I found an article posted a few days ago on PBS’ “mediashift” section of their website. I figure it can’t get more fitting for our class blog than that.
Here’s the link: http://www.pbs.org/mediashift/2011/04/many-journalism-schools-put-minimal-effort-into-facebook-pages101.html
The gist of the article (as you can probably tell by the title) is that journalism programs aren’t putting enough effort into their facebook pages. That seems a bit ridiculous when you consider how heavily universities are concentrating on teaching digital and social media. I know there are a few in our class studying some facet of journalism, but this is relevant to a number of majors, if only for student communication and discussion. I’m surprised we’re not using facebook pages as a greater means of rating or discussing professors and classes—or at least using it to collect students’ votes on issues. The professor rating idea could obviously be a bit of an issue because of whom the gatekeeper or primary amender of information is for each page, but whatever—not the point. The point is, why wouldn’t we (or more specifically, journalism students) be using facebook as a means of communicating information? Is this weak ties idea really the issue? I’m thinking it could just be laziness on our parts; we don’t want to get on facebook to be productive. That’s what google’s for, right? Still, seems strange the top Journalism colleges aren’t getting with it. I also think we should be on Jennifer Paull’s “top ‘J-school’ list”, but oh well.
It's an interesting article. I think the main reason that journalism school's don't have good Facebook pages is because of the upkeep issue the author pointed out. The problem with Facebook, or even online in general, is that there is no end. It's hard to give someone the job of upkeep because they would have to be consistently online and virtually never able to break away from the computer. Maybe they only went a defined number of times a day? If so, for how long? Are they paid or is it for a grade? Either way, how do you gauge how well the student keeps the page up? I almost think this job would be too overwhelming for one student, but how do you get more than one student on the job?
ReplyDeleteSomething that I discovered in my research is that the internet disrupts hierarchy, thereby, traditional organization. In order to move forward, our concept of chain of command would have to change. New positions would have to be added and jobs would be redefined. These changes are overwhelming. This is probably why it is taking so long for new inventions, such as social networks, to take hold.
-Victoria
It's interesting to think that the job would has become integrated into the world of Facebook that was primarily created to connect college students together. However, it becomes more and more apparent as students head closer to the professional world there social and Facebook lives become more important. For some they be seeking a job and having to sensor what pictures from their college life weekend they will let people see. The importance of this is because many organizations are turning to Facebook to improve of an employ based on how presentable their Facebook is.
ReplyDeleteThe transition i'm trying to make from the argument above is that social networks have become apart of the professional world. Organizations should utilize Facebook and other forms of networking to inform their future employees about the opportunity of having a future job with them. Though social networks are seen as weak ties, it comes down to how important it is to the organization to really reach future employees that use Facebook as their main source of information and networking. Social Networks provide such a large pool of that organizations should tap into, and people looking for a job should utilize as well.
-Britni Harris
I think that most people just don't want to use Facebook or other Social Media as a productive thing. When I go on Facebook, I just want to creep (don't act like you don't do it too) and escape from doing anything productive. Facebook would be great for professor reviews or finding help with a project, but between the opportunity to just waste time and the ineffectiveness of new media communication that sometimes occurs, we are still quite far from these things taking place.
ReplyDelete-Ryan Gerbosi
I agree with what was said above. Facebook is an outlet to not think about school or anything else that may be going on in life. however I had posted status's, sent out messages asking for advice in what teacher or class to take next semester over Facebook and my friends responded with great feedback. It only makes sense that Facebook pages will begin being created on these topics. I can definitely see this happening in the near future
ReplyDeleteMacey Flowers
I'm an ex-Facebooker, but when I was on, I was 'friends' with several professional and academic organizations. I glanced at their (ho-hum) updates, but usually wanted to spend more time reading the funny and witty things my people friends said; Ryan suggests this, too. I wonder if a new social media site is needed so we can have more separation between personal, social down time, fun sites and professional, school related sites?
ReplyDelete