Didn’t know I could do that!
When I first decided to switch my major to communication, I wasn’t quite sure if I could ever do research in the particular field I wanted to work in. I had never read any research on the music industry other than articles written on Billboard.com or The Wall Street Journal. It wasn’t until I had my communication 301 class where we had to conduct our first research project. I wondered if I could actually analyze the music industry. Behold, my idea of analyzing how social media is actually helping the music industry. I was proud of myself for conducting this research and ended up naming it after a Daft Punk song, “Technologic.” Clever, right?
Fast forward to my last fall semester and I ended up at the decision of picking up independent study to start a 19-hour credit semester. Luckily, I was able to connect with my 301 professor, Dr. Margaret Griffith-Williams, who was fully backing me and my passion for music. We worked together and would meet weekly about my project. We ended up going with an analytical study of the music platforms of Pandora, iTunes, and Spotify. To me, this sounded like the best research that I would be fully immersed in and would benefit from it a lot. During that time I learned a lot about the history, business models and digital architecture of each one of those music platforms. I also learned a lot about my professor and she learned a lot about me; so that was a bonus to my study.
My research was finished by the end of the last semester and now I’m going to be meeting with Dr. Griffith-Williams again to discuss publishing. Knowing that’s an option is amazing because I never thought that I could do that. So I think this is a great opportunity for UIC students to grab a hold of. Luckily, there is a great chance is offered through LAS called the Liberal Arts and Sciences Undergraduate Research Initiative. LASURI is a great opportunity that lets student conduct their own research and get help from the university. There is a workshop for you to learn more about LASURI today from 1:30 to 3 p.m. in 850 UH. So be sure to check it out!
Kris Fuentes Cortes is a senior in communication, a Boston native, an active student around campus, and a dreamer of working in the world of music. She wants to become a tour manager for a band and travel internationally while she’s still young. She’s the assistant marketing director for UIC Radio.
