What Studying Strategic Media has Taught Me

One of the remarkable things about studying communications is how it can make your feelings toward a new technology completely flip 180 degrees. Diving deeper and deeper into the literature of this subject gives greater context than what laymen ever have exposure to. An example of this is my view toward social media such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. There are several widespread criticisms of these websites although the ones that see the most regurgitation often feel shallow and reactionary. There are the usual complaints of these forms of communication being shallow and vain, or of ruining people’s social skills. At their worst, these arguments often manifest as anger-induced hot takes, with no discussion of actual statistics or proof to back it up. It was easy in the past to write them off as the complaints of an older generation who are resisting adoption of a new innovation. However, research into how social media operates reveals a much more nuanced discussion. There is a significant amount of real-world case studies and literature that backs up how effective social media is as a communication tool and its vital place in branding, marketing, and PR. However, the actual mechanics of how these sites present information only deepens preexisting cultural divides, despite the promise that such services make people more connected. Another issue that I changed my stance on was digital media’s place in journalism. Before studying emerging media in depth, I thought that it only had negative effects on journalism, mainly by killing off the traditional news papers (which effects the rest of the news industry, because many stories that larger papers and TV stations report on rely on stories and facts collected by these smaller publications. The I learned that many journalists were having positive results with crowdsourcing the news and using online tools to investigate stories that might otherwise be impossible to verify or discover. Though there are still many problems the digital age introduces to journalism, the industry can still benefit from incorporating it more.