In 10 to 15 years our generation will be making the "big decisions" and companies have to pay attention to college students' wants and needs now in order to predict technology trends, Mike Sayre, Ball State University senior, said.
Sayre and 10 other Ball State students were hand-selected by professors and the Center for Media Design to write for a blog on MediaPost, an online resource for advertising and media professionals.
The blog was created to allow media professionals to hear student perspectives, to continue the dialogue between academia and industry and to get Ball State's name out as a school with cutting-edge technology, blogger and graduate student Betsy Pike said.
Pike, a project research assistant at the CMD, said she thought media companies could benefit from reading the blog "Notes From the Digital Frontier," because she and her peers have grown up with technology. Most business executives can remember a time without computers, she said.
"For them to read my generation's views on technology is very beneficial to their industry," Pike said.
Most of the student bloggers have written about two or three posts since the blog started about three weeks ago. They have chosen topics ranging from TiVo to design software, news coverage to cell phones.
The students are asked to post at least once a week, Sayre said. He tries to give readers a dose of reality in his posts, he said.
"I think a lot of the time a lot of the media we see is a little over the top and ridiculous and I think the media can gain a lot from listening to the voice of reason sometimes," he said.
Sayre said he waits until he has a event and then writes about it.
For example, he has been talking about political campaigning on the Web, so he will probably write about that for his next post, Sayre said.
A few MediaPost subscribers have commented on his posts, Sayre said, and have either agreed or disagreed respectfully. He is glad to get feedback because the point of the blog was to start an open dialogue, he said.
MediaPost sends an e-mail to its subscribers each week previewing the students' blog, Pike said.
"Our blog is unique in that the readers are getting the perspectives of people our age, but it's also got the credibility of the university and MediaPost," Sayre said. This credibility gives their opinions more weight, he said.
The students are not paid, but Sayre said it gives them the opportunity to network with media professionals who read their blogs.
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