By Dominic Arenas, Jr.

Communications and media studies (CMS) professor professor Beth Knobel walked into her Intermediate Multimedia Reporting class on Monday with a guest speaker. Conor Ryan, FCRH ’15, once a student in the CMS department, is currently the Social Media Editor at the New York Post.

“A step below of the joy a parent gets when he or she sees their kid succeed is being educator and seeing your student become so successful,” said Knobel. “It gives me great joy to introduce Conor Ryan.”

During his time at Fordham, Ryan was the editor-in-chief of The Fordham Ram and founded Fordham Daily. Some of Connor’s notable contributions include a feature on Fordham University EMS [FUEMS], an exposé on Fordham Residential Life and a profile on a Fordham student who pursued a career in the adult industry.

“I wanted to see if there was a space for another player in Fordham University’s journalism publications,” said Ryan. “It [Fordham Daily] was based on a tabloid sense of reporting. I had to think hard to myself, ‘What do kids want to engage with?’ The social distribution model was all digital, and it was a no holds bar site.”

During his time at Fordham, Ryan had the opportunity to intern and freelance at reputable news and media organizations like Newsday, Huffpost, USA Today, NPR, CNN and the New York Post. Though Ryan said he always saw himself in the field reporting, he currently spends most of his day newsgathering on social media platforms. Using applications like Tweetdeck, Dataminr, Storyful, Ryan and his team at the New York Post can streamline search processes, verify the validity of accounts, and highlight videos on the news.

“Our [The New York Post’s} primary modes of sharing content on social media are Facebook, Twitter and Instagram,” said Ryan. “There’s an art behind creating the sense of urgency with a headline, starting a conversation with the captioning, and choosing the art to supplement the post.”

As part of the Social Media unit for Intermediate Multimedia Reporting, Ryan additionally lectured the class on how to maintain a professional social media as a journalist as well as how to the platforms to develop and network one’s personal brand.

“My advice to you [the class] is to use Twitter to network and find other journalists, develop a personal brand, and develop a professional tone,” said Ryan. “[As a student] I used Twitter to network and reach out to journalists, that is probably one of the best things I did.”

When asked by Knobel and students of Intermediate Multimedia Reporting how he ended up at the New York Post, Ryan was quick to comment on his ability to “break free of the mold.”

“I had this image in my mind of wanting to be a reporter in the field. Now I sit behind a desk all day, but still am attuned with the news all day,” said Ryan. “I was always told to, ‘Strive for the Times [New York Times].’ But at the Pos [New York Post], It is really fun; there is a lot of scandal and gossip.”

For intermediate Multimedia Reporting student, Justin Regalia, FCRH ’18, said the talk encouraged him to take a more proactive approach on all social media platforms.

“Conor had great insights on how social can be used as an extension of traditional methods of journalism,” said Regalia.  “His visit spurred me to take a more proactive role in curating my social feeds in a way that inspires trust from followers and employers, but stays true to my personality.”