Who are you, and what is media?

Rachel Kurak
Sep 4, 2018 · 2 min read

My name is Rachel Kurak; I’m a senior Communication Studies major from Ohio. Having started out in the college’s education department, I’m interested in figuring out how I can use my communication skills and education background to help and serve others in a non-profit or ministry context. At my internship last summer, I enjoyed some unexpected opportunities to create, so I’m also interested in exploring design.

For me, the concept of media first conjures up connotations of subtle negative influences in multiple areas of life and biased sides who control what the general population knows and thinks and who often refuse to listen to one another. I think of social media, which I don’t pretend to perfectly understand, and all the voices who say that it has negatively impacted how young people live and how we think about ourselves.

Yet I also see the positive influences which media can have; after all, the beloved books which have shaped my childhood thinking and adult spiritual life also fall under the title of “media.” So too do the channels I use to electronically keep up with my friends, and the TV shows and movies which I have found entertaining or thought-provoking.

Media connects us — a shared show, book or movie gives us a sense of solidarity with others, and a common language for jokes, comparisons and discussions of our own situations. Modern media allows us, and at times forces us, to learn and think about the world beyond our own tiny bubble. It provides us with an onslaught of available information, which we must sort to find and take in that which is worthy of our attention: the true, the good, and the useful. When we take the role of creator rather than mere consumer, each of us should also strive to create by the same standards.