Global Media News

New App Called LiveSafe Helps College Students Be Alert On Campus

    

    A new mobile app called LiveSafe allows college students to track crimes on campus, and report incidents or tips directly to the university police department.

LiveSafe is founded by Shy Pahlevani, who orginially created the app under the name CrimePush. He previously worked for uKnow.com, a company that helps parents protect their kids in digital environments.

CrimePush garnered more than 100,000 downloads, but served primarily as a way for the public to anonymously report tips to authorities. As the company narrowed its focus to the higher education market and added new features, it changed the name to LiveSafe according to Steven Overly of the Washington Post.

“People have knowledge or information, but they’re not speaking up, and that’s not acceptable because that information can prevent school violence,” Anderson said.

The app aims to ease the burden of reporting crimes or suspicious activities to police by allowing users to do so without actually calling a dispatcher.

They can report non-emergency incidents, such as theft, car accidents, harassment, vandalism or mental health concerns, with the tap of a finger. Users can also send photos, audio or video to police through the app, or chat directly with a member of the campus police department.

Public safety officials then collect all of the tips on a dashboard that allows them to have a more comprehensive view of what’s happening on campus and interact with students who tip them off to suspicious or criminal acts.

The Idea Behind Storify

For my New Media Newsroom class my professor recently introduced us to a new media platform called Storify.  I bet you looked at the word Storify and wondered what exactly am I talking about. I know this because I did the same exact thing when he first mentioned the idea of Storify as a media platform to share information.

I felt like we already have Twitter, Facebook and Instagram what was going to make Storify a different platform to share media on. I wondered why I even needed to create an account and get involved with another website. In asking myself  these questions I decided the only way to answer them is to get involved and see first hand what the idea behind storify really was.

 Storify is a media platform that allows people to create visual stories. It allows you tie different elements together to create a stream of images that doesn’t require much text. In an article by SocialTimes.com titled "What is Storify and Why did They Raise $2m" it gives background information on what Storify is intended to do and also touches on the changes media professionals are hoping Storify will bring to the world of online journalism.

I bet your wondering what I mean by a stream of visual images. Well what I mean by that is it allows users to create stories based on a topic that they want to write about. For example I'm writing this post on the idea behind Storify so I figured why not use Storify to create  visual imagery instead of  writing paragraphs to introduce this media platform to you guys.  

 

 

 

Global Media News Webcast #9: November 14, 2013

From OWWR's New Media Newsroom:

Global Media News for Thursday, November 14, 2013

Global Media News is a weekly webcast covering new media news from around the world.  GMN is a production of  Media Studies students from the SUNY College @ Old Westbury. 

This week on Global Media News: 

• Is Facebook Losing Teens?  Where have all the young folks gone?
• Facebook vs. the Bully Monsters:  A new anti-bullying app for Facebook
• Bye-Bye Blockbuster!  Streaming kills the video store 
• Youtube Awards:  Online awards shows putting the second screen first.
• Is Photo-Sharing for Girls?  Sexist much?
• Instagram in a New York City Gun Bust
• The battle for Russian Search & Video:  Who will be the king of content?
• Internship Confidential:  The skinny on media internships.

Listen to our next webcast from the New Media Newsroom streaming live on Thursday, November 21,  @ 11am EST.

Can't listen live? Our next webcast of the season will be posted by 2:00pm, Thursday, November 21 , 2013.

Follow our New Media News feed:  @OWWRGMN

Subscribe Now!

Cops Using Social Media To Track Criminals

Recently, there had been reports of the government wanting access to many peoples' Facebook accounts.  These reports led people to complain about an invasion of privacy and rightly so.  However, now there are reports on a local level of cops bringing in specialists and using social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to help track criminals.

According to Newsday, in Nassau County when detectives arrest criminals they actually ask them for their Twitter handles.  Meanwhile, in Suffolk County, their police say they troll Twitter and Facebook like the Nassau police for intelligence on criminal activity.

While this behavior is frowned upon by the social media sites as in some cases it violates their terms of service.  "The social media sites prohibit them under their terms of service, but that isn't necessarily criminal" said Hanni Fakhoury, a staff attorney at the San-Francisco based Electronic Frontier Foundation which seeks to protect internet civil liberties.

Long Island cops aren't the one's using social media to track criminals, police officers in Cinicinati are using social media sites like Facebook and Myspace to track criminals as well.  Dawn Keating, who works for the Cinicinati Real Time Crime Center said, "Police officers may have to dig for it a little bit, but if you're the subject of an investigation, depending on the seriousness of the crime, we'll definitely take our time to find out that information."  Keating is the first Cinicinati police officer to use social media as a crime fighting tool.

Below is a news report out of Washington about cops using social media to track criminals.

 

Australian Technology Company Changing The NFL

Over the last 3 years, Australian technology company Catapult has been changing the landscape of the National Football League from practices, to recovery from injuries, and even game planning.  Michael Regan, the head of sports science for Catapult recently told Sports Illustrated that 13 NFL teams currently use the technology.  According to Gary Mccoy, an applied sports scientist with Catapult, three of those teams are the Buffalo Bills, New York Giants and the Philadelphia Eagles.

The key to the technology is a 3.5 ounce monitor the players wear between their shoulder blades.  According to Catapults official site, one feature of the technology is the ability to track athletes performance on the practice field and off the field in real time and sending the information to an online profile set up for each player.  Being able to do this, gives coaches the ability to compare a players current performance with past performance.  Not only does it do that, it also gives coaches and management the ability to compare the player to other players at the same position throughout the league.  Another of the many features of the technology is the effect on injury prevention and rehab.  Through the technology, you are able to gather a profile of the players physical abilities and therefore are aware of the levels each player is supposed to be at.  Having this information makes it easier to avoid injuries.  The levels allow trainers to set certain limits in a players rehab they shouldn't exceed which decreases the chance of the player aggravating the injury and missing more time.

Even though using a tracking system like this during games isn't currently allowed, it may change.  As Tom Myslinski, strength and condition coach for the Jacksonville Jaguars said, "This has made me a better coach.  This is where it is going."

The video below will give you a more detailed look at the system.

 

Storify Startup

 

What is Storify?

Storify tell stories by collecting updates from social networks, amplifying the voices that matter to create a new story format that is interactive, dynamic and social. Discover meaningful social media from the best storytellers online, including journalists, bloggers, editors and everyday people.

Storify allows you to search new, topics, trends, create your own stories, search for social media elements, curate elements, write your own narrative, embed stories anywhere, and go viral and put them anywhere. Storify is not limited to just text, pictures and videos but enables all use of social media, including embedding Tweets, photos from Instagram, Flickr, Tumblr, and gifs.

The Storify above is just an example of various elements that can be incorporated into one.

Disaster Hits but Social Media Will Always Be There!

    Within the past week a horrific Typhoon has hit the Philippines that has cut off communication in the worst hit areas. Since communications were cut off families all around the world do not know if their family memebers are safe and/or alive. Since cell service has been down for days family members have been overloading social media sites such as twitter to find their loved ones. According to The Telegraph, Many of the appeals noted that there had been no communications from Tacloban, where some 10,000 people may have died, since Friday, when the storm blew in. Families also posted photographs to help aid workers identify their loved ones.

Twitter has been overloaded with tweets trying to find loved ones and organizations trying to collect aid for the Phillipines.

The Brand of Me.......

Who Are You?

"Brand yourself before someone else does"

"Journalism has changed journalist can no longer hide behind the brand of their publication. Journalists have to create their own brand in the new media world.

"PR professionals: Do you consider yourself content providers? How about reporters? Bloggers? Are we getting close? OK, here’s the question of the day: Instead of struggling with media gatekeepers to win coverage and attract wandering eyes to your brand, should you simply become the media? Instead of providing access to key personalities and emailing quotes for a big story, why not just tell the story yourself?" According to Patrick Coffee Is ‘Brand Journalism’ the New PR?

Your brand is who you are and what you do in a nut shell. Your true brand is who you are and what you do at work, on the weekends, at church and with your kids. Basically, you only have one brand and this is a combination of your professional and personal lives. It's a fulltime job your brand has to represent you at all the time. Make sure your brand is real because a fake brand of yourself can be very detrimental to you.

 

Your activity on social networks is a big part of branding yourself today. Facebook LinkedIn and twitter are a few social tools that help you brand yourself .

         4 key steps to branding yourself on social networks


                - Your Activity 
                - The people you follow and that follow you.
                - How entertaining you are 
                - Your professional track record

Twitter's Popularity is Hidden and so is its Value

    While Twitter is still new its growth and popularity have soared. It allows for people to communicate in new ways and with various other social media websites being able to connect to Twitter it will bring in a wider audience. In a recent article by the New York Times, Twitter's growth will help bring information that is sorted by topic which allows for information to be targeted towards a particular audience.

When people follow the right people on Twitter they will find information that is concise and to the point. Twitter brings much unneeded information that audiences will find boring which will make Twitter fall apart ad lose value. In a recent article by TechCrunch, Twitter will find its way to success if the right information is given to a wide audience.

Google Growth and Resources Tackles Russian Internet

Google is one of the most powerful forces in the world. Globally a large number of countries use Google for their search engine needs and also online application and products such as Google drive or Gmail. In Russia Google is second among search engine websites, and is currently losing out to Russian based search engine Yandex. According to Bloomberg News Yandex has 62% of the Russian market compared to the 27% percent that Google occupies. Social network Vkontakte (which oddly resembles Facebook) a Russian based social media site currently is more popular than Facebook and adds 130,000 users a day according to George Loubushkin a Vkontakte spokesperson.

 

Google aims to become relevant in Russian by putting on a free concert with YouTube, featuring the YouTube Awards. Google has amassed a number of resources during its existence and one of them is in combination with YouTube. A number of things drew Google to users YouTube in Russian. Russian currently has a $96 Million market for online video advertising compared to the U.S. 4$ billion budget. Google can afford it and not spend as much compared to the United States and also internet companies can charge more for professionally produced content as many Russian artists have their own channel on the site where they show ads and get a portion of the revenue.

 

Google employed this marketing strategy because it is cost effect with the potential to supply a service that not only they could benefit from but so could the users. YouTube is currently the largest online video service in Russian with 50 million users. Like many other internet companies the greatest opponent to them is music and video piracy services. In a document reported by International Intellectual Property Alliance Vkontakte is Russia’s “largest single distributor of infringing music." Piracy is highly regarded in Russian compared to other countries that look down upon it. Google aims to use YouTube as a marketing tool to exhibit the medium of YouTube as an option for online music and media content. Through events like the YouTube Awards and other music events broadcasting on and through YouTube, Google hopes to attract Russia’s band populations to post songs on their site.

Google may not be as relevant yet in Russia but it is making a number of efforts to become more relevant than it currently is. To provide a service that may steer other from not only a different source but a source that is looked downed upon by a number of countries. The one greatest thing that Google uses to appeal to Russian bands that Vkontakte does not provide, it is a user hit count says Igor Lobanov, leader of alternative-rock band Slot in Russia.