Global Media News

Global Media News Webcast #7: Thursday, March 30, 2017

 Listen to Global Media News!

• Snapchat for Journalists?
• 360 Video is getting very popular!
• Social Media Activism & the Day Without Women.
• Is Yelp Still Mad at Google?  Why?
• KRUE.TV Is for Musicians:  Is it for You?
• Big Question:  Will the Internet Save Culture?
• Millennials Love Emojis: Should You Speak Their Language?
• The Stylish Platform: Instagram & Fashion!

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 media, journalism and technology.   

Listen to our next webcast streaming live on Thursday March 9, 2017 @ 10am EST.

Can't listen live? Our next webcast  will be posted by 2:00pm, Thursday March 9, 2017.

Subscribe Now!

Los Angeles Chargers New Hire to Merge PR & Digital Media

Josh Rupprecht has been named Vice President of Public Relations by the Los Angeles Chargers.

Rupprecht, 37, was previously working as Senior Associate Athletic Director for Communications for the UCLA Athletic Department.  He was on top of all communications and media relations efforts, running all social, video, and web content via the many digital platforms provided, and served as a primary spokesman. 

From 2000-13, he was involved with the public relations department for the Los Angeles Lakers.  He started working as an intern with the team, while later becoming a primary press contact, worked with team officials and players on communications, worked with and managed several media and crisis problems.  He also spent 10 years with the team when they traveled, coordinating media requests, player appearances, and announcing team information.  With his time, with the Lakers they appeared in the NBA Finals, six times, while winning the NBA Championship, four times.

(Rupprecht photographed during his tenure with the Lakers, The Malibu Times)

A.G. Spanos, President of the Chargers – Business Operations says, "Josh has spent his entire career in Los Angeles as a member of two storied sports institutions.”  He claims that “he has a wealth of communications and digital media knowledge, has worked alongside numerous high profile athletes and coaches, and possesses important football experience.”

“It became clear throughout this process that Josh has earned a level of respect and trust from both the media and his peers that is well beyond his years.  We are confident that he is a perfect fit for our team and are excited to welcome him to the Chargers family," says John Spanos the President – Football Operations. 

Rupprecht will oversee the day-to-day of all media relations within the Chargers ownership, front office workers, coaches, and players.  He will also try to bring together the Charger’s public relations and digital departments, while integrating the franchise into the Los Angeles market.

Rupprecht is a native Southern Californian, who graduated from Pepperdine University in 2001 with a bachelor’s degree in both public relations and advertising. 

He will begin working with the Chargers on April 10, 2017.

#Superwomen of the Media World

Girl bosses everywhere are using their "powers" to dominate the media world. The influence of a woman matters more than it ever did before. Women of all ages have been starting to take control of what goes out in the media and how women are being portrayed.

Recently, Teen Vogue hired a new Editor in chief, Elaine Welteroth. The youngest and first african american woman to be in that position. She's a fresh face for the publication with her wits and her drive to make sure that the young voice in the world are heard.

Photo via instagram 

Vashtie Kola AKA Downtown's Sweetheart created her brand, Violette , off of just being her Vegan Tom Boy self. She's been the face of DKNY, Swarovski, BBC and Supreme to name a few. Not only does she model, she is also a renown DJ. She most recently DJ'd at VH1 Hip Hop Honors honoring the lady pioneers in hip hop.

 

Photo via instagram

Julieanna Goddard aka YesJulz is known as the John Malkovich of social media. She has since become the queen of snapchat. Her event promoting business, 1AM Vibes started on Snapchat( way before others were hip to its power) . This led her to collab with brands such as KITH, Nike, Sprite, Vevo, Puma and Beats by Dr. Dre. She was even featured on The 2016 Forbes  30 under 30 list. When she isn't directing "vibes" she also gives back to the Miami community with Hashtag Lunch bag , a cause that provides lunch to children and teens in and around Miami, Florida.

To check out what Julz is up to visit her website, or become one of her many followers on twitter

photo via instagram

What these women have in common besides being beautiful and bosses, they are all breaking the rules in a very male dominant industry. Defining how they want women to be viewed versus how women are portrayed in the media. They are the current voices of the new age of young feminist waiting to have their voices heard next.

 

UPDATE: Tech Companies vs. Trump's 'New' Travel Ban

This past Monday, the Trump administration released its new revised version of the former travel ban. Citizens who are permanent residents and those who have valid visas can now enter the United States. In addition, Iraq has been dropped from the list of restricted countries. Yet it seems this will not be enough for the tech companies to back down. 

Back in January, the original executive order sent many businesses in an uproar. Travel rights were restricted from 6 countries and companies such as Google and Facebook were very vocal about it. The initial 'ban' mainly impacted these companies through there employees and showed the clear problem: No workers. No work. No money. No company. 

Technology firms are still not satisfied with the new changes. Airbnb CEO Brian Chesky voiced his opinion on Twitter:

Barring people from entering our country because of where they're from was wrong the first time around - still wrong...

— Brian Chesky (@bchesky) March 6, 2017

Many companies and tech firms are having documents filed in opposition to Trump's executive order and in support of Washington state lawsuit. Listed below are just some of the companies who are participating. The list also includes PayPal, Uber, Zynga, Spotify, Twitter and Yelp.

                                                                                                                   

Samuel Burke from CNN gave a little feedback on the matter and says that he is '50/50' on what the reasons are for why these firms are taking action. "And it's been difficult to know is this personal for these companies or is it business? And I still think it's about 50/50. But at the end of the day what stands out here most is that they feel the executive order is just bad for business."

While Burke does have a point with saying it's "bad for business", it's also horrible for the people who work for them. Business Insider gives us a look into what they feel like.  They dedicated a post in the section 'Tech Insider', to getting insight from Silicon Valley's immigrant tech workers. Five different workers were represented in the article and all showed deep concern in regards to the travel ban. Below are a few quotes of there views:

Farid Safaie, Brand Designer, Zendesk: "You always have to be 10 times better than everyone else. You have to work harder than everyone else. You have to prove yourself better than that. Even if you do that, something like this comes along, a ban. No matter how good you've been, it just clumps you together with everything else and takes away everything personal and everything that you've fought and worked for." 

Shahrouz Tavakoli, Product Designer, Pinterest: "Immediately after Trump was elected, my first thought was, 'Thank goodness my son looks white,' which is a terrible thought to have. There's something psychologically profound about being labeled an enemy even though I have nothing but love for this country and its potential,"

Tarik, UX Researcher, Google: "It seems like there was sort of hidden hate that's surfacing, and it kind of makes you feel unwanted, undesired, and unwelcomed,"

So what will follow? Will the tech companies be successful at tearing down the ban? Or will Trump's executive order become permanent? Is there a possibility that there will be a 'new  new' revision? Only time will tell.

360 Videos meet Journalism

Virtual reality could become the new tool that will help journalists share stories with the public. Just as recently as today, CNN Digital debuted its virtual reality unit CNNVR. CNN stated the following about its new unit's goal: 

"Today, this new dedicated team is committed to harnessing the power of virtual reality to transport our audience inside the stories we tell all around the globe.Whenever news breaks, and wherever amazing stories unfold, CNNVR will transport our audience closer than ever before and on every device available."

CNN isn't the first news outlet to use virtual reality as a new tool, in fact, the New York Times,  BBC News, the Guardian and many others news outlets  have also incorporated virtual reality. The New York Ties released a 360 virtual reality video on August 11th 2016 which offered an immersive look onto the battles between the Iraqi forces and Isis to regain Falluja. The video entitled "The Fight for Falluja" provides viewers with an insight of what a battlefield might look like and ease the immersion into the story. 

Source:  New York Times, The Fight for Falluja 

Virtual reality could become an extremely influential tool for news outlets;  it could paint a very vivid picture to a reader while transporting them to a different level of comprehension. As an example instead of watching, reading or hearing about a particular event taking place somewhere in the world, a reader could be transported through virtual reality and experience it for themselves.  Such connection could amplify the relationship between consumers and news media outlets. In an article written by Ben Cardew for the Guardian, a quote by the editor in chief of the New York Times magazine Jake Silvertein discusses the relationship between journalists and virtual reality; 

“Every other type of storytelling involves framing, whether the rectangular frame of a still photograph or the framing a journalist does writing a news story or feature,” he says. “In VR, there is no frame. You can look wherever you want within the scene. The experience leads to a feeling of connection and empathy that is more powerful than traditional video.”

BBC, another outlet that has moved towards virtual reality and 360 videos as well. In an article entitled "Virtual reality looks for a role in journalism" by Jane Wakefield, this topic was explored through the following: 

"And in 2012 film-maker Nonny de la Pena, seen by many as the godmother of virtual reality films, showed off her "immersive journalism" piece Hunger in Los Angeles, which won plaudits at the Sundance Film Festival. She has since made a follow-up film, also highlighting the civil war in Syria. She told the BBC: "Virtual reality, as a journalistic medium, will follow a similar trajectory as newspaper, radio and television. "And like those different platforms, virtual reality has its own affordances, the most exciting being the embodied feeling of being 'on scene'. This can give the audience a deep and more visceral understanding of a story.""

 In conclusion, 360 videos and virtual reality could take journalism to a completely different height. A whole new level of understanding could be reached by the audiences through the visuals incorporated in 360 videos. Perhaps in a close future all new media outlets will move towards 360 videos turning it into the norm for journalism and transporting customers to another realm of news telling. 

 

Virtual Reality and the Future of Gaming

Since video games have been created, players were introduced to worlds that were past our wildest dreams. Players could explore galaxies and become the hero they imagined. They could play a sport without the talent of that particular sport, and be the heroes in movies and comic books. But for the last few decades the imagination of gaming has been limited because of the technology. Up until recently, the only way to play games with some type of interaction(being completely involved) was a trivia game or playing a first person shooter. But even then it wouldn't be as great as actually being the hero in the game. With Virtual Reality that becomes a possibility, companies are slowly making more games with a VR headset so that the player could be literally in the game. One game that has taken a chance on VR is Resident Evil 7. For those that aren't aware of Resident Evil 7, it's a survival horror game. Its one of the first successful zombie horror games.

So what does this mean for the gaming industry? Well the obvious answer is that eventually games could be perceived as movies. The person playing the game will become the controller so as mentioned before, the player will literally be in the game. This means horror games will be scarier, sports and storied games will be more fulfilling, and an experience a player has never had before. This will make interactions better with other players because it suspends the belief of a player temporarily, the player will know that it's just a game but the mind will think it's real life. It's a big risk but could potentially change the way we play video games.

Which Social Media Platform Now Has Stories?

 

Video uploaded by Geeks and Com'

With Snapchat, the extremely popular social media app among teenagers and young adults, a user can post an image or video to their story, and it disappears in 24 hours. Conversely, a user can send an image or video to a particular user, or multiple users, which can include geotags and filters. If you send it to another person, it disappears in 10 seconds or less. Facebook has now jumped on the stories bandwagon and it could be a hit or miss.

At first, Instagram, which is owned by Facebook, created the clever name Instagram stories, which is identical to Snapchat stories. Instagram stories also integrates the app Boomerang, which creates multiple images into a GIF. Although Instagram doesn't have filters that make you have dog ears and a tongue, many people still use this feature.

Next up was Facebook, which just came fairly recently, is using filters like minions from Despicable Me and having a sloth on your head. With more realistic filters and more adults who don't use Snapchat, this feature could be beneficial to those people. This is according to the Facebook Newsroom.

All three of these social media platforms have changed the way we communicate with each other, and now it will have at least one thing in common: stories.

Journalism Meets Snapchat

When I think of journalism certain things come to mind. Newspapers. Deadlines. Editing. Woodward. Bernstein. Facts. Inverted Pyramid. Stephen Glass. Snapchat?

Snapchat is definitely not one of the first things that come to mind when I think journalism. Yet, it may start to be. News used to get around by word of mouth. Then circulated by use of newspapers. Now we are in an era where technology is everything. We now have many platforms like websites and different forms of social media. Journalists nowadays have to keep up with all these multimedia platforms. They can't just pick one because there different platforms for several audiences.

With social media currently taking over, journalists add more to their lists. Today that is Snapchat.

According to journalism.org, 2016 statistics showed that 62% of Americans get their news on social media. So if a majority of your audience are getting their new on the internet then that is where you need to appeal to.

About 158 million people are continuously using Snapchat EVERYDAY. With such a huge audience many companies like the Washington Post are using Snapchat stories to spread news. With the help of mediashift.org, here are a few quick tips for journalists to 'master' Snapchat stories:

1. Give people enough time to read the 'snap story'. With a maximum of 10 seconds, try not to squeeze a whole article into ONE snap. Spread it out and give viewers time.
2. If speaking, speak clearly and loudly. Viewers won't continue to watch if they can't hear.
3. Use Snapchat screenshots to get a sense of viewer's point of view. Say a statement and if viewers agree than ask them to screenshot the snap. Great for feedback.

Snapchat is a media channel and the new news platform. Time to take advantage of it. So download the app and get to snapping!

 

Extra Credit Post: Buzzfeed Journalist Listicle

1. Talal Ansari: Ansari is a reporter at Buzzfeed who specializes in "Crime and Justice, Opinion an Editorial". I look to Ansari's Twitter for inspiration because of his beat of crime and Justice. Crime and Justice interests me and it's clear to see that Ansari's follower's agree because of what he tweets. The Buzzfeed worker, tweets out shocking new articles that either he wrote or a fellow journalist wrote. These articles include, his investigation on how the FBI pressures Muslim immigrants into becoming informants, Daily News’s piece on a knife killing in Midtown with a racist twist, and The Guardian's report on ISIS. His page is strictly professional which I admire seeing as I created a separate Twitter account to do the same. Besides the links to articles, Ansari also tweets out snippets of news as well as his opinion on what's going on in the world. Ansari's Twitter page is clear cut and I admire that.
2. Alanna Bennet: Bennet is a writer for Buzzfeed who laid out her Twitter in a completely different way. Bennet is more open, and communicative on her Twitter page, while the last two were strictly professional. And even though I would probably not want to do it, it's cool to see how someone can balance their Twitter to be both personal and professional. Bennet inspires me by having the perfect balance of fun while still keeping it in the business realm. A few examples of this is a tweet sent out 20h ago, "I relate deeply to my cat because al she wants is to curl up in a perfectly sized cardboard box and all I want is... Same" Bennet uses humor to break up the seriousness of her Twitter page, which I must admit can be very necessary after reading a hard-hitting story. Mixed in with the funny tweets, Bennet has posted an article which she has written for Buzzfeed named "How "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" Became Immortal". This pop culture writer is definitely doing a good job at keeping her followers entertained while informing them.

 Photo Credit: Screenshot from Alanna Bennett's Twitter
Caption: This hilarious Retweet shows how relatable Bennett is.

3. Katie Baker: Baker is another Buzzfeed journalist who focus on crime and Justice. Baker is a senior reporter at this news outlet and much like Ansari, her Twitter page has a professional feel to it. She tweets out article links from Buzzfeed as well as numerous other news outlets, but unlike Ansari her feed does not stick to her beat. What I mean by that is Baker will tweet out stories that are unrelated to crime and Justice, for example a Donald Trump story. On March 15th, Baker retweeted out a Buzzfeed article written by a Miriam Elder, the title of the piece reads "How Donald Trump's Enemies Fell for a Bllion-Dollar Hoax". And while this article clearly is not in line with her line of business, I kind of like how she's giving her followers a variety of articles to read. Unfortunately, anything involving Trump is considered "big news" so to inform her followers about the latest scandal, is truly Admirable.
4. Alison Caporimo: Caporimo is the Senior Lifestyle Editor at Buzzfeed publication. What drew me to Caporimo was a story who wrote titled "These Disney Princess Bikinis Will Make Your Dreams Come True," and I just had to click on it because Disney and princess and click bait. But the article, which is under the style section, was very interesting and amusing to me. I then looked up Caporimo on Twitter and no surprise, her page is as fun-loving as that article. I love to read and write articles about fashion, I have written numerous fashion articles for The Catalyst and I have read more than I would like to admit. Caporimo tweets out articles that either she was written such as her "9 Stunning Eid Outfits That'll Take Your Breath Away" which she retweeted from Ahmed Ali Akbar a fellow coworker. Caporimo also links a lot to her Instagram page, and like a good little follower I clicked to see where it would take me. Her Instagram page is a corky as her Twitter and I found myself smiling while scrolling though.

 
Photo Credit: Instagram

Caption: A model poses in her Rapunzel-inspired two-piece ensemble. 

5. Safiya Nygaard: Last but certainly not least, Nygaard is one of my favorite ex-Buzzfeed workers and I have been watching her "Lady Like" videos since I was a teenager. Nygaard no longer works at Buzzfeed, a recent change, but she will forever be one of my favorite Buzzfeed workers. Along with writing articles for Buzzfeed, Nygaard starred in the BuzzFeed Yellow Videos which are hilarious. The ex-Buzzfeed worker's Twitter is quite amusing to scrolling though, which is to be expected from a "Motion-Picture Staff". Her page consists of links to her personal YouTube page as well as funny pictures and GIFS. Basically her Twitter page is to showcase her comic side and attract people to her YouTube page.

Video Credit: Youtube.com

Caption: Safiya Nygaard in a Buzzfeed Yellow's Lady Like Video before leaving Buzzfeed. In this video Nygaard, along with her fellow Lady Like peers, try weird runway trends that have the everyday person scratching their head. 

Global Media News Webcast #6: Thursday, March 3, 2017

Listen to Global Media News!

• Streaming TV Wars: What Will Cable Do?
• YouTube TV: Bringing TV to the Mobile Generation (for a fee . . .)
• From Dubai to London: A New Emoji Project
• Yellow for Teens: Shall We Compare It to Tinder?
• Is All of Your Social Screen Time Good for your Career?
• Is VR the Future of the Sports Experience?  Will VR Kill The TV Star?
• Print Is Dead.  Long Live Print?  Is Digital Always Better than Paper?
• SnapChat: The Fake News Killer?

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 media, journalism and technology.   

Listen to our next webcast streaming live on Thursday March 9, 2017 @ 10am EST.

Can't listen live? Our next webcast  will be posted by 2:00pm, Thursday March 9, 2017.

Subscribe Now!