About the Author

Photo credit: Angelique Clark

My name is Angelique, and I am 20-years-old. I was born in Las Vegas, and attended the College of Southern Nevada right out of high school, and now I am a transfer student here at the University of Las Vegas as a Journalism & Social Media Studies major. My plan is to graduate with my Bachelors in two years, go on to a Masters in Education at Notre Dame, and then an EdD in Higher Ed at NYU. I have many career goals/dream jobs, some of which I am already working in, but professionally I would like to become a professor and teach at the university level.

Photo credit: Angelique Clark

In addition to those facts about my educational plans, I am also a writer, artist, photographer, activist for preborn human rights, and the designer and founder of a hand-painted, custom apparel line called Life Dress. I became a human rights activist in my freshman year of high school when my public school denied my Constitutional right to start a pro-life club. I eventually sued CCSD and the entire fiasco went national from TV to radio to social media. It was honestly an amazing opportunity to get a true behind-the-scenes look at how media operates and presents/skews stories. Three days after the lawsuit was filed, my club was approved. That experience changed me and opened my eyes to see just how tragic abortion is for both women and their preborn children, and also how silenced the issue is in our society.

In addition to being a passionate activist for equal human rights for all human beings, I enjoy volunteering to help make the world a better place. I am an after-school teacher for 1st grade kids, and I am a regular contributor to hair donation organizations specifically for children with cancer or other illnesses resulting in hair loss. I work at a local art studio as a graphic designer, marketer, and painting instructor. I am also a freelance (and former studio) photographer, and work in senior portrait photography, engagement shoots, real estate, families, babies, and more. I’m an avid adventurer and have been to all 50 states, 11 European countries, Australia, and Israel. I currently work for Students for Life of America as a student spokesperson/graphic designer.

Photo credit: Angelique Clark

I also have always loved writing, and write fiction (mostly sci-fi-futuristic-adventure novels), poetry, and non-fiction op-eds on a variety of topics. Some of my other interests include playing soccer, running, boxing, piano, public speaking, marketing, entrepreneurship, YouTube, thrifting, and drawing. I am a big fan of old rock, and my favorite band is Hall & Oates. My current favorite song is from an early 2000's indie band out of PA- Red Eye by War on Drugs. I also really love Canes, which is important to add. Now, when it comes to my media interests, they are primarily geared towards writing, digital arts, social media, and how our modern media influences current culture.


I am also very interested in public relations and how an organization/company/individual is represented on social media and in the news fairly (or unfairly), and what happens during crisis communication. I love the intricacies of how media is found all the time in our everyday lives, and want to better understand its effect on us as human beings. A few questions that I have that I would like to learn more about by the end of the semester are: what are all the different types of media forms and how do they relate to each other? How often does media positively and negatively effect society, perhaps in specific examples or ways? What are all the different jobs that are involved in the fields of journalism and media?

End of Semester Reflection

Throughout the semester, I gained much more insight on public relations, on how media effects the public, and the positive and negative effects of media in the world. To start, I especially learned more about public relations and had the opportunity to work on the final group project with PR as the main focus. I learned the daily life of a PR professional and how unpredictable the job is. The research I conducted for the final project also led me back to our module on social media, and how important it is to incorporate social media into journalism, marketing, and the work of PR professionals. 

From the article entitled "How Successful Journalists Use Social Media" that we read during that module, the author writes, "An important aspect of the PR and marketing professions is to understand the behavior and interests of stakeholders and publics that we serve... In the 2017 Global Social Journalism Study, 75 percent of journalists describe social media as “completely” or “to a large extent” necessary to promote and distribute content." (Cision) This really opened my eyes to the incredible changes the field of journalism has gone through in just the past few years, with the transition into social media and online information sharing.

The other questions that I had asked in the beginning of the semester and have now been answered are on how media effects the public and if it does so positively or negatively. I learned the most about this during the module on the advertising industry and how it shapes public opinion on products, images, and ideas. One of the articles we read that struck me the most was on the influence of TV commercials to the American culture. In the article by Garth Sundem, he writes, "In fact, almost all of the 16,000 ads the average American sees every day have one thing in common: They're idealized [source: Savan]. Idealization means that whatever's happening in the ad is ahead of where culture is right now." (How Stuff Works) It amazed me how much I began to notice this idealization in my own life, and I started to pay closer attention to how advertising was attempting to make me feel.

Additionally, the questions on how media is positively and negatively effecting our society was answered multiple times throughout the semester, and in particular in Chapter 13. I remember the video on how social media influences the world and more locally, our brains, and in the video, the narrator stated, "Social media sites are used by 1/3 of the world... 5-10% of internet users are unable to control how much time they spend online." (ASAP Science) These statistics blew my mind, no pun intended. Knowing that social media usage is essentially taking over people's brains truly shows how it has influenced not only individuals, but our culture as a whole. We have become dependent on what social media can provide for us, and that attachment to instant entertainment, news, and education has both positive and negative impacts. Overall, this semester was filled with a plethora of resources that helped me to better understand the field of journalism, and has brought me closer to considering journalism as a future career.