New Media and Journalism

The mashable article about the 10 uses of social media was pretty interesting. I liked that it pointed out the ‘real world’ uses of things most people think of as toys. Like Skype for example. Lots of people use it to stay in touch and it is especially great for keeping in touch with international friends, its much much cheaper, but it can also be used by journalists for interviews, especially when the interview would otherwise require a lot of travel. This also translates more deeply into general business. Now there are many programs to initiate online business meetings. These make it convienient for many people around the globe to get together and get things done without actually having to be in the same room. This also makes it easier to record things such as interviews or meetings for later use if need be. I also liked that the article pointed out that journalists need to be wary of the content on their social media. I think this applies to everyone really, because even though we may not like it, employers are looking at our facebooks and twitters to get a peek into our character and everyone should make sure these things aren’t going to hurt their chances.

–Christina

Michael Jackson

This article definately made sense to me. I was at work when TMZ put out the news that he had died, and anyone and everyone at work with internet on their phones was trying to find out more details. It was definately putting social media to the test to find out the truth. The way this news spread was very interesting to me. I’ve found that recently I get more news from my friend’s facebook status then from an actual news media source. The article mentioned the amount of tweets the news recieved and how it was the most tweets since election time. This to me shows that we use our social media to share our opinions about things that are important to us, and relevant to us right in this moment. Some chastise new media for its “shallow” uses, such as the mass amounts of people weighing in on Michael Jackson’s death and surrounding circumstances, but I also feel like its definately a good way to get the word out in both personal news and more universal news.

–Christina

Getting Political with Social Media

The Technology Review article about Obama and social media had some interesting points. Social media definately had a huge part in this past election, and Obama’s use of social media in my opinion left his opponents in the dust as far as reaching out in as many possible ways. The shift in communication from more traditional means to new media use today has been compared to the introduction of television in the 60′s and its effect on the elections then. So in the 1960′s it was who has more television viewers, and today its who has more facebook friends. What will future elections hold in the way of new communication?

–Christina

Social Media is not a fad

Found this video on a blog , it has some pretty interesting social media statistics. What do you think?

 

-Emily

 

Facebook Racist??

At first glance, the article “Does Social Networking Breed Social Division?” seems to be slightly insane. Facebook causes white flight? I thought to myself no way that is possible. You can find any person of any race, age or educational level on facebook these days so that sort of shocked me. Then I read on. I started reading about how facebook users are much faster to start “bashing” myspace users. That made me laugh a little. How many times have you facebook users been asked if you have myspace? What was your response? I recall one specific time when someone asked if they could look me up on myspace and I quickly responded with a “No way, myspace is creepy! Find me on facebook.” Rediculous right? What is the difference between the two? True facebookers will say that only got it because originally you had to have a college email account and it was a great way to keep in touch with high school friends. But now I post pictures and my aunt and mom comment on them within 10 minutes. Facebook is now the exact same a myspace and is getting worse and worse ever time an 8 or 80 year old gets an account.

Foursquare

The Wortham article about Foursquare talked about a new way of getting together with friends. Rather than text a friend to ask “Where are you?” or “Let’s get together” you can just look up their location on foursquare. Foursquare also plays to our competitive nature as humans to protect the “mayorships” of locations one aquires by going there.  This creates a game that gets adults to go out and do new things. This system is very beneficial to small businesses who can attract visitors by offering perks for people who use foursquare and come to their shop frequently. Foursquare also helps spread the word on new businesses as well, if one person sees a friend in a nearby cafe they’ve never tried, they’re more likely to go in and see their friend and try the cafe as well.

-Christina

Keep Second Life Second

This video about second life and education made me feel a little uncomfortable about how much we are allowing technologies, such as SL, flood our everyday lives. While the video makes good points in terms of being submersed in the culture of what we are studying, (i’d love to “talk to” Shakespeare characters!) I think that letting SL dictate this realm of our lives is taking technology too far. We have to draw the line somewhere, right? Movies such as the Matrix, and the soon to be released “Surrogates” (whose trailer I have included below), are meant to be of the imagination–but it doesn’t take much to imagine their world as a reality. I understand that the idea of Second Life is to completely live another life on the internet, and it is this idea that makes me nervous. I almost feel better knowing that people use SL to play out fantasies than I do for them living their real lives, it seems too easy to completely lose yourself. Education and carrying out other “real life” actions completely in SL just seems to be a connecting link to this totally technologically driven world we see in the movies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwTJ7mCcFoY

-Emily

Education

This video was really good at highlighting the changes in education that are coming our way. Many classrooms today are being filled with computers, projectors, and smartboards rather than pencils, notebooks, and chalkboards. The question at the end really grabbed my attention, are we really preparing ourselves for the right future? Are we staying technologically inclined enough to keep up with the progress we demand? What kind of education should we prepare for our children to help them keep up? There seem to be many questions needing to be answered.

–Christina.

Texting: Helpful or Harmful?

     While reading this article I remembered when my mom didn’t want me to text, because she thought I would be texting my life away, yet now I get texts from her nearly every day just to talk and see how I’m doing. The article tells us that being so connected to our parents is harmful, but I disagree. I know that for me, texting my parents allows me to let them know I’m ok or to ask a quick question without having to call them when I might not have time for a conversation, or it gives me the ability to finish what I’m doing then respond to them when I’m more able to focus on what they’re saying. I can also ignore a text if I think they’re not giving me enough space.
       I think everyone is familiar with the feeling of waking up to the beep of your phone at 3am because someone just had to text you something, I know its happened to me. Some people ask why we don’t just turn our phones off when we’re sleeping, but a lot of times we’re too scared to not be connected if something should happen. So, overall…helpful or harmful?

–Christina

GREEN New Media: The Finale

Emily, Molly and Christina are three women with three different focuses–PR/Business/Networking, Science/Biology/Health and Fashion/Merchandising/Textiles, respectively. Within their specific focuses they have all recognized the power of the Green Movement and have therefore declared the following statement as their final research project question…

How has the media and new technology advanced the Green movement from scientists and activists, to a vast audience in mainstream America?

Within this framework, they will ask:

• What is the science of the Green Movement? Where did it begin? Where was the “spark” in interest? How has it grown to help the medical field? Are hospitals investing in sustainability? How so?
• How has it evolved into the realm of business? Where do we see it the most? How popular is sustainability in the corporate atmosphere? Is it recognized as part of this “New Economy”? How can American Green business trends teach different economies across the globe?
• How has the fashion world responded to this trend? In what way do popular trends among celebrities reflect the Green Movement? How have they helped to create a “buzz”?

We are very excited to study the effects that New Media has had in advancing this specific cause, and hope to realize similar trends throughout our research which can be further applied to new, worthwhile causes.

Sincerely,
Emily, Molly and Christina