My Second Blog Post – Project 1619
Project 1619 is very obviously a controversial and attention drawing campaign that is meant to stir the attention of the consumers and get people to talk about it. Some pros of news organizations advertising their reporting is publicity and traffic. Earned media, or attention you gain from your topic or content going viral, is a very good thing, and Project 1619 is more than likely going to draw some earned media due to the topic it is covering, original slavery in colonial America. I think the fact that they are using a celebrity is a great advertising move. People listen to celebrities way more than unknown paid actors in commercials. I want to draw particular attention to the end line in the video, “The truth can change how we see the world.” This is a very powerful idea that will be both beneficial and detrimental for news organizations. On the positive side, it will unite people who believe and stand with this project and be a motivator of sorts. On the negative, it could cause controversy due to the implications. However, this could also be viewed as positive because subsequently, you are gaining earned media by doing this.
Creating broad advertising is not fully against the main principles of journalism, but I also would not say it is what journalism’s purpose is either. As far as advertising goes, yes, creating a broad brand for many different types of people is a really good move in terms of generating revenue. But to circle back around to journalism, I believe this is not the core of it, because making it so broad and so mainstreamed, in a way you take away some of the prominence from the story.
In the modern world, it is very difficult to catch the attention of people, especially millennials. News organizations must create content in the modern world that is attention grabbing, entertaining, followable, and reasonable for millennials to understand. Our generation may not know a ton about the specifics of slavery, but we know it is controversial and a stirring topic. So the modern news ecosystem is very competitive and in some fashion hard to navigate and predict.
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