Who do you think you are?

My name is Brandon Ramdayal, and this is who I think I am. With the many forms of media that revolve around me, there are a variety of ways how I consume it. Some of these ways include spending countless hours on my phone on Instagram scrolling through my feed, occasionally double tapping a picture or video I like, watching shows, reading news articles or watching/listening to news broadcasts, live sports or highlights, or streaming movies via Netflix. It is very easy to enter the "rabbit hole" of media and digress to different topics and subjects with a swipe or a scroll. As a big consumer of media, I try not to do that, but I still find doing that without even thinking about it.

As I enter the world of Journalism and Video Production, I realize that I have the potential to provide content that will go the same platforms that I use on a daily basis. My role in media making will be to create content that will help people be more informed and entertained. I see myself as a visual storyteller, and I hope to provide the public with valuable information that they can discuss in whatever field I'm tasked to report on. I'm slowly but surely making strides in becoming the best visual storyteller that I can be, by providing visual content for my class whether it be in the form of an article I write for class or a video I make and post on my YouTube channel (Link will be below). I also just began to be a part of a digital magazine that discusses the arts of Newark.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3PdINWIznIsXuciHi_hPXw?view_as=subscriber

In the world that we live in, finding your identity is one of the toughest things you can do, especially with the overwhelming amount of media that you receive daily. However, I try to find my own identity through my experiences or finding my own beliefs based on research from all perspectives. What this does for me is that it helps me find my identity, and not what the media want me to be. When it comes to culture, this gets tricky for me being born in America with Guyanese background. This is tricky for me because I'm constantly wondering whether I'm American or Guyanese, not speaking with a Guyanese accent or simply being out of touch with my culture because of my American lifestyle and ultimately being shunned by my family back in Guyana solely due to my choice to not talk or carry myself a certain way. I hope to acquire a better sense of my culture as I learn more in this class.

For me, the future seems bright as I have a variety of opportunities that I have yet to discover. I plan to graduate from Rutgers in a few semesters, but there are a few obstacles that stand in my way. One of them is this class, which I hope will be an easy one to overcome, another is acquiring internships applicable to Journalism and Video Production and of course, passing my other classes. I hope to find a career in Journalism or Video Production when I graduate so I could begin to not only begin to pay off my loans but to find my true passion in these fields. I hope that this class will help me be more in tune with my identity and better shape my future.

(Image courtesy of CNN)