For my mass communications course, the final project objective was to identify a problem, issue, controversy, or area of debate concerning the media.

My thesis for this project was focused on how:

Influencer marketing is one of the leading and influential ways to connect with and influence consumers to purchase from brands; however, ethical concerns are raised about the authenticity and trustworthiness of influencer and brand partnerships.

The project consisted of three parts:

1. Conducting secondary research to analyze concepts and the current and past climate within society, culture, and business.

2. Primary research - I created a Google survey distributed to over fifty individuals to better understand their biases and experiences with brands, influencer partnerships and sponsorships, social media platform preferences, and purchase habits.

3. Lastly, my reactions and conclusions about the secondary and primary research collected.