Social Media Tools

Assignment: Choose two Social Media Tools that you have not used before and try them out. Compare these two tools and share your thoughts about which one will reach audiences most effectively. Explain your rationale.

The two social media tools I chose to review were Social Bookmarking and Mashups. I have never engaged in either of these social media tools so I decided to give them a try!

For the social bookmarking site, I chose Diigo. I’d heard of this site before but was honestly too intimidated to try it out. But for this assignment I decided to brave the world of Diigo. I’m still exploring the site, but so far I have created a “list” and added two separate websites. I haven’t quite mastered the “highlight” feature yet – it still eludes me, but I’m trying! I like the idea of social bookmarking where I can keep all my websites or articles of interest in one place with personal notes and highlighted sections all neatly labeled and categorized. I also like the idea of sharing my bookmarks with others, but I believe I’ll mostly keep this site for myself. In fact, I can see Diigo becoming my “academic” site to organize any information I may use for school such as articles for research papers, videos for content and sourcing, etc.

The other social media tool I chose was a mashup site. The site I decided to try was Popurls. This is a mashup site that gives you all the trending social news from various sites. Categories of Popurls include Entertainment, Technology, Politics, and more. I really like how this site takes the most popular stories from websites and puts them into one convenient location.

It is difficult to say which of these tools will reach audiences most effectively since both of them serve very different purposes. A social bookmarking site could be more effective since people enjoy sharing their thoughts, opinions, and experiences. But don’t they have Facebook for that? You could also argue that a site like Popurls would not be as effective since individuals do not like to entertain ideas and opinions outside their own. For example, an individual may be religious about retrieving his or her news from CNN versus FoxNews. In this case, the individual would head straight to the CNN website.

However, I do believe that mashups are more popular since they tend to bring together two things and meld them together. For example, the 2013 Grammys featured PSY Gangnam Style doing a mashup with MC Hammer’s Too Legit To Quit. People went crazy for the combination.

See the Grammys video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12gfHA6vwj0

The Grammys mashup was so popular that the Walt Disney Parks & Resorts Creative Entertainment department decided to incorporate this into the ever famous “Hooplah” of Star Wars Weekends where the characters of Star Wars simulated the PSY and Hammer mashup. It was a hit!

See the Star Wars Weekends video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmD1sW2vgmU

Therefore, in general, I feel mashups have the potential to be most effective to audiences. However, that is not to say that social bookmarking sites may not catch on in the future.

I really enjoyed this assignment for my COMM 510 class and getting my feet wet in these social media sites!

COMM 500 - Technology Takes Over

Assignment: After reviewing this week’s resources, create a blog entry titled “Technology Takes Over.” Share your thoughts regarding Joe Sabia’s unique use of technology to tell a story. Explore the use of advanced technology and its power to replace human activity, communication, and personal interaction. In your opinion, what drives society’s obsession with technology, and what impact will M2M have on the future of the American worker and the national economy?

After watching Joe Sabia’s storytelling technique, all I can say is “wow.” He was maneuvering his device so fast that it was almost distracting. However, it is definitely a unique way for him to get this point across and share the story of Lothar Meggendorfer via technology.

Why is our society is obsessed with technology? Reasons bound, but my guess would be that we are obsessed with technology for the sake of convenience. We are always looking for ways to make our lives easier hence the term, “work smarter, not harder.” We are also looking for ways to accomplish more with less. The best way for us to create ease in our day-to-day involves technology. Think about the days when we actually had to write a letter, address the envelope, put a stamp on it, and place it in the mail…then wait for it to arrive at its destination! What a pain staking process!

With the increased use of technology in our society, it seems that we are facing less and less face-to-face interaction with people. We use e-mails, instant messaging, text messaging, etc and are relying less and less on communicating in person – over the phone or face-to-face. This is what I thought of when I read the article about the refrigerator being able to order more milk. In the future, will we ever go to the store? Or will there simply be individuals (or machines!) filling grocery orders and shipping them to various households, which will completely negate the need for the grocery store! Therefore, grocery stores will become obsolete including cashiers, stockers, etc. What will happen to my local grocer, Publix, whose tag line is "Where shopping is a pleasure!" 

Then there is the question of how companies will get new products out there. I know my grandmother loves to go up and down every aisle of the grocery store in order to see what new products are on the market. Will companies include a “new products flyer” in your order? Free samples? Perhaps there will be a screen on the refrigerator that advertises new products and you can select to order them.

One final thought: A co-worker of mine utilizes the technology of Nest, “the smart thermostat that learns what temperatures you like, turns itself down when you're gone, and is remotely controllable through Wi-Fi,” and wonders when this technology will be coming to cars (Dickey, 2013). For example, your car will automatically know the route you take to work and thus drive itself there. Yep, I believe that day is coming in our technological world.

Dickey, M. (2013). The Internet of Things is Finally Here and Soon Your Fridge Will Buy

Milk For You.  Business Insider.

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-the-internet-of-things-will-

evolve-2013-1#ixzz2HvaSm3F0

COMM 510: Blog Post - Week #3

The story I decided to review can be found here:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/06/fox-news-anna-kooiman-obama-parody_n_4053994.html?ir=Media

I decided to look into this story simply because its content caught my eye as something that we all need to be aware of since, as you will see, even those in the industry overlook the reputation of their sources.

This story is about Anna Kooiman, Fox News host, taking for granted information she heard of President Obama using his own funds to re-open a Muslim museum after the government shutdown. It turns out, the story originated from National Report – a parody news site, and can be found here:

http://nationalreport.net/obama-uses-money-open-muslim-museum-amid-government-shutdown/

Long Island Newsday claims that Kooiman didn’t cite a source, but noted that National Report had posted the falsehood. The L.A. Times comments that National Report, classified as a satirical news site, “seems more about spreading misinformation than social critiques” (Blake, 2013).

The impact of this unrestricted web publishing is obvious – Kooiman took the information as fact and, as a result, compromised the credibility of herself and her news station. I was unable to find any information on where Kooiman first learned of the information, but it would be interesting to note how she heard of this information herself.

In my opinion, this website is classified as a new and journalistic site – a location where “anyone can publish his or her own ‘news’ on the Web” (Montecino, 1998). However, who is to blame in this instance? Kooiman for not checking her facts? Or the website for allowing such information to be posted? I believe it is the fault of each party.

My father always said anyone who tells you to trust him or her simply because he or she is a professional was lying. He used to say, “You can be a professional nose-picker, that doesn’t mean anything.” Crude as it may be, when it comes to web content, I believe him. It is our job as readers and consumers of media to research "any evidence that the author of the Web information has some authority in the field...[his or her] qualifications, credentials, and connections to the subject" (Montecino, 1998). 

Blake, M. (2013). Fox News host sorry for false report of Obama funding Muslim

museum. L.A. Times.

            http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/tv/showtracker/la-et-st-fox-news-

anna-kooiman-obama-muslim-museum-funding-shutdown-20131007,0,2852302.story

Montecino, V. (1998). Criteria to Evaluate the Credibility of WWW Resources.

George Mason University.

http://mason.gmu.edu/~montecin/web-eval-sites.htm

COMM 510: Blog Post - Week #2

A lot of what I know stems from listening to what other people are talking about or, in other terms, what’s “trending.” I retrieve a lot of such information from family and friends. Depending on the person, the content, or where they claim they heard the information, I do my own type of research and follow-up.

As I was reading through my Twitter feed today, I saw an article from The Economist that talked about why Brazil is such an expensive country. You can view the article here: http://tinyurl.com/luo2n2z

I believe the information to be true based on other reports I’ve read regarding the currency appreciation and taxes in Brazil. However, for the purposes of this assignment, I did choose to log onto the “About Us” section of The Economist website and learned much more about the organization as a whole that made me believe even more in their reporting. What I discovered is that The Economist does not include authors or their work because they believe that what is written is more important than who wrote it. I also learned that, since 1928, half the shares of The Economist have been owned by the Financial Times (a subsidiary of Pearson) and by independent shareholders. The board of trustees appoints the editor. (The Economist, About Us)

I believe, as the example mentioned above, social media sites are definitely reliable for obtaining credible information. However, like anything else, you must go to the source and determine the validity of the information. If a friend of mine had posted this same information I would have asked her to cite her sources or give me evidence of why we should take this as fact.

The Economist. (2013). Abous Us.

http://www.economist.com/help/about-us#About_Economistcom