WORK 01 (ACADEMIC)

Aiming to be the Top Gun
Military Recruitment, Propaganda, and Shaping the Image of War Through Popular Media

Originally written for a class about Media and War, this paper was published under the comment section of the Intersect: The Stanford Journal of Science, Technology, and Society.

Abstract:
The United States military and pentagon have a history of partially funding and providing resources for the creation of military/war movies and video games. These moves and video games are typically created for commercial audiences and are made by independent non-governmental institutions. These movies can have a conventional military setting like Top Gun (1986) and Black Hawk Down (2001) but can also include more unconventional war movies like X-Men: First Class (2011) and Transformers (2007-) movie franchise. Regarding videogames, this paper will look at how recruitment tools like America’s Army (2002-2008) have ingrained themselves into videogame culture and have provided the groundwork for future games like Full Spectrum Warrior (2002), Call of Duty (2003-) and Halo (2001-). This paper will investigate the role of military-centred media and how they relate to recruitment, the role of the United States military, and the perception of the military in society. Additionally, looking at the role of recruitment and how certain tropes that play a role in conventional advertisement transfer into popular media. This paper will argue that media about war, whether sponsored by the military or not, are inherently perpetuating positive messages about military/war and act as “psychological propaganda” influencing people’s perception of the institution and encouraging people to enlist. 

WORK 03 (GENERAL INTEREST)

U of L Strike Timeline

Originally published for The Meliorist in the April/May 2022 Issue, this article was written and published while I was a staff writer for the publication.

The purpose of this article was to document the University of Lethbridge’s faculty strike that happened in 2022. In addition to countless hours of research this article required understanding of the goings on between the Faculty Association (ULFA) and the board of Directors at the University of Lethbridge. The goal of the article was to inform the student body of what happened and the reason for the strike. Many students were confused about why the strike was happening, because of this, the article was written in point form and simplified for easy understanding of the topic.

WORK 04 (GENERAL INTEREST)

Municipal Election A Talk With Mayoral Candidates & Update

Originally published for The Meliorist in the October 2021 Issue, this article was written and published while I was a staff writer for the publication.

This article involved interviewing candidates for the 2021 Lethbridge Alberta mayoral election. Interviews were conducted via email.

WORK 05 (GENERAL INTEREST)

Provincial Referendum Results: Now What?

Originally published for The Meliorist in the November 2021 Issue, this article was written and published while I was a staff writer for the publication.

This article involved interviewing a faculty member at the University of Lethbridge. Interviews were conducted via Zoom. Additional research was required for this article.

social media

WORK 01 (ONLINE STYLE)

APSS

University of Lethbridge Association of Political Science Students (APSS)

Instagram (@ulethapss) September 7 2023 – March 26 2024

• Style Guide

Sample Posts:

• This Week in News (News Aggregation) + Linktr.ee
• Event Post
• Meet the Team

Story Post:

• This Week in News

Additional Things!