Global Media News

Facebook Fee is a Hoax!

Enjoy your sigh of relief! This was one joke that people didn’t find so funny.

 

Fox Anchor Shepard Smith on Ebola Outbreak

When it comes to the news, Fox is known for never holding back, in that saying, Shepard Smith has a few words for America "Don't become the boy who cried wolf!" Says fox4kc.com

Huffington Post Reports Smith Stated "You should have no concerns about Ebola at all. None. I promise," stated Smith. He went on to tell viewers, "Do not listen to the hysterical voices on the radio and the television or read the fear-provoking words online. The people who say and write hysterical things are being very irresponsible.He explained: "We do not have an outbreak of Ebola in the United States. Nowhere. We do have two health care workers who contracted the disease from a dying man. They are isolated. There is no information to suggest that the virus has spread to anyone in the general population in America. Not one person in the general population in the United States." 

Given the extent of detail and information we have obtained from the government and CDC about the cases in the US, it's very hard to to tell if Smiths words should be accounted for as factual. With a disease as severe as Ebola, also with cases occurring in the US, Americans have earned the right to be a little fearful at the least. Mashable.com is in the favor of smith: "While Smith is spot-on that people in the U.S. are relatively safe from the virus, it is also important to note that the situation in West Africa is getting worse. There may not be an outbreak in the U.S., but the World Health Organization warns that there could be 10,000 new cases per week in West Africa by December."

    It is fact though that the virus has reached the United States, so are they claiming conspiracy? Are we really being fed lies? Or is this another one of Fox's crazy accusations... ? They do have quite the reputation among the news realm to say the least.

Global Media News Webcast # 6: Thursday October 16, 2014

Listen to Global Media News for Thursday October 16, 2014

This week on Global Media News: 

• Snapchat for Journalists
• Snapchat Photos Exposed
• Instafax:  The BBC's New Video App
• Reddit:  What Does A Reporter Need to Know?
• Digital First for Newspapers
• How to Use Pinterest
• Twitter for Journalism
• Smartphones: Blessing or a Curse?
• Hong Kong Protests Censored in China

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.

Listen to our next live webcast from the New Media Newsroom  on Thursday, October 30 @ 11am EST.

Can't listen live? Our next webcast will be posted by 2:00pm, Thursday, October 30, 2014.

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Journalism: the transition from traditional to digital

    Technology's usage has increased rapidly since the 2000's.  People began to use computers much more than they ever did especially to interact with other people, thus social networking sites burst onto the scene.  According to Paul Grabowicz, 

Social networks provided people with a way to set up a personal page or profile to which they could post updates on what they were doing, while also keeping track of the activities of family, friends and colleagues.  

He also states that:

By May 2013, 72 percentage of adult Internet users were using social networking sites like Facebook, up from 67 percent in late 2012 according to a Pew Internet & American Life Project survey. The number in 2005 was only  8 percent.

    Journalists have used the boost in usage of social media to change the way they produce stories. Social media outlets also help journalists put themselves out there and become more well known, either by their profiles and/or connecting with people. According to Grabowicz,

People are increasingly learning about news stories via social networks, but the percentage is still small.

Recently, more and more news stories are being reported on facebook which has made journalism more digital than ever before. But it more popular among young people rather than older people who would rather get new stories from "professional journalists." 

Among people 18 to 29 years old, 52 percent get news from Facebook, the top news source for the young, according to a USC Annenberg/Los Angeles Times poll in 2012. That  compares with 25 percent of people overall who get news from Facebook.

What many people do not realize is that "social networks are driving an increasing percentage of the traffic to news sites, beginning to rival search engines like Google as sources of referrals to news stories."  Many stories are gaining popularity because people are using social media sites, while doing so they come across a story and want to know more and go to the news sites to do so.  

Facebook reported that the average media site saw referral traffic from Facebook more than double in 2010.

The way jounalists post their stories or news updates is always crucial. If a journalist's post is to informative it may be boring for the reader, but commentary and analysis intise a reader and make them want to read more.

Stories that evoke emotions are more popular than straight news articles. Based on studies of the kind of content people are most likely to share with others, stories that are fun or cute or made people happy are most effective, followed by stories that evoke anger or disgust. Least effective would be stories that provoke little emotion.

 

 

 

Leaked Snapchat Pictures

The snapchat app allows you to send pictures and videos to your friends that dont last more than ten seconds before they are gone for good. It is supposed to ensure the privacy of your pictures to only the people you wish to see them, but a new app is causing a problem. The snapsaved app is a smartphone tool that is allowing snapchat users to save pictures sent to them (New York Times). It has added up to about 200,000 pictures of non-celebrities that use snapchat. Snapsaved is not affiliated in any way with snapchat and their storage center seemed to be leaked and thats how all the photos were easily accessed. 

It has been confirmed that Snapchat had nothing to do with the leak which is unfair to the app that will get a bad rap because of this. Snapchat has become a very popular social media network on virtually the same level as instagram and twitter. This creates a bad look for them because people need their photos to be private that's why they use the app. Snapchat has to come up with a way to prevent other apps from accessing there photos and hurting their name.

The thing that holds snapchat back for the use of journalists is the lack of text use for your messages. Journalists make their living off of writing and would rather not explain themselves in a picture, it just doesnt fit their need. They have expanded on twitter because it gives them 140 characters to speak their mind. That's all they need sometimes and all they really want to say. The social media industry has taken off in many different directions and journalists professionally have a small use for snapchat, so they could always try to expand their app to fit the needs of more people. 

  

The BCC Conducts New Experiment Utilizing Instafax To Expand Audience

    BBC journalist are now utilizing Instagram to find and share media news with meaning, not only with pictures but now also with videos. These videos are called Instafax. Unlike the app Vine which only captures 6 seconds of video, Instafax is a 15 second video that hopes to capture the eye of the audience by revealing a more detailed video with out giving away the whole story. 

    This is a new experiment the BBC is conducting, where it wishes that "Instafax uses Instagram to share videos and other information about news events, in a bid that they can be easily consumed by people on the go." With the fast pace, social media dominate society we live in, Instafax seems like a great way to draw the audience in by watching a quick video about the news event. After watching the video the BBC hopes the audience will then decide whether or not one would like to proceed and read the article.

    The BBC is not the first to try experimenting spreading the news in this such way, but it is one of the biggest organizations with potentially the biggest audience. According to Rachel Bartlett "The use of Instagram continues to spread among journalists, as news outlets test out different ways to share images, and now microvideo, with their existing audience and to reach new communities." This is exactly what the BBC is trying to do with Instafax, share new information with their existing audience and create new ways to reach a larger audience in new communities.

    It is going to be interesting to see how this plays out in favor of the BCC. Will they conduct a larger audience and receive more viewers? Or will 15 second videos still not be enough to intrigue a larger audience to proceed and read new articles?

Apps to Help Journalists Improve Instagram Accounts

If you are a journalist , your social media account must have good content and be visually appealing. Here's some important apps to keep your account stylish.

Journalist Bill Simmons Trying to be "Free" from ESPN

    Bill Simmons the journalist who is known for creating the website Grantland, is trying to get out of his contract with ESPN. Simmons was recently suspended when stating his opinion on his podcast "The B.S Report". On his show he stated his opinion which was "For Goodell to pretend he didn’t know about the Rice elevator video is such f****** bulls***.” 

Journalists taking a big step forward with SnapChat

Journalists are always trying to find new ways to gain publicity. It can be a challenge with all the different media outlets available on the internet. So now journalists are taking a big step forward and thinking outside the box to find new creative ways to connect with their audience and hopefully gain a new crowd. 

Journalists from all over are tapping into different types of Chat apps to communicate. For example, Snapchat. SnapChat was created by a couple of Stanford Students in 2011. It caught the attention of millions amongst the younger crowd. The app allows you take a picture and send it to your followers, but it only lasts for up to 10 secs. This app is starting to open doors to a whole different level!

In Mid-January, Cory Haik, Executive producer and Senior editor for digital news at the Post decided to use SnapChat to show live commercials from the Super Bowl as they came on with a quick commentary. According to USAtoday Haik says "It’s really been on our minds and we just really wanted to experiment with it and sort of push the bounds and new audience." 

Recently, Stephanie Ebbs wrote an article on a few "Takeaways" Journalists would have from SnapChat. Naming and describing the reasons why it would be a good idea to try it. For example, how this app brings in a much younger audience, it's also more of community than just clicks that lead to other things, you're connecting with your audience one on one. She also describes the challenges, like Snapchat not having a way to market your account or learning to be extra creative with your post as well to grab attention. 

It's very important for Journlists to be able to connect and attract a younger audience because they simply just get more publicity that way, and what company doesnt want to be the center of attention?  Therefore, SnapChat is going to open doors for many Journalists.

5 Ways Journalists Use Pinterest

    Journalists and news organizations are looking for different ways to connect with their readers. They are seeking to be involved in a more visual social media content.