The Student News Site of John Jay College of Criminal Justice

The Sentinel

The Student News Site of John Jay College of Criminal Justice

The Sentinel

The Student News Site of John Jay College of Criminal Justice

The Sentinel

Social Media @JohnJay

The discovery of news has varied over the years. Twenty years ago, newspaper stands were crowded with people attempting to pick up the Daily News or New York Times. Nowadays, most people turn on their computers and visit their favorite social media sites to see the latest post. According to a study done by niemanlab.org in 2013, 62% of adults get their news from social media.

John Jay College of Criminal Justice recognizes that many students have social media accounts, so they joined the crazeto inform their students. However, are these social media pages doing a good job?

According to niemanlab.org, there are currently fifteen thousand students enrolled at John Jay. On Twitter, John Jay has 8,946 followers (as of November 24th, 2016). That accounts for more than half the student body.

Ruby Esparza, a John Jay junior, is not one of those followers. “To be honest, I didn’t even know they had one,” Esparza said. “I saw a sign about it I think, but I don’t think I ever checked it out.”

John Jay has multiple twitter accounts, a main page, an alumni one, and one for their athletics. Some other pages include peer mentoring, John Jay students and a research page.

John Jay also utilizes Instagram and Facebook. Both accounts are owned by the same person and pictures are posted to both simultaneously.

After looking at the Facebook and Instagram page, Ruby Esparza commented on the redundancy of them. “I mean I feel like I only have to follow one of them really,” chuckled Ruby. “I mean even the Twitter account has the same posts.”

Although they did repeat many posts, the information they were trying to spread is about events such as guest speakers, club meetings and news such as President Jeremy Travis stepping down in 2017. However, one thing students want to know more about are the sports teams.

“You walk around the school and talk to students and nobody really knows we have a sports program.” Csaba Molnar, a junior at John Jay, expressed his feelings about the lack of coverage the sports teams receive. “I have a friend who plays for the volleyball team and they’re having a good season! The thing is I’ve only known that from her. Nobody around school talks about our teams and there are rarely posters around the school.”

Do the sport teams get neglected? Judging by social media, the Twitter for the John Jay Bloodhounds has only 871 followers. Only 17% of the students follow the Bloodhounds.

Stephanie McGowan a graduate of John Jay says nothing has changed since she went to the school. “I didn’t even know we had a sports team, but to be fair we didn’t really have social media. McGowan graduated in 2008, before Facebook was popular and before the Twitter page was created.

After viewing the social media pages, McGowan suggested a focus on different issues other than highlighting sports. “Do professors have John Jay social media pages they use? Email wasn’t always reliable and this stuff is simple to use, I feel like with new age technology and all these social media crazes professors would probably respond quicker.”

Mark Rivera is the communications & marketing manager at John Jay; he says that emails are the best way for students to interact with their professors. “There are a few JJC professors who interact with their students on social media, but we can’t mandate that the professors use social media.”

Many college students get information from classmates and friends on campus. Most classes encourage students to exchange numbers to share information and stay updated with school activities. However, what about the shy student that doesn’t often talk with others?

Rivera, in an email interview, said that the social media pages started to do “Peer Takeovers. We are constantly working to enhance our communication practices and best method for communicating with professors,” River said. “Peer Ambassadors take over the @JJCStudents Instagram account and spend the day showing their JJC experience.”

James CoFransisco, a CSI student, said student social media pages were more informative. “I don’t think there is a page through the school that is ran by students,” CoFransisco said. “When there was heavy snow, or rain or like a power outage the school was always kind of slow to let us know. Whenever a class was cancelled someone would tweet out and tag CSI or something and everyone who was on campus would help spread the news. CUNY’s system was a little slow”

McGowan, Esparza, and Molnar all agreed that emergency alerts like canceled classes due to weather problems should also be on the social media pages. “CUNY’s alert system took a long time to set up and I still didn’t get messages or calls when classes were canceled. I remember for Hurricane Sandy, when I was with my friends, only one of us were texted with a cancellation alert. It was insane,” said Molnar.

For John Jay’s social media pages, follow @JohnJayCollege on Twitter and Instagram – on Facebook search John Jay College of Criminal Justice. Also, per Mark Rivera, you can contact Sarah Morgano at [email protected] for further questions.Social-Media

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