This class taught me to look more deeply into my own media usage. The assignment where we had to keep track of our media usage for a couple of days really gave me a lot of insight into how I use media. I never really realized how prevalent media is in our world and how often I use it. The media is pretty hard to avoid.

I think that I will continue to look deeper into my usage of media after this class. This class opened my eyes to different sides to media that I did not really think about, like legacy media and handwritten letters. Media is definitely something that everyone needs to be aware of since it is such a big part of our world.

I am currently double majoring in Interior Design and Landscape Architecture, so I decided to look up how media has changed and is used with Interior Design. I first found an article by Forbes, http://www.forbes.com/sites/ajagrawal/2016/01/15/social-media-marketing-for-interior-designers-how-to-do-it-right/#2d5808c938ef, on how interior designers can market themselves on social media. It goes through important steps when trying to brand oneself on social media. It starts with making sure to have a purpose when using social media, like trying to increase brand awareness or establishing credibility or connecting with your audience. The second step talks about picking a platform and realizing what each platform with do for the brand. It says Facebook is the widest used media platform, so it’s a safe bet for any business. It talks about Pinterest being good for sharing visual content and Twitter being a good platform to connect with other designers. The third step explains how to create image-centric content because visuals and photos are essential to any designers social media strategy. The article goes on to talk about various ways and places to get inspiration to help designers start their media brand.

The second article I found is about the five major ways technology has impacted the interior and home design profession, http://www.psfk.com/2014/09/5-ways-technology-impacts-home-interior-design.html. The article first talks about the way technology has bridged the gap between people who could and couldn’t afford a professional interior designer with the creation of online interior design websites. These websites allow people to communicate with designers and are sent links to merchandise that the designer picks out for them. It is all done over the internet using pictures and preference quizzes. The second topic the article covers is the media changed the search and discovery patterns. 40% of consumers look online to find merchandise and the creation on platforms like Pinterest make it easier now than ever before. The third impact of technology is the creation of e-commerce cites. The formation of e-commerce cites has allowed consumers to narrow down products using parameters, such as “fabric” or “price” or “color,” to find the exact product they are looking for. Popular cites like this include, Wayfair, Joss and Main, and “Hayneedle.” The fourth topic is the way technology has improved the shopping experience. It is proven that online catalogs and apps produce purchases that match and exceed those of in-store purchases. The use of new digital features, like 3D overlay and computer generated designs, and the collection of data allows companies to create websites and catalogs that make it fun and more efficient for shoppers to shop online. The fifth impacted talked about is the bridging of online and offline purchases. Companies realized where their customers were looking first and created platforms to make shopping easier for them. It demonstrates the adaptability retailers must have to appeal to the consumers. Apps like Houzz and To The Trade have allowed consumers to find one-of-a-kind items and unique products online while still having a design collaboration with a  professional interior designer.

With wanting to be an interior designer, these articles have opened my eyes to the importance media plays on this profession and how crucial it is to stay relevant with evolving technology.

Honestly, after fourteen years of school, I thought I knew everything about media usage in education. However, I am constantly being introduced to more and more creative ways to use a common phenomenon in school. This year of college, I was introduced to Menti, the interactive polling method that is really convenient in a lecture class. In a class full of 300 people, it’s easy for students to feel lost in a crowd, but Menti allows everyone’s opinions to be heard. A media that I still continue to use in college is Kahoot. This fun game promotes review and learning in a challenging and competitive way. One media in education that I no longer use is Edmodo. Edmodo is the school version of Facebook. Teachers would post homework assignments, support, and handouts and students could comment if they needed help. Additionally, schools are taking to social media to try and be interactive with their students and the community. I still follow my high school’s Twitter account and they do tweet often.

Because Theatre is such a fluid department, we always have to be ready to go with what society is doing next. Therefore, people involved in theatre are incredibly media savvy. There are famous theatres with social media handles. UGA’s University Theatre even had a snapchat filter for one of their shows. Additionally, theatres can use these new media like online polls and using cell phone screens as tickets to sell their shows. Media is and has been a large presence in theatre.

I am currently at UGA studying to be in the business school as a marketing major. Media is extremely important in marketing, and basically what marketing is. The goal is to market your product or business and make it appealing to your audience. Companies will use Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook to get their names out in the world attract their customers, and it’s anything but easy.

According to http://www.forbes.com/sites/jaysondemers/2014/08/11/the-top-10-benefits-of-social-media-marketing/#34ae34082a4d, social media marketing is important for increasing brand recognition, improving brand loyalty, higher conversion rates, higher brand authority, better search engine rankings, richer customer experiences, and improved customer insights.  All of these things can only help market your brand and are why social media marketing is so important today. It ultimately leads to more customers which means more money for your business. According to Hubspot, in 2014, 92% of marketers reported that social media marketing was instrumental for their business, and 80% of these marketers indicated their efforts increased traffic to their websites.

Moving forward with my major, I am going to have to learn the best media sites to market different brands, and how to reach out to my specific audience in order to be successful.

Growing up I have always been fascinated by the business world and specifically the free market economical concept. I would often times trade specific items during lunch in elementary school, and try to sell sports equipment online in middle school. As I matured into high school, I began to have entrepreneurial endeavors. I was not old enough to have my own job, or official business, but I was old enough to do some unofficial business. I saved up money in 9th grade, and bought a power washer to begin a power washing business. My simple business plan consisted of having my dad drive me around in his truck with the power washer in the back. I formulated flyers, that I stuck in everyone’s mailboxes in mine and surrounding neighborhoods. I also sent out mass text messages to neighbors offering my service. This method was widely successful.  After a few years of doing this, my business expanded, and I was washing a driveway just about every day. Who knew I would have been using media to expand a brand in my high school days. Running this miniature mock business combined with a love for exploring has inspired me to declare International Business as my major.

After doing some research on media branding and social media efficiency in the International Business world, I discovered that social media is essential in the business world, regardless of the size or expansion of a business. This site was useful in my discoveries: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/role-social-media-international-branding-68363.html

Businesses around the globe in today’s age can communicate with potential customers with the click of a mouse or the tap of a finger via the internet and social media. Platforms such as Instagram, Google, and LinkedIn allow business to expand their brands in ways never known before. They can cross all sorts of cultural barriers with these mediums. Culture is much less evident on the internet and through media. Language barriers can also be bridged. Technology often allows words to be automatically translated, which in turn widens the scope of a potential social media campaign for a business. In terms of small business, they often times begin on a domestic level. This allows the business model to mature and grow before it takes on the tenure of an International plan. Social Media trends and tendencies are located, and the business has a more well rounded plan of how to tackle their target market.

Overall, social media can be used for a vast array of reasons by a wide spread of people. This ranges from aspiring kids looking to make money, all the way to International corporations looking for profit. This fact will only accelerate as the world modernizes and relies more and more on media to stimulate economies.

I researched the impact of media usage on the field of medicine, particularly in the career of a physician assistant. I found a useful article, written by Anne Dang, which can be found here, that discusses how media impacts this specific career and how it’s changed throughout the years. It stresses that the creation of certain social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, have had an impact on medicine by making health accessible to all. Different forms of media such as support forums, physician websites, webinars, and blogs have provided opportunities to access experts and other patients that might not have otherwise been available through more traditional means. This also allows for the sharing of more information, without breaking physician-patient confidentiality. One can use this information to learn from, as this increase in its availability allows for this type of personal and professional learning to take place on a much larger scale.

Anne Dang also gives personal insight on the impact social media has had on her career as a physician assistant. She says, “I have been able to build my network, access educational and mentoring opportunities, as well as garner interest from patients and prospective students about the profession.” Personal and immediate connections to other doctors, nurses, and patients is important in this field, as well as access to other opportunities, such as mentoring, internships, and further research. Media allows for these to be possible, benefitting many people, both physician assistants and those outside of the field as well.

After jumping around from major to major these past four months, I’ve realized that I have no idea what my major should be. So I’m currently resting with an undecided-business major. However, I do know where I see myself going in life. I’d like to work my way up in the music industry – whether it be in management or relations. One of my dream jobs would be to work for Billboard Headquarters in New York, either writing articles or managing the several social media accounts that they run.

Social media has drastically changed the music industry. Companies like Billboard use their platform to constantly and almost instantly keep their audience up to date on all of the latest news. They post several times a day and these postings range from album debuts, song ratings, and celebrity news. This type of platform keeps me knowledgable on almost everything music related. It keeps me informed on what is going on in the industry. It’s much more than just pop-culture.

Without social media, the music industry would not be where it is today. When artists broadcast their latest music on social media, it creates greater sales. If artists were to not post about their upcoming music, it would be less talked about and result in fewer sales. Social media has helped create the music industry that we know and love today.

CITE: https://socialmediaweek.org/blog/2015/08/social-mobile-changed-music/

Although I don’t know exactly what I want to major in, I am really interested in Political Science. I’ve always had a love for politics, and at this point in time, I have been able to gain information about politics easier than ever thanks to different media sources. There are many different forms of media when it comes to politics, including newspapers, television, magazines and social media. People are now able to learn about politics using so many different forms of media that pretty much everyone with access to these forms of media has more political knowledge than before. One problem with political media is the biased information that comes from them, which leads to inaccuracies and in some cases mild forms of brainwashing. It is impossible to turn on the TV and watch a news station that is not biased, and because of that people tend to view stations that reinforce their views, which further closes people’s opinions to the other side, or people get frustrated and stop watching the news altogether.This problem also occurs in social media because of the algorithms that different forms of social media companies use. If someone is conservative, their Newsfeed on Facebook is going to be full of conservative opinions, news stations, and advertisements, because of algorithms, but also because of the power of the person with the account to follow or unfollow certain people depending on their views. Even though there are many negative things about political media, there are also many positive things that come out of it, for example educating Americans on what is going on in our country and other countries. If Americans are more educated about politics, they will feel more inclined to vote and taking advantage of our Democratic system.

I’m looking toward a future in the medical field as a doctor. I feel like with Healthcare, there are so many ways that Social Media can be used in order to benefit patients and the general population in terms of informing people about solutions and potential cautions to keep in mind in different situations. A potential issue with this is that sometimes there are fake links and articles that are created that contain false information which could misguide patients in their decision-making for their health.

However, there is some possible positive outcome from the online discussion on forums and social media sites in that patients with serious issues are able to find others who are going through similar situations. It creates a safe space where people can talk about their experiences and get advice. I think that this is definitely a plus when it comes to the connectivity of social media.

Social media usage by healthcare professionals has been at times harmed them in that in some situation when they post about their experiences online they have lost their jobs due to patient confidentiality and other ethical issues. An NIH article explained situations in which ER personnel’s online posts and Medical students’ cadaver pictures have lost their jobs (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3863578/).

Another really big part of the Medical field in terms of the spread of knowledge are Medical Journals. Some of the most influential journals are the New England Journal of Medicine whose impact factor is 59.558, the Lancet whose impact factor is 44.002 and the Nature Biotechnology whose impact factor is 42.113 as reported by the NIH (https://tools.niehs.nih.gov/srp/publications/highimpactjournals.cfm). The impact factor is how often a journal is quoted in a year. These journals contain a lot of information about new technology and potential cures and treatments to different conditions.

As a Human Development and Family Sciences major, wanting to pursue a career in Nursing, I haven’t ever thought about how nurses use media. When researching, I found two websites, http://everynurse.org/nurses-using-social-media/, and https://www.ncsbn.org/Social_Media.pdf, that outline how nurses should and should not be using media in their career field.

Nurses can utilize social media by promoting the profession to educate the public. Blogging, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Discussion Groups and RSS Feeds are all social media outlets that allow nurses to educate the public on their profession. Blogging is a way for nurses to become experts on their career by reading input from other bloggers in their career field and expressing their own feelings on their profession. Twitter and Facebook are quick and easy ways for maintaining communication with people. For example, if someone has an emergency question a nurse can quickly respond to help the person in need or if someone has a question about some medicine a nurse can quickly respond. YouTube is a way for the public to better understand the healthcare and their medical needs. Discussion Groups and RSS Feeds are a way for nurses to connect with other nurses to provide support and encouragement to other healthcare professionals. I didn’t realize before that nurses use these social media devices to help educate the public in their career field.

Nurses must be extremely careful when using social media to not violate the laws regarding patient confidentiality and privacy. The website, https://www.ncsbn.org/Social_Media.pdf, briefly explains patient confidentiality and privacy and the consequences when violating the laws. Nurses should only be sharing patient information with the patient and their family and with other health care professions. Nurses shouldn’t use social media to complain about or comment on the health of patients, post photos of patients, rant about place of employment, blow off work related steam or use offensive language. When a nurse complains about a patient that could damage their own character. If a nurse were to complain about their place of employment that would give their place of employment a bad reputation. When using social media, you should always maintain professionalism. Inappropriate use of media can cause the nurse to face disciplinary action by BON (Board of Nursing), which can include reprimand or sanction, fines, or temporary or permanent loss of licensure. Some uses of media can violate the state and federal laws of patient confidentiality and privacy. A way to prevent any nurse from any of the previous consequences would be to not post about a patient on social media or about their place of employment.

Nurses use social media every day to improve their knowledge in their career field and to help educate the public. They must be extremely careful in their profession because violating one law through social media can cause your whole career to be gone. Nursing is a field that uses social media to encourage and support colleagues, and help and educate the public.