1. How have you found yourself reading media representations differently after what you have learned in the unit? Are you more aware of how an event is covered across the media and in what ways have you found your reactions have changed to the event taking place (eg: marriage equality, immigration, reconciliation, etc.).
Through the chapter analyzing media representation, I have learned to question the language and graphics used in the media instead of just taking them in as it is very passively. For example, most of the media coverage of the illegal immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers in news only show their downside and how pitiful they are. After seeing the news feature of the ‘Refugee Got Talent’ by Al Jazeera, I came to realize that there are a lot more to these refugees than running away and seeking a refuge from one country to another. They have their own family; they had a job, a normal life before they had to move because of the war.
2. What aspects of learning (tutorial discussions, readings, lectures, assignments,…show more content… Thinking back to the start of the semester, what ‘baggage’ (eg: essentialist points of view, stereotypes, misunderstandings, lack of understandings etc.) do you think you brought to the unit?
For me, the baggage that I have in the beginning was definitely the essentialist views and misunderstandings of some of the other cultures. An example, I was always told by people around me to be extra careful of black people as they are always news of black people cheating young women’s money through online scams in the country. Somehow, that had an impact on me that created an unconscious barrier for me to completely accept black people as ‘good people’. However, the unit had helped me a lot in opening up my misunderstandings and also helped me understood why a lot of people have a prejudice about black people and why they are othered. All of them is connected to how they are being represented in the media like films, news and so