didn’t we already read ch13? my question from b4- doesn’t creating an rss feed reduce the traffic of visitors to the company’s site? #uicsm

http://bit.ly/PZO0Q how does public apathy affect Obama’s ubiquity strategy? #uicsm

http://bit.ly/6R29b will facebook lose user popularity as brands enter the market with pages? #uicsm

http://bit.ly/3x0uq2 can businesses,organizations,etc. access user profiles of their fans? #uicsm

http://bit.ly/IacFL although older age groups are growing on facebook, has there been a study on usage between these demographics? #uicsm

-Are news consumers beginning to compromise the facts of a story for news delivered at a faster pace?

Let’s Not Get Carried Away by Twitter’s Role in Iran’s Demonstrations

-How/Can Twitter improve the distribution of intentionally false information?

Iran, Citizen Media, and Media Attention

-Has homophily increased with the use of social media for reporting news?

Is Twitter the CNN of the  New Media Generation?

-If the ultimate function of news media is to serve the people as suggested in the post, then why is the transformation from top-down to bottom-up only beginning now with Twitter and not with news networks like CNN?

Kramer blogs about the affect of microblogging services on the dissemination of information by traditional media and analyzes how sites like twitter, tumblr, etc. are redefining the role of news organizations.  He mentions it twice in his post that “Media will no longer be the filter through which all news must pass. That genie is out of the bottle.” He gave an example to illustrate this point of Kevin Love, a player on the Timberwolves who tweeted about news his coach was not returning for the following season before the news was confirmed and reported through other news networks, which displays how we are now able to receive first hand accounts of breaking news without the third party role of the media. There is also no editing necessary as information is constantly updated as “News consumers want news on demand and in formats that work for them.” Consumers now have a role in determining what’s important as information and what’s not and are able to interact with the news story through commentary or providing one’s own account on the information- “Smart opinions and firsthand reports will grow in value.” Kramer also mentions how this transformation can have negative effects on the legitimacy of information and he states how “There will be a need to curate the growing tsunami of information” which I believe is where traditional media will need to start making a role for themselves. Also, since editing and context is not as significant, news organizations will need to understand and utilize these microblogging services to their advantage if they want to survive in this new media era.

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Let’s Not Get Carried Away by Twitter’s Role in Iran’s Demonstrations

This article concentrates on the last point made in the Kramer’s post about the errors and negative effects with reporting news on twitter. Shafer cites the Iranian uprising and protests after the election as evidence for much of the false information that was tweeted about these demonstrations and how twitter doesn’t necessarily provide news consumers with the facts. One critic of twitter that Shafer mentions is Morozov who doubts the effectiveness of twitter in organizing the Iranian protests that took place and he reduces the role and power of twitter. Shafer’s post also brings up the negative effects of reporting news on twitter from two different aspects- both the consumers and those who want to deceive the consumers. The misinformation about the swine flu outbreak would be an example of how warped a news story can turn into, causing fear, panic and false information to develop through us as consumers of news on twitter. Shafer also mentions the research of Ethan Zuckerman on how false information can be distributed to consumers on twitter to deceive us as consumers through his study of how twitter was being used to scare organizers from demonstrating.

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Iran, Citizen Media, and Media Attention

Zuckerman discusses twitter and social media in general during the Iranian demonstrations after the election and introduces three points of argument made by one of his colleagues- Anne Marie Corley. Corley states of social media tools like twitter in relation to the Iranian protests that social media is more significant with sharing information about the protests with the rest of the world rather than using it as an organizing tool for protesters; filtering is not stopping Iranian users of social networking sites; and social media users in Iran have a political influence when events such as the elections and protests that followed occur. Zuckerman gives an overview of some factors that haven’t been considered as far as the Iran protests and the effect of social media:

1. Biases within social media can emerge as mainstream media utilizes social media when they are unable to cover the stories live and must rely on social media reports. Zuckerman notes how supporters of the incumbent candidate- Ahmedinejad were poor and less educated and use Farsi language whereas his opponent’s supporters are more likely to be the ones using social media and also are quoted in English causing a language barrier for those using Farsi. His point is that biases could arise within social media and mainstream media that rely on the social media with factors like those that were present in the coverage of the Iranian demonstrations.

2. Another point Zuckerman mentions is how other countries using social media as a tool to publish news about protests and where citizen journalism is emerging have not gotten nearly enough American and British media attention as this story, suggesting the impact of media on directing consumers to what is newsworthy.

3. Zuckerman ends with a note on what he calls homophily- which refers to tendency of reporters to report the same stories, in the same context, with the same approach.

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Is Twitter the CNN of the  New Media Generation?

This blog post also describes the effect of social media and in particular, Twitter on traditional media and news reporting in general.  Solis recounts the discussions that took place at the 140 characters conference including the use of twitter during and after the Iranian elections for reporting on the protests and how more information was being reported on twitter than news networks like CNN. At the conference they referred to this new social media news reporting as ‘now’ media because of the reporting of developing news as it happens, which is made possible by twitter. Solis also discusses the trouble traditional media has had adapting to this new media culture and suggests one factor hindering networks like CNN could be how “News media can’t keep pace with the new world of media consumption and the insatiable appetite for information.”  Ann Curry explains how media needs to report news with empathy and to report stories that connect others and are likely to affect others, which is what Solis suggests social media has done. The argument of how unreliable social media can be was also mentioned as fact checking “is ultimately what separates amateurs from experts.” Solis reveals that the phenomenon of Twitter is less about the ‘integrity of information’ and more about ‘the culture it’s defining’ and he explains the transformation of media and news reporting from a “top-down model to bottom-up groundswell.” Adding to the empathy conversation was the idea of how understanding the audience media are trying to reach improves reporting information and transparency, which is lacking. The last points made in this article include how users of twitter and other social media are now able to decide what is newsworthy, which will push traditional media ‘to transform and adapt’ to this new way of consuming information.