Stefanie Grafstein has always had a passion for incorporating BuzzFeed into her life, reading posts and taking quizzes throughout high school. Now a junior at Syracuse University, she has found a new way to become more involved with the company.  

Last December, Grafstein was selected as a participant in a new VerticalU video creation workshop, established through a collaboration with Instagram and BuzzFeed. Before applying for the workshop, she crafted her social media skills through the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications’ “Buzzfeed: Future Media Skills” course. Her new show, “ReCollections,” is set to premiere in New York City on Feb. 28.  

Grafstein said she first heard about the vertical video workshop through Maycie Timpone, the director of social media at BuzzFeed, who came to speak at the class taught by Jennifer Grygiel, an assistant professor of communications at Newhouse.   

In her freshman year of college, Grafstein wrote community contributor posts for BuzzFeed, but said they didn’t go anywhere until she took the BuzzFeed class.  

“We learned what Buzzfeed looked for in a writer, in order to get promoted on the site,” she said.  She added that she became one of BuzzFeed’s top trending contributors. 

Grygiel said the course changes each year, focusing on trends in the industry. This year’s theme is “publishers returning to publishing.” 

Students in the class start out by conducting a landscape analysis surveying the media climate and doing a BuzzFeed property case study to develop their research skills. At the end of the course, students create a content development pitch. Grafstein said she used the class skills to create an independent proposal for VerticalU. 

“Over the course of the semester, we are gearing students to survey the field and develop new ideas about media: where it is heading, where it can be successful, where it can make money,” Grygiel said.

Grygiel said they invite BuzzFeed employees to co-teach the class and Grafstein showed interest when the social media director came in and explained the VerticalU program. 

For Grafstein, the application process was lengthy. She said she had to fill out a physical application in addition to making a presentation pitching a show to be featured on IGTV for Instagram. She made it to the second round of the process and, after a video interview, was selected as one of 18 participants in the workshop. 

Grafstein was flown to Los Angeles on Dec. 3 for the workshop, where she developed her show and met with the CEO of BuzzFeed “ReCollections,” which focuses on extreme collectors and their psychological reasoning for collecting things, Grafstein said.  

Grafstein said she thinks vertical video has the potential to have large impact on the millennial generation.  

Corey Takahashi, an associate professor of magazine, news and digital journalism at Newhouse, agreed, and said many younger people may be primarily consuming video vertically on their devices, and this concept is altering interactions on platforms beyond Instagram.  

The assumption used to be that filming vertically would never be considered an optimal method, Takahashi said, but increased mobile phone usage raises a question to challenge that notion.  

“If they’re watching on a smartphone — rather than in a movie theater — vertical video may actually be the best experience to offer,” he said.  

Takahashi said that, while it is too early to determine whether vertical video will be a success, he acknowledged that Instagram’s outreach to creators and influencers has been smart and aggressive enough to help take the format to the next level. 

Grafstein said she believes the new content on BuzzFeed’s IGTV channel will help boost viewership.  

“I love BuzzFeed,” Grafstein said. “I love writing for BuzzFeed and just decided to jump on the opportunity.”  

Published on February 3, 2019 at 9:05 pm

Contact Ryan: rybaker@syr.edu