The power of popular culture
Public relations is more than a career path, it's a craft. Helping people communicate with one another places you in a position of power - and you must not abuse it. Trust is and always will be the hardest thing to earn but easiest thing to break. Practitioners are there during the best times - but more often during the worst times.
Being honest is considered one of the most important aspects of a practitioner's job . If you practice honesty, you'll be able to show others how to as well. So, I'm stepping up to the plate.
At times, being honest is difficult. Expectations are high for me to perform well, which often fuels anxiety and poor decision-making. Because of dishonesty, I spent a significant amount of time pursuing degrees that didn't fuel my passion and pressured me to be someone I didn't want to be.
When I applied to the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University, I only believed one thing for absolute certain - I knew people. Being exposed to different publics allowed me to learn their communication styles, which allowed me the opportunity to understand the way people present themselves to the world. As a grad student in the public relations program, I've learned to not only study people, but to study how they relate to each other - and to use it to foster important connections.
Understanding people's wants, needs and motives is a major advantage to effectuating change. And as someone who has always dreamt of making real change happen, it feels like a no brainer - I belong here.
But it's certainly been difficult. Since this summer, I've learned how many different areas incorporate public relations work into their business practicesm and have considered both nonprofit and corporate political advocacy work. But since arriving here, it's been difficult for me to ignore the nagging feeling of pursuing my true dream: music entertainment.
And everyone asks me the same question - "why?"
Until very recently, it's been hard for me to be honest about what it is I wanted from working with music. Sure, I've been a major music fan since Raffi, but I didn't know how to allow others to understand the value I saw in music - until now. Until today.
"Great song," I remember commenting after hopping into my Uber driver's Honda Civic. Snow Patrol had always been a personal favorite. After expressing my interest in the relationship between music and public relations, he looked puzzled, so I broke it down to him.
I told him of my fascination with popular culture and how I believed music was at the core of it all. I reminded him that music is art but is suffering the effects of a society that craves mass production. I emphasized how I want to use my understanding of people to influence popular culture through music.
The way I see it, because of the variety of messages we are bombarded with every day (over 10,000 to be exact) we are reliant on popular culture to be a guide for how to behave, think and interact with others. Because of this, it's important that good people are reaching those channels of communication and are shaping society to be genuine, honest and real.
I believe that music is one of the primary channels of communication to millennials. In fact, millennials listen to 75.1% more music than generation x and are considered the power-users of music streaming services. I'm interested in accessing those channels of communication and infiltrating them with positive and relatable messages.
See, the problem is, millennials are portrayed in the media as being lazy, entitled and narcissistic. I beg to differ. I like to think our generation is lacking direction. While we are passionate in our pursuit to shed light on injustices, our generation seems unwilling to master the fine art of real change.
I believe in positive messages. I believe in my passion for music. I believe in the power of popular culture and the ability for the combination to set the world on fire.
I hope it does.