Hi, my name is Stephanie Minutillo and I am a freshman here at the University of North Carolina. I am from the beautiful beach town of Wilmington, North Carolina, which we relocated to about five years ago from Wayne, New Jersey. I came to college with the intent of getting into the business school and double majoring in Business Marketing and Studio Art, but now that I have dabbled in a few classes that have directed my interests elsewhere, I consider myself undecided. I basically have two very different career paths that I can pursue at UNC; the first being a major in both Studio Art and Marketing and Advertising in the J-School. The second option is that I could graduate with a major in Geological and Environmental Sciences and then go on to attend law school so that I could work for the state as an environmental protection agent. To help me make this decision, I decided that I needed to take a JOMC course before my second year of college. I figured that an introductory course to journalism and mass communication would be ideal for my interest in marketing and communications, so JOMC 101 seemed like the perfect fit.

It is interesting to analyze how much media has impacted my life because when I think about it, I cannot remember a time when I was completely isolated from the world of mass media. Even as a child, parents tote their children around and expose them to media without even realizing it. I know that my parents would use a television show or a computer game as a babysitter for me and my brother from time to time, and I can say that I have done the same with kids that I babysit. Media consumption in today's world has become so second nature that when I open up an internet browser, my fingers automatically know the quickest way to get to Facebook and I find myself on the website without even thinking about it or wanting to log on in the first place. With the level of high speed technology available to us, we can receive and send information virtually anywhere in the world in a matter of seconds. It is because of this fast-paced information highway that is mass communications that modern day media has become such a powerful tool in just about every aspect of society. Media plays a vital role in human interactions and I honestly cannot imagine the world without it.