During the first class, I felt extremely out of place because I had never thought about new media. The first readings intimidated me, and the idea of working on a huge group project was stressing me out before it even began. However, as the snow days and discussions continued, I became increasingly interested in the topics and found them to be relevant to my life.

The most intriguing aspect of the course for me was the YouTube video by the male professor who discussed a project he did with his class. It opened my eyes to the social world within the Internet, and the following is a quote I wrote from one of the rebuttals: “The way I think about digital culture has been challenged in the YouTube regiment of the course. Specifically the video we watched.  I was really moved by the idea that while we long for connection within the digital world, we also still push for real, face-to-face connections which has led to the creation of two societies”. As we continue to move forward in the world, I believe the distinction between these two societies, the digital and the physical, will become very clear while also altering the physical world around us.

In regards to the group project, I was intrigued by the concept of about half of my grade being based on my group work. But to be quite honest, I had never thought about web series before this class. When we were choosing our group topics, I was drawn to the idea of concentrating on web series because I thought it was going to be interesting to contact producers, directors, actors and actresses. I am also a television fanatic, and I was interested in studying a different form of visual entertainment. While I had no luck receiving contact with anyone from the world of web series that wanted to interview with us, I enjoyed interviewing those who did want to participate in our project via Skype. It opened my eyes to the subject as a whole, and their desire to create content that means something inspired me as a student. Originally, I was expecting us to only concentrate on the content that they were presenting that specifically related to race and gender, but I found it interesting to learn about their funding process, their view towards YouTube, and their opinion on mainstream media and what it provides to society.

I will say that my absolute favorite part of the course was creating our video project. I enjoyed our concept of playing major networks who wanted to learn more about the web series as a whole, and we had the funnest time filming it. I was so pleased that we had the ability to get creative with our video, as it made it that much more engaging. Janaye did a wonderful job pulling the video together, and I think the final product is great! Overall, I did enjoy this class and working with my group helped me learn that much more.