Digital Communications & Audience Growth

Berkeley Center for New Media

The Berkeley Center for New Media is an interdisciplinary UC Berkeley research center bringing together scholars across 35 departments to study new media through research, teaching, and public programming.

Managed web, email, social, and event communications as BCNM reached 37,000 monthly content views in March 2026.

Role: Events & Communications Assistant
Organization: Berkeley Center for New Media
Timeline: Sep. 2022-May 2026
Focus: Web / email / social / editorial / public events
Tools & methods: WordPress/CMS · Mailchimp · Instagram · Adobe Creative Suite
Collaboration: Center staff, faculty, students, and alumni

01 / The challenge

What needed
to be solved.

At BCNM, I was communicating work from researchers, artists, and scholars across 35 departments. A student discovering an event on Instagram and a faculty member reading a website article could arrive with very different knowledge of the subject.

I needed to give each audience a clear introduction while respecting the detail in the work. Alongside that editorial judgment, I had to keep event information accurate and get website updates, emails, and social posts out in time for people to use them.

02 / My role

My work at BCNM.

Writing, design & publishing

I wrote articles and event listings, built Mailchimp emails, maintained the contact list, and created social posts. I also photographed and recorded events and contributed editorial and production support to a 77-page publication. The role let me follow an idea through several forms, from a longer website story to an email invitation or a social graphic.

Working with the BCNM community

I worked with staff, faculty, speakers, students, and alumni to prepare communications and support public events. That meant keeping track of deadlines and program details while also helping with technical setup and day-of operations.

03 / The approach

Decisions behind the work.

01
Give readers a way into the research
BCNM’s work could move from robotics to digital art to questions about technology and society. In my Around the Web article, I brought faculty and alumni news together and linked readers to the talks, exhibitions, and research behind it. I had to understand enough of each subject to introduce it clearly to someone coming from another field.
02
Build an invitation people could use
An event needed a website listing, an email, and social content that worked together. I adapted the amount of detail to each format while keeping the program information consistent. For Book Forms as New Media, I brought the speakers, event description, RSVP link, and related programs into one Mailchimp email so readers could learn about the conversation and decide whether to attend.
03
Look closely at the audience response
After publishing, I reviewed how posts reached people and what they did with them. The Authenticity in the Business of Entertainment and Native Seas posts each drew more than 86% of their views from non-followers. That gave me a concrete reason to look more closely at discovery, alongside shares, saves, and profile activity, when planning future content.
04
Stay involved through the event
My work continued after an announcement went out. I helped coordinate event details and technical setup, supported day-of operations, and documented programs through photography and video. Being involved in both promotion and delivery meant I worked with the people attending and presenting, as well as the content introducing them.

04 / Execution

A closer look at the work.

The Instagram examples pair posts I created with their performance reports. Alongside them are an event email I built and the publication I helped produce.

Read my BCNM writing sample: Around the Web, Spring 2024

01 / Instagram event post · August 2025

Authenticity in the Business of Entertainment

I designed and published this promotion for Authenticity in the Business of Entertainment. Pairing the post with its insights lets me show both the creative work and the audience response.

Event promotion: I brought the program information into a social post people could encounter while browsing.
Audience response: 86.1% of views came from people who did not already follow BCNM, which made discovery a useful question for my next round of content planning.

4,571: Views
86.1%: From non-followers
54: Interactions

View the post

02 / Instagram event series

Native Seas

I created and published the Native Seas event-series post. I wanted the communication to introduce the series as a connected program, with enough context for someone encountering it for the first time.

Program identity: I presented the events under the Native Seas series name to make their connection clear.
Performance review: I looked at shares, saves, and profile activity alongside the post’s reach to understand the response after publication.

4,580: Views
3,164: Accounts reached
86.3%: From non-followers

View the post

03 / Mailchimp event email · March 2024

Book Forms as New Media

I built this Mailchimp email for Book Forms as New Media, bringing together the speakers, event details, RSVP link, and related programs. The email needed to introduce the discussion and make attending straightforward.

Reading order: speaker portraits and the title introduce the event before the longer description.
Registration: I included the RSVP link with the event information so an interested reader could act from the same email.

04 / Editorial design

77-page editorial publication

I contributed editorial and production support to this 77-page collection of publications by BCNM students, alumni, and faculty. It gave me experience working on a longer publication that brought many people’s work together.

Collection: the publication gives readers one place to browse work from across the BCNM community.
My contribution: editorial and production support for the collection; the featured research and writing belong to its contributors.

Open the publication

05 / Results & scope

What came from the work.

37K: Reels and post views in March 2026
+15%: Month-over-month view growth
80%: March views from non-followers
1.4K: Followers after 57 new additions in March
300+: Mailchimp contacts maintained
77: Pages in the publication I supported

Audience metrics reflect BCNM’s Instagram activity in March 2026; post-level screenshots cover their own reporting periods. Contact-list size and publication length describe the scope of the work.

06 / Reflection

What I learned.

My takeaway

BCNM brought together the parts of communications work I enjoy: writing, visual storytelling, and working with people. I could spend time with a research topic, help introduce it through an article or event promotion, and then support the program itself. That variety made the work engaging and gave me a fuller understanding of what I was communicating.

Working across so many fields also made me a more thoughtful editor. I had to decide what a reader needed to know first, which details deserved more explanation, and how to keep the researcher’s ideas intact. My Media Studies background gave me a starting point; the daily work made me practice those decisions for real audiences and deadlines.

Seeing BCNM’s content reach people beyond its existing followers was encouraging. It made me want to understand which stories and formats invited that interest, and how we could help a new reader take the next step toward an event or the center’s work.

What I would improve next

I would compare how different content formats reach new audiences and track registration links in event posts and emails. That would help me connect what I learn from social performance to the programs people choose to attend.

Explore more work

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