Chris Hughes comes to Wilkes University

On Thursday March 18th Chris Hughes, the online editor the Times Leader, spoke to my Social Media class about the newspaper, social media and how the Times Leader have combine the two. I would first like to start off my saying that Chris truly kept my attention the entire time he spoke (which was over an hour time period). Chris first stated that his hometown is Scranton, PA (about 7 minutes away from my home town) and previously worked as a reporter for The Abington Journal in Clarks Summit. He gave the class a brief story on how he moved up the chain from the Abington Journal to the Times Leader which I found to be extremely motivational to a Communications major whose about to graduate.

The information in which he shared with the class was very interesting to say that least. He shared many stories about how he used social media techniques in his every day adventures, and moreso, how crucial these networks are becoming. Chris showed the class how the Times Leader now has a Facebook, MySpace and Twitter account, with the number of 'friends', 'fans' and 'followers' increasing daily. I found his stories to be somewhat refreshing, for it basically proves that everything we're learning is in fact true - and that social media is definitely a must!

As a Communications major focused on Public Relations, I see the cruciality of social media and networking, for it is another way to promote a business or organzation as well as networking with others - but never did I think the Journalism aspect of Communications, especially newspaper and print media, would collaborate with the social media phenomenon.