Category: Mashable

January 30, 2014 media notes: Facebook Paper released, China expels NYT reporter, FOX most and least trusted media

1/30/2014

Here are some media notes for Thursday, January 30, 2014:

Facebook's new story curation application for the iPhone is called Paper. It pulls in stories, photos and other content and delivers it in a photo-emphasized format, somewhat like the popular Flipboard app. The company has created partnerships with several journalism firms for content and will soon hire editors to curate particular categories. Lance Ulanoff of Mashable notes that, even though Paper is a content application, Facebook does not want to be known as a media company. Josh Constine from TechCrunch says the app permits Facebook to act a little more like a startup than a legacy firm. The Daily Mail thinks paper will cannabalize Facebook itself, while The Verge says at the very least the Facebook app has been bested by the company.

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The United States has expressed deep concern about press freedom in China after the country forced a New York Times reporter to leave. Reporter Austin Ramzay indicated he has been asked to leave the country. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the move is inconsistent with principles of press freedom and incongruent with American treatment of Chinese journalists.

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The results are in, and FOX News is the most trusted media source in America. And the least trusted. The Public Policy Polling firm found that 35% of Americans trusted FOX News more than any other source and 33% said it was the least trusted source. Among Republicans, FOX polled a 69-per-cent approval. Among Democrats, PBS had a slight edge (21%) over CNN and ABC (18% each). Overall, though, of the eight sources studied, only one was consistently trusted among Republicans and Democrats: PBS, with a 57-per-cent trust level.

media notes 12.31.13

12/31/2013

Today marks a year-long effort in providing six-days-a-week notes on media. These notes have been curated links, with precious little observation and almost no commentary. That will change in the time ahead. For a taste of where I'm going, have a look at my beta site, www.presswatching.com, as I slowly find a voice on media commentary.

I am grateful for the many nice comments over the year. The site went past the 500,000-page-view level, which is a nice-sized community of regular users. I hope that the next year will see some growth in the content and community to help all of us understand the direction of news media. Thank you for being part of a conversation and best in 2014.

Meantime, here are some media stories of note for Tuesday, December 31, 2013:

Gregory Galant, the CEO of MuckRack, has created a nice listing of journalism and Twitter in 2013: the journalists with the largest following, the news organizations with most Tweeps, the newbies on the platform with the largest following, and so on.

There is quite the to-do about an interview on the new technology site, The Information, by founder Jessica Lessin with Y Combinator co-founder Paul Graham. In it Graham seems to make a disparaging remark about women and tech. He has complained, though, that his quote was edited. She has had to counter with an explanation. And Michael Arrington has weighed in with judgment.

Mashable notes how magazine ad sales have been bolstered by the presence of tablets, particularly the iPad, but wonders if it's too little, too late to save the business model of the medium across various platforms. Revenue declines more than offset the revenue growth.

media notes 05.29.13

5/29/2013

Some media stories of note for Wednesday, May 29, 2013:

Matthew Cooper, writing in The National Journal, argues that a new shield law for journalists in the U.S. is only a portion of what's needed. Unless prosecutors stop pursuing reporters, the law has little effect. This is one area where custom trumps statute, Cooper writes, and where prosecutors have options they simply don't use. Unless they desist, he says the shield law will prove ineffective at preventing journalistic chill.

Craig Silverman, writing for Poynter, identifies three key areas that would be useful for journalists (and the public) in the absence of a correction tool for Twitter. He says it's a good idea to develop an understanding of best practices and to widely distribute them. He believes there are tools to use for verification and to enable those best practices. And he argues that there is value in finding ground to cooperate in so-called breaking news.

Mashable reports (on an eMarketer report about a Brightroll study) that suggests advertising executives believe online videos are just as or even more effective than television advertising in reaching audiences. Those surveyed also believe video ads are more effective than other forms of online advertising. Research indicates that video advertising spending will grow substantially this year.

Vadim Lavrusik/Mashable: The future of social media in journalism

9/14/2010

At a relatively early stage of his career, Vadim Lavrusik is articulating well the emerging nature of our craft in a voice that is nuanced and scholarly. His latest post for Mashable is a good primer on the direction of journalism as it employs social media.

First off, he says, all media will be social.

Beyond that, though, is an array of features that will in broad outline define journalism:

1. Collaborative reporting.
2. Journalists will manage communities.
3. Social media will be integrated.
4. Online curation for the time-poor.
5. Social networks will be editors.
6. Social content will be monetized.
7. Social newsrooms will feature personal brands.
8. Mobile will engage.

Mashable: Five tools for online journalists

2/2/2010

Greg Ferenstein has posted on Mashable a list of five services and tools that help mobile journalists "rival a fully functional news team."

They're pretty basic but useful as such:

1. Google Voice for interviewing and record-keeping.
2. Ustream for uploading and downloading video.
3. Reeldirector for video editing on the iPhone.
4. Fast fingers. These aren't software, they're yours.
5. Wordpress as a publishing tool.

Mashable: What the Web of tomorrow will look like

1/24/2010

Ben Parr's column, The Social Analyst, regularly delivers insightful observations on social media. His latest has four basic predictions on the Web of the future:

1. Accessible anywhere.
2. Not focused on the computer, but on the TV or car or other devices.
3. Media-centric, not text-centric.
4. Social media will be its largest component.

"In ten years, when you access the web, most of the time you spend will be to connect with your friends. Almost all of that will be on social networks and through social media. It will be the #1 reason why we ever pull out our phones, tablets, or computers," he writes.

Mashable: Why social media might not be for you

1/18/2010

Joshua-Michele Ross, a digital strategy executive at the Fleishman Hillard communications company, has a good post on Mashable on social media that has more than a little applicability to newsrooms.

As many extol its virtues, Ross identifies some reasonable concerns organizations should have before jumping in with both feet. They're much the same reason firms should weigh any expenditure on research: If you're not going to listen, don't do it.

Ross notes that, without the ability to act upon what you learn, there is little point. Moreover, while it seems the right thing to "join the conversation" about your entity, social media can paint a bullseye on your back.

What the customer (audience) wants to talk about is not necessarily what you can.

"Ultimately if your company is willing to take the feedback and turn it into action, then social media is a competitive game changer," he writes.

Mashable and the social media journalist

12/30/2009

Mashable has assembled a smart guide for journalists in the social media age, and it has four basic principles:

1. Get in the game by adding social media tools to the toolbelt.
2. Turn your site into a community.
3. Become a new new journalist, meaning adopt the platforms and techniques.
4. Keep looking forward.

They're extremely common sense-filled, and nothing unusual, but for newsrooms beginning to engage.

Mashable's Pete Cashmore: 10 Web trends to watch

12/4/2009

CNN.com carries a feature involving Mashable's Pete Cashmore on the 10 Web trends to watch in the year ahead. Cashmore is one of the most worthy voices to follow online.

He elaborates on them, but in a nutshell they are:

1. Real-time ramp ups.
2. GPS-based services.
3. Augmented reality.
4. Content curation.
5. Cloud computing.
6. Internet TV and movies.
7. A convergence conundrum.
8. Social gaming.
9. Mobile payments.
10. Fame abundance, privacy scarcity.

Mashable: How social media is changing the newsroom

6/10/2009

Leah Betencourt of the Star Tribune contributes a post to Mashable on the impact of social media on the newsroom. Her piece is largely a recounting of do's and don't's from the Poynter Institute's Kelly McBride.

Among them:

1. Use social media because familiarity with the tools is important.
2. Always be mindful that you represent more than yourself as a journalist.
3. Assume your Tweets and posts linger longer in the digital sphere.
4. Ask your boss to follow you for accountability.

There are, of course, many more influences she could have mentioned: how trending can be used to find relevant content for your audience and how social media offer new distribution, dispatch and solicitation channels, among other things.

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