Project done for introductory purposes for Kenna Bird Designs and the angle of where the individual owner could go using TikTok as well as providing examples for the type or style they could utilize on the platform.

Final Essay Submitted to Digital Media Audiences Lecture at the University of Westminster. Media audiences play a vital role in media studies, Allor (1988) mentions, as quoted in Sonia Livingstone’s (2004) text The Challenge of Changing Audiences, that it is important in “the analysis of the social impact of mass communication in general” (p.75). Therefore, it is necessary to continue studying media audiences and how they change. For the scope of this paper I will create a discourse and discussion into how the term “media audiences” is still relevant in some cases, but needs to be revisited for the online space. No longer are spectators of media simply reacting to what they are being show, but are becoming directly involved in its creation and consumption, which is why we must think about them as users, “new media users.” The main characteristic of new media users that incites a divergence from what has been theorized in the past is the user taking on the role of laborer as well as consumer. This factor which transitions an audience member from spectator to user are at play in many different forms of new media and online spaces, but it is best displayed in the Chinese short video sharing app known as TikTok.

Essay Submitted to Theories of Communication Lecture at the University of Westminster The original writings and theorizing of Adorno and Horkheimer regarding culture as a commodity and means of production still remains poignant to this day. Although the cultural landscape since has altered drastically, it is important to apply their methods to the media that now surrounds us. Not only has there been development in the way culture is consumed, but in addition, the type of culture has shifted into digital formats. When Adorno and Horkheimer coined the term “Cultural Industry,” they felt a sense of skepticism and deception from the media to act more as a commodity with hidden intentions to benefit individuals and businesses for profit rather than to act as culture (Negus, 2006). Two of today’s main points for media consumption are found in the form of the digital with video sharing platform YouTube and photo sharing application Instagram. Both have the structure and frameworks to offer an alternative to an industrial form of culture, however the major issues with YouTube and Instagram cause an intervention in regard to Adorno and Horkheimer.

Graduate Dissertation Submitted to the University of Westminster - August 2020 The purpose of this study is to understand K-pop and its relation to the Western market as it has completely altered what we have previously believed to be true about the monopoly that countries such as the United States have had on global media flow. The culture imperialist position of the West is challenged with the current relevance of Korean popular music, giving us the opportunity to study K-pop as a possible example of counter cultural imperialism. This project is conducted by studying and observing Western K-pop fans on Twitter and analyzing reoccurring themes expressed by them on the platform in relation to the groups chosen for this study – GOT7 and BTS – to make meaning and identify what has made K-pop so successful and economically profitable in the West. This research provides an intervention into K-pop’s place in the Western market and help equip researchers to further understand the ever-changing global market.

Undergraduate Thesis Submitted to the University of California, Santa Cruz - June 2019 The British reality program, Love Island demonstrates a participant’s active role in showing TV as malleable through Stuart Hall’s model of encoding/decoding television. Love Island is an example of contestants demonstrating polysemic mediation as a dialogue with dominant ideologies regarding dating intended by production - the desperation and passiveness of females, ideas of “traditional” masculinity, and whiteness being the ideal in a partner and romance. This case study positions Love Island as a different kind of reality program that redefines the relationship between reality television, its participants, and the kinds of messages created when the two work alongside each other - whether successful or not.

On June 13, 1994 in the affluent neighborhood of Brentwood in the Los Angeles area, two individuals were found murdered. Ronald Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson, ex-wife to former football player Orenthal James Simpson.

Final paper written for Asian Americans and Media

Intro to Film Theory - Final Paper