IMC@SLC

IMC@SLC (Integrated Marketing Communications at St. Lawrence College) is a focus program in the Limestone District School Board. Students in this focus program come to St. Lawrence College and, with their classroom as a MacLab room, get team-taught by both college professors and a high school teacher to gain 4 high school credits (one is a co-op) at the same time as gaining 3 college credits. Students in this course take part in a co-op the entire month of May where they go to a business in the community and become their official marketing person during that month.

So far I am really enjoying this course. Learning about marketing is much more interesting than I thought it would, and may actually use this in the future as a job to make money – not necessarily a career, though.

As far as the experience in this course for getting to know how college is; I think that is by far the most valuable lessons we can learn here.  Being in the actual college, being taught by real professors, and having the college expectations applied to your work, deadlines, etc, is a great way to get prepared for college. And the best part, I think, about it, is that because students ARE technically still high school students while in this course (but also officially part-time students at SLC and have full access to everything but the gym membership) if you have extreme issues with work, or meeting deadlines; their is a high school teacher to buffer a little bit and help mediate any issues you may have and advocate for you. So you are not completely overwhelmed by being thrown into college because you do not have to move from classroom to classroom and get lost, or have all the expectations with absolutely no room to move those; you get to “safely” have a backup, but are still being “baptized by fire”.

I think IMC@SLC should almost be a mandatory part of high school, or a course similar to it should be made; because high school just does NOT prepare students enough for post secondary.

How I respond to media

My response to media in the world is kind of a mixture of things.

Disbelief, annoyance, disgust, disinterest and similar feelings is one response. Disbelief for what I’m being told, disbelief for what is being shown; annoyance at the amount of incoming media to my brain. Absolute disgust and anger at the over-sexualization and inappropriateness in media. The way that most advertising will try to sell anything with sex, and have no shame. The way ads like Calvin Klein are not only sold with sex – but sold with images that represent rape and male dominance. I hate the way all media portrays women; and the messages it sends them.

But I also have positive reactions to media as well. For example music; I really enjoy music, though my response to it is also again mixed. Most of the mainstream Hollywood music I am disgusted with – all of the men singing all about women and getting them in their bed and money, cars, and stuff. All the girls whining about boys breaking up with them – *cough* Taylor Swift *cough.

Advertising also can pull me in sometimes. Catchy commercials are really the ones that get me. Things like Hotwire.com (“H-O-T W-I-R-E – Hotwire dot com!“), the DQ commercials, Old Spice; basically anything I can talk along with or memorize.

So basically my responses to media very much depends on the form of media, what it’s saying, and some days; just my mood.

Though if I really really had to sum it up in one-two words, I would say I’m critical, or a sponge. I am very critical of media; the way women are portrayed, whether or not it is being sold with sex (because all media is sold, no matter what form of media it is), is any persons or group being excluded or put down, etc. But on the opposite side I can also just be a sponge that is so naive it believes any advertising that says “this is the best thing ever and it will do this better than anything else and you need it now!”.