Spicy Flu! Media During a Time of Crisis

Abstract

Spicy Flu! Media in a Time of Crisis is all about some of the ways my life has changed in the past 7 months, ever since I came home for what I thought was going to be an extended spring break. In the spring, I moved out of my dorm completely just a few days after the announcement about classes going virtual, because almost everyone I knew was going home, and it didn’t sound fun to spend the next couple of months in my dorm room staring at my MacBook. Making a decision for the fall semester was difficult, but I decided to do classes remotely for the fall semester because it made the most sense: I’d save money, and also I was worried about campus being empty. The title “Spicy Flu” comes from a YouTuber I watch, as this is what she called the coronavirus. During the pandemic, I spent much more time watching TikTok and YouTube. I found comfort in these media sources because I got to see creative and funny ways that my peers were making sense of this historical event. Something else that came out of this pandemic was that I became more aware of the social and political situation in the United States; before this, I knew a little about politics and social inequality, but now I understand more about things like how racism is embedded in so many aspects of our society. This zine was created as part of a course assignment in "The Impacts of TV and Digital Culture," a Digital Media and Journalism course taught at SUNY New Paltz by Assistant Professor Jessica Crowell.