The Media Tech Wire

Social media and the internet have drastically changed the communications landscape in many ways. Near instant access to information through websites, blogs, and social media platforms has created a platform for nearly anyone to participate in news, marketing, and social issues. Yet perhaps the biggest impact these resources have had on the communications field is the lowering of the barrier to entry for content creation. As social media continues to transition professional communications away from a more linear marketer-to-audience style and toward a more transactional model, more people are jumping in and creating their own text, audio, and video content to share with the world than ever before (Ashman, 2018). The content created by these people, referred to as User Generated Content, represents a paradigm shift in the communications world. It goes beyond simply providing the common user a means to interact with marketers, journalists, and other influential people. Now, the online co...

Social media is the ultimate marketing and advertising tool. With so many people online and engaging with these platforms, there is no better way to push a marketing campaign than through these massive and growing platforms. Major corporations are taking notice of this and pivoting their marketing budgets to focus more and more on digital media and platforms to keep up with changing trends. For example, in response to the growing trend of short-form video media, companies have begun to dedicate far more of their marketing budgets to platforms like Facebook Stories, which alone is responsible for an average spending increase of 124% (Williams, 2019). As social media continues to dominate the cultural zeitgeist, communications professionals must know how to navigate these platforms as effectively as possible in order to be successful. Knowing how to use these platforms is a good start, but to truly tap into their marketing potential, one must go beyond simple literacy on the platforms. W...

In the ever-changing technological landscape, communication workers of all stripes find themselves constantly needing to evolve the skills they need and the tools they must use to be effective in their positions. This is perhaps most evident in the field of journalism. Tools such as social media and search engines have fundamentally changed access to information, and this has created a major shift in where journalistic power is. More and more people are engaging directly with the news on websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, and these platforms have supplemented and, in many cases, supplanted traditional news outlets such as print and television. When seven-in-ten people get their news primarily from Twitter, it's easy to see how these platforms have become the new standard for Journalism (Mitchell et. al., 2022). What is a burgeoning journalist to do when the very nature of journalism is changing at such a rapid pace? In truth, the skills and practices learned in tradit...