Iyana Campbell

With the development of new media, both, children and young adults have been effected.  For children, I feel like they are being affected in a more positive way than the young adults. The new media, for example, multiple social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, Flicker, Tumblr, etc.) are here to keep them connected to everything happening around the world. It also helps them stay connected with old friends and family. However, they are still being exposed to advertisements on the side of the home pages; which to me, isn’t positive. 

Also, with smart phones now and how developed they are, there is an app for everything. Therefore, it encourages our society to become even more lazy, because just like online they can just type something in and it finds it for them. And now with the iPhone 4, you can just talk to your phone and it speaks back. It’s just making our society lazy.

On the other hand, I feel that for kids it’s completely different. Everything in their new media; for example, games that connect to their television screens, and very interactive tools for kids are all made to teach them, which comes in handy. It helps them count, learn their colors and ABC’s; even how to speak in different languages. 

All in all, I just feel like the new media is great for kids, but the older you get, the more it changes, because it slowly starts to mold you into becoming lazy and depending on the computer for certain things. 

Question: Hi! My name is Sydney and I’m a Comm/Journ undergrad at Ship. I’m in my freshmen year, but I was wondering if you could tell me what basic skills I should have by graduation in order to get a job.

Answer: Hey Sydney! I’m so happy that you asked this question, because I’m sure that you’re not the only person curious about this. I’m going to answer your question as best as I can; I’m a senior in this department, therefore I haven’t been in the real world just yet. However, I do have a lot of hands on experience that I feel is essential to starting a career in Communications/Journalism.

Here at Ship professors stress the importance of being in student media, and it is actually a requirement for graduation. In my opinion, I don’t think it should be required, but it should be expected. If Comm/Journ is what you want to do, why should it have to be a requirement for you to get involved? You should want to gain experience in your field of work, because at the end of the day employers want to see the things that you have done, not whether you received an “A” in your major classes or not.

With that being said, I think that you should have a few basic skills to get started in the real world after graduation. However, before that, no matter what emphasis you are (electronic, PR or print), you should have STRONG WRITING! If your employer asks you to put together a blog, press release, memorandum, or anything else that you can think of, you should be able to do it without any problems.

Being a Comm/Journ student, means that you should have experience in every emphasis; that is why we are required to take media writing before we dive into the major, because in that class we learn a little of everything. It doesn’t mean that if you are a PR emphasis, you have to be a genius on electronic media; it’s simply a way to gain experience so that you aren’t completely foreign to things.

Basic skills to consider knowing before graduation include:
•Being able to give a well, thought-out speech in front of others
•Knowing everything there is to know about social media
•The ability to navigate the internet
•Converting and exporting different files
•Creating a simple flyer, brochure and slideshow (with or without sound)
•How to professionally write an email, without “slang”
•Putting together a portfolio

These are all BASIC things that I feel every Comm/Journ student should know. These are basic expectations of us and we should be able to do all of these things and MORE (depending on your emphasis) when asked!

I hope this answers your question!

A lot of companies spend billions of dollars on advertisements; however, that is starting to change. Companies have realized that instead of spending money on traditional advertisements, they might want to spend it on online ads, which is cheaper.

Majority of these businesses are turning to social media to connect with their consumers, and they are really benefiting from it.

I’m so glad that you asked the obvious question, “Why are companies turning to social media instead of keeping traditional advertisements?” Well, for starters, the most obvious reason is the fact that these are all social websites. It is a way for them to engage with thousands of their consumers and it’s an easy way for them to find out what their consumers like or dislike about their products. 

Another reason being that the major companies are each others competitors. If their competition is turning to social media, then they have to do the same; if they don’t then they can ultimately fall behind. In addition, it saves money on tradition advertisements and companies are still able to reach a big audience. 

A lot of companies give consumers discounts on purchases just for liking their Facebook page and following them on Twitter. Others do giveaways on certain days to keep their consumers coming back to their pages; it all depends on what works best for them. 

So, as you can see social media is really changing the world as we know it; it’s going to be interesting to look at advertisements 10 years from now. 

Apparently everyone is talking about the new online and mobile site called, Pinterest. Now, what this site does is, it allows users to create online pinboards, organize them the way they want to and share the different things that they find on the web with others. Users can create their own boards and follow other boards for inspiration. 

Now as I read this online article today,     http://emgonline.com/blog/2012/03/higher-ed-pinterest-examples-and-directory/ I saw that a lot of colleges and universities are hopping on the Pinterest bandwagon to promote their schools in a different way. I say different, because I honestly don’t feel that Pinterest is like any other social media website. Yes! People can follow your boards, just like they can follow you on Twitter and people can comment on things, just like they can on Facebook; however, it’s not really a social site. 

People don’t make Pinterest accounts to stay in contact with their friends and families, like they do on other sites. Pinterest is there to kind of, if you will, organize your thoughts. It’s a simple solution to avoid printing things out, and having to later go research something you seen earlier, but never saved the link to. 

In our schools case, I think that it’s a great idea to have one. It will allow people to see what our university stands for, or what it looks like, depending on the avenue we would want to take. Having someone in charge of this would be another great idea and it wouldn’t take time away from a typical work day for other employees, because keeping this updated would be someone else’s job. I don’t feel like interesting time and money into Pinterest is a waste at all, it’s successful for other colleges and universities; therefore, it could possibly work for us, as well. 

Reality TV comes in Handy! 

It’s no secret that a lot of people feel that “16 & Pregnant” encourages teenage pregnancy, in a very glamorous way, because after each episode airs, these teens become famous. On the other hand, there are people who believe that this show is here to bring awareness to teenagers and warn them about what could happen if they were to practice unsafe sex; I’m on this side.

How it all Started

Almost three years ago, Maci Bookout, who was a 17 year old, high school junior at the time, participated in a television series on MTV that would change her life forever. “16 & Pregnant,” first aired on June 11, 2009 with her story. Viewers watched closely as the cameras followed her pregnancy, beginning when she was 28 weeks pregnant until 2 months after the birth of her son, Bentley Cadance.

That season, America saw the stories of six, young high school girls, who all experienced being pregnant teenagers and dealing with the consequences of having unprotected sex.

Every Tuesday, viewers witnessed the young ladies dealing with different decisions regarding their actions, from deciding to keep their babies, to adoption and strongly considering abortion; although, that decision has never been made throughout the three seasons of the show.

Reality

Each episode constantly begins with a “fairy-tale” teenage life. The young, soon-to-be mothers and fathers all talk about the possibility of marriage, moving in together, building a new life, working and furthering their education. However, viewers quickly see how fast fairy-tales can turn into nightmares.

Some of the girls are forced to drop out of high school during majority of the episodes. The fathers, who promised that they would be there, leave them with all of the responsibilities.  Statistics show that 90 percent of mothers under the age of sixteen will never finish high school. What makes the situation even worst is that, as a result, of strictly caring for their children, these young mothers will find themselves with no education or job skills to better their future.

Positivity

Maci Bookout, along with the other teen moms, is well aware of the negative comments that come her way about the show. Despite all of the negativity, Bookout decided to do something positive; she is a public speaker for teen pregnancy prevention. However, she isn’t the only one turning a negative situation into something beneficial for others. Majority of the girls make it their duty for other teenagers to understand just how difficult parenting, at a young age, can be.

The issue of whether this show is brainwashing its teenage viewers is something that will always have many opinions surrounding it. In any case, whether America agrees or not, some may think that the show is glamorized; however, it is a show that affects thousands of teens and their families, when a “spur of the moment” decision goes wrong.

Safe sex should always be practiced, and even though the girls on the show are different, each one says the same thing, in a different manner at the end of their episode, “If I could do it over, I would have waited.” There is no rush to grow up, and this show quickly generated that message to viewers.

            It’s obvious that in every episode, all of the mothers realize that their lives have changed forever; you can’t undo a baby; so, therefore, they have no choice, but to grow up. These teens are forced to make the most adult decisions of their lives before they are even out of high school. Regardless of both sides (bringing awareness or if it encourages teenage pregnancy), the show actually does a bit of both. MTV has to make money; however, they’re still providing the country with a documentary styled, reality show of a controversial issue that can’t be avoided.

Preaching the same message over and over to kids can become repetitive and sometimes make them not want to listen and rebel against what they are being told, because let’s face it, kids have to learn from their own mistakes. Sex can be difficult for parents to talk about with their children, because they don’t want to think about their child having sexual intercourse, but it’s something that must be done and they have a program on television that does it for them.