Month: December 2019

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I’ve went from print journalism to marketing, public relations, advertising and back again. For now, I’m trying to stay in the social media manager realm because it allows me to write blogs.

Meaning I get to exercise my journalistic creativity on the regular. But seriously though, I cannot express enough how underpaid and undervalued I am as a content creator. I’m marketing a brand to retain clients and often I’m still stuck cleaning a break room.

How can I continue to create an organic outreach that reaches real customers when I’m not taken seriously?

This is why I’m in school. I’m kind of hoping that with the next tier of degree in my life, I’ll get taken a little more seriously. I want to help companies grow and I’m generally not given the resources or time to make that genuine connection happen.

Unfortunately living in the metropolitan area that would see my value in Southern California is a six-figure endeavor. I’m talking like, almost a quarter of a million dollars a year just spent on living comfortably.

And I’m not at that point in my life yet. I don’t know if I’ll ever be close. It seems like my generation really got the short end of the stick and somehow it was so bad that the impact has trickled down to literally everyone except the 1 percent.

Connecting to an audience in a prolific way is something that I crave. I constantly find myself reading these feel good stories but the problem here is that they’re all bandaids for some kind of poor practice. There’s better ways to connect to an audience.

I like to do it in writing because I have social anxiety. But then that anxiety took over my words too. Being in this program has really changed me. It’s caused me to become more humble but to also see that I’m worth more than minimum wage.

Journalism is the core of the communications field. The digital convergence that happens with public relations, marketing and advertising is propelled by media convergence. I have always felt like journalists are held to a higher standard than anyone else. This is because the public trusting us is vital to democracy.

We need to strive to do better. I will never not express how important it is to keep going for the optimum outcome. I know that not everyone in the Newhouse School is there for a journalism degree. Some might hate writing entirely. But when we all work together and pay mind to the ethics behind our careers, our lives are a little bit easier.

I hope I can take the inspiration I draw from this program and really make a difference in the world through telling news via different mediums. I’ve always been a writer. A poet too. But there’s an urgency I feel regarding closing the gap that is the digital divide by exposing misinformation and promoting social awareness as our whole world inches further into the future.

I feel like I really understand why good marketing, advertising, PR and journalism will always go hand in hand with each other. One cannot function without the other in our realm.

The amount of mediums is way too many to count and hard to keep track. Right now I’m loving podcasts because it’s a really old idea with a modern twist attached to it.

Multimedia is this whole different ballgame that really gives writers new and creative ways to tell the stories that they write. If journalists like myself can’t keep up with that, we’re going to slowly lose the media literacy we’ve grown to have.

Digital convergence isn’t going to stop, so we need to hop on the bandwagon and ensure that what does come out is used to the fullest extent of the product or service’s capabilities.

Having a free press is my everything. It’s a gift unlike any other. It’s used as a curse, in some situations. I respect it above all else though, always. If more people lose their respect towards this profession, we’re going to see more open hatred across the board.

I feel like so many demographics have been looked over until recently. And this new wave of marketing towards the younger generations through the likes of big data collection is super creepy. Highly intriguing to watch change happen so quickly though.

Who would’ve known that AARPANET would turn into this massive worldwide conglomerate that corporations are fighting to control the access to? A social awakening is happening that is only going to continue to grow.

As human behavior continues to change, we’re currently seeing something unlike anything that’s been recorded by historians before. It’s not Ancient Aliens or anything, but it’s still pretty great.

The ways culture is portrayed across the world is solely because the internet is here to allow for mass sharing. I’m all here for it. Let’s keep sending memes.

It’s so hard to say what else lies in the future. I’m kind of hoping that eventually I’ll have some brain implant that’ll allow a laptop to type my thoughts for me since my carpal tunnel will probably eventually take my hands out.

Other than that, all I can do is hope that there will be some regulations that will keep customization convenient and 75 percent less invasive. Wait no, maybe like 95 percent less invasive. I’m hoping for the best.

Kind of seems like we’re living in a dystopian universe already though. At least we’re all in this together, right?

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Classes like this one have taught me a handful of useful tidbits for the future. I feel like this blog has also helped me express my feelings, opinions and what not to the best of my ability. All while getting to drop facts in between.

I’ve got a glorified diary. I plan on using it as much as I can.

I have to pre-write to write.

It’s insane how all of the topics discussed over the term are things I’ve already recognized in real life but never knew the proper terminology for. I’m so excited to continue learning.

As someone who suffers from massive anxiety to the point where I can’t check my email or grades, being able to free-flow while weaving in my understanding of class topics helps me truly get the stuff that I’m reading and watching.

I guess this is essentially the tip of the iceberg with the beginning of my graduate school career. I’m over here, hand writing my last blogs for this class while thinking about my finals. Stressing. Multimedia for one and a case study for another.

The thing that I’ve truly enjoyed about this course though is the way I can now analyze and tie in the importance of digital/media convergence. I can especially see it because I recently got a new job-which at the time of typing this bit I am probably going to never go back-and I happened to be in an office setting instead of being at home.

Totally new to me. Even this program is. But I do enjoy being able to still feel like I’m in a classroom learning, instead of trying to teach something myself with very little to no direction.

So last week, all of a sudden I was staring at three computer screens. Holy second screen experience! And a keyboard and a mouse that work! I’ve been working from a broken laptop for almost a year! This is nuts!

I was able to take what I’ve learned in journalism from my undergrad and what I’ve learned about journalism innovation at my short time at Syracuse and really do a lot of work in a short amount of time. It took me 57 hours, but I got them set up with social media posts across six platforms until the end of March.

It was easily enough work to earn a grand. Turns out they thought it was worth half of that. All of this work I put into this company to make them look good and it kind of wasn’t worth the effort.

Honestly though the fact that this client thought that it was okay to pay me California minimum wage is really the result of the lack of media literacy in the country. It’s super simple to look up the average wage of a social media manager in the United States.

Add in a copy editor and marketing/personal assistant to the mix and the costs add up. I digress, though.

I’m over here incredibly upset that I’m late on my work at a super crucial time but at the same time I’m grateful that the little bit I’ve taken from this program I’ve already learned how to use to further my career path.

And I got to really experience a true multi-screen experience for a little bit that I wouldn’t have before. Even if the client was lackluster, Syracuse got me there and helped me see my worth.

There’s always people that need someone to write and edit for them. Until then I’m going to write my little heart out on this blog and hope that it provides context into myself as a person.

I’ve seen what places like Vox and the Washington Post have done for journalism. I’m writing about the Washington Post for my case study. Those are things that can be applied to basically every aspect of communications. I’m constantly intrigued with the versatile manner that journalism fits within this broad industry.

However with the way things keep changing, it’s crucial to continue to revamp and rebrand the communications industry as a whole. Especially the media, both new and old.

I can’t express enough how amazing it is to take these skills that I’ve honed over the years and use them to better something else.

Considering how my alma matter is potentially shutting down the newspaper that I gained all of these skills from as a writer, I feel like the best way I can combat the reality of a dying newspaper by furthering my knowledge in multimedia. Period.

News needs to be told. We just have to understand the obstacles that we are dealt with.

Being able to connect to consumers is the best way to continue to close the digital divide. Now we just need WiFi accessible to everyone. I hope to see that in the near future. Everyone should have the opportunity to have access to a virtual library.

Without access to simple things like blogging, student journalism and student-ran communications groups across the nation, we will never be able to dominate in the media literacy field.

I want to see a day where being a digital era journalist is considered just as important as any STEM major. I don’t think people understand how much goes into becoming an expert on a topic, hunting down verifiable sources and putting together a package that works across a multitude of platforms.

Being a watchdog is hard right now. It’s like trying to get an alcoholic to quit drinking when they just aren’t ready. But if we, as journalists, are able to gain trust and understanding, then the public might be ready to trust us later.

With the next round of presidential elections looming in the corner, I feel like finding new ways to innovate news and find news is more important than ever.

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One of my many ads that I’m getting on Twitter currently. I happened to just start working at a trucking commercial insurance place so, makes sense.

No, I don’t want to spend 15 minutes watching commercials during an hour-long episode of Game of Thrones. However, I’ll admit that I’ve found services and products through ads frequently.

The streaming service Hulu lets you choose your ad experience, so some places it’s not so bad to deal with. If I have to watch ads, I’d rather do it at the expense of having some sort of personalization. Mainly because I could benefit from it later.

But if you’re on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, expect the ad experience to be vastly different. Since I’m using vaping to quit smoking–which is really hard to do when you’re stressed out by the way–I regularly get ads regarding cancer lawsuits against that company. It’s funny, because now a previous Marlboro CEO is running what’s supposed to stop us from vaping.

Seems that smoking, at all, is specifically aimed at a teenage demographic. Even without ads, look at what marketing has done now. I’m 27 and I’m over here huffing these things everywhere. But how did that happen? Because of the way these things were essentially marketed and then advertised to us. All of it matters.

Digital convergence is everywhere. It’s one of the biggest things I’ve learned about the past quarter. And now I’m here at 1 am on a Thursday morning, working at a brand new marketing job at 7 am…at a place where I can’t really get any extra work done.

Although I’m determined to publish the two blogs that I’ve written regarding these topics the past two weeks. This particular blurb about advertising took up quite a few front and back pages in my notebook.

From my notebook. The blog before the blog.

It’s imperative I get my feels out, as some might say. And in short, I’m really creeped out that I, along with many others, have to zen out this weird big brother dystopia out of a George Orwell novel that no one thought was actually going to happen.

Except maybe another writer. I mean, I figured we all knew by now that no facet of our lives is really private.

Ads are meant to personalize, they just go to a whole other level. There’s been a lot of outrage, especially amongst women. I mean, if you have any smart device, all of you other devices are going to know what your routine is to a tee.

But sometimes algorithms and whatever mess up, leaving huge molten craters behind. Some people can’t have children. Or might have miscarried. And they’ll still get baby ads. Other women have realized that the ad experience trickles even down to your damn period app.

It’s disgusting to think that we have no privacy in our lives. These are like, the kinds of things that mortified me growing up. I grew up in a family so tight-knit that it was actually considered textbook dysfunctional. Just not the type one usually thinks of. It’s an overbearing lifestyle.

This is how I feel with ads. Seriously. I’m really, really “zenning” it out though. And uhhh, how many of these ads that we are seeing are really vetted and valid? Not everyone is going to check the comments before purchasing that Furbo dog camera treat dispenser off Facebook. They will just think it looks cool.

The lack of transparency and accountability behind companies buying ad time is so astronomical that it’s laughable. So many people end up unhappy after being scammed by these strange ad things on their favorite social media page.

If there’s so much digital and media convergence, why isn’t everyone else catching up in terms of media literacy? It’s pretty sad. It’s pretty simple.

Not only are the public hindered by the second screen experience, they’re now engrossed by the digital divide. And no one wants to address the monsters behind native advertising and brand marketing. But we all keep going on.

I spent Wednesday at my new job messing with everyone’s privacy settings. Heavily. And for a Mac user to figure it all out on a Windows desktop was phenomenal. But it reminded me that even if I completely disabled these settings, everyone’s smart phones connected to WiFi would give away their information to whoever wants it anyways.

Even the fact that I follow more left-leaning politicians on Twitter means that my ads are well…very snowflake-y. I’ll get ads for products, services and pushing blogs that are 95 percent clickbait. And let’s not even discuss the spam emails. I’m getting hundreds of emails a day. Professional some, but mostly stuff like date Groupons.

Every time I complain about some sort of ache or pain, you can count on good ol’ WebMD shooting me a trusty email about overlooked cancer symptoms. It’s creepy. It’s invasive. However it’s highly convenient, especially in a world where instant gratification is key from all angles.

You can’t get away from it. I’ve continuously blog-preached that those in the communications field have to adapt to these types of rapid change or else it could mean the end of our industry as we know it.

So how do we harness a demon that’s transitioning into a monopoly? It’s so vital to strive for strong ethics in communications. If people don’t believe what they see, they won’t partake or consume in what’s put in front of them.

In short, is everything in life about pulling at the heartstrings behind our love for humanism? What about transparency and the simple act of being genuine? There’s so many questions left unanswered, so that’s why it’s crucial to continue to learn how our field truly connects to others.

Why are influencers so popular? Because they are also effectively closing the digital divide. It’s not just Kim Kardashian with ‘Flat Tummy Tea’ or Cardi B constantly repping Fashion Nova. If you have any type of following online, it’s that much easier to get your foot in the door as a brand influencer. I’m not sure if it’s good or bad. It just depends on what it’s being used for.

I mean why not be a walking advertisement. If you have any type of following or adhere to some sort of niche, it’s possible to become that. If enough educated individuals in journalism hop on this bandwagon, it could mean a life or death difference for this particular industry.

I don’t have all of the answers. It’s impossible to do so with everything, especially technology, constantly changing. But that’s also the scary beauty in the profession. No one can be a complete expert in it and no one ever will be–there is ALWAYS something to learn.

It’s clear that continued research and expansion into the impact of advertising and marketing is imperative for the future. When all fields of communication thrive, everyone involved prospers.

Marketing needs advertising, who needs public relations…and they all need journalism. And since journalism needs monetization to exist, knowing the ins and outs of marketing and advertising is essential.

Seeing what types of advertising are beneficial is also completely needed. In short, not all types of advertising are good for the seriousness of journalism. Such as native advertising. I can’t explain how frustrating it is to see the lines blurred so much to where people fail to harness any concept of media literacy. The complacency is astounding.

I’d rather deal with organic and inorganic outreach than native advertising. Although it’s sad when you can tell that likes or follows were bought, not earned. I can’t knock what pays someone’s bills too much.

Even brand marketing is better than native advertising. Anything where it seems like I’m going to be an actual human. All in all, this industry is like unique ways to push a form of telemarketing. A new way to connect to consumers without having to show up on their doorstep to convince them that your product or service is worthwhile.

Everyone wants organic outreach the most. But making that happen when you aren’t internet-savvy is pretty much like climbing Mt. Everest with improper protective gear.

Advertising is a numbers game. It’s like giving an investigative journalist raw data in a folder and telling them to find the story in it. You have to be completely calculated to plan out an advertising or marketing campaign.

It’s planning the future of an enterprise. And if you can’t sell it with your soul, that’s where brand marketing and native advertising come into play though. I can run around in circles talking about how much I hate or love their outcome for any general brand.