Teaching Experiences

COMM2530 Critical Studies in Media and Communication 2026 Fall Teaching Assistant

This is a compulsory communication theory course for undergraduate students in our department. 

Some interesting/inspiring interactions during tutorials with students:

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S: Why is attitude ambivalence treated as a problem in the presented research? If a person enjoys elaborating both pro and con sides of a social issue, why should scholars worry?

T: Yes, attitude ambivalence could be a "problem/trouble" and it could also not be. This depends on the normative standing point of the researcher. The presented research in political communication is informed by the ideals of deliberative democracy, in which citizens are expected to participate in public discussion and collective decision-making. From this perspective, being able to recognize both the pros and cons of an issue is not necessarily undesirable. In fact, it can be a valuable part of deliberation. The concern arises when ambivalence prevents people from translating their considerations into political participation. As the presented research suggests, ambivalent individuals may be less likely to participate in public political discussions. Therefore, the research does not necessarily treat ambivalence itself as the problem. It treats the participatory consequences of ambivalence as potentially problematic. If ambivalence discourages citizens from expressing themselves or engaging in public discussion, it could undermine the participatory processes that deliberative democracy depends on.

S: (Offering a critique to cultivation theory) Social media may not be the root cause for misogyny.

T: This is a valid critique. It's touching on an important macro-level consideration: whether media system is the only system in society that's producing attitudes. There might indeed be other systems, such as the political system and cultural system, that are also influential. This raises our question of how media as an information system interacts with other social systems and whether media should be understood as a cause, a contributor, or a mechanism through which attitudes are reproduced.