Using Social Media on the March for the Alternative

Last month we interviewed Jasper Jackson about the methods he uses for newgathering on protests. On Saturday we had a chance to try these methods ourselves during the March for the Alternative.

First step was to take photos of the banners, signs and general creativity on display:

We took these photos on an iPhone3 and tweeted some using @sopharsogood’s account. Jethro, one of the men dressed as fat cats (on the right) gave us an interesting quote. He said: “Sometimes the best way to make a point is to illustrate your opposition.”

Also using an iPhone, we recorded interviews. A teacher  caught our attention with a banner which used this extract from a speech given by David Cameron in  May 2010:

“Any cabinet minister if I win the election, who comes to me and says: ‘Here are my plans’ and they involve frontline reductions they’ll be sent straight back to their department to go away and think again.”

Her responses powerfully illustrate the extent to which Cameron has gone back on this statement:

How to make Twitter work for you

This is a fantastic post by the Sochable blog on how to make the best use of Twitter in both a personal and professional way.

http://soshable.com/good-twitter-people/#more-1659

And for tips on how to use twitter generally see: http://psmithjournalist.com/2010/12/what-i-learned-about-twitter-and-journalism-in-2010-tips-and-advice-from-a-compulsive-tweeter/

Cloud girlfriend anyone?

Great news for those hankering for a fake online girlfriend. Cloud Girlfriend.com is preparing to launch a service which lets you design your perfect match then simulates her existence by using an attractive avatar to post messages on your Facebook page.

Splendid, just…splendid. I can’t imagine anything more helpful than generating a gigantic fraud in the middle of a lonely person’s life.

There is pseudo- socio-relationship theory behind the scheme. Cloud Girlfriend’s tagline is “The best way to get a girlfriend is to already have one.”

Ah yes, appeal to the lowest of human instincts. I enjoyed watching presenters on the TYT Network trying to promote Cloud Girlfriend as a good idea:

A part of me suspects that this is a fraud created by someone in the same line of work as Chris Atkins. Earlier this year, Atkins decided to test the churn factor in the media by releasing fake stories including one about a chastity garter.

Advertising in sheep’s clothing?

As someone who was drawn to journalism with independent thought as a bobbing carrot in my mind’s eye it has been very strange to hear the word “brand” thrown around by industry professionals. Of course, anyone who’s had a week of work experience at their local paper knows they need to write in the house style but “branding”, really?

Newspapers have always been brands in the sense that they keep certain distinctive features: a red banner and white type save readers from shuffling round the newsagents like they’ve lost their shoes. However, as the industry has changed causing even the most established titles to branch out from having just one product a more thoughtful type of branding has become necessary.

If one day Chelsea decided to play a 4-in-purple, 4-in-green, 2-in-blue formation, it would confuse fans. Likewise, if you have a magazine, a website, a Facebook and a Twitter page then it makes sense to have a common strand running through each platform. The reasoning is impermeable.

What worries me is the role social media plays in branding. It seems like we’ve evolved journalism and social media to the point where there is no logical point at which a journalist can take off their brand hat and put on a weird-looking comfy one. I have heard people complain about Facebook friends who only post updates that link to their work and Twitter is by its nature a job that is never over. You could theoretically become a round-the-clock advertisement for the publication you are working for. The brand could consume your capacity to think the independent thoughts that make you a journalist.



Social Media in Journalism Word Cloud

If you click on the blurry word cloud above it will take you to a sharper version. Click then gaze to get an idea of the buzz words in social media.

Unsurprisingly, the first words to leap out – even on this inadequate image – are “social” and “media”. Following swiftly on these blue and green curlicues are “people” and “twitter”. Again, this is no shocker. As its home page proudly proclaims: “Twitter is without a doubt the best way to share and discover what is happening right now.” And people, well, we might be operating from behind screens but we’re still there. It’s hardly going to be octopi driving this new frontier of human communication.

The words that make me stop and think are some of the smaller ones like: “business”  and “brand”. These are words we’ve heard a lot over the last few days at  the Social Media Forum. I feel a philosophical post brewing…

Is social media more important to magazines than a website?

Chris Mooney, the digital editor of TopGear.com, came into City today to give his expert opinion on the XCity and EastBound websites. In case you are not following the trials and tribulations of we journalism masters students (I understand there may be more pressing concerns) XCity and Eastbound are the magazines we have spent this term lovingly crafting.

Magazine production has been a feature of the magazine pathway at City for a long time but this year we were briefed on the importance of an active website to both promote the magazine and run its own exclusive content. The necessity of an active website for a media publication is a real sign of the times. Gone are the days when you could pour all creative energy into a printed beauty. Nowadays, reaching an audience means engaging current and would be readers over a plethora of different, consistently-branded platforms.

Our ears pricked up when Chris said that of these platforms, social media is beginning to be as important as a website. He complimented XCity’s use of Twitter and proceeded to tell us that Top Gear’s Facebook page has 8 million fans, a figure which increases by 20,000 daily.

For anyone  muttering “8 million” prepare to be excited. Chris Mooney has agreed to talk exclusively to us. So come back next week for tips on how to become a social media millionaire.

Social Media World Forum Day 2

On the second and final day of the Social Media World Forum we spoke to the lovely Steven Selleslags, business development manager for Mobile Web, who explained a new Social TV app that has just launched in his home country of Belgium.

For journalists (like the Guardian‘s Grace Dent) that already discuss television using social media, Social TV could open up a deeper level of scrutiny.

 

Social media smarty pants

Zara Ricketts wrote her postgraduate dissertation at Durham university on the subject of social media and its potential to activate large numbers of people, getting them involved in charitable causes and campaigns.

Below is an extract from her work, discussing the different ways that Facebook enables this.

“Over the past decade a vast number of SNS have been launched and achieved varying levels of success. One which has proven to be substantially more successful than the others is Facebook, with membership numbers reaching over 500million users since its launch in 2004. Its success has been credited with the features it offers, which enable the users to interact with one another through different mediums such as photos and text.

In regards to generating collective action, the group function has been perceived as key to social movements. The subject of a group varies widely from politics to jokes; and once a user joins the group they are then able to read what has been posted on the walls and contribute to the discussions. The function has been suggested as an initial step in raising support for a cause, which is reflected in the millions of groups that have been generated.  Members are able to suggest joining the group to friends through group invitations, offering the chance for an individual to learn about the cause and take part in the discussion and activities. Thus this tool enables a user to engage with other users and increase awareness and support for the cause.

Other functions such as the news feed and the wall are also crucial in creating awareness on an issue as they enable people to follow other user’s activities such as group membership and conversations had with other users. This function offers the chance to disseminate information to users who are inattentive to the cause, as contact with the issue furthers knowledge and potential interest in the issue.

Although the features and functions of Facebook offer the chance to further develop collective action and social movements; the extent to which they have been used has not been fully explored. Though links have been identified, there are significant knowledge gaps in this field that need to be addressed and studied. This research is invaluable as it endeavours to identify the extent to which an SNS plays a role in the development of collective action and social movements. Further research has the possibility to dramatically change a field that is filled with uncertainty and contradicting theory.”

After all the research into social media, everyone seems to be in agreement over one thing: there is still a lot of scope for invention and experimentation. So that means that the future’s in your hands!

Twitter and Protests

We have already witnessed the role social networking has played in protests across Egypt, Tunisia and Libya. Saturday’s anti-cuts march organised by the Trade Union Congress (TUC) gave citizens, journalists and citizen journalists an opportunity to harness the power of twitter here in the UK.

The march went from London’s Embankment  to Hyde Park drawing between 200,000  and 500,000 protesters over the course of the day (including a brass band). At 4p.m. the media spotlight fell upon Fortnum & Mason where the anti-tax evasion group UK Uncut were staging a peaceful bail-in. Later the media focused on Trafalgar Square where police-on-protester and protester-on-police violence took place as darkness fell.

One journalist who fully embraced Twitter both to communicate with those who were also present and to report for the wider public was the New Statesman‘s Laurie Penny, also known as Penny Red. Here is a link to her tweets.

The dark side of Twitter

Leonie Cooper, a 26-year-old music journalist who has been writing for NME since she was a teenager, will not be signing up for a Twitter account. She said although she sees the benefit of up-to-the-minute news some NME writers have received @ abuse from angry music fans who take issue with their reviews. Leonie’s reservations coincide with the aftermath of the Rebecca Black “Friday” drama. This week’s Charlie Brooker column comments on the extraordinary level of Twitter bullying the 13-year-old  American has suffered.