The Griff talks to four MacEwan students in four different programs/majors, and asked what media, television, or simply the general public gets wrong about your field of study

Have you ever watched a show focusing on a profession and wondered what they’re getting right or wrong? Maybe it’s a law show where a lawyer fervently defends their side, pulling surprise witnesses and interrupting the court with last-minute evidence. Maybe it’s a show about a group of science nerd friends forming theories and winning Nobel Prizes. If you have ever wondered what these shows based on professions and fields of study get right or wrong, so have we here at the Griff. 

We interviewed four different students at MacEwan University in four different programs about what is commonly mistaken or misunderstood about their future careers.

“People are going and studying and doing research. That’s not necessarily one of my interests, I just want to take what I learn and apply it to a job that I find.”

– Sydney Erickson

Science

Sydney Erickson is a first-year student in the bachelor of science program and is currently undecided on their focus, but is thinking about specializing in physics. “There’s just such a diverse range of options at MacEwan that if I went into the bachelor of science and I decided that there was something I enjoyed more, I could go to the same school,” said Erickson. 

“The most common misconception about people going into general sciences is, in the Big Bang Theory, they’re all studying to do all this research and be like Nobel Prize winners and win awards and stuff, when I think a lot of the people in my field of study just want to do something more mediocre,” says Erikson. He says he prefers practical, applied physics over the more theoretical and research-focused approach portrayed in the show. “People are going and studying and doing research. That’s not necessarily one of my interests, I just want to take what I learn and apply it to a job that I find.”

When asked what drew him to physics specifically, Erickson says he’s always been interested in how things work. “I also don’t know what I’m going to do career-wise after, but I know a Bachelor of Science can get you into a lot of places.” 

Political Science

“When I say that I’m a political science major, people assume that I know everything about politics, and I know every single detail, and every single new news story that pops up. I don’t,” says first-year political science major Alyson Norman.

When asked if any sort of online representations misrepresent her field, she says, “I feel like the blue hair liberal arts major meme has, like, grown a lot, and I think that it is a misrepresentation because not all of us are as radical as the media portrays us to be nowadays.” Norman says that she’s always been interested in how politics weave themselves into the fabric of society. 

“But also, if I decide to change my path in life, politics are always going to be useful. That’s something that is put into practice every single day in everyday life”. 

“Most of the time when people ask what I’m doing, I say, oh, bachelor of design. They don’t really know what that means, and then I have to elaborate that it’s like graphic design and like what I want to design and stuff, which is advertising.”

– Lowell Green

Design

Lowell Green is a MacEwan student in their first year of the bachelor of design program, specifically working towards being a graphic designer within the realm of advertising. 

“Most of the time when people ask what I’m doing, I say, oh, bachelor of design. They don’t really know what that means, and then I have to elaborate that it’s like graphic design and like what I want to design and stuff, which is advertising.” Green also discussed how the broader public currently perceives advertising. “When I say I want to go into advertising, people kind of assume that’s a bad thing.” Green says they will remain cautious about who they do their work for, saying, “I’ll definitely look at it from an ethical stance, and just pay a lot of attention to who I’m doing my work for.”

Green feels that, unlike other art-focused post-secondary institutions, MacEwan actually pays attention to their chosen program. 

“I’ve heard often that actual art schools don’t pay a lot of attention to their design programs; they’re more fine arts-based. This school seemed to pay more attention to the design program,” says Green. They also admitted one reason was that MacEwan doesn’t require a portfolio, unlike other design programs. When it comes to what they’ve seen represented about their field, they discussed the general lack of knowledge the public has. 

“There’s just such a diverse range of options at MacEwan that if I went into the bachelor of science and I decided that there was something I enjoyed more, I could go to the same school.”

– Sydney Erickson

Paralegal

Erica Philippon is a MacEwan student in her second year of paralegal studies, who has some experience working in her chosen field. 

“Especially in TV, there’s a lot of kind of crazy misconceptions about the legal field,” Philippon says. She provided three different examples of things often misportrayed. 

“Probably one of the biggest misconceptions about law is that lawyers do all the work. Depending on what area of law you’re in, they don’t do all the work like you see in TV shows.” 

She says that much of the work you see in these shows, in actuality, is done by legal assistants and paralegals. “I’m not trying to discredit lawyers for the work they do, but they’re definitely more concerned with the correspondence and things like that”. Another misconception she shared with us was that almost 90 per cent of cases don’t actually end up going to court. “A lot of the time, the work can be done in the office, or like settlement is huge in court”. 

The final thing people get wrong has to do with the popular law show genre. Last-minute surprise evidence or witness? Not a thing. “That does not happen in real life,” says Philippon. “Everything is like, very much disclosed and known before trial.”