Every story – no matter what the medium – needs the essentials: characters, a setting, a beginning, middle, end, plot line, etc. A good story is one where those essentials interact together seamlessly, playing together, to bring you into the story world. Depending on the medium, there are more essentials that may need to be incorporated into […]
Read more "What Makes a Good Story?"Writing is not an easy task to do. So here are 7 steps that I found useful. 1. First and foremost. Write with your heart. The reason you choose to write cannot be quantified in a math equation. Or solved by a computer with a large amount of stupid data (as some may try to […]
Read more "Stay Sharp. Stay Bright. 7 Steps to Improve Your Writing"Over the summer I came across a piece in The New Yorker about the story of Kalief Browder. The writer, Jennifer Gonnerman, had reported on the life of this young man– who spent three years on Rikers Island without any conviction of a crime– before his tragic suicide in July of 2015. Even without following Browder’s story prior […]
Read more "Storytelling in the Digital Age"What makes a good story? The practice of storytelling can be traced back to the origins of mankind, although it is an ancient tradition to this day it is the most effective method of reaching people. Stories are a part of every single aspect of our lives, it is the way we form connections. Stories can […]
Read more "The Art of Storytelling"The uses and gratifications theory (UGT) is a way of understanding why audiences use media and what they use it for. It can be applied to many areas of society from entertainment to news content. However, it’s relevance in social media cannot be understated; millions of people use Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and countless other social […]
Read more "Social Media Branding and the Uses and Gratifications Theory"The uses and gratification theory, developed in the 1970s, suggests that media users make cognitive decisions when choosing which media to interact with. As suggested by the name, the theory also attributes users choices to the idea that users expect gratification from media. Different media satisfy different needs. Living in a world enraptured by social […]
Read more "Uses and Gratification in Regards to Facebook and Twitter"This presentation will cover the media priming and minimalist instructional design theories and their relevance in social media. The media priming theory posits that media is more effective when prior context is given to an audience first. This is similar to psychological priming where an audience is given “hints” to events that will occur in the future and […]
Read more "Priming and Minimalism Communication Theory"According to eMarketer, 18- to 29-year-olds account for 71% of US Internet users who accessed Snapchat in the past 30 days. Millennials’ share here was higher than their portion of users for any other social network studied [1]. Long story short: if marketers are looking to reach Millennials, this is the place to do so. […]
Read more "Selfies in the Wild"After the acquittal of George Zimmerman for the shooting death of Trayvon Martin in 2013, America was placed at a critical, yet very clear crossroad: to address the social climate of the country, or to ignore it. Fast forward to one year later, and the country was turned on its side once again with the death of […]
Read more "#BlackLivesMatter: How a Few Tweets Became a Full Blown Social Media Event"tIf you’re an active Twitter user, you’ve probably seen the hashtag, #RefreshinglyHonest, at some point or another. Honest Tea, a popular brand of iced tea, used and is using this hashtag as a part of a huge online campaign in order to get people to buy their product. But it goes further than that. The […]
Read more "#RefreshinglyHonest"