How to think about MCC: Applied
If any other MCC majors are similar to me in terms of the way they see MCC fitting into their interests, then they will be familiar with the tug between an interesting major but not feeling the most prepared when it comes to interviewing, or knowing what fields to even consider for internships, jobs, etc. I’ve grappled with how to position my thoughts on the issue, since up until this semester (first sem. Junior) I had really only taken classes having to do with media and cultural theory. I’ve figured out that it helps to articulate a few broad lessons you learn as an MCC major and think about how those things can help you grasp certain takeaways that will be productive in a professional setting. Here are my main lessons:
Message, Means, Agents
Everyone in MCC is, I hope, familiar with these three terms, as they are the foundational learning in our Introduction to Media Studies class that we are required to take before anything else. If you’re not familiar with these, you should be worried, but they are quite easy to summarize. Message is exactly that: the information that is being relayed. Means is also what it says: the means by which the information is being relayed; it can also be thought of as medium. Agents are anyone who participates in the message in any way, including sender, receiver, and eavesdropper. Of course these terms have much deeper theoretical content that we could delve into, but for simplicity’s sake this is what we will stick to.
Now, how to apply this in a way that makes sense professionally? Say you are applying to an advertising internship. Many applicants will take for granted that there are messages, means, and agents in any form of marketing communications. But you, as a studied MCC buff, can pay attention to the mere distinction between these three facets of media. You know that anything with messages, means, and agents is considered media in the broader sense. Thus, you will be able to think more critically about each of these three pieces. What is the message you want to send? How should it be articulated to make sure the agents on the opposite end know the true meaning, and what they get out of it? What would the best means, or medium, be to deliver this message efficiently and accurately? Being able to think about this process of delivering targeted messages to consumers in a broken down and theoretical way will prove useful to yourself and your employer.
Technologically Determined vs. Socially Constructed
In MCC, we learn about the fact that no technology really has the sway in daily life like people claim it does. While technology certainly has a vast impact on the way culture moves, culture also has a vast impact on the way technology moves. This is the difference between viewing the relationship between technology and society as being determined by the technology or determined by the society. Social Media Networking, taught by Isra Ali, PhD, emphasizes the fact that we need to see the relationship between technology and society as an ebb and flow, with influence equally split between the two parties. Have you ever heard someone say something along the lines of “iPads and cell phones made everyone unwilling to socialize… no one talks to each other anymore”? This is the kind of thinking MCC cautions against, placing much more emphasis on how society influenced the creation of these technologies to begin with. With this knowledge, you will be able to think about your job differently. When writing a press release, or creating content for a new website, you have the knowledge to accept that the society you are trying to reach is also trying to reach you, and that what you say does not just influence the readers, but that the readers also influence what you write.
While these are just two of the major takeaways of MCC, you can bring many other knowledge points into the practical sphere if you just take a while to consider how the concepts you learn are informed by the society you’re trying to work in. Panopticon, ethnographies, and globalization are all other examples of MCC topics that frequently have many ties to the professional world.
