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It's Me... Again!

You may have visited my site before, as I previously kept up with this blog for a different class, but I am back now with a different topic. 
A few things have changed since the last time I wrote, so here is a little refresher: 
My name is Emily, and I am a graduate student studying Strategic Communications at Troy University. I am originally from a small town in Southeast Alabama. After graduating high school I moved to Tuscaloosa to go to the University of Alabama. I studied Public Relations and Political Science while at UA. I thought I would go into politics after college, and I did for a while. I ran a campaign for a gentleman running for the Alabama State House of Representatives, and decided that life in the political sphere was not for me. I currently work in the Admissions Office at Troy University. I mostly handle the campus experience, including tours, events, and department meetings for prospective students. While it is definitely not something I ever saw myself doing, I absolutely love it!

This blog will be about strategic communications and emerging media. I will write about traditional and digital media, social networking, blogging, citizen journalism, branding, and so much more about how our daily lives are changing due to the rise of digital media.

Why I am writing this blog, you may ask? I have decided to pursue a graduate degree in Communications, and being knowledgeable about emerging media is extremely important! I have always been interested in communications, I studied Public Relations for my undergrad degree. In those classes, I was always intrigued by the fast changes in media and communication strategies. It seems like every month, there is a new social media platform that companies need to be on to stay relevant, each of them needing a different type of content. You have videos on YouTube, advertising posts on Instagram and Facebook, and, lately, every company seems to have a witty employee behind their Twitter account, ready to send a sassy reply back to anyone who tweets at them. In my career, it is vital for me to be able to communicate effectively. As an admissions counselor, I am not only speaking with parents, but also their children. Parents and teenagers communicate differently, and it is my job to find the best way to get the information across. Parents like numbers, while their children prefer stories about campus. Our prospective students are also constantly on social media, so I have to be able to keep up with the changing trends! Our topic for this week is the change from traditional media to digital media and how that is affecting the news cycle and daily life.

According to a study completed in 2016, 62% of adults get their news from social media, being that the study was done a few years ago, I can only imagine that number has grown. I know from my own experience that I will first see news on social media before going to a separate news site to corroborate the story. The emergence of social media has been a great thing, but can also lead to a lot of confusion when it comes to the news. There are stories that have untrue elements and stories that are just outright false. So, while I believe that overall social media has been a good thing for the digital news industry, it is unregulated and can lead to widespread false information. Over the course of this term, i look forward to learning more about emerging media and how it continues to impact our lives, both personally and as professionals in the communication field.

You can keep up with me here, at ekdurden.blogspot.com, where I will be posting new content weekly. I am excited to start this blogging journey, and I can’t wait to be able to share my knowledge of the communications world with you!

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