Guest Speaker - Eliza

Our guest speaker on Thursday November 3rd, Eliza from the Burlington Free Press, made a lot of great points about advertising in the age of social media. One of the very first points she made was one of the most fascinating for me. She asked the class if we remember a time in our younger lives when we were not surrounded by the internet. She went on to say that if we do remember that time, then it makes us a valuable person. Her reasoning for this is that people who remember what life was like without the internet have a very different experiences with media because it isn't as integrated or taken for granted. These people see the internet as an addition to everyday life, not as everyday life.

Eliza also made a great point about how evolving technologies have had an effect on the value of communication. Before the printing press, communication was not taken for granted because it was very limited. But nowadays, multiple forms of communication are constantly at our fingertips. Essentially, communication went from being a luxury to being easy and free, and therefore less meaningful. This directly relates to advertising because it takes so much more to be able to grab someones attention. We have thousands of messages being thrown our way, so it makes it harder for one to stand out. This leads to the common thread that was present throughout Eliza's presentation, and that is: trust. With too much competition in the marketplace, it is hard to know what brands and ads to trust. Brands also have a history of being untruthful in their ads in order to draw more attention, so this also leads to trust issues.

Also seen through her presentation of the evolution of advertising is that this industry is defined by change. As we could see through the years and years of history she went through, Eliza pointed out that the communication industry is constantly changing. Whether it be the communication forms, the social media, or the target market, this industry will constantly be changing and advertisers are constantly trying to keep up with it.