Who I Think I Am, Yvonne Chow

The media maker in me currently majors in Geography and Media Studies, and works at the Communications Office at Hunter College. In order to push myself while bringing something new to the world at the same time, I try to be innovative by combining  different and interesting elements of design into each piece of work that I create, whether it be a map, website, or image. Much of my inspiration when I design signage or logos comes from Pinterest:

Yvonne Chow's Pinterest Page

As a media consumer on the other hand, I try to step into the shoes of others when I look at media. I ask who the target audience is, who the author of the content is, how the content could have been made and distributed, how the design could be improved, how the value would differ in different places, and so on. However, as much as I critique the media I consume, I am still affected by them, especially my ideas of my gender and race roles. For example, before I watched the 3-D animated movie Big Hero 6, which features young and highly intelligent Asian leads, I never fully embraced being the odd one out in school due to my race. 

Because I am the first born and first generation college student of my family of Chinese immigrants, access to information for me was limited until I got I got a library card. For example my parents never owned a car to take me to new places, or had connections to successful people, a common predicament which fostered creativity and freedom in my methods of learning through mass media. One such example I am thankful for is Google, and especially YouTube, where I can learn from people around the world and be exposed to discussions and lectures that I would not have gotten from my parents. 

In the past, I would ask my mom or my dad any nagging questions I had, but nowadays my instinct is to ask Google or or my friends on Facebook.  

At Hunter College in Fall 2013 I took a Media 180 course with Professor Stanley and I knew what I needed to pursue after I saw the good and bad sides to media consumption. One bad side is that as a result of growing up consuming American media which lacked the presence of Asian American heroinae, I lost confidence in my opinions and my identity from middle to high school, and never considered pursuing anything media-related until I reached college. Though it's easy to get angry over what our media still lacks, I'm glad to see that women and Asians are slowly making their way into Hollywood in a slightly more positive light, and that the Bechdel Test exists in order to guide consumers in their analysis of old and new media.  I am mostly grateful for the access to free books and articles online which give me the advantage of being almost as educated as some of my more privileged peers, and I am also grateful for the YouTube videos that taught me the skills I needed for my job, and learn about people and ideas from other parts of the world. The potential for media to share ideas, connect people, teach tolerance and more to a wider audience through merely images, motivates me to create good enough content for publication.

 The video that taught me an important skill for free