Curated by AML, Adjunct Assistant Professor @ Pace University Communications & Media Studies | amauzy@pace.edu

(Spring 2026 CMS 228 Writing for Convergent Technology Syllabus)

This course is about learning to write well and practicing the fundamentals of storytelling that can be adopted across the ever-expanding range of creative mediums that students of media studies want to pursue. Students traverse the evolution of form and content, and the basics of storytelling, from long-form cultural critiques to Tik Tok captions. They write and workshop together, creating blog posts, opinion essays, press releases, and practice pitching their work. This year we welcomed guest speaker Lex McMenamin, Movement Building Reporter at The Guardian and former Politics Editor for Teen Vogue for a special Q&A on navigating media industry careers. 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 with students exploring complimentary themes, and a final presentation before submitting the completed work.

Here’s what a few students made this term:

• Tessa Campbell created a video podcast episode about the effects of AI on the human experience. 

• Krista Picciano documented the history and current commodification of a New York City cultural icon and artistic larger-than-life legend, the Chelsea Hotel.

• Emily Pollard developed a resource website, “Freedom to Read: Stop Book Banning Today,” including information on book banning in America and campaign materials to confront it.

• Kennedy Gainey created a video essay for her youtube channel about the attention economy online, and how to scroll more mindfully and maintain digital well-being.

• Lily Pina recorded a video pop culture podcast analyzing toxic male behaviors on reality show Love is Blind.

• Michael Layne made a video about his journey to studying game development and battle with imposter syndrome. 

• Miriam Norwitz wrote and designed an online article about fandom culture, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

• Yeju Kwon produced a short documentary/poetic musing on her time as a South Korean exchange student in New York on what it means to have “a meaningful experience” in a constantly-documented world.

• Grace Oh illustrated and narrated a video about the impacts of AI on art and what it means to “create.”

Other students produced audio reporting on the effects of AI data centers on their hometown, a deep dive into how influencers are changing the “media invite,” an analysis of the resurgence of Western aesthetics in fashion and popular culture, an essay on the erasure of Black musicians’ contributions to shaping the music canon, a website for birders, and more great work this semester.