This class was titled New Media, Storytelling, and Research. It is one of the prerequisite courses for JMU’s School of Media Art & Design class, which means all concentrations within the major have to take this class to graduate. This course consisted of us debunking a lot of fake news sources, finding adequate sources to back up narratives we create, and driving discussions on the common question of “How do we develop good stories?” This was the first project we created in the spring semester of 2025, and a group of students, all from different concentrations of the major, had to present a narrative to the class that was based on all different credible sources. This forced the group to tap into everyone’s different perspectives on storytelling in order to successfully carry the project out. I came up with the general idea of chocolate for the presentation after the trend of Dubai Chocolate was all over the media. I never understood why it was so trendy and marketed everywhere I turned. This sparked interest helped the group dive into a bigger underlying issue of the chocolate industry. It was cool that one thought helped educate me and my classmates on a bigger issue of chocolate potentially becoming a luxury due to industry struggles. The presentation is attached below and my group got a 100% on the project.
