This course satisfied the Global Citizenship Perspective requirement as we focused on how media has effected democracy throughout American history. We specifically explored topics such as the First Amendment and the influence of media during the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. We would learn about these topics through assigned readings that we would then discuss further together as a class. Throughout the course, we also learned about developments in media technology including the telegraph, radio, television, and the internet.We were also able to delve deeper into these topics by connecting them to current events which was especially interesting as the 2020 Presidential Election took place during this semester. Towards the end of the semester, we were tasked with writing a paper in the style of an opinion piece which focused on one of the topics we had discussed in class, providing strong evidence to support our argument.

Stella Morris, Fall 2020: Above is a copy of my final op. ed. paper which discusses the potential case for banning the publication of opinion polls prior to the end of an election as it may have a negative effect on those who have yet to vote.

Reflection: This course was one of the more difficult ones I have taken during my time at Longwood because I am not very familiar with many of the topics surrounding media and democracy. However, this means that I was able to learn a great deal in this class about important topics and was able to further develop my own opinions on things like freedom of the press and current events. Something particularly difficult in this course for me was completing the papers because I had no prior experience in writing opinion pieces and was not used to writing in that style. This was especially challenging for me and I had to work very hard to finish the class with the grade I received. In all honesty, this was not my favorite course taken at Longwood; however, I do value the skills and knowledge that I have learned and will take with me into future classes and my eventual career.