What I Learned in Mobile and Social Media
I am physically attached to my phone about 95 percent of the time. And the other 5 percent, my phone is usually no more than two feet away from me. As a millennial, I strategically decided to take TVRA4040: Mobile and Social Media. I mean the name itself just called for me. My phone is practically part of my human body and I live and breathe social media — so this course and I were practically meant for each other like …
The biggest thing I learned this semester is that I aspire to become a social journalist. You may think that I already knew what I wanted to get out of getting my degree in Journalism and Media Studies — especially since this is my fifth year in undergrad, but I sure didn’t have a clue until I took this course. This course was an eye-opener for me, allowing me to realize that I should combine all the things I’m passionate about — journalism, (social) media, and helping people — to solidify my career in journalism. I discovered my niche about half way through the semester. Here is my initial blog post on finding my niche.
Here are two other key points that I learned during the course of the semester:
- Engagement — Having continuous communication with your audience is extremely vital for social journalists or anyone who uses social media period. Social media was made to connect people with one another so it’s important to take advantage of that as a social journalist. I learned that posting content on your social media platforms is not enough. We should be commenting and responding back to feedback or comments left by your audience under your posts. Engaging with your audience creates a community that you and your journalistic work can benefit from in the long run.
2. Smartphones — My smartphone isn’t only for my personal use. I learned that I can do almost anything using my iPhone for social journalism purposes. I can conduct interviews, on camera and also using only voice (the voice memo app.) I can edit videos using apps like iMovie and Splice or even creating images on Canva (which I’m obsessed with now.) And of course, I have easy access to my audience using social media apps like my all time favorite, Instagram📸.
Overall, this semester was full of social media fun and engagement that I never knew were so important in the journalism field. I will take all the lessons learned and apply them to my work as a journalist.
One last thing …
Telling my friends and family that I had to post pictures on Instagram and create Insta-stories as my homework assignments was so much fun. Everyone’s reaction was always something like …
They couldn’t comprehend that I was taking a college course that involved me doing what they already do on an everyday basis. But what they failed to realize was that I wasn’t learning the best angles to take a selfie (which I’m sure a lot of them thought I was doing lol,) rather learning to use my platforms as a tool for my journalism career. When I told them the actual reasoning I was taking a mobile and social media course they were all like …
