MICHELE MATTIA

October 2, 2014

One of the most significant pieces of advice given to college students, particularly as graduation nears, is that we must set ourselves apart to be more marketable in the job force.  Whether that means taking an extra internship, self-starting a campaign or being the president of an organization on campus, all of these actions promote you as a go-getter and can amp up your resume.  Briggs gives insight as to what it takes to market yourself and be taken seriously as not only a journalist, but an intelligent businessperson.

He mentions that two of the building blocks to success are demographics and psychographics.  Basically, we need to know who will buy (demographics) and their decision making process that makes them want to buy or visit your site (psychographics) (pg. 248).  Identifying those factors help to narrow down your thought process and get ideas organized.  This goes along with Jeremy Caplan’s Poynter article about identifying opportunities as entrepreneurial journalists and focusing on the little ideas first.

Never before reading this chapter have I thought of journalism in such a business state of mind.  Great journalists have expanded their platform from just writing articles to producing video, photos, blogs and social media that is featured on startup websites to complement stories.  Today, most readers are engaged in the interactive features of websites, such as video content and social media interaction, which helps spread the word much more rapidly.  If the demographic is Generation Y, it’s a safe bet that more will be intrigued by a website with versatile multimedia content as opposed to one that features just written information.

I believe EFCollegeBreak.com is an excellent example of a website that knows their demographic and “why” factor.  They’re strictly geared toward Generation Y as an affordable travel booking site for young people aged 18-26.  They sell inclusive travel packages worldwide for the student or recent graduate on a budget.  Stories from users who went on trips that EF College Break offers are featured on the site.  This service also provides the option to sign up for email offers immediately upon opening the Web page.  As a member of Generation Y, I definitely was interested right off the bat and my attention was hooked to the point where I spent an hour exploring trip opportunities.

According to an article by Forbes’ contributor, Greg Petro, public relations firm Edelman did a study on millennials and branding importance. “’Nine-in-ten (Millennial) respondents take action weekly on behalf of a brand.’” The article went on to talk about the type of action we take online.  “Millennials give feedback directly to brands via social media, online games and other fun engagements offered by retailers.  Some of these engagements invite them to ‘like’ new products on a brands Facebook page.  They tweet about their experiences with specific products.  They post pictures of their favorite products on their own Instagram pages and on Pinterest.  They write and read product reviews,” wrote Petro.

Briggs also tells us how important it is to use your competitors to your advantage because that’s often done in the professional world.  He writes about being aware of the methods they use to accumulate Facebook and Twitter followers, and even contacting them to see if they would be available to talk and set up potential partnerships for the road ahead (pg. 260). Having the mindset of seeing successful websites as an opportunity to flourish and gain from instead of a fight for more eyes can keep your morale going instead of thinking what can go wrong.

As a wise man named Thomas Edison once said, “Nearly every man who develops an idea works it up to the point where it looks impossible, and then he gets discouraged. That’s not the place to become discouraged.”

 

 

Briggs, Mark. Entrepreneurial Journalism: How to Build What’s next for News. Los Angeles: Sage, 2012. Print.

 

September 25, 2014

Imagine living in a world where it’s unpredictable if you or one of your family members will make it to see tomorrow.  Now, picture the situation as this being your small child, wandering on their own thousands of miles away from you.  We’ve all become familiar with the issue of illegal immigration across the Mexico-United States border, but one of the crises that we fail to fully take in is the effect this matter has had on countless young children.  Many of them have been separated from their parent(s) who’ve migrated to the US in search of a more prosperous lifestyle.  According to a study by U.N. Refugee Agency, the number of children from El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala making the trek unaccompanied “has doubled each year since 2011, and the U.S. government has estimated that 60,000 children will arrive in the U.S. in the 2014 fiscal year” (journalistsresource.org).

This large community of child migrants is spread throughout the United States, highly in states like Florida, Texas, and New York, but what’s alarming is the population that exists in New Jersey.  According to the Office of Refugee Resettlement, the unaccompanied children release data from Jan. 1 to Aug. 31 of 2014 calculates a total of 2,171.  Now, compared to the nearly 9 million residents of New Jersey, that sounds like a minute ratio of the total population.  But, just consider that these poor children are wandering without guidance and a properly functioning life, and that number out of the 43,419+ now does not seem so insignificant.

One of these migrants was a boy named Enrique, who, after eleven years ventured to go search for his mother who’d been forced to leave her famished family to look for work in the states.  Sonia Nazario followed this boy throughout this dangerous and life changing journey that very well put her life in danger as well, and titled the experience as Enrique’s Journey.  The book not only enraptures what Enrique went through but illustrates the journey many children have gone through along with their parents to find a more sustainable life.  Through photography, video content, and up to date news of Sonia Nazario’s push to get this issue more recognized as to where the migrant child crisis is heading.

This story can be made more local by figuring out one of the more densely populated NJ towns that have been populated by unaccompanied migrants.  One town can be focused on that is densely populated with migrant children, and residents of the town can talk about their experience and what the town itself is doing to help these children.  Is there an orphanage for these children in the densely populated migrant areas?  Are they being housed and cared for?  These are questions that can be asked to town officials to understand the issue in that particular area more fully.  An article by Gram Slattery on The Christian Science Monitor presents a video about organizations spreading awareness about immigrant children in America and talks about viewpoints on the situations in various states.  There is also a Facebook page on the web titled “New Jersey Advocates for Immigrant Detainees” by NJAID which, according to the page, is “an alliance of civic and religious organization (individual participation is also welcome). Its goals include bringing attention to the plight of immigrant detainees in our state’s jails; working to improve the conditions in those institutions; and advocating for the reduction and elimination of the use of detention for immigrants.”  These pages, among many, could definitely provide insightful information on the current migrant crises, and offer comradely with other individuals who are passionate about the situation as well.

One of the most captivating sections of the Enrique’s Journey website, I find, is the “Photos of People Who Help.”  Of course, seeing the other photos of survivors is both amazing and saddening because of the battles they’ve encountered and survived, but seeing the effort of people who are nearly as poor help their community shows true compassion.  These images add so much value to the total Web product because these are raw images that can almost bring you to how these people are getting through life.  Even if you don’t own the book you are still able to be moved by this journey of Enrique and thousands of others and be inspired to reach out and promote the cause as well.  A quote by French writer Antoine de Saint-Exupery is mentioned in Entrepreneurial Journalism which reads, “’A designer knows he has achieved perfection not when there is nothing left to add, but when there is nothing left to take away (159).’” That profound statement describes simply the impact the website for Enrique’s Journey has had on its viewers and especially those who were inspired to make a change upon their discovery of it.

Briggs, Mark. Entrepreneurial Journalism: How to Build What’s next for News. Los Angeles: Sage, 2012. Print.

 

September 18, 2014

Take a moment to think about some of the most successful websites that you and I visit on a daily basis.  Sites like Facebook, Twitter and entertainment/sports blogs probably top that list.  To think that a small idea for a blog exploded into a multimillion dollar phenomenon sounds pretty “out there,” but essentially that’s how any success story begins.

In Mark Briggs chapter of Entrepreneurial Journalism, “Get Inspired by Success,” he talks about some of the key factors in the startup process of building your own website.  He states that two critical questions you must ask yourself upon brainstorming content for your website are “why and how” (29).  Asking yourself those questions means that your head is thinking in the mindset of an entrepreneur, and not someone who’s just creating their own website for the fun of it.  It’s all about looking at the bigger picture and envisioning a small idea blossom into something people will be intrigued to explore.

Another essential tip Briggs offers in the creation of your own site is that quality content pays.  He talks about how the blogger voice is extremely important in the equation because people want to feel a direct connection with what they’re reading (32).  He brings up a point made by senior writer for ReadWriteWeb, Marshall Kirkpatrick, who has been examining startup websites for over ten years.  He talks about social media and the importance of producing continuous content.  Kirkpatrick says using social media is a way ‘to add value to the lives of others in order to re-enforce that influence’ (33).  Making sure your content is seen online and getting it to trend are essentials to a website with high potential.  Thus, the social sharing websites we’re lucky enough to utilize today can be a great advantage to getting the word out and self-marketing your concept.

It’s very likely that you’ve heard of the widely trending, quirky website known as Buzzfeed.  There’s a good chance you’ve posted a geeky article from the site that appeared on your Twitter feed, or have shared a “What Kind of Pizza Slice are You?” quiz on your friend’s wall.// I meanwho doesn’t want to know if you’re identified as pepperoni or the classic cheese?  Anyway, before this site reached a global audience of over 150 million, Buzzfeed began as a very small project.

Jonah Peretti, the creator of Buzzfeed was constantly fascinated by the question, “What makes ideas spread?”  He spoke about his multimillion dollar website creation with Business Insider, and shared that the site began as BuzzBot.  It messaged users the most viral thing online with a system that examined the acceleration of links and “grabbed feeds from hundreds of blogs” each day.  According to the article, “With Facebook and Twitter on the rise, BuzzFeed liberated itself from the constricting practice of optimizing its content for search engines like Google.”

Buzzfeed then brought advertisers into the mix and content spread like wildfire.  One of their first viral posts was a meme called “Disaster Girl” which took a photo of a little girl with a devious facial expression and placed her face atop of numerous backgrounds making her look guilty for what ever was happening in the picture.  In Peretti’s interview with Business Insider, he shares, “’If people become the distribution network, that should be something good for media, good for reporting, and good for journalism, because it’s closer to humans and further away from the constraints of the medium or the particular way something will be broadcasted. People are what spreads the media, and that’s a stronger and better signal than a media company could [build alone].’”

Another wave of reporters are taking over the typical news scene in the digital world.  Digital journalists at Forbes are building their own brands to achieve success and connect with audiences.  They follow colleagues via social media as beat journalists in order to gain insight and raw “news analysis,” offering content for all types of audiences.  One of the biggest challenges that digital journalists face according to the Center for Journalism Ethics at the University of Wisconsin, is determining who exactly is considered a journalist. The title of “journalist” is thrown around somewhat freely these days.  Anyone with a smart phone has the ability to snap a picture or take a video that can go viral.  Is that person who posts their stance on a social issue on their Twitter profile considered a journalist?  It’s hard to tell.  These are the questions that we ask ourselves everyday as writers and bloggers in this ever-changing digital sphere:  how has journalism progressed over the years and what does the future hold for us in the multimedia world we live in today?

 

Briggs, Mark. Entrepreneurial Journalism: How to Build What’s next for News. Los Angeles: Sage, 2012. Print.

 

 September 11, 2014

It’s strange to think there was a time when the Internet did not exist, and to think that my parents saw it for the first time in their 30s is even crazier. The progression of the World Wide Web since its birth in 1989 is absolutely astonishing.

First off, the impact being able to search on the web to find information in an instant, instead of researching books or being informed by the nightly news is beyond incredible if you really think about it.  A Pew Research Center  article stated:

“Since 1995, the Pew Research Center has documented this explosive adoption of the internet and its wide-ranging impacts on everything from: the way people get, share, and create news; the way they take care of their health; the way they perform their jobs; the way they learn; the nature of their political activity; their interactions with government; the style and scope of their communications with friends and family; and the way they organize in communities.”

We can literally hop on the Internet today and pay our bills, video chat with loved ones and connect with people we haven’t seen in years. The progress technology has made, and how easy we have it these days is definitely something I personally take advantage of. It’s all our generation has known and people would probably look at me strange if I said I didn’t own a home computer, and these days, a laptop.

Another way the Internet has impacted our society is through mobile phones. I remember the first trend before cell phones  was the use of beepers. For those who don’t know what that is, it’s basically a device that beeped and let you know someone was trying to call you. Then, when you were around a nearby phonebooth, you were able to call the number back. To think my sister is 30 years old and used that when she was 15 makes her seem ancient compared to how much has changed, but in reality that was only about 15 years ago. Now, I take the subway to my internship, and literally everyone is on their phone…heck, some people would be LOST without their daily schedule in their phone. So much for “old-fashioned” planners, huh?

Mobile phones have not only progressed the past decade or so, but they have revolutionized the way we use Internet. A study that the Pew Research Center did on cell phone usage stated that, “Over the course of Pew Research Center polling, adult ownership of cell phones has risen from 53% in our first survey in 2000 to 90% now. Ownership of smartphones has grown from 35% when we first asked in 2011 to 58% now.” Basically, those statistics show two things:

1) If you don’t own a cell phone today, how are you functioning like a normal person in your daily life?
2) If you don’t own a smart phone, you’re pretty behind on the times as well, since 23% more people have used one over the past 4 years.

Not only do we have the Internet on our mobile smart phones to navigate online, but also applications which make social media and other sites much easier to navigate. Some popular examples include Instagram, Twitter and even news sources such as the New York Times. If you can think up an app, it is probably out there. Many companies have also been making it easier to navigate their websites, even if it is not in app form, by providing access to a special mobile website that formats with the screen of your phone.

Social media has had an effect on all of our lives, in some way or another, and there are times in the past when sites like Twitter and Facebook could have saved lives and aided in emergency situations, as it has today. Calamities like the Boston bombings allowed for citizens witnessing the attack to tweet out pictures and potential crucial info, along with sending information out to various news outlets. By the time the major or local news outlets get out to such a sudden event, the citizen journalist on site has already captured a more realistic take on the situation much of the time.

Thus, can you imagine the use social media could have had during the 9/11 tragedy? It would have been such an asset for both updating the situation at hand for loved ones, police and news outlets. Whether it was just tweeting a few words to show arrival or taking photos of those who had fallen, missing people could have been identified much sooner. According to an article by bostinno.streetwise.co:

“Meanwhile, United 93′s storied passenger revolt is largely credited to passengers calling home after the hijacking and finding out about what had already transpired in New York City. With on-board wifi, providing laptops with access to Twitter, Facebook and the Internet, perhaps they’d have learned more quickly of the crashes at the World Trade Center and had more time to potentially prevent the hijacking altogether. Given the timings of the attacks, there was little time for news to disseminate, but as we’ve learned with the recent earthquake along the East Coast, news travels quickly across the social media relay – sometimes faster than an earthquake itself.”

The timeliness of disseminating the information is the key. If we had this luxury of social media on our phones, there’s potential that lives could have been saved and families relieved.

I’ve never spent so much time thinking about how much the Internet has affected me until forming my thoughts for this column. After reflecting and envisioning the thought of what it must have been like to live without online capability, makes me realize just how reliant our world today is on robotics and technology in general. Who knows, maybe in another 25 years we’ll have all of our household items doing spring cleaning for us. At this rate of innovation, would it really surprise you?