Public Discourse (Namiki)

My Major is Business and I Have Music Class By Namiki Tanaka APR. 18, 2017 Last summer when I went back home in Japan, my mother introduced me to her friends and proudly said, “She wanted to study psychology in the United States, and now she is getting a master’s degree.” I was very confused. Every time I told my parents what I was studying in college, they gave me questioning looks. In 2015, I earned my bachelor’s degree in global studies with emphasis of international business. My parents even came to see me walking on the stage; they still don’t know what exactly I studied unless I explain again and again. Sitting in my biology class, back in 2011, I was wondering why I had to learn about a subject that I would not use after the final exam and studied in high school. In the first two years of college, I went to a community college before transferring to a four years institution. In the community college, more than one professor said, “Well, I’m assuming that you...

There are different college education systems in different regions of the world. For one of my op-eds, I am going to discuss about how the U.S. college education does not have to be for four years.

How we perceive opposing opinions is different and yet very important. We can take opposing opinions as if they hate us, or we can try to observe and even learn how the others view the same fact differently. For instance, when I meet a person who has a totally different personality from me, as I get bothered at first, I become more interested in knowing how s/he lived and what her or his background is. Similarly, I became curious to know what makes people to support certain politicians when I didn’t know much about the politicians.. Having polarization, depending on how we utilize, can be beneficial to expand and raise our level of knowledge. In order for polarization to be good or beneficial, I believe there should be appreciation and respect to some extent while being an opponent. Then, the media has an important role to make the balance of divisions. Since the media has such strong influences, they can give the audiences impacts on how we take different opinions. Thus, the media ...

When thinking about which academic fields are most well represented, I automatically think of business, economic and political science being most represented in the media nowadays. On the other hand, literature (English) or history seems to be less common and less focused in the media. The fact of differences in these represented fields may result from what we, citizens, care more and less, rather than intention of the media. There are specific programs and academic news of the less common fields such as History Channel, but these are optional and barely shown in the news.  Also, sociology takes part in the sphere where the media broadcast to the public but only when issues relate to safety or political matter. Occasionally, civil rights (for people of color, LGBT and women) get focused in the media. Still, these social issues seem to be less recognized when comparing to other well represented topics. In terms of diverse in intellectual, in my opinion, perspectives or opinions t...

Michelle Obama As many of us already know, she is a woman of color and wife of the first African American president of the U.S. I believe that she is influential not because of her profile, but her passion, love and belief towards others are what make her significant to our society today. People who have different political beliefs may not see her how I see her. She shows humanity and entertains us on different shows while she gives us passionate speech about education and children. She is also active and tries to educate us with health. She is not just a memorable first lady, but she has power to motivate us and be aware of different issues around the world.  Prince Ea He is less known than other famous public intellectuals, but his ideas and messages are quite strong and I want more people to know about him. He is a poet, filmmaker and speaker. His profile is found here . I feel that his messages through his poem and posts on social media are awake...

Online platform is one public sphere—can be the biggest size of public sphere, I believe. Thinking about our society without “online public sphere” today, I wonder how people express their opinions and views.  As I have seen on my Facebook page and other social media websites, people talk about not only politics but many different kinds of social issues, such as gender, racial or economic issues, that they want to let the world be aware of. Having online sphere, where people can state their thoughts on anything, has both positive and negative outcomes. In my view of online public sphere, outcomes depend on how people write and read others’ opinions. I believe that positive outcomes of online public sphere include awareness, sense of inclusion and attention from the public. Because I do not follow political news personally, as I don’t truly believe in politics, I would not be aware of issues if I do not follow social media and read opinions of others. In fact, I also don’t read a...