The Writing for Convergent Technology course explores how to tell good stories, across the endless digital platforms and formats available to us in the expansive communications field. Students traverse the evolution of form and content, and the basics of storytelling, from long-form cultural critiques to Instagram captions. They write and workshop together, creating blog posts, opinion essays, press releases, and practice pitching their work. We hosted a panel of media writers including Nicole Collazo Santana, social media editor for NBC’s Today Show, Jessie Mohkami, Editorial Operations Manager at NYT’s Wirecutter, and Emma Glassman-Hughes, a journalist with a career dating back to our tenure on the high school newspaper staff together.

Over the course of the semester, each student creates a final multimedia project, self-directing a topic and outlet that resonated most with them. The final project process includes an ideation phase and proposal, a peer workshop session, and a final presentation before submitting the completed work.

Here’s what a few students worked on this term:

• Suzana directed a PSA on the littering crisis in NYC and a call for personal responsibility.

• Phoebe proposed a rebrand of Chef Boyardee for a new generation, creating a communications strategy and visual identity guidelines for a modern interpretation of a classic American pantry staple.

• Gwyn published a zine, making the case for honoring and preserving physical media and interrogating what it means to “own” media.

• Hymeline produced a podcast episode, breaking down competing trends of quiet vs. loud luxury, and a clash of classes in online aesthetics.

• Emily created an Instagram account, exploring how the imagery and messaging of The Hunger Games franchise are shaping Gen-Z’s political identity.

• Other students explored topics spanning the politics of new horror movies, the Kardashian effect, the tik-tokification of music, the Mac Photo Booth, the impact of digital overload on young minds, and Beyoncé.