The Social Network- A Movie Review

As an assignment, we as a class went to go see the new movie about the creators of facebook, The Social Network. I thought it was a really great movie. After the movie I did some research and found out that majority of the movie was true. I thought the actual structure of the movie was interesting. It was not told in a chronological order. It starts off very forward but then these scenes of their depositions keep coming in. It was developed in a unique way which made the movie more and more interesting.

Now on the to the CMC part of the movie. Mark Zuckerburg was quite an interesting character but a genius. Although he stole the initial idea of forming this website, he can take full credit for the development and the popularity of facebook. Mark and Eduardo were a perfect team together. In the first scene, Mark was talking about how bad he wanted in to this Phoenix group. I did not totally understand that group. I wasnt sure if it was like a secret society or a fraternity. Either way Mark wanted to belong. This facebook theory was a way for him to belong. The exclusivity made the facebook feel like it was its own secret society.

As he formed more and more of facebook, it took off. They were opening it up to other ivy league schools. After the twins rode in thier crew race, a man came up to them and said his daughter had seen a video of them losing on some website. The daughter was from another school in another state. This really had showed that this website had gone national. It was setting up what would be one of the top most used websites EVER!

Sean Parker was also an interesting character. Although he was a complete A-HOLE, I think he could definitely take credit for helping the company really fly. Sean Parker knew all of the people to get in touch with. He is the one who made facebook become a corporate company.

This movie was a great way to see our CMC really change. In less than 10 years, a simple idea of haveing a social online network has become one of the largest and most successful companies!

CAMPAIGNS, CAMPAIGNS, CAMPAIGNS....not political ones...

These video's are what I want to be a part of one day!!!



If you watched this video, this is a great example of just some of things public relations does. A group of people got together to market, advertise, give an image to a company. The came up with having an icon that was tangible, something you could interact with. They came up with the rubber band ball. Not only did this rubber band ball become the guiness world record, they made it a part of their company. It was their logo, it was a part of their company. This campaign gave them lots of news coverage. The woman said she got onto her yahoo.com and their story was right next to Britney Spears. Then she turned on to CNN and they were talking about Office Max and their rubber band ball.

I get a huge passion for this because not only would I love to work for an agency where I would get to do that all the time, but non-profit organizations reach out to PR agencies too. I would love to help Susan Komen or AIDS, or even United Way. These people get to use their creativity, their strategic planning, and their motivation to make a bigger and better company. These people are hands on. They get to develop a plan and then make it happen.



Another great video, Dove's campaign about women and self esteem. This video shows that our perception of beauty has been distorted. They have developed a self-esteem fund. Their campaign is encouraging women to have good self-esteem. They have a new slogan saying, "Beauty is a source of confidence, not anxiety." This campaign is designed to reach out through all different types of media. They have sponsors who endorse dove and their "dove movement". They have made videos, blogs, and really encourage people to become involved in their campaign to help women and children with their self esteem. Its really amazing how important these campaigns are in the world. Campaigns send out messages, good messages to people who can make a difference. Only the people can make a difference and I want to be a part of the team that makes it possible!

"Houston, we have a problem"

Over the weekend, I was invited to attend the Southern Public Relations Federation conference in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Going into the conference, I had absolutely no clue as to what specialization I wanted to go into in my major. My major is communications but unfortunately LSUA does not have a program where you can specialize into anything.

During the conference, I went to a panel where 3 women talked about their experience with the Gulf Oil Spill. The first woman was from the Restaurant Association in New Orleans, the second lady was one of the press secretaries to Bobby Jindal and the last woman was the Vice President of Public Affairs at Southern Mississippi. Hearing those 3 women speak made me realize what all they do and go through. Their jobs seem very stressful but they mostly deal with the press during a crisis. These people are the ones that have to come out and tell the public what is really going on. They have to be open and honest.

The woman who was on the Restaurant Association had to clear up with the public that no restaraunt woud be serving contaminated seafood from the gulf. So many businesses were losing business because they did not want to get sick and die from the oil. The woman who was the press secretary of Jindal was the gatekeeper of the media. She recieved all the press relaeases and picked through them to which ones would be printed and which ones would stay out. She had stories that were so untrue that she was glad to be able to throw them out. The last lady had a really cool job. She was called in by all these national broadcasting companies to plan  interviews with big people like Katie Couric. She would get her top researchers to speak to the press about the oil spill.

This panel really excited me. First reason is all of these people got to be on TV. Being on a national news outlet is probably the 2nd thing that I would love to be a part of as a profession. These 3 women got to deal with the press on the phone and in person. To me that is quite exciting.  Secondly these women had important jobs not only to the public but also to the government. Their jobs were so important to keeping the public calm in a crisis. I enjoy writing and I enjoy speaking too.

I am interested in so many fields of communication. I am really open to any job that I can get. I love TV, radio, marketing, advertising, public relations, and broadcasting. I would love to develop a campaign and do strategic planning. All of that excites me and I have developed a passion for it all.