Global Media News

Global Media News Webcast # 7: Thursday October 30, 2014

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This week on Global Media News: 

• Is Instagram for Journalists?
• Manage your Tweets! Tweetdeck for Journalists
• ICYMI? Should You Re-Publish Old Content on Social Media?
• Three Amazing Resources for Drone Journalists!
• Using Social Media as a Source for Investigative Journalism
• FaceBook Fee Hoax Goes Viral . . .  Why?
• Was ESPN Host Bill Simmons Tackled for Calling Roger Goodell a Liar?
• What is Blendle?  Is this App the iTunes/Spotify/Netflix for Journalism?

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.   We scour the web for news about new media, journalism and technology.

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Instagram Becoming an Outlet for the BBC and Guardian

    Instagram is becoming one of the largest social media outlets next to facebook. Instagram is unique in its own way because one can express themselves through pictures.  Journalists are using Instagram to get their name out there.  On instagram the more followers you have the more popular you are.  According to Rachel Bartlett :

Journalists are keen to connect with the platform's reported community of 150 million 'active' users each month, both to collect images and short-form video posted by the network, and to distribute its own content to a potentially new audience.

But journalists are not just taking pictures of themselves like many people are doing these days, they are taking pictures of the stories they are reporting on, where they are reporting, or maybe even where they work. 

While more journalists engage on the platform, snapping images as they go about their work, or sharing behind-the-scenes video, new projects continue to emerge from newsrooms which are specifically built around the platform.

Recently, the BBC released a project called Instfax.  According to Chris Hamilton 

this project is able to "compress the news item down to 15 seconds of video. " Up to a few videos are published each day, making use of the short-video feature launched by the platform last year. The Instafax videos range from 'headline packages' – sharing a few clips of video for the big news stories that day, with text detailing the stories featured – to the entire 15-seconds being dedicated to a particular news story or more light-hearted feature.

People use their mobile devices so frequently that is no surprise that journalists want to make short and quick reports on instagram so their stories will be heard by even more people.  Although, Instafax only gives a quick 15 second video of the story, if it is interesting people will want to find out more on the story and go to the media outlet to find it.  It is almost like a movie trailer, if one likes the movie trailer they are going to want to see the movie. 

    The Guardian is also looking at ways to get their stories out their on instagram like BBC is, but they have a different approach. 

#GuardianCam, which the news outlet embarked on late last month, is a development of a previous social project called #TwiTrips, Katie Rogers, social news editor at the Guardian US told Journalism.co.uk.

The outcome of this hashtag was many pictures posted on instagram by the Guardian of the trips that journalists went on and descriptions of the stories they covered. 

Instragram is huge right now and it will only grow over time because people love to use it as a means of expression. But even now journalists are finding ways to get their stories out their by posting videos or pictures of popular stories they may have covered to reach more people than ever before.

Investigations through social media

There is no doubt behind the thought that social media is changing the world of writing. We all find use of social media accounts such as twitter and instagram in simple ways. When you think of how most people use these networks it's usually as a fun way to connect with friends and peers, etc. Although now some writers are using social media in a different way, not just simply for their writing.

Nick Bilton of the New York Times wrote a book titled, Hatching Twitter. When he was writing this book he didn't just research Twitter, he used Twitter for research. Bilton scraped data from thousands of emails, Twitter handles, Flickr and Instagram photos to cross reference background information, fact check his off-the-record sources, and to find the crucial little telling details that make the book read an intimate insider account (wnyc). For example, he would use a tweet to learn when someone’s meeting happened and their Instagram photo to see the coffee shop where it took place (wnyc).

This is one of the first times we have seen a writer use a big social data investigation to write nonfiction storytelling. Him being able to successfully reference all his social media evidence with more social media is a remarkable way for him as a writer to gain knowledge. It makes you think how powerful social media can be. He took social media news and referenced it just like we would reference any normal news but he went out and got it through other social medias. It does seem rather tedious but it worked for Nick Bilton, and don't be surprised when it starts to work for many more. 

 

Publishers struggling to Publish, but Why!?

Because of the advanced technology we have now, it has become extremely difficult for publishers to gain and keep an audience. Many try to depend on social networks like instagram, twitter, and especially facebook! 

Facebook has offered publishers to simply send pages to them so that they live inside the social network's mobile app. Sounds like a great opportunity right? to publicise the work because of the traffic facebook has, but why do many refuse? Because once these publishers decide to this, they have no name. They are obeying and living under facebook or any social network they decide to collaborate with. Your work is not seen as YOUR work anymore. The public sees it as facebook, which is really sad because these publishers want the traffic, but aren't getting enough recognition. 

According to Digiday.com many believe this to be true. For example like Anil Dash. In this article he says "Attention publishers:IF you obey Facebook here & make your mobile content live within their platform, you are DUMB" mentioned in a tweet Dash posted on Oct.27. Also in this article it states Ryan McConville, publisher telling digiday "Publishers will continue to rely on facebook for traffic because that's where their readers are today, but that doesn't mean they also want to give facebook power over their ad sales. They'd like to keep that seperate" (Article written by John McDermott)

This is a huge struggle for publishers because there seems to be no other way, but i'm sure there is, we just have to figure it out so they can all be recognized! We have to stick around and see!

New York Times Invests in "Blendle", the Startup that is Calling itself "iTunes for Journalism"

 

 The New York Times company and a German publisher, Axel Springer, are investing 3.8 million dollars into a startup from the Netherlands called Blendle. Calling itself “iTunes for Journalism”, Blendle allows users to read and browse content on an a per-article basis.

FaceBook: A Journalism Game Changer

Almost 1.3 billion people are logging on the Facebook every month.  Facebook is increasing becoming a source for most news for the public. According to the New York Times Facebook is where are 30% of adults in the United States are getting their news from. The New York Times says that Facebook is the forefront of a fundamental change in how people consume journalism.

 

CVS and Rite Aid Reject Apple Pay

    Apple Pay was to replace the consumer's wallet of credit cards with its mobile system. But this mobile system has hit a roadblock. CVS and Rite Aid have removed Apple Pay from their stores.

Career in Instagram for Journalists

    Instagram has over 200 million active users, 65% of which are outside of the United States. 60 Million photos are uploaded everyday and on average 1.6 million likes a day. It is used by your everyday "Joe Schmo", but who who think  to make a career out of it?

    Photojournalists have found a way to incorporate Instagram into making a living. Instagram has turned the average user into amateur photographers who can allow the world to enjoy a piece of their lives and create their own personal photo diary. 

    Some photographers may blame instagram for the lack of demand for quality photos. Yet, it is the most efficient way to show a story through pictures to the world.    

   Associated Press photographer, David Guttenfelder was just named TIME's instagram photographer of the year with his project to Korean inner life in the textile factories.

    Through strife and joyful times, such as natural disasters and exciting sports events, instagram is used to capture the essence of time and share with the world at the push of a button. 

    Michael Christopher Brown is also a photojournalist using the avenue of Instagram to connect with another audience. He documented the Liberian war and continues to document the everyday lives of this war-torn country. 

    Although instargram is no the only outlet for these photojournalists, it is certainly an efficient channel to connect with the world and essential to their storytelling.

    

    

 

Are Drones and Smartphones Changing Africa?

    As we know Africa is not as advanced in the technological world as other continents, but are drones and smart phones changing that? Drones and Smartphone usage in Africa has drastically raised and is a great thing for some and a problem for others.

Tweetdeck for Journalists

With the increasing popularity of social media, it can be tough for a journalist to manage all of their accounts in a convenient manner. Luckily, there are tools to help journalists, and the average user, manage their Twitter accounts.