Blog One: Introduction

Hello Everyone! Welcome to my first blog ever! My name is Kate Gleason and I just started my junior year at Saint Michael's College. I am majoring in Media Studies, Journalism, and Digital Arts (MJD) and minoring in Business Administration. My goal is to end up with a career in Marketing.

Though this blog is for the reading pleasures of friends, family, and peers, it is also a requirement of the BU 215 Marketing course I am taking this semester. That being said, I will try to keep this as fun and interesting as possible, so I am dedicating my first blog post to teach you all a little bit about my life as a Saint Mike's student, and my goals for this process.

I have made the 13 minute commute from my hometown of South Burlington, Vermont to Saint Mike's and I love going to school in the same area that I grew up in! I believe it has helped me tremendously in my courses, especially as a media studies major I am better able to understand and apply concepts learned in class to local organizations. My goal is that by the end of this semester I can use this knowledge of local businesses and organizations, as well as my connections in this area, to my professional advantage in securing an internship related to marketing for the spring semester.

This semester I made the decision to finish out the rest of the required courses for my business minor; I am taking Marketing, Management, and Managerial Accounting. The fourth course I am taking is a science course to fulfill Saint Mike's liberal studies requirement of a laboratory science. It was a big risk taking a semester off of courses in the MJD department, but I have thoroughly enjoyed my business courses so far and I am hoping this risk pays off and I enjoy everything that I learn this semester!  

I believe that what I have learned so far in my MJD courses closely relate to the marketing field. In the two foundation courses of the MJD major, Media Revolutions and Digital Media we learn about the effects of media on our daily lives, including the way advertisements are targeted towards specific audiences whether or not said audience is aware of this occurring.  A great demonstration of this strategic placement is shown the following clip from a popular movie called Blades of Glory in which product placement is extremely prevalent. In watching this movie for pleasure I did not first notice this, but in looking at this clip again I have realized how cleverly these companies placed themselves into this scene as well as the script. Marketing where and when the viewer may have least expected it, the most clever of its kind.