Nov. 24, 2025
Blog Reflection 3
My story is almost published after going through two rounds of edits. I feel my story has developed into something interesting and more complete than my initial draft. Looking at all the media elements together has made me really proud of all the work I put into my story and the final product. I’ve learned so much more about the creation of multimedia aspects of a story through this project. Before this, I had almost no experience making videos and social media for a news story. I understand more about how to produce multimedia content for a written story and, more in general, about how to promote myself using social media.
Looking to the future, I still need to publish the story on my site and prepare for the final presentation by cleaning up the details of my website and writing my final paper. I’m worried this will be one of the harder parts of the class for me; design and details are not my strong suit. Putting the final touches on everything is important, and I will keep my eye out for all the details on my website, so the final project is as perfect as I can get it. I plan to use all the checklists and instructions on Canvas to help with all the final details of my site and the publication of my story.
Nov. 12, 2025
JMS Screening Circle Reflection
The matchmakers' and producers' personalities during the Q&A of the screening circle are what stood out to me the most. They all cared so deeply about the project they created and the process they had for creating matches. The matchers also just gave really good dating advice to young people in their 20s. They were much more down-to-earth than how they were portrayed in the show in my opinion. One moment that stood out to me during the discussion was the producers talking about how they really wanted to protect their cast members rather than use them for drama. The producers mentioned that they cut out some of their favorite moments because the cast member asked for it to be cut out. I thought it was really refreshing to see a reality show that portrayed the positives of someone's life rather than pulling out drama and conflict.
The most common way I’ve seen Muslims portrayed in the news is getting extra security screenings at places like airports. Following 9/11, it seems like the greater American public placed all of Islam in a dangerous terrorist box. Though this portrayal is not as extreme as it was in the early 2000s, I think it's a theme that still haunts traditional American media sources. More recently, I was following the New York City mayoral election, and they just elected their first Muslim mayor, Zohran Mamdani. Throughout his election campaign, he never focused too heavily on his Muslim identity, though other news outlets, especially conservative ones, did.
This sort of portrayal of Muslims as dangerous has made me distrustful of the more traditional media outlets. I think it's really important to have diverse voices in a newsroom. Most are definitely headed in that direction, but to paint an entire religion as dangerous makes me more distrustful of the news source than it does of the people of that religion. Specifically, Mamdani’s election campaign didn’t focus solely on his Muslim identity but focused on other promises he wanted to make to the city. As a future journalist, I’m reminded that when reporting on politicians, it's more important to report on policy than the identity of the politician.
I think it's hard to find a sort of newsworthiness in people’s relationships and culture, though I think features are a good place for them. I think the Muslim community and their relationships could be portrayed in other forms of media, like this show. Portraying reality while still adding a narrative to keep audiences hooked, like the matchmaker show, was a really positive way to showcase a culture that has not historically been portrayed this way. Overall, I think a more positive representation of the Muslim community is needed in more mainstream news outlets to bring in more diversity, equity, and inclusion into the news and media.
Sample Map:
Nov. 2, 2025
Blog Reflection 2
Edits and the second draft of my story are in the works. After this round of edits, I feel that my story will be more in-depth and have a clearer direction. With the first draft, I felt it needed more detail in certain areas; I just didn’t know where to go more in-depth. Similar to my multimedia elements, I thought I got a lot of good raw footage, but I was unsure of how to put it together in an effective way. After watching what I have and editing the written version, the clearer are my ideas for the multimedia elements. My TikTok video feels more put together than my other video right now, it just needs a little more editing attention
As I get started on my data infographic, I am reminded that graphic design is not my strongest suit, but I want to learn something from the project and see what I can put together. Using Adobe Express was really straightforward for my TikTok for the story. I also plan to use it to create my data inphographic. Right now, I'm deciding on what statistics I want to use. I plan to have one or two statistics about the environmental impacts of the overproduction of clothing by sellers right now. Then ones about the rise in popularity of thrifting and online reselling apps and why people are turning to them aswell.
Sample Chart:
Oct. 6, 2025
Blog Reflection 1
As the deadline for the story assignment approaches, I’ve started reaching out to sources and finding events to attend. I found a slow fashion designer who goes to SDSU, which I’m really excited to interview. I’ve reached out and am waiting to hear back. In terms of events, I really want to include a clothing swap in the content of my story. I think it would be a great place to get some video. Conveniently, Green Love is hosting a clothing swap on October 14th. I’ve talked with some of the organizers to schedule interviews and make a plan to get some footage on the day.
On the topic of class activities, the TikTok video lab with Adobe Express was a helpful way to jumpstart my experience using a video editing app to produce something for social media. I don’t have any experience making TikTok style videos, but I am planning to for the assignment. I thought the Adobe Express app was a helpful editor. I would like to spend a little more time getting more familiar with the app on my own before I need to start making my own content for the assignment.