– Reflective Post on Cultural Commentary and Storify: Under 21 and drinking in the US –

https://storify.com/stefaniecooke/a-cultural-commentary-on#publicize

The goal of this cultural commentary was to engage with some aspect of culture, for this it needed an explicit statement, evidence and a point of view. I knew I wanted to write about something I was interested in, something I had an argument about and wanted to discover in more depth. So I began thinking of subjects that interested me. Legalisation of drugs was an issue that I was curious to learn more about. However I felt I didn’t have enough personal knowledge on the subject. So I engaged with an issue that was similar but that I would be able to relate to more: the legalisation of alcohol. In terms of format, I chose to work with Storify. Purely because I wanted to challenge myself to use a different tool that I hadn’t worked with before. I also thought it would work well for my story in that I could support my evidence with facts and links that would be easily accessible to the reader. I liked the visual aspect of Storify and felt it would make my arguments more engaging. I enjoyed being assigned a cultural commentary as it gave me the opportunity to get involved and develop an opinion on a subject relevant to my culture. The cultural work I felt was mostly a comparison between European versus American drinking legislation. For me this was an interesting issue because I am between both cultures at the moment. It gave me an excuse to compare the two different cultures to each other and the impacts each has on a younger generation. I tried to do this from an objective, non-bias point of view. A reading I did that really helped me shape my essay was “Saudi’s in bikini’s” by Kristof: this made me realise how NOT to do it. I wanted to start with an open point of view and make up my mind from there. Overall I feel happy about the essay I wrote. I enjoyed learning more about the subject. I fear that I maybe didn’t go enough in depth but I like how easy to read and clear my arguments are. I hope it will develop a better awareness of the subject whilst being educational at the same time to both parents and teenagers.