As I mentioned in my first entry "Prologue" I am making each blog post be as though they are chapters in a book. I hope you enjoy chapter one!
This first week assignment requests personal thoughts on the following questions:
What forms of new media do you use daily?
As an active participant in the new media "world", you will find me on Google, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and of course E-mail every day - no doubt about that. Nes websites like CNN, and fun pages like Buzzfeed and Stumble Upon are just a few new media sites I play with on my iPhone, iPad, and Macbook almost daily. They are quite entertaining.
In past jobs, my daily work included creating and updating websites, wiki pages, and designing digital/email marketing.
Home or work, there is not a day that goes by where I do not use new media.
How has new social media influenced your perspective of events?
In my perspective, both as an event attendee and event planner, social media has a major influence in events. The way this world works now is strongly influenced by all forms of social media. Silly Twitter updates, fun Instagrams, or exciting flyers shared on Facebook are great ways to utilize social media; this type of marketing has a major influence on society today. Personally, I am more attracted to an event if I can get the basic information in short postings with bullet points, not in long paragraphs. Also, if there is a link to webpage, the facebook, and/or twitter that are eye catching and give proper updates, I am more likely to attend if I feel that the event will be more fun rather than too structured and boring. Social media gives the opportunity to show the targeted audience more about the event itself through different media tools rather than just a flyer, a poster, or an ad. Making potential attendees go out of their way to get information is least appealing for someone in this society; it is more comfortable and convenient to get the information they want while at home.
Are these positive or negative influences?
Majority of the influences are positive, however, having a marketing and design background, some social media marketing tools can be very displeasing to the eye.
I have noticed that news channel postings on Twitter and their websites make any news update seem like "Breaking News". This negatively reflects on that companies media and marketing due to making every story seem urgent and important. It is quite unfortunate, because when important situations are brought to the audiences attention, sometimes they are overlooked because it gets lost with the rest of the "urgent" news. At least, that is what I have noticed recently.
Social media, for the most part, positively influences events by reaching out to its audience in the most appealing and convenient way. As I mentioned in the previous paragraph, social media gives more opportunities to reach out to the target audience in the comfort of their own home rather than looking at a flyer or a poster. The fact that social media can provide instant information, this confirms that social media positively influences events in society.
Hopefully my thoughts make sense - if you have questions or comments, please do not hesitate to share!
Best,
RJ
Weekly Recap:
This week has been rather low key, but I had quite an adventurous start to this past weekend. Late in the evening on Friday (9/20) I was admitted to the hospital with appendicitis and had an emergency appendectomy a couple hours later. By the time the surgery came around it was barely Saturday, but it went smoothly and I was able to go home later that afternoon. The whole thing took me (and my family) by surprise since I was the very first person in our family to have appendicitis.
My first week of Graduate School isn't quite how I imagined. Since I got back from the hospital I have slept on average 20-22 hours each day - no thanks to the pain medications. Getting a masters degree has been something I've wanted for a few years now so I am determined to not let the required 2 week bed rest and the pain medications (that make me quite loopy) get in the way of my success. Hopefully the rest of you had a much more successful week!!
4 comments:
R.J.,
First of all, I hope you are recovering well from your unexpected appendicitis adventure.
Good point about the "boy who cried 'Wolf!'" syndrome that sometimes takes over new media postings. It's easy to overlook important posts, when everything is on sale, or every story is late-breaking. What might be "real" emergencies are surrounded by stories that are marketing to gain attention. After awhile, those tactics fail to get the attention of the audience.
I enjoy the way you've set up your blog page and look forward to future entries.
Linda
Hello,
First of all I totally agree that Facebook has a huge positive when planning events. I send out invites for birthdays, parties, etc. It is so convenient because most people have Facebook and you can invite a lot of people at once. It came in extremely handy for my graduation party last August. I have quite a bit of family that lives a few hours away. I sent everybody an invite which also linked with directions and there was no confusion. It was fantastic.
I also have to agree that social media has mostly positive influences when speaking about technology. I love technology but it definitely has its negative features as well as its positives. I believe sometimes people depend too much on technology. Texting, emailing, it all takes the place of one on one interaction. It seems to be more of a necessity than a tool now.
The other interesting piece of information that you posted was about everything being "breaking news" that is so true. I will watch the news once a day and only because it is the only channel my work will play. At the bottom of the screen it will say breaking news and I'm expecting something bad and a celebrity will have given birth. That although may be good news or exciting depending on your feelings of the celebrity, it is by no means breaking news.
Your blog is really interesting and I look forward to reading more blogs from you in the future.
RJ,
I appreciate the way you've structure your blog post and I thank you for taking the time to answer all of the questions posed in the assigment. Some of these questions doesn't get as much attention as they should, and I'm glad to see you dedicated time to each of them.
I would like you to elaborate a little further on how social media has affected your perception of events. Not only events in the sense of activities which we plan or which we attend, but rather things that happen in the world. How has social media affected the way you position yourself on certain topics?
Cheers!
Hi there,
The "breaking news" phenomenon is one that's been often on my mind. its a hard to choice to make between wanting the immediate gratification of minute by minute breaking news and knowing that if I wait a bit longer I can get a more complete and likely more accurate story. I try to balance staying abreast of new developments but then remembering to do follow up later in the day ow week to see what shakes out.
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