Based on reactions, comments, and shares*, here are the Fordham News stories that were most popular on Facebook this year.

10. Fordham Provost Stephen Freedman Dies at 68
To call an obituary a “popular” post may seem incongruous. The word is very fitting, however, for our late provost Stephen Freedman, who was loved and admired on the Fordham campus and beyond. His untimely death in July shocked the University community; we still grieve for him as we strive to carry on his legacy.

9. Management Course on Spinning Bikes Gets Students Up to Speed
Struggling to fit in your spin workout and still make it to class? Students did both in Julita Haber’s management class, the first ever fitness integrated learning (FIL) class to be offered on an American campus.

8. Faces in the Class of 2018
Hailing from all over the world, these 10 members of the Class of 2018 were just a small sample of the many talented graduates who do us proud each year.

7. Spending a Year With the Jesuit Volunteer Corps
For some Fordham grads—including Charlie Shea and Annie David—the Jesuit Volunteer Corps offers a chance to experience a different community and find a sense of purpose.

6. Performing Arts Programs Earn Top Rankings
Our performing arts programs took center stage this year, earning top spots in several prestigious rankings. Bravo!

5. Fordham Opens New London Centre
Fordham officially unveiled its new London Centre, now located in the Clerkenwell neighborhood and offering study abroad opportunities in liberal arts, business, and drama.

4. Fordham Marches in the St. Patrick’s Day Parade
As always, the Rams had a great showing on Fifth Avenue for the St. Patrick’s Day Parade. We took first place among universities for the third year in a row.

3. Remembering Nicholas Booker
Friends and Fordham staff came together to remember first-year student Nicholas Booker, an athlete, a pal to many, and a promising young man whose future was cut short by a severe asthmatic attack.

2. Moving in on Opening Day
There was plenty of Fordham spirit on display as Opening Day welcomed new and returning students to campus.

1. Sistine Chapel Reproduction Installed at Rose Hill
And our most popular post of 2018 was a recent one: A quarter-scale reproduction of the Sistine Chapel fresco—a gift from the Met—now hangs in Duane Library’s Butler Commons. Be sure to check it out in January, when the University will open the room to members of the campus community.

*A note about our methodology: This list is based on total reactions, comments, and shares, including reactions to other people’s shares– which are not reflected in the numbers seen at the bottom of the posts here.

Acknowledging that problem, Rob Norman, the global chief digital officer for the media investment company GroupM, said online companies must “find new and better ways of integrating brands relevantly, smartly, carefully, with a light touch … so we are not rejected.”

Norman spoke on May 5 at the World Media Economics and Management Conference, held May 3–6 at Fordham University. At the biennial gathering, hundreds of media professionals and academics discussed the continuing impact of the digital revolution on legacy media and advertising.

The constant disruption of an ever-changing digital media landscape also was a topic: Hence the title of Norman’s presentation, “The End of the Beginning of Digital Marketing,” which was adapted from GroupM’s annual report on digital marketing and future trends.

Media Jenga

Media sites are now playing a game of “media jenga,” Norman said, with a complex structure of content and social media being used to disseminate information. He gave as an example NBC and its relationship with social media sites and with Buzzfeed, which offers the potential of viral impact of content.

“They will also talk about what they’re going to do on Facebook Instant Articles, … about what they’re going to do with Facebook live video, and … their partnership … with Snapchat,” Norman said of NBC. “Here we have a game of media jenga, in that everyone is interlocked with everybody else. And this creates the most interesting dynamic to the way the market operates.”

What the companies have to deal with is balancing the need for exposure and the use of data about that exposure with the “phenomenon of ad blocking.”

The impact of ad blocking cannot be underestimated, say industry experts. A 2015 report on the topic by PageFair and Adobe said the number of people using ad blockers grew by 41 percent over the past year. The estimated loss of revenue during 2015 was $21.8 billion, and that is expected to grow to $41.4 billion in 2016 as mobile devices begin to employ ad blockers as well.

The reasons for the use of ad blockers are varied, according to the report. An increasing number of ads and the misuse of personal information are cited most often. And the desire to avoid ads is not new, Norman said.

“The simple truth is that if someone can consume the media they want to consume … completely ad-free, heaven knows they will,” Norman said. “There is no history of people choosing to watch advertising-supported media if they have the option of doing the alternative.”

But there has been a “covert contract for generations” between media users and providers, Norman said. Content is provided for free in exchange for the acceptance of advertising. How to overcome technological hurdles and continue the contract is the challenge facing digital media.

Software has been developed to measure the viewability of ads, he said. Some websites have been redesigned to maximize viewability. And standards now exist within GroupM for an ad view to be counted.

Despite those advances, a rethinking of the nature of digital advertising still may be in order.

“It may be that advertising is simply not enough, and that a new focus on content supporting a brand narrative and services that attract frequent engagement through utility will become a priority,” the Interaction 2016 report reads. “This will not be cheap, easy or quick, but nor was the path to dominance by certain companies in commercial television.”

The conference—the largest in the WMEMC’s history—was co-organized and co-hosted by Gabelli School of Business Assistant Professor Bozena Mierzejewska, PhD, and Axel Roepnack, who also teaches at the Gabelli School.