the media in me

I always have difficulty explaining "who I am" in these kinds of assignments. It's hard to incapsulate myself in a few paragraphs - Where do I start? What are the important highlights? What is necessary to share in order to provide a better understanding of who I am? I came to the conclusion that regardless of whether or not I start with where I grew up (San Francisco), where I go to school (The New School), or my favorite foods (Mexican and Japanese), I will always end up sharing the central role media has in my life. Media is constantly in my life from the moment I wake up to the time I go to sleep. I pass much of time using facebook, on my phone, on many other websites, on email, etc. However, media's largest place in my life is in television.

My mother started her career in TV at a young age -working as a Page at NBC fresh out of college, then working for the talent coordinator at Saturday Night Live, and later working as a producer for cooking shows years after she moved to San Francisco and started our family. I was always enthralled in television - mostly because I grew up watching shows with her (comedy shows in particular) and visiting her at work. My love for comedy grew out of my experience with TV through my Mom. It first started with "I Love Lucy," and as I grew older and could understand and appreciate more adult humor, I started watching SNL religiously. I connected to media through comedy (Or did I connect to comedy through media?) With this passion for comedy and the fact that my mom always instilled a strong sense of career and opportunity in me, I knew I was destined to work in this field in someway. As soon as I turned 18 I started applying for internships. I've worked at a news desk, at publications, and most recently in New York, at a late night talk show and at SNL.

I've seen the power media has on culture - I've lived and breathed it. While I can easily argue the negative effects that media certainly has on our culture (body image, sex and gender issues, money, etc), I try to focus on the good and positive ways in which we can use it. I look forward to exploring the ways by which people spread cultural news, commentary and criticism.