How to Detect Media Bias

In the quest for knowledge to make responsible and ethical decisions as citizens of a democratic nation, we strive fairness and facts. Although we idealize both, sometimes we get more or the other...but in most cases, neither.

Hunting for facts about what's really going on in the complexities of our nation [and the world] can be daunting. Not because it's hard to find the information, but because the news, and the practice of reporting/journalism, has become so heavily weighted in biased views of outspoken and dramatic personalities that there seems to be no 'truth' to any of it outside the particular philosophy or ideology of a given political party.

So what do engaged citizens do about this matter? -- We must make an effort to evaluate our sources and gage credibility, just as responsible and ethical journalists do.

Here are 10 questions you should ask when evaluating news that may contain a bias, and measures to take when a bias is discovered.

1. WHO are the sources? -- Be aware of the political perspective of the sources in a story. A general trend suggests that Progressive and public interest groups/voices are marginally underrepresented. Portraying issues fairly and accurately means that media organizations and news stories must account for a variety of sources. Otherwise they simply amplify the voices of those in power.

*Examine the number of government sources versus that of progressive and minority groups. Suggest to that mass media expand their source pool to give the story a more well rounded feel or opinion.

2. Is there a lack of diversity? -- What is the race to gender ratio at the news outlet compared to the audience? How many staff people are women, people of color, or openly gay or lesbian? In order to fairly represent communities, news organizations should have members of those 'minority' or diverse communities in their staff.

*It is essential that viewers who see a lack of diversity to demand that it be reflected in the organization.

3. From whose point of view is the news being reported? -- Are the issues in discussion including those who are affected by them? If a white male is talking about abortion, but makes no attempt to reference or include a female in the dialogue about it, there is clearly a misrepresentation of a credible source and a lacking in perspective.

*Demand that certain voices be heard by making your voice heard. If no one listens to those who should be included, advocate for their cause [without actually speaking for them].

4. Are there double standards? -- Does the media hold some people/groups to one standard while using a different standard for other people/groups? Double standards are heavily placed on women and minorities, and serve as a means of stereotyping, which is not only unfair, it's irresponsible journalism.

5. Do stereotypes skew coverage? -- Are certain groups being targeted that might enforce certain negative stereotypes while other groups in the same position go unnoticed because of their assumed socioeconomic status? In order to be fair on an issue, ALL sides and ALL groups should be examined in a story, not just the ones that 'make sense.'

*Work to try and educate people about the misconceptions involved in stereotypes, and how stereotypes characterize individuals/groups in negatively reinforcing ways.

6. What are the unchallenged assumptions? -- Sometimes the key point of a story is not stated outright, but it's implied. For example, coverage of rape trials will often focus on a woman's sexual history as though it calls her credibility into question and will assume that she was promiscuous, and therefor brought on the rape when in actuality, it could have been a completely random event.

*Challenge the assumption directly. If you address the assumption specifically, it will demonstrate the absurdity.

7. Is the language loaded? -- When the media uses loaded terminology, it often shapes public opinion in some dramatic (and in many cases, unfair) ways. Like when the media uses the right-wing buzzword "racial preference" to refer to affirmative action programs. By indicating 'racial' it brings attention to the fact that there is a hierarchal separation based on race.

*Show/articulate how the language used in certain cases gives people an inaccurate impression of the facts/news.

8. Is there a lack of context? -- Coverage of issues like "reverse discrimination" usually fail to focus on certain factors (like economic inequality and institutional racism) that empower prejudice.

*Work to provide the necessary context so that the idea is fully understood. This may require research, but ultimately it will help you to be more informed.

9. Do headlines match the story? -- In most cases, headlines aren't written by the reporters who write the articles. Most news hungry citizens just skim the big headlines, so misleading headlines have a significant impact on the reader's conception before they even read the article or news story.

10. Are stories on important issues featured prominently? -- Look at where the stories appear in print. Articles on widely viewed pages (the front pages and editorials) and lead stories have the greatest influence on public opinion.

If citizens hope to gather 'unbiased' news, they will most often have to filter through certain positions of ideals that can influence how that news is perceived. But if the public is made aware of potential bias, they can be prepared as to how to deal with them to become more accurately informed.

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RockMelt, the social browser

RockMelt is an intricate social browser that organizes social media with your browser better than browsers currently available internet users.

As users of the internet in the digital age, many are looking for new browsers that will meet specific needs.

The RockMelt is ultimately a social media enhanced Google Chrome. The RockMelt browser is almost an exact replica of Google Chrome other than the two vertical columns.

A visual for the browser is in the video displayed below.

Although there are many extensions that give social media components to other browsers such as Google Chrome and Firefox, RockMelt operates if and only if you put in your Facebook login.

As it can be anticipated, making it a requirement to put in your Facebook credentials in order to even just use the browser, will be a huge drawback.

I guess in the end it will all depend on what you want out of your browser.

Many people that will enjoy this browser will be the people that are wanting to naturally incorporate social media with their browser.

Since it is in the early beta stages of development and you have to sign up in order to get the browser, an alternative for a social browser right now is the Flock browser.

Just from the looks of it, it seems as if the RockMelt will be the simplified version of Flock making it a little less intrusive, and that much more appealing to users wanting a compatible social media browser.

Find out more about RockMelt's blog here.

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Free Wi-Fi On Planes this Holiday Season

With the holidays approaching many people will be traveling to see family and friends. A lot of people will be away from work and school for a period of time. For some people it is difficult to be distant from technology for less than an hour.

Since people take off work to travel for Christmas time it is nice to be able to catch up on work. What better place to do it then while on a plane where no one is really bother you and everyone is in there own world.

Google is aware of this and is offering free Wi-Fi to travelers for three different Airlines. Those three airlines are Delta, AirTran, and Virgin America. Virgin America was the only one to participate in this promotion by Google.

This year's three choices were picked to partner with the Google promotion because they have added the Gogo wireless technology to the entire fleet of planes.

Gogo the most used in-flight wireless provider in the US. Which means a lot of people during the Holidays will be taking advantage. Over 700 planes will have this feature. Which means around 15 million people will take advantage of it.

This is a great advancement in technology. Just think of a timeline of where we have come from back then to today.

The capabilities of the Internet are unrealistic. Who would ever think that on their way to Florida they could be watching YouTube videos or watching a missed television program.

I feel a lot of people will want to take part in this because a lot of people have Internet capable devices besides computers. To be able to say you were on the Internet while be 30 plus miles in the air would be awesome. The statuses like , " Just flew over the Pacific Ocean" how fun would that be.

This will be a huge success for these airlines. Potentially even swaying travelers to pick their airline over the ones that do not have the free Wi-Fi capability.

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Try New Social Media

Social Media. It's all we talk about. It's what we crave. It's how we learn.

In "The 19 Strangest Social Networks On The Web: Zombies, Hamsters, Implants And More" by Catharine Smith of The Huffington Post, readers who "are looking for something more personal or unique" can see 20 different "crazy," social mediums.

Below are the three sites that I found most interesting:

- REMcloud, or "the Twitter of dreams" according to The Wall Street Journal, lets readers post brief descriptions of dreams they had the previous night.

Creators say REMcloud is about "making deep connections happen for people all over the world, around the most unique and powerful experience we all share: OUR DREAMS."

The site focuses on people connecting after seeing that they share the same dreams. However, the site seems to have more humor to it than a deep connection. People seem to share only their most ridiculous dreams.

- HAMSTERster, just like Dogster and Catster, is a site modeled after the original Friendster. Creator David Hornbuckle says the website "is intended to be amusing but is not a complete joke."

People can share photos of their pet hamster, make friends with other hamsters and add hamsters to their family. And, if the unthinkable happens, users can check the box that says "Hamster Heaven" if they wish to make a profile in memory of their favorite friend.

- Ravelry, describes itself as "a place for knitters, crocheters, designers, spinners, weavers and dyers to keep track of their yarn, tools, project and pattern information, and look to others for ideas and inspiration."

Users can keep notes and ideas about their projects on the site, get patterns for projects added by others, share ideas and give encouragement.

If you're feeling even more outside the box, Smith shares more social mediums such as Lost Zombie– a "zombie themed social network whose goal is to created a community generated zombie movie" – which received Best of Show at the SXSW Interactive Web Awards.

Personally, I use three primary social networks: Facebook, Twitter and Flickr – a photo-sharing site. However, there are plenty of other social mediums that people – especially college students – are now using.

Two fairly popular social media sites are Texts From Last Night and FMyLife.

Texts From Last Night is just what it sounds like: people share the texts they received the previous night. The site is completely anonymous, providing an area code the text came from rather than a name.

According to the website, two friends created created TFLN "for reasons that may or may not include: the tendency to press send more easily as the night turns to morning, friends' social habits, disgraced government officials, exes, law school, closing down bars and leaving tabs open, general debauchery and/or a common disgust for all negativity surrounding the 'sexting' phenomenon."

FMyLife lets people share short descriptions of unfortunate events that happen to them during the day. They can be: funny, sad, scary, ironic.

Each post beings with "Today,..." and ends with "FML." Viewers, after reading, can click on either "I agree, your life sucks" or "you totally deserved it."

I think when people are trying to find a social media website, they need to find their niche.

If you interested in networking yourself professionally, use websites such as LinkedIn that connect employers with future employees.

If you just want a humorous website, try HAMSTERster or Texts From Last Night.

If you love being connected with everyone you know, join Facebook or Twitter.

Social media is a great resource for anything your heart desires.

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Twitter Becomes Class Involvement Tool

According to a study to be published in next week's Journal of Computer Assisted Learning Twitter is being used as means to improve class participation.

In an article by Sarah Kessler on Mashable, it is reported that this experiment conducted by Dr. Reynol Junco at Lock Haven University has seen great results.

According to the study students who were asked to complete assignments and join class discussion via Twitter raised their class involvement twice as much as the control group over a semester long period.

A 19 question survey was used at the start and end of the semester to determine each students involvement, which apparently was a success.

In addition the article points out that students who used Twitter saw a .5 increase in their GPA over the semester.

This to me seems like another point on how social media is taking over our everyday life. Using 140 characters to communicate in class seems crazy to me. I can see that this has advantages to get students of today to participate more in class by using new technology. But in reality isn't this hurting students?

It seems that Twitter and Facebook have done nothing but erase the grammar and punctuation rules that have been instilled in students heads by English teachers all over the world. Students are more apt to use slang terms than actually using proper grammar.

In my opinion this is just a dumbing down of our society. Yes social media is great for many purposes but as far as using it as a way to get students to participate, I think it is a bad idea. The only way it could be good is if students were forced to use proper grammar and punctuation which i think we all know would be tough to do.

I guess we'll just have to see if this idea takes off in more classrooms. I would really hope that it doesn't unless it is overwhelmingly helpful for students. Then it may be ok.

Photo courtesy of Carrot Creative/Flickr

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Suspended For Civic Engagment?

A top story in the headlines is the suspension and reinstatement of MSNBC host Kieth Olbermann for giving monetary donations to Democratic political candidates.

Now the question is, is it against journalistic ethics for a journalist to support one political candidate over the other?

MSNBC is a clearly left-leaning institution, though as a whole it claims to remain mainly unbiased. Kieth Olbermann is also clearly a supporter of the Democratic party.

However, Olbermann is also a journalist--and a popular one at that. Thousands of people tune into his commentaries on issues or current political proceedings.

Anyone that watches his show can clearly see that Olbermann is a Democrat supporter, so his monetary gifts shouldn't have been much of a surprise to any audience member. Therefore, is it fair that he was suspended for this act?

Some people are commenting that Olbermann should have been completely honest about giving money to the candidates from the start; but, are private citizens rightfully expected to show where their money is going?

The issue is not about whether or not Olbermann should support one candidate over another as a journalist. The issue is about whether or not a citizen in the public eye should be 1.) expected to engage in civic duties, and 2.) expected to disclose all political leanings to the public.

This can all go back to my previous blog about biases--if a person has a particular bias, he or she will present information through that bias.

Olbermann has a bias, and though he hadn't come out and said that he supported the Democratic party, his bias was still clear to the audience. The audience is able to take the information with the understanding that the information they were receiving from Olbermann came through that bias.

It shouldn't be necessary for a person like Olbermann, who is working for a clearly left-leaning company and presenting clearly left-leaning opinions, to publicly disclose his or her positions of civic involvement.

Everyone knows his bias, and every engaged citizen should be able to take information from him as it is through that bias without Olbermann needing to feed it to them.

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Russian journalist nearly beaten to death

Moscow paramedics rushed 30-year-old Russian journalist Oleg Kashin to the hospital after finding him on the steps of his apartment building covered in blood.

Unknown assailants left Kashin with a shattered jaw, fractured skull, a broken leg and crushed fingers. It is speculated that Kashin's crushed fingers indicates a revenge assault for his writing.

It has been reported that Kashin is in serious but not life-threatening condition and had induced a coma to stabilize his injuries.

Kashin is a political reporter for Kommersant, one of Moscow's mainstream dailies, where his sharp writing for youth groups is what he is known for.

In August Molodaya Gvardiya, a youth wing of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's United Russia party, displayed his displeasure by publishing Kashin's photograph and captioning it as "will be punished."

The attack further shocked Russia's media and civil rights community who have suffered many similar attacks. Kashin's colleagues are discouraged that the crime will not be solved.

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Elections Show Potential of Social Media

Midterm elections on Nov. 02 may have set a benchmark for the future synthesis of politics and innovation within news organizations.

Being an important day in U.S. politics, major news organizations tried to report their election-coverage by means of up-to-the-minute technology. The Washington Post and the New York Times were among the noticeable contributors to the new wave of social media in political news.

On election day, the Washington Post became the first news organization to buy a Twitter-promoted trend, #Election, in order to promote its election coverage and incite people to share their thoughts with all Twitter users following the trend.

According to Katharine Zales, head of digital news products at the Washington Post,"the reason we did it was not so much for the traffic. It was more to be front and center in the conversation." By doing so, the Washington Post tried to deliever real-time, multimedia, and personally engaging political discussion.

By purchasing a promoted trend on Twitter, the Post took a serious approach of social media as a medium by which news are transmitted nowadays.

In a similar way, the New York Times used social media in the form of a Twitter traffic map that showed candidates' tweets, retweets from the public and tweets directed at the candidates.

The Times also hosted its first live-streaming web coverage from its newsroom trying to make their election-coverage feel much closer to their audiences, just like TV.

It seems like news organizations today have acknowledged that new digital journalism requires a new a new approach to their audiences; hence, most of them see public engagement as an essential structure of their business.

By using flashy web aplications, live-streaming video and Twitter to cover the elections, news agencies have demonstrated the importance of innovation in making political news more engaging, immediate and widely available throught different platforms.

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'Generation sex' speaks out

Courtesy of Amazon.com

Is a sex column appropriate reading in college newspapers? Daniel Reimold, a journalism professor at the University of Tampa, believes it is.

Reimold believes that students are dealing with issues of sex on every college campus and that students should be able to have open discussions on the topic.

But is it appropriate to discuss these issues in the public of a school newspaper? One opinion in the controversy says that so many people who are reading these papers, don't pick up the paper for a sex column. Professors, alumni, parents, and people who donate money receive the paper for news, not for advice on sex.

 "The censorship comes into play 99% of the time when a single outside reader, an alumni or parent or administrator, sees the word "sex" and simply reacts," Reimold said.

He believes that many people would simply pass over the article and if they didn't, they'd likely agree with the columnist's opinion or assessment.

This generation, Reimold said, has redefined the gender roles and "there's no blueprint for how students are supposed to act with each other" anymore. Sexuality is expressed more openly now than ever before, which has earned this generation of youths the name "generation sex".

Mary Beth Marklein, a staff writer for USA TODAY, wrote about the great controversy of these columns saying, "Vibrators, cross-dressing, oral sex, multiple orgasms, masturbation, bondage — no topic is too hot to handle. And while some say the columns are supposed to educate, others say they're raunchy and irrelevant."

Many colleges across the U.S. have found that students are more likely to pick up a newspaper if they know there will be a sex column. Sex sells, of course, but there are other risks associated with printing such columns.

Oppressive stereotypes are likely to be perpetuated in the articles. Instead of educating students about sexual equality, they're likely to be printing material that "size matters" or that a man's conquest for females will gain him popularity and respect.

Are these columns meant to entertain or to educate? I think the distinction should be made completely clear to readers to avoid foreseeable trouble. Additionally, I believe the staff writers should have prior background in feminist philosophies and ethics in order to dispel stereotypes instead of perpetuating them.

This could potentially be a beneficial idea as long as there are strict boundaries and a clear sense of ethics in the matter at hand. Something as touchy and controversial as this issue should be approached carefully as it could quickly and easily spiral out of control.

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Writing Ethically

In New Mexico, a tribe banned a newspaper from its reservation because the newspaper ran a graphic article entailing the details of a tribal member's death.

This is relevant to our news-writing class because should the writer of the article disclosed the details of such a horrific manner?

I think the writer made a mistake by doing so. I don't know if any of you have had to go to a funeral home to plan the arrangements of a lost family member, but I have.

While there, you plan out what you'd like the obituary to say, which includes whether or not to include how the person died.

I know that some journalists view how a person died as hard news, but some events are probably hard to relive by reading about them later on.

Precautions should be taken to protect such outrage from occurring like the anger the tribe in New Mexico is feeling.

I feel the tribe has every right to ban the newspaper from their reservation because more than likely it's private property.

The writer shouldn't be fired though, but they should think about what they did to cause such disruption.

Feel free to agree or disagree. I'm open to comments.

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Govenrment Monitoring of Social Media

Facebook, Twitter, and Skype have ushered in a new era of global connection and social media. They have emerged rapidly over the past few years and this apparently poses a problem for the government.

The Obama administration is currently seeking legislation that would allow government to more quickly and easily monitor conversations on social networking sights.

This legislation would require companies that offer online communication providers to create backdoors to their sites encryption, making them much easier to access and monitor.

 The main concern for government is their ability to track terrorist and criminal behavior through social websites. In doing so it would bring these sites under the same scrutiny that was put on telecoms by the 1994 Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act.  

Online monitoring of possible terrorist sects and criminal activity is an understandable cause, but should the government be allowed to blatantly invade a person’s privacy in order to do so?

It would appear that the only reason that this legislation is a thought right now is because the government is failing to keep up with the ever evolving world of the online social network.

Has the government dropped the ball here? Apparently so and now they want the average person to give up their right to privacy so they can play “catch-up.

Sure, monitoring terrorists and criminals is a good cause but, doing so through a clear violation of privacy is not the way to go about it.

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Former Israeli Soldier and Journalist Arrested

Former Israeli soldier turned journalist Anat Kam has been held under secret house arrest by Israeli authorities based on allegations that during her service she leaked classified military documents suggesting that the Israeli army violated laws related to targeted killings, reports Jewish and Israel News.

Kam was working at the Israeli website Walla at the time of her arrest, partially owned by Israeli news source Haaretz. Kam is alleged to have photocopied sensitive documents, which are believed to have served as a source for a 2008 Haaretz story suggesting army violations. Kam has denied all charges.

The arrest has been under a gag order in Israel, which prevents many details of the case from being publicly released, including the prosecution's reasoning for seeking a 14-year sentence, considered harsh in Israel.

Although Israel has a long-standing history of supporting freedoms of speech and the press, there is a taboo against relaying information attained while in military service. The fact that Kam was an active officer at the time she allegedly photocopied these documents may work against her.

The 2008 article revealed the existence of documents that defy the 2006 Supreme Court ruling against the assassination of wanted militants who might otherwise be arrested safely. Another document reveals that an Israeli general permitted open-fire procedures upon identification of any of three leaders of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, even if it were not apparent that they posed a dangerous threat. Another document reveals that troops were only to withhold fire if they were unable to identify "more than one" passenger in a targeted vehicle. Both these orders violate the law, according to Haaretz's expert sources.

Dov Alfron, editor of Haaretz, denies any linkage between Kam's arrest and the 2008 article.

"Haaretz asked the court to lift the gag order, not just in the public interest but also to allow us to defend ourselves from this absurd allegation," says Alfron. "More than a year passed between the publication and her arrest, a year in which Uri Blau published several other front-page articles criticizing the army's conduct."

Both Kam's lawyers and the Israel Defense Forces declined to comment.

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Online Coupons are new Social Media Phenomenon

Just like everything else, coupons are now part of social media.

50%-90% off products and services is the ridiculous amount that is typically saved.

Customers can find anything they want, from spa treatments to hot-air-balloon rides.

Some daily deal sites include:

• Groupon
• Living Social
• Screamin Daily Deals

Daily deal websites, like those listed above, partner with local businesses. Those businesses then offer products or services with a rather large discount. Consumers can then purchase deals online, print voucher, and redeem product or service from merchant.

Customers describe this online coupon phenomenon as "addictive". After receiving their daily email of deals offered they get on Twitter or Facebook to chat with friends about whether they should buy or not.

Too good to be true? Kind of. The catch is that customers have to pay for the deal up front before receiving their coupon. Then they usually have 24 hours to use their coupon.

Online coupons have given the retail industry a much needed boost. Local merchants get cash up front and even get to keep it if customer fails to redeem a coupon.

One problem for some merchants is trying to make that thrifty shopper a regular customer. Businesses can lose money when they spend a lot promoting it but don't get regulars in the end.

Love it or hate it, online daily deals looks like they are they new way to save.

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Graphing Relationships on Facebook

It's Facebook official!

It's complicated.

An open relationship?

Single.

Whether we want to admit it, Facebook plays a huge role in our relationships.

It's the way we find out who's dating who, and the way we hear of––gasp!–– the dreaded break-up.

It's the way we find information about our significant others. I have seen many relationships pop like bubble gum after an hour of a boyfriend or girlfriend creeping and viewing their beau acting a little too chummy with Monday's lab partner.

Countless status updates tell play-by-play news of a break-up or provide a way to make digs at a former sweetheart.

In a recent article, "Facebook Status Update Tells the Story of Romance Gone Awry," Mashable's writer Brenna Ehrlich posts a data visualization from "infographic wizard" David McCandless.

From past posts, you might remember that I am officially a sucker for data visualization. McCandless created one that shows "the most common times a year that people break up."

By looking at 10,000 status updates with the phrases "break up" or "broken up," McCandless concluded that

1) People commonly break up before Spring Break. There were also high numbers during summer.

2) Relationships often end on Mondays. Could this maybe be the result of bad choices on the weekend?

3) In the weeks before Christmas couples end it.

and finally 4) People actually have the audacity to break up with their honey on April Fool's Day.

It's almost comical how big of a role Facebook plays in our relationships. Makers of "Facebook Infomercial Parody" agree.

This YouTube video "pokes" fun at Facebook terms for relationships–– married, it's complicated, etc.–– as well as the stake people put into them.

Any time I see a relationship status move to "single," I clench my teeth. I always see comments responding to it saying "Why?" or "This better be a joke." Even worse, when the person actually responds and puts intimate information of his or her relationship on Facebook for all to see.

This is just too much. Why do users feel the need to press people for information about their personal lives on a social medium? If you really want to know that badly, call them up!

Furthermore, talking about how you "don't know why you broke up. He just came to my house and said it was over," will just make it awkward for former couples later when everyone knows every detail of their separation.

In the end, however, users of Facebook see status updates as a way to get through the tough times of a break-up. I can completely understand that. It's important for people to not hold all of their emotions in.

However, remember that this is a social medium. You should be cautious of what you all share on the topic.

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LinkedIn Launches New Feature

LinkedIn the business-oriented social networking site has recently launched a new feature which allows members to see reviews of businesses of their products and services.

It is not only designed to benefit the members of LinkedIn, but also to give the companies a new form of publicity.There is 40 companies taking part in the premiere launch. Some are big name companies such as Dell, Hewlett Packard, and Volkswagen.

This is going to be a great feature for members of LinkedIn to have the companies they would like to know about right in front of them on on website. They can see all the information about the different products and be able to compare with other companies products.

Also, when people are inquiring about products the companies have the ability to state their strongest recommendation to the members.

Not only can the companies display their reviews to products and services. They can display videos and information about their products. This will become a new way of advertising for a lot of different companies.

With a huge number passing 80 million members on LinkedIn. I don't see why companies wouldn't want to be involved in this new feature. There are a lot of business people on LinkedIn and want to know about what products that can make their jobs just that much better and it can be right at the click of a mouse.

This one feature proves how technology is slowly taking over not only for communication, but for ways of advertising for companies. If they can save money by being part of a LinkedIN feature then why spend the money to be in all the magazine adds. When most likely the people interested in their services and products are on LinkedIN as well.

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Coverage of elections flood social media

The day that many have been anticipating, but most have been dreading, has come and passed.

Election Day.

Amidst the sea of political attack ads, there have been efforts to actually enact change in the states this year via the voices of politicians leaving the same automated recordings on voicemails, activists and supporters hassling college campuses, and recently, candidates' usage of social medias to penetrate the desired voting demographics.

While this may seem like a valiant effort to stay 'up with the times,' in actuality, social media looks to be the most effective way of sharing information related to this year's elections.

Traditional broadcast news does a good enough job cluttering the airways and news stations with debate after debate and ad after ad, which can seem mind-numbing and mundane after months of over stimulation. But what social medias like Facebook, Twitter, & Foursquare are doing instead is making it possible for potential voters to have an active say in their voting activities.

When I logged onto Facebook this Election Day-morning, this is what I saw first: A vote counter. Awesome? Yes. It was.

After the initial annoyance-factor wore off, I realized, "Hey, this is a good reminder for 20 somethings like myself and other young people to vote. How clever, Facebook."

And guess what: I guarantee it worked for many people my age to go out and cast a ballot... But it didn't just stop there.

According to LostRemote.com, big news stations and corporations like ABC, CBS, and CNN are taking advantage of the social media channels by making special Twitter feeds and encouraging self-reporting on sites like twittervoterreport.com where users can update information on their Twitter accounts about their voting activity and poll sites. There was also a day-long trends of hashtagging #election, #votereport, or #ivoted to raise continuous support for the voting cause.

In addition to the Facebook voter count, there's also a link through Google Maps to find the user's nearest polling site. Foursquare also created an "I Voted 2010" badge for users who checked in at registered polling places.

Big news corporations are also projecting live polling results by the hour on sites 'broadcasted' over Twitter. This surge of advocacy over the ever-growing-popular social media sites has shown politicians and news corporations that in the future 2012 elections, THIS will be the target to hit, and not the traditional direct mail marketing schemes or attack ads on Primetime television.

So while some people may have thought they were in the clear from political campaigns, by hiding in their social media bubbles, they were sadly mistaken. It seems that the new trend of journalism in social media has only made it more possible for politicians to hit up these channels for their professional gains.

As journalism and the news industry evolves to fit cultural dynamics and changes, so do the politicians who participate in it to help uphold its 'values' by persuading the public to vote for them. And as votes become more important to keep those values in tact, so do the ways in which they are obtained.

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New Focus for Journalism Students

Nearly every large business uses some kind of social media site to advertise and to tell their consumers the latest news. How does that information get on sites such as Facebook and Twitter, you ask? It's someone's job.

Social media is on a whole new level in the classrooms. In today's job market for journalism students the knowledge of social media is a must. Schools today do not solely teach classes on Facebook and Twitter because students today already know the ins and outs.

Professors are now figuring out how this knowledge can be used to enhance the art of reporting the news by using social media, and to tell the story in the best way possible.

There are now ten ways that journalism schools are teaching their students how to properly use social media.

1. Promoting Content

Readers are brought to news sites through social media which usually increases the user's web-traffic. This isn't only through the news organization's media account, but also of their writers who tweet, post, share and send links. Each writer has a social network, and uses social media tools to promote and distribute content to increase the readership of the article being shared.

2. Interviewing

Although personally being taught to not do this unless extremely necessary, email interviews are becoming a regular way of communication by news reporters. This same concept can be done through Facebook messages and chat. Another very useful tool is Skype.

A conducting interviews via Skype is being taught at the University of North Carolina and is believed that Skype allows journalists to interview international sources quite easily - and affordably, not to mention that it adds a visual element to the story.

3. News Gathering and Research

Real-time search provides journalists with up-to-the-second information with the latest news throughout the world.

Search engine sites allow for quick research on uncertain stories.

4. Crowdsourcing and Building a Source List

Thanks to social media sites it is easier to get into contact with those who are a great source. This is done by simply sending them a Facebook or Twitter message.

5. Publishing with Social Tools

It's important for students to practice publishing information on Facebook and Twitter to know how social media works. Students should know how to use basic tools such as Wordpress to know how to blog and site build, Twitter for instant updates, Facebook to share articles and videos, Delicious for bookmarking, Flickr for videos and pictures, and Youtube for video.

6. Blog and Website Integration

There is a site called CoveritLive that incorporates live blogging. This is a great tool to ask questions to an expert, reporter, or editor at a news organization.

7. Building Community and Rich Content

Create a community through engagement. It's all about building a network around issues that matter to the community. Social networks are the new editorial page because these have great ideas and opinions.

8. Get Yourself Out There

Social networks can to used to "sell" yourself in the job market and give yourself a personal "brand". A journalist is representing their organization and not necessarily their own name. A reader doesn't neccesarily follow the writer, but the organization because of it's credibility.

9. Ethics

Yet there are no hard rules for ethics in social media currently, but what you share or post reflects on the person's judgement so you should always be cautious. Always be aware of jobs lost because of personal profiles and things that should have been pondered more before posting.

10. Experiment!

If one social media site does not meet your needs, try another one. Find what works best for you. Experimenting with these sites can benefit you once you get out into the workforce.

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Facebook can be dangerous.

As we all know, cyber-bullying is becoming more and more of a problem in the online world, especially on the ever-popular Facebook. While it is not anything new for young people to be victims of cyber-bullying, suicide is not the only thing coming out of Facebook.

Last week the Atlanta's newspaper reported that a mother had killed her child after he interrupted her while she was on Facebook. This mother (the article does not state her age) was simply playing FarmVille, a popular Facebook game when her infant son started crying, drawing her attention away. She said that she shook him, smoked a cigarette in hopes of calming her nerves, and then shook him again.

Not only is this disturbing, but it makes me wonder how else people are affected by the social media that we spend so much time using. What would compel a mother to think that her game was that much more important than taking care of her baby?

People need to take a step back, and learn how to responsibly use all forms of social media. We cannot let our lives be consumed by these wonderful online technologies, especially now that we can carry them around with us on our phone.

I want to know your opinions on this. Are social media tools, such as Facebook, getting out of control? Or was this just a rare case that won't become a regular occurrence? If it is becoming a problem, what steps should be taken to help prevent more tragedies (whether they be Shaken-Baby-Syndrome or suicides by cyber-bullying) from happening?

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Everything Is On Facebook

In the spirit of election season I decided to focus this week's blog post on an interesting article I found pertaining to the elections.

Apparently Facebook has teamed up again with app developer Invlover to produce a polling place locator on the U.S. Politics Facebook page.

This app allows users the ability to type in there address and figure out their polling place for Tuesday's elections.

Why is this important? Well in my opinion this just shows the drive and initiative to get people, mainly young people, to get out and vote. The media has always been a major tool in inspiring citizens to vote and that has not changed even with the emergence of social media.

If anything social media has brought about greater attention to elections and it even provides a means of distributing results faster than conventional media.

So to all of those people that do not know where to go and vote tomorrow, check out Facebook for your polling place. Seeing this app just goes to show that almost anything and everything can be done through Facebook now. Who needs any other source of information when you got Facebook right? Well you can be the judge of that question.

Image courtesy of Creative Commons/Flickr, Jay Cameron

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What to Look for When Following Twitter Users

As any Twitter user would know, Twitter is all about following and obtaining followers who are interested in the same things you.

Like any other social media, users need to be cautious when trying to utilize social media such as Twitter. You need to be able to decipher the people that are interested in the same things you are, and are actively using twitter in a way that benefits you.

A vital point to choosing the right people to follow is to first choose what you are interested in. For this blog's purpose I will use my own description on Twitter of what I am interested in.

Make sure user's tweets are relavent to you. For example, MTV's hit show "Jersey Shore," has Snooki and Sammi, couple of the shows characters, actively using Twitter.

Unless I wanted to follow Snooki or Sammi for entertainment purposes, their information doesn't relay any message that fits the description that I am looking for.

Users I do follow are @designmodo and @Designrfix.

Because both of these users tweet about Art related topics, it would be logical to network with these Twitter users.

As a current student, following people that tweet about topics related to my majors allows me to obtain ideas from others that are more experienced in the field I want to enter.

Using Twitter to network with people like @Designrfix and @designmodo allows for useful information rather than how to dress up as Sammi off of "The Jersey Shore" for Halloween.

Finally don't allow the amount of people that Twitter users follow/being followed by fool you. Even if there are high amounts of people following the user, it doesn't mean they are a useful source of information.

If users only have 1 tweet with 100,000 followers it defeats the whole purpose of having a Twitter account.

Making sure that you know what you want to get out of Twitter and pick the right people to follower that share a mutual desire similar topics are essentials to utilize the full potential of your Twitter account.

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Google Donates $5 Million in Support of Digital Journalism

In an effort to spur innovation in digital journalism, Google announced on Oct. 26 a $5 million donation to help news publishers in the digital age.

Acknowledging the importance of reliable journalism for everyone, Google will donate $5 million worth of grants to non-profit journalism organizations to help foster new ideas to support digital journalism, reach bigger audiences and make online news more engaging through innovation.

"We hope these grants will help new ideas blossom and encourage experimentation. We look forward to working with the journalism community to help digital news move forward," said Nikesh Arora, president of global sales operations and business development at Google.

Google has granted $2 million to the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, host of the annual Knight News Challenge, a program that funds innovative ideas to develop journalism tools and platforms.

Alberto Ibargüen, president of the Knight Foundation, talks about Google's donation to support its innovation efforts. 10/26/2010

The recipients of the remaining $3 million will be announced early next year. So far, Google aims to give the money to international journalism organizations with the same desire to boost the flow of reliable news.

I find it very valuable that such an influential and important company as Google sees the importance of journalism and, even more important, supports it.

Hopefully, this initiative will be followed by even more donations not only from Google, but from other profitable companies that acknowledge the need for innovation within news organizations and the enhancement of digital journalism.

Video Source: Knight Foundation - Vimeo Channel

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People Crave Good History and Good Journalism- Let's Collaborate

Today, it seems that everyone is too wrapped up in what is happening in the present and not paying enough attention to the history behind it. The History News Network calls this "what-happens-today-is-all-that-counts journalism."

The problem with this is that people don't know vital information about previous events that formed events happening now. The public is told routine historical facts in the news, but the press rarely provides them with insights to the deeper historical meaning underlying the news. There is a disconnect between history and the media.

"Though a select number of historians recently have become media stars, the fact remains that few are publicly quoted, and hardly any are given the public platform," shared the History News Network.

As their website puts it, "Who we are and how we react to events depends, to a great extent, on our past." This demonstrates how important it is to include the past when talking about events.

You can look on television channels and find endless documentaries, in history textbooks and history classes or anywhere on the internet to find history facts. History is everywhere, which shows that people want this information.

History is lacking, but vital, because as Eugene O'Neill, a character in Long Day's Journey into Night said, "The past is the present, and the future, too."

An article I read about the new editor of the History News Service, David Nord, informed me about what this service is doing to help the problem at hand.

The History News Service was founded in 1966 and aims to improve public discussion of current events by putting those events in historical context. They work to do so in three ways:

1. By providing "op-ed" (opposite-editorial) articles to the news media

2. By putting reporters and editors in contact with historians

3. By trying to improve links between the journalism and historical professions

They want to set journalists up with historians who can help them prepare news in a way that will include historical implications of the covered events. They want editors and reporters to understand historical concepts and know of the historical resources available.

On the opposite side, they want historians to work to fully understand the practice and values of professional journalists. The History News Service is made up of a group of writers and editors, not just members without media experience.

I think that the History News Services has a lot of great objectives and goals to help bridge the huge gap between the media and history. People obviously want good media and they obviously want good history.

People also want that facts. They want their journalism and reporters to be reliable. They want to know that they are getting all the facts and they want to know that the facts they're getting are true.

I expect to see even more work done in the near future from the History News Service and possbily other groups to collaborate the media and history.

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