Program Launched

So, I told you about my new, added responsibilities as Director of Fordham University's new Professional Studies in New Media program, for our School of Professional and Continuing Studies, in a recent post with the rather straightforward title of Professional Studies in New Media.

And in that same post, I also mentioned the launch event, which took place this past Thursday, May 31st, at our Westchester campus, featuring a panel discussion on Working With New Media that I moderated, with panelists Constantin Basturea, Robin Colner, Chris Cornell, and Paull Young.

Well, the event was a great success, or at least I think it was, and I thought I'd share with you the article written by Janet Sassi for Fordham's eNewsroom.  It's called Roundtable Launches Fordham Program in New Media, as you may have guessed, you can click on the link to see it in its native habitat, or stick around and see it here and now.

Oh and here's the photograph, taken by Janet Sassi that was included with the article:

 

And the caption that came with it reads: "New Media panelists (l to r) Chris Cornell, Robin Colner, Paull Young and Constantin Basturea" (no, I'm not there, I was standing off to the side, which is fine with me).

So, anyway, let me get to the article now, and along the way I'll intersperse some other photographs provided courtesy of Chris Cornell, and I'll use his captions as well.

Four years ago, Chris Cornell ran a picture framing gallery and didn’t know what social media was, or how to set up a WordPress website. Then, in 2008, he found his platform.


“I became a Twitter evangelist,” said Cornell, who created the first Westchester ‘Tweet-Up” in 2009 and who is now social media director for Thompson & Bender, and a columnist for Westchester’s Examiner News.

 Thompson & Bender Director of Social Media Chris S. Cornell

talks about social media during Fordham University's 

panel discussion on new media held Thursday, March 31 

on the school's Westchester campus. Photo courtesy of Andy Goodman.

Five years ago, Paull Young saw a Tweet asking those who cared about clean water to request donations for charity:water in lieu of gifts on their birthdays; he set up an account, blogged it out, and was able to raise enough on his birthday to finance the building of one well in Africa.

Cornell and Young were part of an expert roundtable, organized and moderated by Lance Strate, Ph.D., professor of communication and media studies, that helped launch the Fordham School of Professional and Continuing Studies’ (PCS) new program, Professional Studies in New Media, on May 31.

Paull Young, director of digital engagement at charity: water 

with Dr. Isabelle Frank, Dean, 

Fordham School of Professional and Continuing Studies.

Panelists were unanimous in their view, which was, as social networks proliferate and the cyber universe expands, businesses and institutions need to do one thing to stay competitive: dip in and be there or risk being left behind.


“A lot of people are naysayers to social media, and they don’t see the benefits and refuse to get into it,” said Cornell. “The only way you can really see the full opportunities that social media present is to look at them from within. Every time you take a step, it brings new opportunities to leverage and magnify.”


The PCS’ new program, housed at the Westchester campus, focuses on developing new media expertise through courses such as Digital Design for New Media, Social Media Marketing, New Media Metrics, and Issues and Ethics in Cyberspace.


With the recent IPO of Facebook, and the exponential development of new networking platforms, organizations have untapped opportunities for selling products, tracking customers/followers, raising funds, and building brands, panelists said.


Young, who is now charity:water’s director of Digital Engagement, said the non-profit company does 75 percent of its fundraising on line. The organization, dedicated to bringing clean water to people worldwide, is planning to raise $25 million this year.


He described the power of social media, referencing a blog that was posted recently by a mother who was proud of her daughter for raising $362 for charity work: the girl wrote “Giving up my presents was really easy . . . I don’t need all that stuff.”


He reposted the girl’s comments, and people donated even more.


“That’s a movement. And that is social media amplifying word-of mouth,” said Young, who helped charity:water become the first non-profit to have one million Twitter followers.

Constantin Basturea, vice president for strategy, 

Converseon (social media agency) 

with Digistar Media founder and CEO Robin Colner.

Niche platforms, said panelists Constantin Basturea, vice-president for Strategy, Converseon, and Robin Colner, president and founder of DigiStar Media, are likely to become more valuable resources in the future. Pinterest, said Colner, offers a market that is 87 percent female, between the ages of 24 and 45, and whose time on site is an hour and a half, whereas time on a mass platform like Google Plus is “maybe three minutes?”


The cyberworld will continue to be “very fragmented” said Basturea, which is another reason why keeping abreast of new media is important.


“Is this madness going to end? No. Are there going to be less platforms? Yes, if you consider less being 500 versus 1500,” he said. “You have to figure out if there is value for you or your clients in a platform, and at what point in your client’s development, or the platform’s development, it makes sense to jump on the bandwagon.”

Dr. Lance Strate, the director of Fordham's 

Professional Studies in New Media Program, 

served as moderator of the panel discussion held at 

Fordham's West Harrison campus at 400 Westchester Avenue 

on Thursday, May 31. Photo courtesy of Andy Goodman.

Strate, who directs the Professional Studies in New Media program, said the program will sponsor more roundtables in the fall. For more information on PCS ‘ Professional Studies in New Media, visit the website.  

Westchester digital marketing professional Rhonda Hurwitz (left) 

and Intelligist Group Principal Alan Berkson (right), 

with Paul Young, the director of digital engagement at charity: water.

And let me add that there was a very lively question and answer session involving the panelists and the audience, which included some outstanding new media professionals, such as Rhonda Hurwitz and Alan Berkson, shown in the photograph above.

In sum, it was an energetic, enlightening, and altogether auspicious launch for our new program.  

And, it was only the beginning!