Media and The People

Snapchat is an app that has found an extreme amount of success over the past couple years and is only growing larger as a social media platform. However, ever so often a platform will make a mistake that causes it to receive a large amount of negative press. Facebook was recently investigated for selling people’s information to companies. Snapchat, in 2018, made a mistake that upset the singer Rihanna. They app asked people if they wanted to slap Rihanna or punch Chris Brown. It was part of an ad for a game called “Would You Rather” and Snapchat did apologize for it, but the damage has already been done.

When a social media platform gets as big as Snapchat, Facebook, or Instagram celebrities start to have a massive effect on how the platform moves forward. Typically, whatever platform a celebrity uses tends to be the one people use so they can follow their favorite actor, singer, etc. In order to maintain a good audience an app must take these people into consideration and what Snapchat did really hurt them, because now all the Rihanna fans have an even larger reason to leave the app. She already hated the app, but after this she condemned it and urged her fans to uninstall the app. While not everyone will there is still a large amount of Rihanna fans who will just do it because she said so. The power celebrities hold over social media is remarkable because if enough of them leave a platform there is a high chance that platform will just fade away. These platforms have to stay in these people’s good graces because they attract so many other to take part in their platforms.

Celebrities are such a large part of social media platforms and they need one another. Celebrities need social media to post and talk with the public. However, social media needs these people to stay relevant as a platform and without them the platform may just die off. This relationship can be easily disrupted in a couple ways, like Snapchat and Rihanna. We often think of the platform as the one holding all the cards but if we stop using the app or website then they die off and there is nothing they can do. That is why these apps and platforms have to make sure they are satisfying all their users so that they continue to be users.

https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/business/rihanna-hits-snapchat-where-it-hurts/

http://www.pages.drexel.edu/~amb98/leah.html

https://scholarcommons.scu.edu/engl_176/32/

Photo Journalism

Photos are such a key part of journalism and often times it can be easy to just look past them. Pictures are just a part of the journalism and we almost expect to see it. People rarely think about just how important they are to a story of reporting in general. In fact some stories can be told through just pictures and these pictures can have a greater impact then any amount of words. Briggs writes about the importance of picture journalism in his book and I could not agree more. Images are such key components to journalism and it adds an irreplaceable component that draws people in.

Think about Instagram and how successful of a platform it is. The entire goal of the platform is to share pictures. Sometimes with captions, but often the captions do not make sense without a picture to go along with them. This platform is the perfect place for photo journalism to exist because the main goal is to upload photos. The photo will often speak for itself and the photo journalist just has to add a small caption. They can also share their photo instantly with billons of people. Instagram is so popular that slowly it is becoming the main social media platform. It provides people with a place to pretty much upload any type of photos they wish. Vacation photos, animal pictures, and news related are just some of the typical posts people can upload. With this platform photo journalists can reach so many people in such a short time and all they need is a smartphone. Smartphones have such good cameras now that they do not even need an on hand camera. They can just snap it on their phone and then instantly upload it for people to see.

Photos are so key to journalism and it is becoming easier for people to upload them for many to view. With Instagram being so popular journalists can share a photo with millions in a matter of minutes. Photos provide journalists with a physical image of what they are reporting on and can evoke emotions that words might not be able to capture. A picture is worth a thousand words and the more time that passes the easier it is to show people just how true that is. Instantly showing people a photo of the story is so valuable and allows journalists to share their photo journalism quickly.

https://contently.com/2015/06/23/instagram-journalism-the-new-content-trend-shaking-up-the-media-world/

http://www.niemanlab.org/reading/how-6-publishers-are-using-instagram-stories/

https://www.journalism.co.uk/news/12-features-to-help-your-news-organisation-make-the-most-of-instagram/s2/a727385/

Guest Speakers

Social media is a great tool for everybody to use and for the past couple weeks we have been talking about of professionals use it. It is such a key tool to how PR and Journalism people give out and get information. It is in fact the evolution of the field and those who do not use it have fallen behind on times. In fact it would seem impossible to not use it and still be in those fields. So much happens on these platforms that to truly keep up with the people and news you have to be a part of them.

Today in the nursing hall, room 105, at 6:00PM two professionals will come in to talk about Social Media and how it is used professionally. Gina Cherelus and Barbara Goldberg, from New York Reuters are coming in to give us a talk about social media and the effects it has on the business. While we have done a lot of research on our own about these effect it is time to hear from someone in the business so come on over. This is open to hall PR, Journalism, and Communications majors. Cannot wait to see you guys there.