How young people use social networks for news, particularly on Facebook July 20, 2010
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentSome edited highlights from a BBC focus group of 19-39-year-olds:
*very clear understanding of what they wanted from Facebook (Twitter barely mentioned)
*sophisticated appreciation of the image they projected through FB… most used it for both personal and professional reasons
*used it on both their mobiles and their PCs, but to do different things. Mobile usage is about need; PCs about choice and pleasure
*all saw comment and discussion as a key component of enjoying news on FB
*very mixed view too on what kind of news should be posted by news organisations on FB (light vs serious). Most accepted that it was probably a good idea for media organisations to ‘put it all out there’ and let people pick and choose for themselves.
Having said that, nobody really believed what they read on Facebook, even if it had mainstream media branding all over it. If they wanted to know about a particular story, they would go directly to a mainstream media website either first, or via FB
Mobile breakthrough? Footage from cameraphones is now widely accepted July 20, 2010
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentOn a documentary about Neda Agha Soltan, who was shot in demonstrations in Tehran last summer (BBC College of Journalism blog):
“The home video feel of the conversations with her mother, sister and father meshes well with the footage from the streets filmed on mobile phones and uploaded to You Tube and Facebook.
The film has gone viral in Iran with the active support of HBO. So far it’s not been seen on British television, but you can watch it on You Tube.
After a recent screening at the Frontline Club in London, its director, Anthony Thomas, answered questions.
[...]
…the wider audience is far more accepting of You Tube quality footage than documentary buffs might think. It is now the raw material of news and therefore of documentaries – and Thomas and his team made great use if it.
When even a highly-produced programme like the BBC’s Imagine includes an interview with Canadian writer Margaret Atwood on Skype, in its recent profile of Diana Athill, you know that shift is permanent.”
Four factors critical to journalism and publishing October 23, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , 1 comment so farAdam Tinworth flags up social, mobile, real-time, and location-aware technology:
"I think it [this graphic] neatly encapsulated the four issues that will effect the web, and which the publishing business needs to get its head around. I talk a lot about social on here, and the whole hyper-local journalism movement is, to some degree, predicated on the idea of geo-centric technology, even if the potential benefits of geocoding information haven't really been discussed.
The whole mobile environment has been changed by the new breed of smart phones, led by the iPhone, which are turning users into voracious data consumers on the move, and the Real Time web is becoming, in a technological sense, a very real proposition (and, if fact, I should write a post about that).
This graphic is the sort of thing every publisher and journalist should be looking at and thinking "what does this mean for what I do?" "
Phone app lets news readers be extraordinarily helpful September 21, 2009
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentSteve Outing on the Extraordinaries: "…a brilliant concept in empowering the crowd to do good things. Foremost, the idea is to allow people to use the little bits of spare time they have (riding the bus home, waiting at the DMV, waiting for the movie to start, etc.) to do small bits of volunteering using the Extraordinaries iPhone app. Examples include tagging photos for the Smithsonian or other museums. The San Diego Voice investigative news website is asking people to use the app to record location and photos of city agencies and buildings wasting water during the current drought period.
This app and model of micro-volunteering has potentially huge implications for journalism. Reporters and editors should be thinking about how Colker’s project can help them improve and expand their reporting and research projects. I hope you’ll listen to the interview."
Which social media tools are most useful to journalists? October 16, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentDigital strategist Amy Webb in the Knight Foundation newsletter:
"… I challenge anyone to prove that the future of journalism won't somehow involve mobile technology. My company is currently researching a number of mobile tools that would use GPS and other location-based services to target information that can be used on the fly. Yes, it's great to know what crime is happening in my neighborhood or which local bar is renewing its liquor license. But what if I'm in someone else's neighborhood? What if there's a fire burning nearby? A bad traffic accident up the road?
[…] what if my mobile phone had an application that pinpointed exactly where I was on a map, and then delivered the most recent news on subjects that I preferenced? It would be a hyper-sensitive aggregator of everything that I cared about that could dynamically update and change, based on my location. This would be useful to journalists… news organizations …and to consumers who want to be more civically engaged."
Donald Clark Plan B: txtng (the gr8 db8) October 6, 2008
Posted by Jonathan Hewett in : delicious links , add a commentA review of David Crystal's study of texting: "It’s good to see some sound, academic sense in a field that’s dominated by amateur newspaper hacks like John Humphries (in the Daily Mail), John Sutherland (in the Guardian) and Lynn Truss, who see texting as some sort of illegitimate attack on language. Disgruntled Boomers, who know little or nothing about either texting or liguistics love to crow on about how it’s debasing the language and producing generation of illiterate idiots. A widely distributed newspaper story in 2003 stated that a student had written an entire essay in textspeak. Turns out this was made up and the essay has never been found. […] But the true worth of the book is in tearing down popular misconceptions. Texting, according to Crystal is:
Not new
Not restricted to the young
Doesn’t abbreviate as much as you think it does
Helps rather than hinders literacy
Produces wonderful forms of language"