in my research. On the other hand, I think the most
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challenging part was maintaining eye contact while going through the slides because I was

focused on the presentation and what I was supposed to say next.

If I had more time to work on the website and presentation I would keep eye contact with

the audience longer and possibly implement more visual aids into my website. I believe this

would allow the audience to gain more insight and stay focused on the purpose of my projects.

These projects have furthered my academic goals as I saw myself improve with not only writing

but speaking as well. I remember the first presentation video I recorded for this class. I was

stressed out and it took me so many attempts until I felt satisfied with the outcome. But with this

final presentation, I felt relaxed and wasn’t worried about my classmates or professor judging me

for my presentation. This allowed me to finish the assignments a lot faster while also improving

my work based on previous feedback from assignments I’ve completed.

My main goal for my education would be to graduate and obtain my bachelor's degree in

Sociology. I’m hoping to become a social worker because I want to help people and understand

why they need my help. In terms of goals for this class, I was hoping to finish the course with

good grades and learn new skills that will be useful to me in the future. I acquired both of these

goals throughout the semester and I’ve contributed to them. I had to put a lot of effort into each

assignment I completed to maintain a good grade. I have also learned plenty of new skills and

ideas through the readings and projects we’ve completed in class.

If I could change something about my student life I would probably go back and take

more college courses during my high school years to make the workload more manageable now.

I did take two during my senior year but they weren’t related to my major sociology. This course

was completely online so the only “conversations” I had with my classmates were through online
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discussion boards. It was nice to communicate and read their perspective on the topics we had

covered each week and I gained a new perspective through these discussion boards. And lastly, I

don’t have any more thoughts on the work I’ve completed this semester.