So I wasn’t really thrilled with this class from the beginning, but I soldiered on, taking a large amount of comfort from looking the teacher up on RateMyProfessor, and reading others students’ complaints that matched my experience. I’m pretty glad the class is finished, which just reminds me how much of education is checking the boxes that other people tell me I need to check.
Another thing that disappointed me throughout the course was the nagging feeling that I’d already thought more critically about media ethics than this course was leading students to think. It’s not a massive revelation to me (or to most adults, I think) that a major advertiser could pressure an editor into holding off on a story that reflects poorly on their company, or that political campaign ads might not be fully accurate. So most of my assignments were really a case of rephrasing the text, drawing a surface conclusion, and citing them correctly. (One of the RateMyProfessor commentors noted that the key to getting good grades is working the chapter’s vocab words into every essay. Thanks, my anonymous internet friend, you were not wrong, and my GPA thanks you!)
Anyway, it’s finished.
