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The Dale News Will Be Presenting at SURC 2019!
What’s going on?
On April 26, 2019 the SUNY Undergraduate Research Conference (SURC) is coming to Farmingdale State College! SURC is an event that is held every year during the Spring semester where undergraduate student researchers and their faculty mentors present the project that they have been working on. Each project is based on the research experience and type of internship that the student is in along with the targeted field of study that the student and faculty mentor belong to. The events are held at SUNY institutions and the research will be presented through an oral presentation, poster presentation, artistic display, or a performance. There will also be other activities taking place during the event for everyone to participate in. This year, The Dale News will be participating in the conference to present our research on the impact that social media has on website viewership. We are excited to get some more exposure and build a larger following through a popular event. We are all about making history and when this moment happens we can definitely say that the future is now!
Here is what we will be presenting:
The Impact of Social Media on Website Viewership
Abstract
Social media has become a big part of modern society, whether it is part of our daily interactions with others or our source for finding out information. The easy access to social media has allowed it to gain popularity as everyone is able to view their desired content at any time they want. After the desired content is viewed, they go over to the website for the company or organization and spend time there because of the new interest that social media has produced.
For our project, we wanted to find out if social media can help increase the viewership of the online student newspaper at Farmingdale State College, The Dale News. The purpose and significance of The Dale News is to provide the students of Farmingdale State College with a fun, informative, and interactive space where students can learn about themselves to know how to believe in who they are and how to perform better in the world. To make the website interactive, we created an Instagram account to allow students to respond to posts for a chance to have their comments be featured in future articles. We surmised that using Instagram will help increase the viewership by building more interest in the articles through new and creative visual content, which will attract more viewers along with giving the website more attention.
The Dale News is currently getting new articles posted every week and the Instagram is building its content with posts on the articles that are already on the website to get the students interested in reading. Instagram will help The Dale News get a bigger following and more attention to become a main source of interest for the students at Farmingdale State College, which will prove that social media can be an effective way to increase viewership.
Background
Isaiah Hilman-Smalls is a sophomore, who was majoring in Computer Programming and Information Systems, but recently changed his major to Professional Communications. Not only is he interested in technology, he is also interested in the ways that we communicate both verbally and visually. As a RAM Scholar, he met The Dale News faculty advisor Dr. Noel Holton Brathwaite, whose background in Journalism and Composition Studies, helped her to recognize the potential benefit of Isaiah’s proposed research study. The Dale News had been created and developed during the 2017/2018 school year; however, attracting and maintaining a devoted audience has been challenging.
Research Question
Can using social media increase viewership for student online news publications? What specific aspects of social media do viewers respond to, either positively or negatively?
Hypothesis
The researchers believe that viewers are most drawn to content that reflects their interests in popular culture.
Method
The researcher will check the views and comments that viewers post on social media to quantify visits and glean information from viewers’ interactivity patterns. Those patterns will increase from the use of social media as the viewers will have the ability to be part of what The Dale News produces. The content that is posted on the social media account will correspond to the articles that are being published on the website, which will give the viewers two ways to view the content. Each post will have the beginning or main parts of the article to give the viewer enough information to be interested in going to the website to read more. The researcher will check the responses to each post that is about the articles to see how many viewers have actually taken the time to read everything. Along with checking the responses to articles, the researcher will analyze how many likes and comments are posted for content that is not related to the articles on the website. Viewers will be able to see that The Dale News is branching out to cover all areas of popular culture and they will be excited to see the next post. Using the social media platform of Instagram will attract more viewers because of its popularity and accessibility which will give The Dale News a faster and easier way to be discovered.
Results
Due to the utilization of social media, the readership of The Dale News has increased by 122 followers. Their new interest has led them to check out our website and see that we have great content on both platforms. More viewers have been acquired through a common interest in information on their favorite figures in popular culture and powerful messages from motivational quotes.
Conclusions
Social media offers a chance for viewers to read information quickly throughout the day and it is rare to have a post that grabs their full attention. When their favorite public figure is seen they choose to read more of the post and they get excited to find out any news. When they see a quote that has a message that they can either relate to or strive to follow, they will read the rest of the post to comment on how the message made them feel. Each new follower that is gained is someone who believes in the creative content that The Dale News produces and is inspired by the value of the message that we want to send. On the Instagram account there have been posts about sports, entertainment, poetry, and fitness that have attracted a wide range of viewers. On the website there are articles on campus events, fitness programs, sources for finding a career, and life lessons to motivate the viewers to pursue their careers and their dreams. The Dale News is very diverse in the type of content that it creates and that will continue to attract more viewers to make the website a huge success!
Future Directions
We hope to continue to expand upon the social media platforms that have proven to increase the popularity of The Dale News. We hope to build a larger following for The Dale News so that it can become an indispensable force at Farmingdale State College and beyond!
Check out our post on SURC 2019 on Instagram!
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Dale News Instagram & Email
Instagram = https://www.instagram.com/fsc_dalenews/
Email = DaleNews.FSC@gmail.com
