RYAN DWIGHT

ABOUT ME

Howdy, my name is Ryan Dwight and I'm a sophomore student at University of Maryland currently enrolled in the Media, Self and Society College Park Scholars program. As of right now I’m officially undecided, trying to major in Information Science, specifically in Cybersecurity. I was born in Oakland, California but moved to Bethesda, Maryland when I was five, making it my adopted hometown. I’ve worked as a summer camp counselor for two years (calleva.org) and beyond that I enjoy hiking and kayaking in my spare time. I joined the Media Scholars program because of my love of politics. The past few years have been an interesting period in politics which created a passion for it in me. I love following the state of the government and the many personalities that make it up, reading ridiculous tweets and crazy speeches. So why not join the more politically focused Scholars programs? Simple: because the media plays an incredibly important role in politics and pretty much every element of society, but it’s not talked about too much. Social Media, sports, entertainment and politics all depend on the media to reach millions or even billions of people on a daily basis. Whenever you watch tv, scroll on your smartphone or read a magazine or newspaper, the media is affecting you. So, by diving deeper into how the media influences people, I can learn more about how it affects me and liberate myself from the bias intrinsic to the media so that I can have a clearer view of the world. The evolving nature of media also relates to another one of my interests: technology. I’ve used computers pretty much my entire life, which led to my interest in cybersecurity and information science overall relates considerably to the real world. Thus, I’ve chosen to study two things that have an incalculable role in my daily life.

(November 15th, 2020)