Starting the Year “In Media Res”

Welcome to my blog! My name is Chris Banister, a Sophomore at Creighton University, and I’m taking this class as a part of my Computer Science course requirements.

I titled this particular post “Starting the Year ‘In Media Res'” because 1) I love the literary plot device which means “in the middle of things” in Latin (Link to a great example of in media res from one of my favorite movies: Ratatouille Opening) and 2) I thought it would be a fun pun as I feel my year has already begun “in media res” considering I have helped with welcome week and other events and that this course concerns media.

In terms of familiarity with media, I am fairly proficient at finding both the news sources I need as well as the entertainment and interesting information I crave on a daily basis. I enjoy more intensive web browsing and longer sessions of online videos on my computer, but I have just as easily lost countless hours of time on my phone as well to good and ill effects. My trusted news sources are spread across various different platforms such as YouTube, podcasts, cable coverage, Reddit, and several others. The obvious correlation between my use of most of these sources is that almost all of them originate from an online source. In terms of both cost and convenience, the near instant access to information and connection to people across the world offered by the internet puts it far and away better than any prior method of communication. Sadly, despite my praises of the internet, I must admit there are cons as to how the it can shape the future of the world in terrifying and dangerous new directions.

News media can often be a double-edged sword in my mind in quite a few ways. On one hand, the efficacy, power, and importance of news media is highly essential to maintaining a highly literate and well-informed populace, and this relationship between people and press is rightly protected in our 1st Amendment. On the other hand however, the absolute ubiquity of media sources (in the 21st century especially) often dilutes that quality of fact-based reporting and in recent years tends to revolve around click-bait and emotional arousal of one socio-political group versus another for maximum monetary gain (Link to PolitiFact article on clickbait: How Clickbait Ads Make Money).

In terms of experience with programming, I’m fairly literate in HTML, JavaScript, Python, and Java, with all this knowledge stemming from my courses in Creighton that I had taken Freshman years. I wouldn’t however say that I’m proficient, as I haven’t undertaken any intensive personal programming projects outside of class quite yet.

Living in such a connected world, I find it beautiful that so many differing ideas, cultures, and influences are able to prosper in relative equality over the internet and other similar sources of media. The concerning aspects of this interconnectedness, however, are twofold, in that much of social media presence can be overly superficial and not lead to genuine social interaction regardless of geographic distance, and that bigger corporate/government influence can override the voice of the general public in quite a few cases unbeknownst to most people.

Credits:

• Youtube Video uploaded by “gerry ko”, and I’m sure the rights for Ratatouille go to the Walt Disney Company and Pixar Animation Studios
• Article “How Clickbait Ads Make Money” by Joshua Gillin and published by PolitiFact