Harrison's Communication Blog

  Social media has irrevocably reshaped how people communicate. Now, through digital communication, ideas can spread at greater speeds and over a larger range than ever before. In addition, potential consumers expose themselves to more new ideas than they can conceivably retain. In this new context social media users must be selective about which ideas are worth further attention. Similarly, businesses and advertisers must be careful to convey their ideas in more engaging ways if they want them to be successful. For successful communication to occur, where social media users choose to engage with and spread an idea, the message needs to appeal to a vital trait, authenticity. In his TED Talk, author Simon Sinek underlines the importance for authenticity with his communication model. According to his theory, most potential leaders when trying to convey their message emphasize the result (which in most cases is money) and explain a strategy to convince people of their effectiveness. W...

 This week, our reading included a chapter from Diffusion of Innovations by Everett M. Rogers. Specifically, the lesson focused on how novel ideas can spread amongst a population, which Everett defines as diffusion.  One aspect of the reading I was fascinated by is how Everett incorporates the idea of technology clusters. Everett defines a technology cluster as a group of different elements of closely related technology. I think it acknowledges something significant about innovations; they are rarely singular or created in a technological vacuum. The book uses the example of the Green Revolution to illustrate this. In this situation, farmers in Third World countries adopted new rice and wheat, leading to the increased food supply. Still, these new miracle plants' success was also reliant on the successful diffusion of new types of fertilizer and pesticides (Everett 15). While all of these innovations developed independently of each other, their diffusion relied on the presence...

My name is Harrison and I am currently a graduate student studying Strategic Communications. I'm fascinated by the different ways people communicate with one another, so I started this site to cover exactly that. I've spent most of my college career studying and working in various  communication mediums; my undergraduate was in film production, I work on film sets, I minored in English and hold a certificate in new media studies. One of the biggest takeaways after this experience is that people rarely think about what the media they consume is trying to say, or how it says it. Every week I will be posting about topic such as emerging forms of media, communication strategies, academic theories I find compelling. If I'm eloquent enough, hopefully, I will give any potential readers new insight into how they communicate with the worked or how media can affect them. If you are interested in learning more, you can go to https://harrisonscommunication.blogspot.com/