9-1 Blog: Multimedia Tools

The use of multimedia when blogging or engaging in new media journalism is becoming essential to captivating an audience and holding onto readers. 

The trend of "live tweeting" is fairly common now, and one of my favorite modes of consuming information. It feeds into the new media audience's demands for the succinct, immediate delivery of information in lieu of in-depth, detailed articles or summaries. It can incorporate tweets, vines, instagram photos, facebook statuses, tumblr gifs, and blog comments. Actors will often live-tweet during their television shows, answering questions from their Twitter fanbase, or musicians will live-tweet backstage at an awards show, building the anticipation for their performance.

According to Twitter's own Development Division...

Live-tweet (v.): to engage on Twitter for a continuous period of time—anywhere from 20 minutes to a few hours—with a sequence of focused Tweets. The focus can be a big live event that everybody's paying attention to (e.g. a TV show or an award show) or it can be an event you create yourself (e.g. a Q&A session with your fans). 

One question we always hear is "how often should I Tweet when live-tweeting?" Approach it like you're at a dinner party: you don't want to dominate the conversation and you don't want to fade away. Tweeting every minute is probably too much, and tweeting only a few times an hour is probably too little. What follows are our best practices, and periodically we'll tweet out great examples from @TwitterMedia so follow that account for the latest.

My favorite example of live tweeting to date is from the airing of the episode "The Rains of Castamere" from Game of Thrones. I'm a HUGE GoT fan, and while this episode was amazing, the live-tweeted fan reactions on social media made it even better.

WARNING: THERE BE SPOILERS AHEAD

The i09 article, "The 100+ Best Tweets about last night's Game of Thrones" captured the bulk of the live-tweeting reaction perfectly. Below are three of the least spoilery/least explicit in language tweets featured:

Frequently retweeted that evening was the Vine video of one of Game of Throne's own stars, Maisie Williams, who plays Arya Stark:

And within an 12 hours, there was already a Buzzfeed "Best of Tumblr Reactions" list:

The combination of gifs, memes, and memes makes an interactive, communal experience of something as typically isolating as watching a television show. Viewers are able to share in their anger, amusement, and sadness in a variety of mediums across the world. Without a doubt, multimedia's use continues to evolve with new media technology as it grows, and its exciting to be a part of it.

Sources
"Live-Tweeting Best Practices." https://dev.twitter.com/media/live-tweeting
"The 100+ Best Tweets about last night's Game of Thrones." http://io9.com/the-100-best-tweets-about-last-nights-game-of-thrones-511003444
Maisie Williams' Vine https://vine.co/v/b3XZMHmxzxh and YouTube upload of her Vine http://youtu.be/Y2uLNexesfE
"21 Best Tumblr Reactions to the Red Wedding." http://www.buzzfeed.com/donnad/best-tumblr-reactions-to-game-of-thrones-red-wedding

8-2 Blog: Best Practices

I chose Feministing as my example of a blog that I believe best demonstrates the desired function of a blog as a source of substantive writing and delivery of information. It reflects not only the goal of feminism, which is to strive for equality for everyone - not just women - but covering issues that present barriers to equality on the grounds of gender, race, sexual orientation, or socio-economic status, but also reflects the blog's purpose:

"Feministing is an online community for feminists and their allies. The community aspect of Feministing – our community blog, campus blog, comment threads, and related social networking sites – exist to better connect feminists online and off, and to encourage activism. We hope that the Feministing community will provide a forum for a variety of feminist voices and organizations."

Updated daily by a staff of journalists, academics, and figures of the feminist movement, Feministing offers a continuously wide array of stories. Their regular posts "The Weekly Feminist Reader" and the "Feminist Cheat Sheet" provide readers with a quick overview of the issues occurring that day, world-wide. Every story and every source is properly credited, accompanied by appropriate disclaimers for content, AKA, "trigger-warnings" for particularly graphic content, or proper labeling of editorials versus legitimate news articles.

The Weekly Feminist Reader for August 11, 2013, for example, provides a quick overview of political scandals and legislation, literary news, issues concerning education, race, rape-culture, and the prision-industrial complex:

Since when does VICE produce good reporting on sexual violence?
Minors with disabilities held in solidarity confinement in San Francisco juvenile hall.
Little Libertarians on the prairie.
More research on encouraging girls to pursue STEM.
The Pentagon’s new plan to combat military sexual assault doesn’t do enough.
Your computer is sexist.
Decades too late, Henrietta Lacks’ family is asked for consent.
“Why teach kids not to rape when you could teach them not to get caught?”
Newsflash, Hollywood: suicide isn’t quirky-cute-fun.
Unpaid interns are particularly vulnerable to sexual harassment.
Texts from the yellow wallpaper.
Drag in the military sparks world’s least surprising controversy.
Of course dystopian YA novels are popular.
Go read Emi Koyama’s Twitter timeline from the last few days for info on how she was censored by white male “allies” at Forging Justice.
A childhood introduction to racism.
The Miami police killed Reefa, a celebrated teen graffiti artist.
Zimmerman and Drones.
Sexual harassment in comic book form.
Mini-doc: “Where Am I Going?”
The feminist history of school lunches.
Internet trolls = witch hunters?
Oprah received an apology for racist treatment in Switzerland.
The most recent episode of Belabored touches on domestic workers’ rights and the March on Washington’s upcoming anniversary.
Free article on dolls from Girlhood Studies!
Freshmen, meet your “relationship goals” with one simple step: Just stop getting raped!
Stone Cold Jane Austen.
FCC orders lower prison phone rates.
New abortion limits, but more money for women’s health, in Texas.
Wonkette pens a letter to Weiner.

7-2 Blog: Press Release

Press Release

STATE COLLEGE, PA - College football legend Joe Paterno passed away on Sunday at the age of 85 due to complications from lung cancer, amid the ongoing scandal that has turned Penn State upside down.

Paterno's impressive career spanned 61 years, 45 of which were as head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions. Under his guidance, the Nittany Lions brought home 24 NCAA bowl victories and 409 collegiate wins, and Paterno holding the all-time record for NCAA Division 1 victories.

Paterno's legacy in the Penn State community was shaken, however, when it was revealed in November 2011 that he was aware of Defensive Coordinator Jerry Sandusky's sexual abuse of at least eight young boys between 1994 and 2009. While not formally charged with any criminal wrongdoing, the revelation of Paterno's complicit knowledge and cover-up of Sandusky's conduct resulted in his immediate, mid-season dismissal from Penn State, along with several other Penn State Administrators.

State College has plunged into uneasy tension following Paterno's dismissal and the resulting scandal that has brought a different kind of national attention on the small college town.

After revealing his lung cancer in November, Paterno remained secluded until his January 13th hospitalization. Services have yet to be organized, but an outpouring of support from Nittany fans, including Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett, who ordered state flags to be flown at half-staff on Monday, seems to indicate that the Penn State community is ready to rally behind their beloved "JoePa" one last time.

Facebook Post

Joe Paterno, 85, passed away on Sunday just a few short months after being dismissed as head coach of the Penn State Nittany Lions amid the sex abuse scandal that has turned the small college town upside down.

6-2 Blog: Social Media Tools

This blog assignment is perfect because my position as Communications Coordinator at work is to think of ways to bring the association into the present by means of social media and more web-based communications. We are a state employees association - not a union, but a non-profit, member-run association that lobbies for state employees with the legislature, represents them in work disputes and disciplinary appeals, offers benefit assistance and retirement counseling, and works directly with the legislature and Governor's administration to keep the best interests of state employees in their minds. It's not an easy gig, and we're not always successful given the current political climate in Tennessee, but someone has to stand up for them.

We're in a unique time now where almost one-third of our state's workforce will be retiring in the next 5 years. While the administration has taken steps to change the laws regarding hiring and firing employees in order to have more flexibility in recruiting and retaining employees to take the place of those retiring, as an employee's association we now have to figure out how to not only maintain those retiring employees as active retiree members, but also how to attract newer, younger employees to keep the association going.

As the youngest member of the staff and the most experienced with social media, that's where I come in. My job has been largely focused on growing our social media presence and engaging our membership through the use of tools like Facebook and Twitter - but more needs to be done. So I hope that it is okay that I am drawing upon my own experience as well as my own experimentation for this assignment.

1. Come up with a group/company or non-profit you wish to represent: Tennessee State Employees Association

2. Come up with a target audience for that organization: Young (under 35 years of age) state employees

3. Come up with a message for that audience: Your Job, Your Life, Your Association

4. Select 3 social media tools that would be the most effective to deliver that message to the target audience:
    a. Facebook
    b. Flickr
    c. Podcasts

5. Explain why those social media tools are the most effective.
    a. Facebook - Facebook works to our advantage for both our existing, predominantly older membership base because they've taken to FB to catch up with old friends and keep in touch with extended families. Our FB page showing up in their news feed brings the information to them each day. For our younger, potential members, it taps in to their already developed expectations regarding information and convenience. They're able to log onto FB and see what their friends are doing, catch trending headlines from news media they may be following, and see a post from TSEA regarding an upcoming chapter meeting in their area, giving them the opportunity to attend and be an active participant in their organization. By posting stories from our bi-monthly newspaper (hosted on our website), potential members will have free access to some of the valuable information that had previously only been available to dues paying members, are directed to our website, and presented more reasons to be a member.
    b. Flickr - We've been posting photos from association events on Flickr, as well as meetings with higher-profile state government officials and legislators, and photos submitted by members of their local, chapter meetings and social gatherings. By using this tool, we are able to help build the sense of community and ownership in the association among all of our members. Having photos available online for our younger members gives them the freedom to share the photos on their own social networking sites and reach young co-workers who may not be members. They will be able to see all the events and access being a member to TSEA allows, such as our annual Lobby Day where the association pays for members to come to Nashville and meet with their legislators at important times during Session to discuss bills that will affect their jobs.
    c. Podcasts - This is a venue we have not yet explored, but one that I feel would be a great asset to growing our membership and appealing to younger members because of the convenience factor associated with podcasts. Information delivered while you can do other things - my generation loves to multi-task, so it would be a perfect vehicle for marketing ourselves. If we have a weekly podcast with our Employee Rights representative, they could give advice to new employees/members on how to navigate the appeals process when faced with a disciplinary action. Or our Executive Director could discuss the impact of the latest changes in policy and how TSEA is working with the Administration to make sure no employees are hurt by the changes. The convenience of having that type of information at your disposal while stuck in traffic to and from work, or to be able to listen to it while running on a treadmill is valuable and will only improve our image.

3-2 Blog: Unrestricted Web Publishing

I happen to love Huffington Post (unapologetic liberal, here, but I try to be moderate about it), so it was easy to jump on the website for this week's blog assignment.

And maybe this is just my brain having a difficult time switching gears from our readings (which is a good thing), but I've never noticed just how superficial HuffPo can be. Headlines like "RiRi's Beach Body" and "Gaga Drops $$$" occupy the same space as "John Kerry's Wife Hospitalized" and "Crew Tried to Abort Landing Seconds Before Crash," which makes my head a little spiny. When did we as a society decide Kanye West's activities are on par with the Government Protests in Egypt and that we're okay with that?

My cynical side immediately begins to whisper "Breads and Circuses," but I digress. My selection for the assignment? A short article with four citations:

Armed Protesters Rally in Texas, Denied Entry into State Capitol Building

Armed demonstrators gathered outside the Texas capitol building in Austin on Wednesday, seeking to highlight the state's right to openly carry rifles. While some were unsettled by the display, the protesters said the event was designed to get people accustomed to the weapons and show that those carrying them were normal citizens. 

"That's why we're here. Trying to make people feel more at ease, so they don't feel that way," said Scott Smith, a member of the group Open Carry Texas, which organized the event. 

Spectators weren't the only ones made uneasy by the firearms. Members of the group came with their guns loaded, according to KEYE-TV, which at one point prompted troopers stationed at the capitol to ask the protesters to consider removing the magazines from their rifles. They declined, noting that they were within their rights to have live rounds in their weapons. 

Later in the day, demonstrators attempted to enter the state capitol building with their guns out. They were turned away by a trooper, who told them that while concealed handguns were permitted inside, their semi-automatic assault rifles weren't. 

In Colorado, other gun rights activists used Independence Day to rally for their cause. Members of a local tea party group brought their weapons to a parade in Custer County, Colo. on Thursday, though theirs were reportedly not loaded.

The sources cited in the article were as follows (listed in order of appearance, as hyperlinked in the article & text above):

Protesters Openly Carry Guns during Texas Capitol Rally
Protesters Confront Troopers at Texas State Capitol

An Entry Reserved for Those With Guns

Hundreds bear arms in Westcliffe parade

The article was written by HuffingtonPost staffer Nick Wing, who has a mix of straight-forward news articles (AJ Marin, Pennsylvania Activist, Arrested for Writing Pro-Healthcare Message in Chalk) and opinion articles (A Year after Supreme Court Ruling, Obamacare is Still Constitutional, Nation Still hasn't Imploded) in his publishing history with the website. Beyond that, no further information is given about Mr. Wing, including his background, education, or training, or publications of the scholarly or otherwise professional persuasion.

Seeing as this is a straightforward report on an event which occurred at the Texas State Capitol, the use of local news outlets (75% of his source material) and the New York Times to round out his source material is encouraging, and there is an absence of personal bias in the article. Each source falls under the category of News and Journalistic Sites, according to the Criteria to Evaluate the Credibility of WWW Resources in our Module 3 assignment resources.

Mr. Wing covers the 5 W's and H in this article, making it informative and concise:

Who: Demonstrators, Gun Enthusiasts, and members of Open Carry Texas
What: The demonstrators made passersby and members of the Texas State Police uneasy by assembling with a large cache of loaded weapons, and were denied entry to the Capitol due to safety concerns
Where: Texas State Capitol - Austin, Texas
When: July 3, 2013
Why: "...the protesters said the event was designed to get people accustomed to the weapons and show that those carrying them were normal citizens."
How: Second Amendement Right to Bear Arms, First Amendement Right to Assemble

All source material is current, with the exception of the New York Times Article, An Entry Reserved for Those With Guns. However, this article (published in March 2013) was used as background for the group's attempt at entry into the Capitol: A majority of Texas Legislators have concealed carry permits and exercise their right to carry firearms with them while within the walls of the Capitol, and it has been stated numerous times that there is an ease within the Capitol regarding the presence of firearms. This sentiment reflects the desires of the group, Open Carry Texas, and thought it would be enough to permit entry.

The article is overall well rounded, objective, and informative, making it a great source of information. But there was a lot of research necessary to make that determination, and that is far more than most people are willing to do when reading the news themselves. This makes the role of the responsible journalist all the more important. 

2-3 Blog: Social Media and Truth

How do I know what I know? Is it too pretentious to turn philosophical when answering this question to say I am the sum of my experiences, and that is the only way I know what I know? Yeah? Yeah, that's what I figured. 

But it is true - I know what I know because of my experiences. My experiences in education, my experiences stumbling through life, my experiences observing others. And much of that observation today takes place on websites like Facebook, Twitter, online forums like Oh No They Didn't (a celebrity gossip site that is a guilty pleasure of mine), LinkedIn, and even in the comment sections of mainstream news websites.

Here's a specific example of something I learned through social media, and the steps I typically go through when encountering information like this:

Without getting too much into detail, the subject of GMOs/Monsanto/Organic food is very important to me. My fiance and I are Paleo and have made a conscious effort to further change our diet to eliminate High Fructose Corn Syrups, only consume local, organic produce from farms we can actually visit here around Nashville, only consume meat and eggs from animals that are free-range/cage-free/no growth hormones/no antibiotics/fed their natural diets and not stuffed with corn by-products, etc. 

So while I am already predisposed to be more receptive to information from sources sharing my views, I still do my research. I found this on the Occupy Monsanto Facebook page, which I follow, but I'm aware that so much information out there is subject to the special interest and affirmation models of journalism, especially now. One of my favorite quotes states, "Journalism is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations.*" I like to use this as a reminder to myself to be skeptical when reading information presented to me as "news."

When I see a graphic like this, I read it. I try to get past my own personal feelings of wanting to pump my fists in the air, scream "VIVA LE REVOLUTION!" and run to the nearest supermarket to topple over the tables of obvious yet unlabeled GMO food displays. And once I get past all of that, I begin researching each point made before even thinking about sharing it. I look up the basics of crop rotation, because I don't fully remember what I learned in high school social studies; I look up the basics of biology and pollination  I do so because the moment I share it, I take responsibility in disseminating this information - if its false, I share responsibility in spreading propaganda and false information, so I need to research. Those words become by own, and I have a personal standard of speaking truthfully.

I think new media is a great way to discover general concepts of new information. But just like Wikipedia, it should be treated as a point by which you can begin research trails to verify information and find out for yourself what is truth and what is just rabble-rousing.

*This quote is traditionally credited to either William Randolph Hurst or George Orwell. I've never been able to find a definitive answer on who is the actual source of the quote, but does it really matter? Its so true.

1-5: Influence of the Media

Social Media has completely revolutionized the mode of communications in my lifetime, never mind how it has drastically changed the function in which communications serves the world today. From the simple, otherwise inter-personal communications between my family and I separated by 600 miles, to the communications I put out each day for my job, broadcasting breaking news and official statements to the 14,000+ membership of our organization across the state of Tennessee, new media has allowed people to get in touch both instantaneously and at their convenience. 

I have a smart phone, and on that phone, I have access to everything I would on a computer. I can conduct my business via personal email as well as work email, making me accessible to family and co-workers 24 hours a day. I have my Twitter app set up for my personal twitter account as well as my work account and can seamlessly switch between the two if the need arises to live-tweet information to our membership during a legislative committee hearing. I have Facebook installed for my own, personal use as well as the Facebook Pages Manager app installed so that I can communicate to our membership via Facebook. And of course, I've mastered the Goggle search, cut + paste, type with my thumbs at lightning speed skills that have earned me the lead role of social media management at my job because my co-workers are still struggling to understand Facebook's function in their own lives.

And that function has changed drastically from the early days of social media. My generation is the cusp of the old and the new - I remember not having a computer and how big of a deal it was to have one at all, much less have a computer with access to the internet. Whereas my parents are still confounded by email attachments and my younger cousins are far more savvy with an iPad than I am, I still find my life dictated by the flow of social media. We post our daily comings and goings, no matter how mundane they may be because someone will identify, surely. We post pictures of our family, our friends, our food, we post graphics and memes that reflect our attitudes and beliefs on all things political, social, and religious when not too long ago, such heavy commentary in casual forums was considered faux pas.

You know everyone's reactions to national tragedies, scandals, and daily events before you've even been able to thoroughly research and formulate your own reaction. In a way, that is a huge negative I've observed due to new media - what was previous private and organic has become not only public, but its trendy. Perhaps one of the redeeming features Facebook has enacted recently is the ability to choose what types of updates you receive from your friends and how frequently they pop up on your news feed because it puts that veil of ignorance back into place. If I don't agree with my cousin's highly conservative, right-wing views on politics and social policy, I can hide him from my news feed all together. That way, it is not perceived as rude that I've un-friended him over his differing views, and I only have to hear them around the dinner table at family gatherings and holidays, just like the good ol' days.

But along with the customization of your information consuming experience is a responsibility I feel we all have, but seldom uphold. That is to make sure that we base said opinions on accurate, verifiable information. To illustrate the point, take the example of the graphics we've all seen posted on Facebook by a friend or family member which attributes a quote to the person depicted in the graphic and it is used to either support or tear down that person's credibility, depending on the preferred spin of the source. Often, such quotes or commentary are taken out of context or erroneously attributed to the target. If we all took a moment to research the authenticity of the quote or the source instead of blindly pressing "Share" and taking on the weight of that graphic as our own opinion, we would be responsibly sharing information and being accountable for ourselves and our own reputations. While this is just one example on a micro-cosmic scale regarding the ethical and responsible use of new media, it is one of the realities we all face every day when participating in social media. I believe it is worth exploring our own roles in the process and how we can positively or negatively contribute to the ongoing and growing influence new media has in our world.