Spatial Stories

11Sep11

As part of my course, the Miniature and the Mobile, our first assignment was De Carteaus’ Spatial Stories.  My response reflects on my morning commute, using De Carteau’s terminology:

Along the tour, the organized movements of my car bypass many landmarks.  The first of these is a farm I pass on my right.  Then, an unnecessary stop sign ahead brings me to a halt (unless I’m in a hurry).  Another static “stop” is at the end of my road, and I then turn left.  On a map, this would be Route 57 but to me it’s just the familiar path that leads to Hackettstown proper.  My home, although considered Hackettstown, stands outside the town limits in a very quiet township.  My tour continues through town until I reach East Avenue, the bridge that transitions me from my county to the next.  It crosses over the river, which serves as a boundary between both counties and towns – the place in which I reside and the space that contains the town I work in.

I follow the route towards the Interstate, which brings me through various frontiers represented by their exit signs, most of which I’ve never visited – they only serve as the space between my home and office.  At times, when I’m feeling particularly tired and bored, I wish I was traveling on the various metaphorai that surround me, particularly, Lackland Bus which stops right outside my office.  Yet, my car is my home for that hour every day, my place of comfort that travels with me.

Eventually the highway brings me to my place of work, at Exit 42C.  Only a short bridge between the interstate and my destination is the space between, which shows a florist on the left, Dunkin Donuts on the right (one of many on the journey), and other offices that are someone else’s daily destination.  Once I pull into the parking lot, crossing the boundary into my lieu, the place I stay about as many hours as I am home, I’ve finally reached my destination. And after 8 or so hours, the tour is reversed.

 


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Thesis Proposal

18May10

Abstract: This project will examine the social media revolution that is taking place.  It will study three subject areas very closely to evaluate the changes and effects social media is creating.  They include: interpersonal communication, business and marketing, and journalism.  A combination of both primary and secondary research will be used to evaluate how social media has already changed these areas of everyday life and also the direction they may be going as a direct result of social media.  The project will conclude how social media is changing society, particularly the way people communicate, do business, and get news.

Description: I will attempt to investigate the societal transformation brought on by new technologies, particularly social media and digital technology.  Specifically, I will study three major topics that are undergoing significant changes at the height of the digital age.  I will examine how each of these areas is changing with the advent of Media 2.0, as the social web is being called, and at what rate certain changes are taking place.

The first area I will detail is how interpersonal communication is changing.  I will examine how it has changed since the advent of the worldwide web (using secondary research) and further investigate how it is changing today with the advent of social media (using a combination of primary and secondary research).  Secondly, I will look at the effects social media is bringing to the business world, particularly marketing, advertising, and public relations.  Again, I will use a combination of both secondary and primary research.  Finally, I will also look at how journalism is undergoing one of its largest transformations with the rise of social media.  Some sources point to a “death” of journalism while others say the news has never been more accurate. I will utilize sources containing both opinions, and additionally, examine how digital readers are changing journalism and the way users are accustomed to reading the news.

I will combine all findings into one conclusion that summarizes the effects this digital age is having on society and its individuals.  If my research allows, I will predict what these changes mean for our culture and the future if social media continues to accelerate at its current pace.  With these components, I intend to exhaustively answer the question: How is social media changing modern society, particularly the way people communicate, do business, and get news?

Rationale: The purpose of this project is to explore a new technology that has worked its way into the daily lives of people, in both work and leisure.  The presence of social media is undeniable and its transition to being a normal method of communication has occurred so drastically.  For this reason, as well as the fact that it is such a new concept, there is little research that has been conducted on the topic.  Preliminary research has revealed several observations, leading me to conclude that in some opinions, the landscape of interpersonal communication, business, and journalism are all changing.  However, very little extensive research has been done and many conclusions about the future of our media world are only loosely based on professional research.

Historically, media has referred to the newspaper, and in recent years, it has included television, film, and only very recently, the web.  Today, a new form of media has been created and introduced with almost immediate reception.  Social media has become more instantly viral than any other major media form. It has broadened its reach from being a part of the individual’s social scene to becoming practically a necessity in the business world.  The instantaneous takeoff of social media, the quick dissemination, and its relevance in the business world make it worthy of investigation and make it crucial to evaluating the effects it has had on society.

As a public relations practitioner, I have studied social media from the business level.  As a recent college graduate, I have practiced social media on an individual level.  By coming at this new media form from both angles, I was able to enhance my knowledge on the subject and also became interested in exploring it.  I’ve done past research to find current discussions about this media phenomenon, including its history, uses, and effects.  As a professional in the communications field, I constantly look for trends and stay up-to-date with new sites and technologies.

I plan to utilize my knowledge and previous research on the subject and combine it with further research and investigation into the world of social media.  Over a span of six months, I plan to examine the mentioned subtopics and draw conclusions about the effects social media has had since its creation and the effects that are still taking place today.  My research will be among a small amount of literature regarding this subject, as it is a very new topic being analyzed.

Review of Literature:

Public Relations and Marketing: Social media has become a revolutionary phenomenon in itself, but it is also transforming other aspects of the media. Social media has made an impact on the public relations and marketing industries, advertising, and journalism, causing professionals to rethink their marketing strategies and work this new form into their company’s current business plans.

Apart from the obvious advantage of being low-cost, Vocus also explains the increased visibility social media offers businesses.  Social media attracts the attention of users who are already on the web.  By having an online presence, businesses can find it easier to reach this massive audience already surfing the web and companies put their name out in the spectrum in a way that is much more visible than in traditional media.  Additionally, as consumer trust in advertising is continually declining, word-of-mouth is considered the best source of information on new products, according to 92% of consumers (Vocus).

In addition, interactivity is the key benefit to the web that marketing and PR have taken hold of.  If a company blogs or tweets or posts about their new product, users can respond with “retweets” or comments.  Social media implements this business-consumer communication that never existed before (Vocus).

Social media has also benefited a company’s ability to monitor its press.  Search engine optimization is now a crucial part of doing business – for both PR and marketing professionals.  Entering a search term in Google and having your company be in the top ten hits is a marketing tool that is critical for obvious reasons.  While monitoring news has always been a crucial part of the PR industry, it no longer takes days to receive such feedback.  Regulation of what consumers are searching, clicking, and saying is virtually instant (Vocus).

These three benefits – visibility, interactivity, and monitoring – are named as the most important advantages to social media by Vocus.  While its statistics are cited, the advice given is based off of unclear sources.  Because Vocus is a company with public relations software products to sell, its impartiality in research and advice is questionable.

According to Greenfield, PR and interactive marketing are also becoming less distinct from one another with the advancement of social media.  PR and interactive marketing “speak the same language and share common goals.”  They often use the same tools and use social media in similar ways (Greenfield, 2009).  Where there was once a separation between these two industries, there is now a continuously blurring line.  Marketing spoke directly to customers while PR used journalists as an intermediary.  Social media is clearing these distinctions.  Both have taken on a new attitude of openness to the changing communication techniques molded by the evolution of new technologies.

Again, this article is a compilation of the author’s personal experiences with some input from other professionals.  It is not formal research nor does it reference credible sources.  It is, however, one of few sources on the topic of the convergence of marketing and PR through new technologies and an example of the changes social media is bringing to the business world.

Advertising: Advertisers are also tapping into the personalization that social media can bring to an audience. Twitter especially has transformed advertising by providing an outlet for commercial messages to be sent to personal contacts.  Companies like M&M Mars, Amazon, Charter Communications, and the Make a Wish Foundation have issued paychecks to popular micro-bloggers who mention their products in their posts.  John Chow, a Canadian blogger, gets paid up to $3,000 in one month for sending Tweets about new merchandise.  Celebrities like Kim Kardashian can get paid 5 digits to endorse products in their posts.  Critics say such nontraditional advertising is an unfortunate change, and that the ads “commercialize authentic dialogue and undermine people’s credibility” (Stone, 2009). 

Stone uses concrete facts and examples to support his article.  But a topic worthy of addressing goes beyond the scope of this article.  How these forms of payment will affect the advertising industry as a whole in future years needs to be addressed.  To offer a reasonable prediction, we must look at where money in the advertising industry was spent years ago and how it has changed each year until now.

Journalism: As printed newspapers are rumored to be on brink of extinction, social media is coming into the picture as not only a new way to get news, but the way to get news.  Not only are people substituting their Yahoo or iGoogle newsfeed for the morning paper, but they are turning to the stories friends are sharing via Twitter and Facebook.  If someone sees an interesting story, they can share it on their personal page and pass it along.  It’s easy to trust the source of this content, because they’re already your friends – unlike those editors at The New York Times whom you’ve never met in person (Gordhamer, 2009).

Additionally, the debate continues over whether or not a blogger can be considered a journalist.  With no gatekeeper, bloggers can post any story without worrying about the ethical and professional standards of a traditional journalist.  Instead, they rely on fellow bloggers to judge the credibility of the content.  One survey revealed that three-quarters of respondents felt blogs were a credible source of information.  Despite the obvious risk of bias and opinion, this “citizen-journalism” provides more in-depth analysis of current issues.  Whether or not the blogs are a form of journalism is an ongoing debate, but their increasing popularity is unquestionable (Johnson & Kaye, 2004).

Johnson and Kaye do credible, primary research to gauge opinions on the role of citizen-journalism in our culture.  It is important to note the popularity of this type of social media to predict its permanence in our culture.  The diversity of those surveyed and their methodology for measuring attitudes appears credible.  Perhaps this type of research should be expanded to other areas of the social web and then repeated annually to measure change.

The Future: A scarcely studied topic aims to discover what the future holds as a result of social media’s overwhelming presence.  Predictions can be made for how businesses and individuals will change their daily lives as a result of these sites, but because the topic is so new, little research has been done to offer concrete hypotheses about the future of our media culture.   

If, like McLuhan said, the “content of a medium is an older medium,” then perhaps we should be taking his aphorisms a little more literally (McLuhan, 1967).

Social media is a broad term used for websites that involve information exchange, whether it is text, videos, pictures, or other websites.   Although difficult to define, social media is taking over the internet and statistics show the usage of social media sites is still increasing.  Individuals have indulged in the idea of having personalized accounts where they can share ideas and media that they like.  Businesses have jumped at the chance to have direct communication with potential customers through these sites.  But where will this take us?

Years ago, USA Today was criticized for becoming the “McPaper” and dumbing down news.  With messages that must be under 140 characters and flashy videography contributing to our attention-deficient public, will social media contribute to the dumbing down of our news even further?  Or will the unavoidable need for media literacy make the public more intelligent and technologically-savvy?
Our current literature fails to answer these questions, as well as provide many concrete numbers and statistics.  Surveys are just beginning to emerge to measure usage, but the area of industry trends, changes over time, and comparison of types of social media are all lacking.

As printed newspapers are rumored to be on brink of extinction, social media is coming into the picture as not only a new way to get news, but the way to get news.  Not only are people substituting their Yahoo or iGoogle newsfeed for the morning paper, but they are turning to the stories friends are sharing via Twitter and Facebook.  If someone sees an interesting story, they can share it on their personal page and pass it along.  It’s easy to trust the source of this content, because they’re already your friends – unlike those editors at The New York Times whom you’ve never met in person (Gordhamer, 2009).

Additionally, the debate continues over whether or not a blogger can be considered a journalist.  With no gatekeeper, bloggers can post any story without worrying about the ethical and professional standards of a traditional journalist.  Instead, they rely on fellow bloggers to judge the credibility of the content.  One survey revealed that three-quarters of respondents felt blogs were a credible source of information.  Despite the obvious risk of bias and opinion, this “citizen-journalism” provides more in-depth analysis of current issues.  Whether or not the blogs are a form of journalism is an ongoing debate, but their increasing popularity is unquestionable (Johnson, & Kaye, 2004).

Conclusion: Because social media is such “new media,” there is little research and many of the sources mentioned use first-hand accounts.  Advice offered may be based on individual experiences or even speculation.  There are very few studies and analyses that contribute to the topic of social media and its relatively new place in our culture.  With the advent of new media, change is inevitable and few predictions have been made based on existing changes in the cyber sphere. 

The social media trend is growing and has become a staple in the current generation of media users.  It is important, then, to study its creation, impact, and effects as it continues to disseminate through the web and into our daily lives.

Methodology: First, I plan to first do extensive preliminary research. In addition to the sources cited in this proposal, I will find sources regarding social media and its initial takeoff, as well as the effects it has had so far on society.  In these sources, I will pay attention particularly to mentions of interpersonal communication, business and marketing, and journalism.  Any quantitative data will be used as starting points for data I will gather later.  A starting point for such data is that compiled by Erik Qualman who lists many statistics (and cited sources) regarding social media and the impact it has on, what he calls, an “industrial revolution.”  His extensive statistics were compiled into a video in 2009 and it since then, a new video has been released with updated statistics (Qualman, 2010).  (This emphasized the quick and constant escalation of social media.)

Also, I plan to do research by interviewing professionals like Erik Qualman.  In addition to compiling and creating a video on social media impact, Qualman is a digital marketing professor and author of “Socialnomics,” a blog and now best-selling book about the latest trends in social media.  Other professionals I plan to interview and obtain opinions from are CEOs who felt the need (or didn’t feel the need) to incorporate social media into their current marketing strategies.  I will also ask individuals about their use of internal social media, like employee microblogging sites such as Yammer.

I also plan to do primary research based on surveys and my own gauge of social media trends.  To do this, I will setup a survey (most likely on the online and easy-to-use survey site Qualtrics) to be distributed at the start of my research.  This survey, to be distributed to at least 150 web users, will measure social media usage and opinions on different social media sites.  The survey will record what purposes each respondent is using social media for and how this has changed over the course of the last five years (based on the user’s own assessment).

A similar survey will then be given towards the end of the project, which will evaluate the changes over a six-month period.  This will show the rapidity at which social media is expanding and/or changing and the ways in which it is being utilized.   Both surveys will also attempt to measure the effects that social media has had on the user.  A comparison will attempt to be made from the first survey to the second, although in such a short time period it may be hard to measure.

Additionally, I plan to use social media in the evaluation of social media.  In addition to measuring change on my own social networking sites over this time period, I will create several new ones and measure the pace at which it gains a following.  I will pay attention to audience and feedback, comparing it with the audience I assess with my survey and the data I find in my secondary research.

Limitations for this project could include unavailability of data since few experiments have been done on such a new technology.  Additionally, contacting those who have done research or are involved with social media may be difficult (eg. Erik Qualman).  In addition, audience assessment of themselves often proves difficult in surveys since users like to think they are not affected by the media.  To evaluate change and to assess the changes social media has on users, it may be difficult to look beyond their own self-assessment.


Research Plan

The first piece of research I will do is the background research.  I hope to do this before the actual start date of my project, which I estimate to be around January 2012.  Using this research and any prior knowledge, I hope to create the initial survey to be released in the first week of my project timeline.  From here, I will do additional research and organize the data I collect from the survey.  I will then be able to make certain conclusions about current social media usage and effects and predictions about future usage and effects.  I will setup Google Alerts on social media to be updated of any news pertaining to the subject.

After the initial research is done, I will setup the new social media sites (blog, MySpace) I plan to assess.  I will create a spreadsheet to record followers, feedback, and audience and record any changes on these sites or my current social media sites (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIN, Plaxo, YouTube) throughout the six-month period.  For this I could also use Google Analytics to find number of views, location of users, and entry/exit pages.  I will continuously (at least weekly) add content to the social media sites to keep new information available and entice users to be repeat visitors.

At the end of the six-month period (estimated June 2012) I will give the survey respondents another survey similar to the first one.  This will be used to evaluate changes in usage, opinions, and effects.  Data will be collected and compared to the first survey results.  This will all be compiled into a final conclusion about my findings and the implications it has on society.

Table of Contents

  1. I.     Introduction
    1. Hypothesis
  2. II.     Interpersonal Communication
    1. Preliminary Research
    2. Survey Responses
      1. i.     Predictions
  3. III.     Business/Marketing
    1. Preliminary Research
    2. Business Examples/Interviews
      1. i.     Predictions
  4. IV.     Journalism
    1. Preliminary Research
    2. News Examples/Interviews
      1. i.     Predictions
  5. V.     Conclusions
  6. VI.     Sources


Mediagraphy

  1. (n.d.). Optimizing your public relations with social media. Vocus Whitepaper, Retrieved from http://www.vocus.com/wp/socialmediawp.pdf
  2. Gordhamer, S. (2009, October 16). 5 ways social media is changing our daily lives. Retrieved from http://mashable.com/2009/10/16/social-media-changing-lives/
  3. Greenfeld, D. (2009, September 02). Social media is pushing pr and interactive marketing to align. Social Media Today, Retrieved from http://www.socialmediatoday.com/SMC/pages/print/posts/?bid=05f2e461-a0b3-4f6d-b985-4c1e24a48aea&mode=Full
  4. Johnson, T. J. and Kaye, B. K. (2004). Wag the blog: How reliance on traditional media and the internet influence perceptions of weblogs among blog users. Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly.
  5. McLuhan, M. (1967). The Medium is the massage. UK: Bantam Books.
  6. Shaw, F. (2007, February 16). What is Social media?. Retrieved from http://scobleizer.com/2007/02/16/what-is-social-media/
  7. Stone, Brad. (2009). A Friend’s tweet could be an ad. New York Times, Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/22/business/22ping.html?_r=2&partner=rss&emc=rss
  8. Qualman, Eric. (2010, May 5). Socialnomics. Retrieved from http://socialnomics.net/
  9. Qualman, Erik. (Producer). (2010). Social media revolution 2. [Web]. Retrieved from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFZ0z5Fm-Ng&feature=channel

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New Age of Media

21Apr10

I was very interested in the Interactive Guantanamo through Second Life.  My undergraduate school was very involved with Second Life and I’ve been fascinated by machinima in general.  I experimented with it and even visited my university on Second Life.  I traveled to Europe.  I went to stores.  It was almost creepy.  I attended a presentation about SL (in real life) and the presenter was broadcasting the entire presentation, including the audience, in Second Life. People from all over the world were sitting in the same room in SL that I was sitting in in real life.  I was watching them in SL on a big screen in real life and they were watching videos of me and the rest of the audience in SL.  It’s all very confusing and very creepy but speaks about the direction media is taking.  I had never heard of the sweatshop Christiane spoke about but it really demonstrates the merging of new media and commerce and how the online world is really changing the business landscape. (Especially when social media comes into play; Christiane called it a “corporate warehouse.”)

Christiane explained simulated realities as part of our lives that are imitative of real life and are as cinematic as possible.  I was watching my boyfriend play the new MLB 2k10 game and it’s scary how life-like it has become.  I couldn’t help but point out the wrinkles in the pants and their gestures when they warm up.  Similarly, I was playing with my brother’s golf game where you can make a player and adjust everything from eyebrow line to cheek bones to bust size.  We were then reflecting on how realistic we used to think old Nintendo games were.  This new media has come such a long way just in our lifetime.

I think this is progress for the media industry in the sense that it is becoming more and more lifelike.  Whether or not this is a good thing, I don’t know.  Special effects are definitely more entertaining now (look at Avatar and all of its awards) but at the same time, will we be able to decipher fiction from reality?  Those that watch a lot of TV already view the world as having more crime than it actually does (“Mean World Syndrome”).  What kinds of effects will this have?

I enjoyed Paul Hardart’s lecture more than any other lecture, I guess because I’m very interested in the business of film.  I thought it was interesting how he mapped out the way film is distributed both traditionally and with new trends.  I hope that the marketplace really does show an increase in foreign films and international markets.  I was surprised to learn that India is the largest film-producing country in the world, especially since I know the US is the biggest media exporter in the world.  Although I don’t typically watch Bollywood films, I had to for an anthropology class and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it.

I also found the distribution trends informative particularly the one that paid TV has a better product.  I never watched HBO or Showtime even though I’ve had it for so long but when I watch Entourage or Mad Men, I understand the craze.  It’s like a television show that was produced theatrically so you feel like it’s a never-ending movie.  The effects, the costumes, the story are all so well done.

I’m also a culprit when it comes to the new distribution outlets.  I love Redbox and Hulu (probably because I love all media but I’m too cheap – I know they deserve their money but I’m living off of loans).  I’ll do anything to save money and still have my entertainment, including shopping at WalMart (plus I live in the Boonies and it really is the most convenient place to go).  My new discovery is the site video2mp3.net that allows you to convert YouTube videos into mp3s for free.  It takes all types of media and turns it into a new distribution outlet of its own.

Audiences really are changing and as a part of it, I think the industry is going to have to get even more creative with its marketing and promotions.   The whole media landscape is changing and the film industry needs to keep up as well.


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Paul Ryan

06Apr10

Like a lot of others, many of this stuff went over my head but I also found “threeing” very interesting. Like many things in my courses, I am finding it to be a bit psychological. As Ryan exampled, I am one of three children and also as he mentioned, it was always two versus one growing up. To make matters worse, my brother and sister are twins so it really was two versus one. The concept of threeing reminds me of what we learned in peer mediation at a young age. His website describes it as “yoga” for relationships and I think this is fascinating. Perhaps I could have used this growing up. Additionally, it reminds me of being the “third wheel” which often came up in my youth. By having an initiator, respondent, and mediator, perhaps it would never feel this way.

The speech/writing schema was interesting because I never thought too deeply about the idea that our behaviors as children are just the commands of adults. I have thought about how poor parenting leads to rogue children, and I guess this kind of goes along with that. I like Sophie’s interpretation that video can help provide answers and also determine the questions. Growing up as a visual leaner, video has always instructed me on things my parents did not. It helped me to think creatively and spawned my love for media.

I also wanted to comment on Ryan’s mention of how videos can help us understand and appreciate ecology and therefore prevent us from destroying it. I was watching “Life” last night on Discovery Channel (the one narrated by Oprah). These close-ups and detailed descriptions of these animals’ everyday lives really do personalize their existence in a way that you are forced to appreciate them. Shows like Meerkat Manor get people so involved in the lives of these otherwise overlooked beings.


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Intellectual Autobiography

08Mar10

I was a lost freshman.  I chose Communication as my major without really knowing what it was.  I knew my university didn’t offer journalism as a major and that was the only career I had seriously considered.  But after four years in high school of writing for three newspapers and various other publications, I was already getting a little bored with journalism.  Communication seemed broad.  Maybe I’d find something I liked.

I began my first communication course, “Principles of Communication Theory,” and the content was as dull as the title.  When I finally had the opportunity to do a project that offered some outlet for creative expression, I made a video.  Maybe I could be a producer.  I’ve always had a secret dream to work in movies (and I’m not talented in acting).  I met with my advisor; an old man that the department kept for his academic accomplishments in the communication field but it was clear he had no knack for teaching so they made him the department head so he had little interaction with students. “We don’t have that here,” he said as he sorted through his paperwork only half-listening to my woe.

Dead end.  I resorted to the course catalog to find a different major.  Nothing interested me.

The next semester, I took my second communication course, “Mass Communication and Culture.”  My professor, Dannagal Goldthwaite Young, was new to the university.  While coping with the recent death of her husband, she continued her research on political humor while obtaining her doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania.  She was also a comedienne.   I never lost focus in her class and couldn’t tear my eyes away from her teaching style or the content.  She became my academic advisor and an inspiration.

The following year I went full speed into the communication program.  I hadn’t been officially “accepted” into the major yet (the school only accepted the top 100 communication students after the completion of 4 core courses in the freshman and sophomore years).  Nevertheless, I was confident in my GPA and picked up as many courses under the concentration of mass communication as was allowed.  The same year, the journalism minor was introduced.  I knew that subject would make a comeback sometime in my life.

After being officially accepted, I took an advanced (actually, graduate level) course on content analysis with a professor whose name came up in every academic document I came across.  Dr. Nancy Signorelli headed the graduate program and had a lot of experience in research.  After this course I realized research could mean watching primetime television.  I did my own content analysis on the features of characters that commit violence on primetime shows.  About two months into the semester I got a letter from Professor Signorelli telling me my grades showed an aptitude for the communication field and asked me to consider graduate school.

I took a breath and started to identify my interests.  I knew I loved my concentration – mass communication interested me much more than interpersonal.  I wanted to deal with the media.  I loved creative aspects: movie making, editing, interactive media (another minor I discovered and quickly took up).  And now, I realized I like the research.  I have always loved to write, but long nights in the library with stacks of books and documents higher than my cubicle was something that excited me rather than sent me into a panic.

I began to search for MA programs that dealt with the mass media.  I looked into Media Arts but I was no artist and programs were scarce.  I considered film school as a pursuit of my previous goal to be a producer.  I didn’t have the time or money (and I couldn’t convince my parents on the practicality of that degree).  I looked at the big universities but many (including my undergraduate university) were strictly theory-based.  I wanted a balance between the theories and a way to express my creativity.  And, once my parents told me I was on my own financially after I graduated, I needed a part-time program that would let me work during the day to finance it.

Obviously, this led me to pursue my MA in Media Studies at the New School.  Dr. Signorelli was happy to write me a recommendation and Dr. Young was ecstatic about helping me with my application.  Once I was accepted, they wished me luck.  I graduated a semester early and began my MA in January, before my BA diploma even arrived.

Many people come to these programs with a clear idea of what topic they want to pursue.  I, however, am a person that is interested in absolutely everything and loves having many choices when it comes to opportunity.  I often compromise my time and pursue many areas of interest. In this way, I may be preventing myself from becoming an expert in one particular area, but I’m also well rounded in many areas.  I picked up a major, three minors and a certificate in only three and half years as an undergraduate.  Now, I’m more knowledgeable in all of those fields.  I picked this program because it didn’t make me choose between theory and practice and I knew I wanted to do both.  It offered many areas of study; I knew I’d be interested in all of them.

I recognize that now I have to pick an area of interest to fall in love with and commit to.  I’m currently at the beginning stages of this process.  Again, I have to identify my interests.  I often still return to my initial love for producing.  With courses on documentaries, I recognize an opportunity to combine another area of interest – culture.  I love American culture and media, but I also love to travel.  The fact that so much media is exported from the U.S. and that even British comedy requires a certain “appreciation” from Americans fascinates me.  Why is media so different in other cultures?  Why do other cultures appreciate American media more than we can appreciate theirs?  Special effects?  Amounts of money poured into our entertainment industry?

If I’m able to combine my love of culture with my love of media, I may have a topic worthy of a thesis.  Whether this is through traditional research or a documentary, I’m unsure, but I’d be happy with either method.  Overall, my goal will be to “discover” something.  Even if I can’t pinpoint what I’d like to contribute to the field, I simply want to have a contribution.  I want to explore a topic so in depth that my name will be attached to pieces of information.

My love for learning didn’t stop as an undergraduate and I don’t expect it to stop after completing my MA.  I always keep my options open and consider obtaining a PhD or an additional MA degree in another field.  But with my MA in Media Studies, I hope to produce something worthy of referencing in the future.  I hope that whatever career I am in, whether it still be public relations or a career more directly associated with the media, that the knowledge I have from this degree will enhance my understanding of the industry and enable me to do more valuable and meaningful work.

This degree will keep my curiosity from waning and help me to not only educate myself with theories of the media industry, but also educate me on the technologies involved. I hope to be better trained with film and other creative tools.  Perhaps this could be my gateway into the film industry.  My most recent dream job is combining my current field of public relations with the media industry by working to promote new films.  My studies will only get my closer to this dream.

As a very new MA student fresh out of college, I’m unsure of where I will end up and exactly what I will accomplish.  I do know that I am motivated, curious, and intelligent and I will accomplish something to be proud of.  My current area of interest – investigating media in other cultures – could very well change as I take up new courses and fall in love with new topics.  My overall goal of working in the media industry could change as well.  However, it’s not the destination, it’s the journey.  If my journey takes a detour, that’s fine with me.  I know that I am pursuing the right subjects and I will be committed to wherever my coursework leads me.


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Public Relations and New Media

25Feb10

I don’t know if this counts as “new” either but I’m still discovering Google.  We all know Google is a fantastic search engine, but when updating my portfolio website, I figured I’d give Google analytics a try.  I can track who viewed by website and where, how many times, where they came from, if they repeat visits, and so much more.  It’s almost scary.  I now feel like I’m being watched when I’m on other people’s sites.  Then I discovered Google Webmaster tools that help me increase SEO and also Google Keywords.  Google does EVERYTHING.  I also use iGoogle and my alma mater just switched to gmail as the school webmail.  At work I use Google Alerts to create media updates for clients.  Google is taking over.

Also of interest to me this week… take a look at how social media is taking over the world:


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Exploring My Options

13Feb10

I think part of the reason I decided to get my MA in Media Studies is to figure out exactly what I want to do with my future. I’ve always loved the media in general which is why I chose Mass Communication as my undergraduate degree. When I started as a freshman, I was disappointed to learn my school didn’t offer production classes. This is probably my strongest area of interest because I had to do a lot of outside activities to fulfill my ambitions to produce. (Mattern says a field is what you make it – I’ve explored so many corners of the communications field and I keep turning back to media as entertainment).

The entertainment industry fascinates me and although I don’t think I have the time or aptitude to fulfill a private dream of becoming a movie producer, I think my goals as of now is to pursue something in the movie or TV industry – I have no idea what.

I’ve always been inspired by directors like Baz Luhrmann, (well, he’s my favorite) who can take a simple story and fill it with such creativity and emotion. It’s this emotion that I find fascinating (or as Marco mentioned, “the escape from our ordinary lives”). What makes a viewer so engaged into a work that it “leaves you thinking?” I don’t know if this is related to psychology, but in this sense I think I would love to produce something inspiring which would put me on the creative tract.

In a more research and writing thesis, (I’m really at the beginning stages of exploring my options here) my love for travel has given me a love for different cultures. Anyone who has been to Europe and turned on the TV sees such differences in not only the language, but the way media is presented. They are also much more open as far as cursing and nudity (I’m speaking of Europe because that’s where I’ve been). I’ve done past research with media effects and I would love to continue this while exploring different cultures and their entertainment.

I think these two topics are ones that would give me a level of commitment and engagement worthy of producing an informing and useful master’s thesis.


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Understanding Media Studies

10Feb10

I will be detailing my progression through my MA in Media Studies at the New School.


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