Surprisingly, MSVU PR students don't like the Internet

CC and MSVU PR Students relax at the U-Turn cafe

What began as a backlash against Second Life turned into a credibility war against the Internet.

Today my Employee Relations class met at the U-Turn cafe with new media guru C.C. Chapman. We asked questions that we had prepared in our team wikis, and sought to gain his insight on how companies can use new media as an internal communications tool.

This conversation quickly turned into a tirade of students' opinions of Second Life, based on their class time assignments. The negativity extended past Second Life and to blogging. Students didn't understand how blogs and bloggers gain credibility, because the Internet doesn't employ gatekeepers to filter content.

Mr. Chapman brought up a good point, in that all media comes from so-called "experts", whether its print, radio, TV, or Internet, and those experts, and the medium they transmit over, carry biases, and at times, nonfactual information.

All students present, without a doubt, use social networks in their personal life as connectors, and yet a good deal of those students didn't value social networks' importance as a professional and/or research tool.

Mr. Chapman gave some great reading recommendations, and examples of how Second Life can be used to host media events. He acknowledged work places' reluctance to embrace new technology, but made it known that as PR students we should be reading blogs and listening to podcasts constantly in order to remain aware in this constantly evolving field.

Lauren, Jill, and DeNel listen to C.C. Chapman's advice to PR students