The Buzz on Blogs

Because of my background in Communication Studies, I chose the topics of college, non-profit organizations and marketing.

For the college topic I chose to read the article "5 College Ranking Categories we would like to see". This article listed "Best Mate Finding Potential", "Coolest Celeb Alumni", "Best Bathrooms", "Most Offbeat Electives" and "Strangest Campus Tradition". The first category made me laugh because being at an all-women's college, outsiders to the school always want to know how the student body meets individuals of the opposite sex. Do they realize we are separated by schools... and not planets? Along with the other categories, USC ranks as one of the most notorious schools with celebrity alumni. Strangest campus tradition was an interesting category because many people when they go away to school find out traditions or quirks while experiencing the situation. Individuals at University of California-San Diego have a "watermelon queen" who drops melons 7 stories to break records previously held by past "watermelon queens".

For non-profit I read an article from Beth Dunn. Beth Dunn spoke about social media as a fad. I found this article to be extremely relevant to Web Communication class, along with my senior comprehensive on adolescents and their uses of social networking sites. For non-users of social media sites, they may feel social networking takes away from individual communication. Little do they know, individuals use social networking sites as a way to shift the means of how we communicate. It may be easier for some to leave a wall post then a call or text based on convenience. Using social networking sites transforms the way we communicates and according to Dunn "accelerates" it.

With the Superbowl rapidly approaching, I found the Marketing article on "SuperBowl Advertising, Pre-Game Buzz" to be a common theme of every year. Every year friends and families get together to catch the two best NFL teams and to catch the "best" and "funniest" commercials they will see all year. Advertising corporations, according to this article, need to be careful on how they advertise their commercials because often times too much buzz for a specific commercial can be killed if it does not match up to the audiences expectations. The use of commercials can tear others away from buying the product or image or it can build expectations even further if the commercial successfully makes the audience laugh or remember what occurred during the 30-second time slot.