• by Amanda , August 1, 2008

Over the last year and a half, I have been fortunate enough to contribute to “Notes from the Digital Frontier” and reap all of the joy, criticism, conferences and knowledge which this blog offers in spades. As my time writing for this blog comes to a close I suppose it’s only appropriate to end with a few summary thoughts.

I have always felt my role in this blog is to defy “conventional media wisdom” by contributing my voice and experiences to the media industry - a voice which might be considered that of a tech novice. I hope if my posts have done anything they have shown that although college students have grown up in a media-centered world most of us are not pounding away on Twitter, building websites and buying every new gadget on the market. I just learned the basic premise of Twitter, I use the internet for research and communication, and it took me three years of personal research and persuasion to buy a smartphone. Even then, most of my media knowledge is bolstered by the fact that I work in a technology-centered department. The media industry defines all 18-24 year olds as heavy, compulsive media users and my goal has been to show that this classification excludes a sizeable segment of this demographic. This is not to say that college students aren’t markedly media-conscious, which I am sure is no surprise to anyone. We do use media everyday, though as I said before, it might not be to the extent that some media professionals assume. The way in which we use the media is different.

The medium we use most compulsively is the internet, and the most frequently visited websites are email hosts, Facebook and Google. No surprise there. What might not be as obvious is that we are consumers of “traditional” media online as well. I read multiple newspapers’ and TV news stations’ content online even though I might not read or watch the original content. I am being honest when I say that the last time I touched a newspaper, I used them to wrap my dishes for moving – and they were newspapers I found on campus, not my personal copies. Online content development for news outlets is one of the most important ways to stay relevant with the college student demographic. This is an area which I feel is underappreciated considering the less than stellar content available on some of the most popular newspaper and TV station websites.

Though development in this area is expensive, offering informative and well designed pages is incredibly effective (and necessary) in reaching our demographic. We are more likely to visit easily navigable, reliable and seemingly unbiased websites over and over again. We have seen the incredible, grassroots campaign pioneered by the Obama camp inspire and inform an staggering number of college students on issues relevant to the 2008 presidential campaign. Working within “our” spheres (Facebook, online news, blogs, etc.) in a way which doesn’t trigger innate cynicism is the best way to reach us. Yes, Facebook messages from candidate’s campaign sites are essentially advertising, but these messages are informative, targeted and so seamlessly adapted to the websites that they don’t feel like political rhetoric.

Though these points are by no means revolutionary, they are certainly important in understanding college students’ media consumption. Listening into voices presented in forums like this blog may offer a little insight into a demographic which I have heard is very hard to understand. I’ve had a good time contributing to this blog, and will continue to post occasionally from law school – if I have enough energy to consume media between classes.