Have you ever stayed up during all hours of the night on the Buzzfeed website trying to figure out what Disney Princess you are? Or maybe you’ve stayed up to see if you can guess the names of popular 90’s hits? If so, then I have some news for you. You may be OBSESSED with Buzzfeed quizzes. Why, though? What makes these quizzes so addicting and popular? There is a plethora of Buzzfeed quizzes for all different types of people and personality types. Each quiz tells you a littl

Celebrities are helping bring awareness to the importance of taking care of mental health. Many people know who Kanye West is, and they are also aware of his mental illness. West was diagnosed with bipolar disease in 2016, according to an interview with David Letterman. Bipolar disorder is a manic-depressive illness. It causes mood swings and affects one’s energy levels and ability to carry out their daily tasks. West has suffered from many bipolar episodes, his most recent b

Young people turning out at the voting polls has increased since the 2016 election. According to a Harvard poll, November 6th won’t be any different. The 2018 midterm election is predicted to have a historically high amount of youth voters. Why is this?These last few years haven’t exactly been smooth in politics, and the turmoil in D.C has not gone unnoticed by young people across the country. Young adults are becoming more informed about the importance of voting now than eve

Latino Presence in Mainstream Media is on the Rise Des-pa-cito. Is that song stuck in your head now? Did “Despacito” teach you a little Spanish? With 4.7 billion views on YouTube, I would hope you got a mini Spanish lesson. “Despacito” did break many records and has opened many doors for Spanish artists. Several English-speaking artists have hopped on the bandwagon to collaborate with Latinos. You have J Balvin with Beyoncé, Drake with Bad Bunny, and Demi Lovato with Luis Fon

Rihanna recently released her highly anticipated cosmetic line, Fenty Beauty. Along with that, she’s a musical superstar, model, and fashion designer. Her success speaks for itself. How does she do it? Inclusiveness Rihanna released her Fenty Beauty line earlier this week. Fans and beauty warriors around the world were excited about the cosmetic line release, and Rihanna surely did not let them down. The launch of Fenty Beauty included 40 shades of foundation, or ProFiltr as

When using social media platforms for your brand, a good thing to think about first is the demographics that use each platform. By knowing this information, you can see who to target on each platform. From there, it’s easier to see how to best use each platform to create a brand image and spread your brand’s message. Using each social media platform to complement the other instead of cross-posting between platforms is a great way to ensure your content seems new and relevant.

Multiple clothing lines have decided to make a change to the social norm and make a gender-neutral clothing line. H&M, Gap, John Lewis and Zara are just a few. This trend, however, is mostly taking place over in the United Kingdom. Some backlash has come from it but others have just made jokes about it. The interesting thing about this is they are targeting children. Gap UK along with John Lewis are two in particular that did so. No labels, no problem. Instead of there being

As a journalism major and a millennial, I feel like I’ve heard it all before: “What will you DO with your degree? Don’t you know journalism is dying?” Many seem to feel that the future of traditional journalism is dead as things like the newspaper are slowly fading away, replaced instead by online news websites, or even news apps. But the real question is this: will millennials get anywhere near that mid-to-late 70s journalistic excitement that existed for the post-Watergate

Live streaming is the latest function trending on social media today. Live streaming in the media has been going on for years via websites like Twitch and YouTube, but only in the past few years have shown social media apps testing the waters of live streaming. Two of the biggest current social media apps, Twitter and Facebook, are at the forefront of this latest media craze. On March 13th, Twitter announced that it acquired the steadily growing live streaming app Periscope.

In early 2011, peaceful protests met with violent counterattacks spurred what would be a six-year-long civil war in Syria. Hundreds of thousands of citizens have been killed and over half of the population of Syria have been displaced from their homes. Since the war began, 5 million refugees have fled to other countries and 6 million have been displaced within their own country. Amid the chaos, the Syrian children's fight against psychological trauma is one of the toughest ba

Super Bowl LI, hosted at NRG stadium in Houston, Texas, showcased the best of the best in American football. But when the game cut to a commercial break, a whole different competition took place. Many non-sports fans find themselves tuning in to the big game to see what the creative teams behind top brands come up with. The bar is set high, especially considering the buy in. According to Variety, A 30-second spot during the Super Bowl runs about $5 million on average. Was it

Technology stops for no one. As communication professionals, we must move with technology and learn new methods of communications. One of the breakout technologies is virtual reality. Alongside virtual reality (VR) is the emergence of 360 video. Facebook has been one of the leaders in 360 content along with YouTube. Advertisers have started using this VR experience to communicate persuasive messaging. Journalists have used it to report on historic events like the inauguration

Reporters need a pen to write with, a pad to write on, and a recorder to get their story. Fortunately, your smartphone can do all these things. It can also be your scanner, navigator, network communicator and research repository. If you’re a working reporter who’s neglected your phone’s apps, you’ve overlooked an entire toolbox. Here’s just a few of the tools waiting for you. Slack The Slack app allows organizations to communicate internally quickly and privately. Instead o

It’s easy to say that you are going to expand your presence on social media to reach a larger audience, but how does one gain followers in the first place? While doing research, I came across tons of answers and I compiled a list of things that are keys to social media success and growing your follower base. 1. Find out where your audience is One of the most important factors to growing your social media follower base is finding out what social networks your audience is

This past week has taken me through many airports back and forth from Memphis where I had the opportunity to fully experience the PR masterpiece that is Delta Airlines. Although there are many individuals who do not prefer Delta for their checked baggage fees and their high-priced tickets, we cannot ignore the fact that they have a rocking PR strategy. From the moment you step onto a Delta flight, you experience nothing but the most high quality PR tactics. The tactics that h