As you know, fake news is a major prevalent issue today. The reason why it still has so much influence on people’s opinions and societal outcomes is for the simple reason that the majority of humans suffer from the same fault: laziness. I’ll cut some super old or super young people some slack. They could be ignorant to how news fed to them could be fake. However, for the leading majority today that gets their news on the internet, this is for you. There are ways to dissect which news is illegitimate, but many people seek out multiple news outlets for every story fed to them online or check the credibility of the sources on what they are reading? My answer is probably not too many of readers.

         The reason I bring up this fake news point is the niche it creates for journalists. This niche is create to help us all, who are constantly being fed stories and never know what to believe. This niche is in fact a curator. The modern-day journalist, if you will. They oversee the constant stream of news and headlines and filter what is credible and of-interest to their audiences. Audiences, being lazy that they are, appreciate the curators work, because they do not have to do the legwork and still are able to get mostly more credible news than not.

         If you are like many, many people you may have wondered whether journalism is approaching death or not. The answer is it’s not. 😀 * Journalism majors of today, breath now. * The truth is that traditional newspaper journalism is on the outs. The silver-lining, however, is that people can use passions or skills they could have used in traditional journalism and use them as a curator on the inter-webs.

         Curators’ job is to gather credible and trusted news for readers. They tell them what’s important and what they should be paying attention to. What is different from a curator and journalist, you may ask? Curating grants the person who is still the medium of information (just like a journalist) as a curator the ability to hold full jurisdiction over what their reader’s see. Where journalists had an editor, curators have themselves. There is also a bit more freedom in sharing opinion as a curator. However, you must uphold a standard of credibility to maintain trust among curator to reader.

         “As journalism continues to evolve and adapt to advances in technology and the influence of social media, the role of the curator will continue to grow,” says Josh Sternberg, writer at Mashable.com. The concept of curating news is something the industry has been familiar with for years. However, as the ability the internet grants us to increase news outlets multiplies, the art of curation will increase the same.

Alpha Gamma Delta Presents Cupcake Wars at Seton Hall

*Not the official press release for the event. Created for COJR 3422 class.

• CONTACT INFORMATION
• Student Portrayal for Class
• Veronica Ruth
• Veronica.ruth@student.shu.edu

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

SOUTH ORANGE, N.J., November 19 – Seton Hall students get the chance to make a difference in their own community at the fifth annual Cupcake Wars, hosted by Alpha Gamma Delta, this Wednesday, November 20 from 7:30 to 9:30 p.m. in the Main Lounge on campus.

Essex County is 18.6% food insecure. The highest rate of any county in New Jersey, according to NJ.com. With a population of 808,285, that leaves 150,341 people in Seton Hall’s neighborhood hungry. All proceeds from the event are donated to aid the people and children who may not know where their next meal will come from.

“The buzz of competition and drive that brings our Seton Hall community together was a blissful and rewarding to be able to contribute to the worlds work in the community where we are placed,” reflects Olivia Rohrecker, 2018 philanthropy chair of AGD, “We were able to give $1,700 towards domestic hunger as a result of a night of fun.”

Just as past years have operated, the fun will kick off as teams use their creativity to plan their best cupcake creations under a mystery theme each year. Teams are given cupcakes and select decorations to work with. Other decorations that boost team’s chances to place in the competition are auctioned off to the highest bidder.

The cost to make a five-member team is $20 and to spectate the event is $4. To secure registration for the event click here. The public may get tickets up until the beginning of the event. To stay updated with other events hosted by Alpha Gamma Delta follow their Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter.

          Alpha Gamma Delta is an international women’s fraternity that promotes academic excellence, philanthropic giving, ongoing leadership and personal development and above all, a spirit of loving sisterhood. Guided by our Purpose, Alpha Gamma Deltas strive to attain a higher standard, thereby improving their lives, the lives of those around them, and the communities in which they live. Together, we continually work to: Inspire the Woman. Impact the World.

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Everyone and their mother I the public relations industry knows how to write a regular, plain jane press release for traditional media. A new land of opportunity had been introduced with the online news release. Black and white, boring press releases was an “A to B” operation. Say goodbye to your text-only draft, sent to only traditional media, and hits measured solely on mainstream media. Not to mention this was all done for a pretty penny. It’s out with the old and in with the new. Now press releases are available to everyone on the whole wide web, with little to no cost. If we think, 100 million people use search engines every day, more than 250 thousand subscribe to PRWeb RSS feeds, and the media relies on search engines to find news. I think we can all agree that we can realllly get our word out… but only if we work the system correctly.

If you’re wondering how to do so, it’s your lucky day. Keep reading and find out a few points to consider when writing for the online media world.

Keep the tone conversational. You’re writing to a HUGE audience and you want to encaptivate as many diverse publics as you can in your writing. Being friendly, informal and able to grab and keep a reader’s attention is key. Simplicity is essential. We all know attention spans today are lacking, to say the least. Therefore, everything should be short, sweet, and to-the-point.

A vast difference of news today is the made of communication is no longer one-sided. The receiver of information can now ACT on what they’re being fed immediately. Use this to your advantage. Give reader’s a call to action.

Multimedia enabled features on online news can set apart a lackluster article from one with a video or graphic that entices readers. Boost your work with audio, images, video, or graphics to impact readers.

Although the online news of today can be an advantage to professionals in the field, it offers a lot more responsibility and decision-making to tackle. Here’s one article to help in learning more about what’s “in” in today’s media world, and another to assist you in the art of writing a social media press release.

Meta description: With the rapid growth of technology and ever-changing fields of journalism and public relations, twitter has become a go-to tool to use in enhancing the effectiveness of professional work in the field. Look into this article for benefits of Twitter in journalistic work.

Twitter: a tool for racing against the clock

Time is money in business. Journalists and PR professionals must race with the clock to get their information out to the public. Social media overall is an important tool for any profession whose job produces under the principal of making connections and being in the know. Twitter is not an exception. With just a few minutes on your twitter app, you can make connections, post updates to followers about professional news, see what’s happening in your field or about something relevant to your work, or find contact information.

Keeping in the know.

For a PR professional you have to keep up with what’s trending. Twitter’s “see what’s trending” section caters to exactly what you need in the field to keep up to date and see where you can niche your client’s brand within news stories. Although twitter activity would not make or break your career it is a powerful tool that is unlike any other social media outlet, because it creates short and concise content.

Treat Twitter as a serious form of work.

Although the outlet is widely used for social activity among friends, know that as a professional tweets need to be accurate and used effectively This use of Twitter is completely different than sharing a joke with friends. Always know that even if you are just starting out and you may have under 100 followers, you are representing your clients and your individual brand as a professional. The content of your tweets must be accurate, appropriate, and grammatically correct. A. P. Style should be used in the creation of any posts on social media when used in a professional manner. The reason why I’m stating this (although may be something already known by professionals of the older generations) is that people of our age have grown up casually putting content on the internet since our first accounts in middle school. Social media is seen as a casual and social outlet originally but must be ingrained as a professional mode of work.

Twitter has about 126 million users today.

Construction of the baseball and soccer field on Seton Hall’s campus has made students adapt their routine.

Since last spring, the Seton Hall soccer and baseball field has been under construction. Seton Hall offers that the reason for the construction is to be competitive with other collegiate landscapes. The plans of the project can be found here.

One of Seton Hall’s seniors that has frequented soccer games with friends in the past offers his opinion. He says, “As a senior it’s sad that we can’t go to soccer games for the last season as Shu.” The student said without the soccer games, there is less activity on campus this season and cannot wait for basketball season to begin to cheer on his fellow pirates and show his school spirit.

When asked if the student traveled to see the soccer team play at their temporary field, the student answered that he first is not aware of where they play, nor would see himself making a trip to go to the games. It is suggested that the following and support of the soccer team this season is lower than when the games were held campus before the construction. The student exclaimed that he does not know any of his friends that previously frequented the games to be in attendance this year. He adds, “I can imagine they don’t get many fans at their home games.”

It was added that the construction also makes traffic from the Ward Pl. gate entrance heavier in the mornings and forces students either allocate more time to get to class in the morning or be late.

Seton Hall originally projected that the renovations of the new field should have been finished for the 2019 soccer season to be played on. If you go past the area now, it does not seems that it will be finished any time soon.

This is the construction plan of the baseball field above and the soccer field below.

If you are a future Gen Z professional about to enter to the work force, a veteran of the higher ups of business, or someone that is in between the extremes, there’s something in this blog post for you…

Young 20-somethings, living in 2019, means almost a whole life of seeing the world through screens. An article from Joe Escobedo is written to an audience that needs guidance in convincing their bosses that social media engagement means everything for the online marketing success of your brand. Social media engagement is what bring social media marketing success to brands. I think my Gen Z self is showing when I ask this but: are the bosses and CEOs of companies really unaware of the reality of how social media works? The lasting impression of this article screams job opportunity for our generation, if this is the case. Posts without engagement would be equivalent to planning a PR event for a company and nobody shows up. I believe most people in the Gen Z generation know how Facebook, Instagram, Twitter…etc. know analytics work. Here’s to using this knowledge to fill that niche in the job force!

However, as your local, honest Gen Z representative, I will admit I did not know what SEM or SEO meant. So, if you’re like me, read this article! As a public relations major I see the importance of being familiar with marketing tactics. I found the article to be informative and helpful in both understanding differences between search engine marketing and search engine optimization, along with helpful in determining when a business should decide to use one approach over the other.

These two articles sparked some curiosity and thought of what the dynamic of our generation entering the professional world will look like. How will Gen Z, the first generation of the social media era, change the looks of what a typical work day looks like? Here is an article that gives a bit of insight about what is to come… Bosses and baby boomers should get ready for change. Gen Z, if you are blanking in why you are the perfect candidate for the job in your next interview, your social media skills always have your back.

Although my last blog post may have emitted a tone that print journalism needs to be saved or the new age of journalism is “not as good” as the last, Crowd-Powered Collaboration by Mark Briggs proves otherwise. The new journalism mediums used today through collaboration with the public is a positive change for the field. Crowd-sourcing makes journalists and newscasters lives a whole lot easier if they can reach out to the public for videos or pictures from a story when they are racing to finish before a deadline. Before, reporters had to physically interview people from the event. This simplistic way of seeking information limited the story. Whereas today, the public can provide a far greater amount of insight which could make a story more accurate and give it greater substance. This goes for the same concept of open-source reporting. This new age of journalism bridges the gap between the journalist and their audience. This open forum of communication could strengthen the relationship from writer to reader. I believe allowing the reader to add to the story in an open-source reporting method is better than a pro-am journalism method. Open journalism still gives the journalist the jurisdiction over what will be sent out to the audience as a sort of regulation. Is pro-am journalism regulated? If not, anyone could put whatever information they wanted out to audiences whether credible or not. All these methods are great tools for journalists. However, professionals must be cautious and with fact-checking.

With the start of social media, PR professionals were forced to quickly acclimate their roles. Once these new mediums became familiar, I think it is a positive tool for PR professionals. However, overall, this social media age forces companies to carry out their work at a higher ethical level, as they constantly are at risk of one of their consumers to whistle blow the integrity of their company. Although this is positive for the consumer (knowing they are giving their money to morally based establishments), public relations professionals must be aware of this. knowing how to handle when negative comments are posted about their clients online is a different operation than the past PR professional’s role. Check out the article “How to turn your social media crisis into PR success” from Earned Media Rising to see how to handle a PR crisis in this age of technology.

Two firms that are readily adapting their marketing and public relations to keep up with the transforming market have offered their successful approaches to the Huffington Post in their article “Real-Time Social Media Creative Marketing and PR”. The two firms have created holistic communications to keep their client’s image likable, relevant, and in check with the public. For bigger business, tools like this will prove to drive business and manage crisis on social media. However, if our field moves completely over to social media, will this technique not be able to be maintained for smaller business? Will smaller businesses have the financial means, time, or ability to manage this internet sphere that is constantly changing? Will this create a larger gap between the success of big business and the struggle of the smaller company?

This past week my partner, Riley, and I took to the streets of Seton Hall’s campus to uncover the scoop of what life is really like as a pirate. We received instruction from our professor to interview students and professors about their knowledge and experiences at our school.

We decided to start our journey at the main floor of the library because we knew this is where most students choose to reside if they have that “not-so-serious” work or want to hangout with friends. Additionally, we knew that a wide variety of students congregate there. As journalists, we wanted a diverse base of people to gather our information from. Fortunately, we were able to get almost all of our interviewing done here. Students were overall very willing to chat and answer our questions. After, we headed towards the front of campus and got to talk to one more student about the Mac Learning Lab in Fahy Hall on campus to finish our scavenger hunt.

We were able to acquire information from students regarding everything from school spirit, SHU athletics, unique facts about our campus, and how they get their news… If you want to see our our full experience, check out on our twitter feeds for more:

https://twitter.com/Veronic53198091

Tweets by RileyMu73720467

We had a great time walking around campus and talking to the students. It was interesting to also be able to read our classmates tweets and see what they found on their scavenger hunt. Here are some of our favorite tweets from our classmates.

Both of us agreed that Thomas’ tweet was unique and gave us both something we previously had not known about the origin of the name of our school’s town.

Little is known of the origins of the name “South Orange”, where Seton Hall is located. Some attribute the development of the “Oranges” to King William III, also known as Prince of Orange. #Boll3422 #Freestyle pic.twitter.com/qjbwVqum4r

— Thomas Butler (@ThomasB96065141) September 9, 2019

Tayla’s tweet stood out to both of us as something we thought other students might find interesting as well!

Another interesting tidbit about SHU is that the chapel on campus was actually built elsewhere, but was rebuilt on campus. #boll3422 #campusministry pic.twitter.com/XcYLva22tp

— Tayla Frey (@taylastalks) September 3, 2019

We both liked David’s quote from Julie Macias. We thought this information was a great way to promote SHU to prospective students.

"Seton Hall's wide variety of courses and the career center really give students a chance to learn and develop at a high level," Julie Macias, a junior finance major at SHU says. #Boll3422 #AcademicExcellence pic.twitter.com/h1aQaGPHFL

— David Moser (@DavidMo19157132) September 3, 2019

Taylor’s quote from Micheal Holmes we agreed was relatable and humorous…

Micheal Holmes, a 22 year old grad- student who majored in Diplomacy explains where he likes to eat on and off campus. "My favorite place to eat is Jersey Mike’s because it’s actually food. I like to eat at the trat too.Great food. Great place.” #Boll3422 #Jerseypride pic.twitter.com/GcTmxqILUy

— taylorshu (@taylorshu6) September 3, 2019

We particularly favored Tempest’s tweet because we thought her decision to use screenshot of the maps was a creative and useful to readers.

Joe Garibaldi, a 20 year old communication major tells us his favorite off campus spot is “Bunny’s Pizza in South Orange, because of how close it is too school.” There are so many fun things for students on a off campus! #Boll3422 #SouthOrange #offcampusfun pic.twitter.com/75kx529kqI

— TempestSHU (@ShuTempest) September 3, 2019

This is a great point by Professor Lancioni. I have not looked at social media in this light.

— Veronica Ruth (@VRuthSHU) September 10, 2019

Getting this assignment turned out to be fun and informative. Luckily, we worked harmoniously which allowed us to seamlessly interview a wide variety of students and enjoy doing so. We seemed to be on the same page when it came to decision making; in terms of deciding which quotes to use over others and what tweets we liked from our other classmates. This is an experience we both thought to be rewarding and are left with knowledge we previous did not know before the scavenger hunt. Although we have just eight tweets from different individuals, we were able to have engaging conversations with many more students than just the one’s we quoted on our twitter!