Although I’ve worked in media and cultural studies before, my focus was mainly on traditional media, like books and radio, especially from a narrative perspective. This course has been incredibly valuable for me—it’s helped me develop a more critical way of thinking about how modern technologies intersect with traditional storytelling, and explore the cultural meanings that emerge from these intersections. For example, Delemos, Raquel Shante (2021) points out how BookTok has become a powerful tool for authors, offering free publicity and word-of-mouth promotion. We also looked at how Indigenous storytelling is being combined with digital tools, which ties into important ideas around decolonization, and how algorithmic bias in AI-generated selfies can reflect digital colonialism. All of these examples gave me new ideas and perspectives that are directly relevant to my upcoming research on transnational book distribution and reader reception.
Another big takeaway from this course was getting hands-on experience with different digital tools and platforms—many of which I had heard of but never actually used. These technologies turned out to be super helpful not just for research, but also for navigating media and information in everyday life. I learned how to use DALL·E and Meng AI to create selfies, how to check facts using websites like Snopes, FactCheck.org, or Media Bias/Fact Check, and how to make word clouds with WordClouds.com. One topic that really stuck with me was the unit on disinformation and misinformation. In today’s media environment, we’re constantly bombarded with information—but that also means we’re at a greater risk of being misled. Knowing how to verify facts has become an essential life skill in protecting ourselves from manipulation or exploitation.
Most importantly, learning about the cultural meanings behind AI and big data really challenged how I used to think about technology. I used to believe that AI was just a technical tool—something only people in computer science or tech-related fields needed to worry about. As someone focused on traditional media studies, I didn’t think it was that relevant to me. But after reading Sneh Gupta (2021) on the lack of female representation on Wikipedia, I realized that by ignoring the tech side, I might have been unconsciously reinforcing some of these algorithmic biases and contributing to gender inequality. As researchers, we not only need to understand how these technologies function, but also how they shape cultural narratives and social structures.
Thank you, Jessica, for providing us with such a wonderful course!
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