[Media Law and Ethics] Joseph

Favorite book: On The Road by Jack Kerouac. Kerouac's use of common language as well as a very loose plot made it feel like the book was talking to me. The book singlehandedly influenced icons like Bob Dylan and created the modern revolution in the 1960s. Favorite film: The Godfather (I and II). While I haven't read the book in its entirety, the Godfather Movies possess a narrative so nuanced not only psychologically but in terms of character development, as well as brilliantly played by actors so tailor fit for their respective roles. The sequel in itself was profound in the way that it juxtaposed the first film, which blew my mind when I watched it. Favorite media practitioner: Sean Parker, CEO of Spotify. While Parker started the downloading of music via Napster in the 2000s, which generated the ire of record labels at the time, he further revolutionized the way people listen to music when he challenged Steve Jobs's endorsement of iTunes that people wanted to "own" their music. Parker is a complex individual himself, responsible for the plights of independent artists nowadays in terms of their lack of financial support and compensation, but his way of revolutionizing music as well as the desire for him to be challenged made me put him on this list. Favorite musical artist: Kendrick Lamar. Not only did he tackle layers and layers of social commentary regarding racism in the US, making profound statements like no rapper had ever done before, taking the commentaries of older rappers like NWA, Tupac,and A Tribe Called Quest and further fleshing them out and explicitly challenging them, he also managed to blend so many genres and music together. He expressed in an interview that his masterpiece, To Pimp a Butterfly, as "human music"--music that is not bound by genre the same way that the America and the world he envisions is not bound by racism. Favorite meal: Pizza! I actually make pizza from scratch whenever I have the chance to, from the flour up. It certainly doesn't beat authentic Neapolitan artisan pizza, though.