The advent of cable television and the explosion of media outlets on the Internet have created an environment where Americans can find a cornucopia of news at any given time. As Sherry Chisenhall suggested we drink news from a firehose. The dramatic increase has led media outlets to compete for the viewer’s attention and has increased the need for partisan attitudes. Fox News Network has a reputation for delivering a pro-conservative perspective on issues. Since the election of Democratic President Barack Obama, there has been crossfire between both Fox News and the Obama Administration. Recently, the Obama Administration accused Fox News Network of “undertaking a war against Barack Obama”. Typically, attacking the news media is a time-honored White House tactic yet, it is unclear whether Fox News warrants attacks from the Obama Administration.

In Comm 801, I am doing a quatative and qualitative research project to answer the question: How does Fox News Network portray President Barack Obama and his administration on their website? To answer the question, I collected ten articles about Obama from the Fox News Network website. After collecting my sample, I conducted content analysis based on two previous studies conducted to determine media bias. 

The data I collected was that Fox News is far from “undertaking a war against Barack Obama”, in fact, according to the research, Fox News Network’s website is as “fair and balanced” as they suggest.

From content analyis of the ten articles, I found that nine out of ten of the articles were neutral on my scale. This means that Fox News may have had negative content but balanced it with positive content. Most of the cases, however, were nuetral. There were no negative or positive portrayals President Obama. 

I thought you guys would appreciate this. I think it is important as critics to research and find what really exists in news today. As members of society we have a responsibility to ask questions and get answers. If you guys want to know more about my research please ask, I would love to talk to you about it.    

During Comm week, one of the sessions I went to was A Marriage of Images and Words with speaker Sara Quinn from the Poynter Institute. The purpose of the session was to inform us about how to best engage with our reader and learn how to use images and words together to get our point across. Quinn did a study about how and what people read the newspapers. She wanted to study how people read a newspaper in six different forms- three of which were in print. The three print articles were narrative, narrative and graphic, and a non-traditional narrative with only grapics and bullets. The study tested the pupils of 600 people and later tested what the people remembered. They found that the more graphics there were, the more people remembered. Yet she made sure to remind us that different stories require different forms of writing.

I really enjoyed this session because I think it is important to find the marriage of images and words. Too many images may distract a reader and not give them enough information yet too much text may overwhelm the reader. The journalism field is ever changing and I think they are still searching for that marriage. I think as we become more technologically advanced we become a more visual society. It is important that we use images yet never forget our responsibility to give the audience as much information as we can.

Sara Quinn said, "It's all about the idea- the rest of the stuff doesn't matter". Yet I tend to think that an idea doesn't matter if you can't convey your idea. It is the goal of the journalists to convey their ideas using images and text. Hopefully they can marry the two and have a stronger relationship with their consumer.

Tweet Ups put human face on viral community

-- Deborah Cohen covers small business for Reuters.com. She can be reached at smallbusinessbigissues@yahoo.com --

By Deborah L. Cohen

CHICAGO (Reuters.com) - At the tech-friendly South by Southwest Music & Media Conference in downtown Austin, Texas, two food companies teamed up on Saturday afternoon for an impromptu product giveaway.

The gathering took place at the Hilton Hotel after representatives from Mighty Leaf Tea Co. and Sugar Mama's Bakeshop rubbed elbows ahead of the event on Twitter, the prolific micro-blogging site, and later decided on a spot to distribute free samples of their complimentary goods.

No glitz, no glitter, no tables, no banners, no traditional promotions of any kind. Just a few well-placed call-outs, or tweets, to Twitter users tuned in to key words relating to the conference, and voila, a quick little crowd was formed, recalls Bliss Dake, Mighty Leaf's vice president of e-commerce and operations.

Dake and the Sugar Mama's representatives stood in front of the hotel's lobby shortly after noon and handed out an assortment of Mighty Leaf's teabags from his laptop bag and a supply of the bakery's freshly made cupcakes, served straight out of the box.

"Within like 10 minutes, 30 or 40 people came by," says Dake, whose company has been strategically working on ways to connect with potential customers on Twitter since June of 2008. "There's a new language, a new medium that's evolving."

This type of meeting, known in technology circles as a Tweet Up, represents one of the most effective ways smaller companies are using Twitter to create live buzz about their products. The Tweet Up brings Twitter users with like interests together in a physical location, putting a human face on a world better known for handles, hash tags and fast-moving tweets, the public dispatches of 140 characters or less.

Small to mid-sized companies, already judicious with their promotional dollars as the recessionary economy pressures their bottom lines, are realizing that no amount of advertising can buy authentic testimonials such as those generated by actual customers. Consider the after-effect of the simple tea-and-cupcake giveaway.

"Random, happy shout out to Mighty Leaf Tea for all the yummy free tea. No reason, just yay from a happy bunch of geeks!," says one participant who goes by the Twitter handle @violetblue.

Another, Ariel Waldman, writes: "Today was a great flash mob for cupcakes and tea!"

GET REAL

Besides familiarizing would-be buyers with their products, companies are also using Tweet Ups to fuel demand with existing customers; their Twitter followers, those Twitter users who have actively signed on for updates from a specific company or individual, represent a rich, self-selected group of devotees eager for news of a company's day-to-day happenings.

Mike Stimola, the franchisor of Sandella's, a Connecticut-based chain of about 135 flatbread sandwich shops, says his operators sometimes use last-minute Tweet Ups to jumpstart sales on slow days, like when the weather is bad. Twitter etiquette frowns upon blatant self-promotion; giving customers a reason to come into the store, however, such as a free sample or special discount just for those in the Twitter know, is seen as a favorable use of the medium.

"You create a much better one-on-one relationship with the customers," says Stimola, whose company also encourages operators and potential franchisees to learn about Sandella's operations via Twitter. "It's a very new way to do things and it's very low cost."

Not all Tweet Ups are spontaneous events. Some are regularly planned happenings with structured formats and agendas, like those that take place among business-to-business services communities around the country. Often those meetings will be advertised on Twitter weeks in advance, and feature guest speakers and dedicated topics.

"I know a lot more people in town and have a lot more resources," says Jonathan Pyle, an officer with San Antonio, Texas-based Barber & Barber Associates, a small engineering consulting firm. Pyle is a regular attendee of professional Tweet Ups.

"It makes in-person communication even more accessible," he says.

Chris Breikss, president of Vancouver, B.C.-based 6S Marketing, a marketing communications firm specializing in online marketing, says Tweet Ups are a great way to extend one's professional network.

"Once we start interacting with the community, then business leads come out of it," says Breikss.

Last Friday, Breikss was the catalyst for a Tweet Up of local marketing types at a popular Vancouver watering hole called the Yaletown Brewing Company. He sent his last call out to round up prospective attendees around 3:09 p.m. local time Friday afternoon:

"vancouvertweetup Yaletown Brewing Company tonight at 4PM. Who's coming?" The result, says Breikss, was some 50 Tweeters descending upon the bar. Its owner joked, that he too, would like a heads up next time, says Breikss. Perhaps he should get a Twitter account.

Melissa says:This article somewhat relates to my earlier post about "pressing the flesh". I think this use of Twitter will be the next big thing for businesses on Twitter. Many companies use Twitter as a device to tell their customers about their products and to get feedback about a product. This is a cheap and easy way to talk to customers about something in the company.

More than for businesses, Tweet ups have become good ways to get to know individuals within a community. For example, Wichita has a really large community of people on Twitter. Tweet ups happen all the time at coffee shops all around Wichita. These events are becoming all the rage because they allow people to meet and become friends with more people in the area. It is a good way to meet new people when you are new to the area especially.

Today in my 801 class we had two guest speakers: Les Anderson and Keith Williamson. They came to discuss media ecology. Dr. Keith WIlliamson discussed McLuhan and Ong and their opinions of the future of media and literacy. McLuhan stated that the more technology we have the more visual we become and the more illiterate we become. I think, when it comes to journalism, most people don't read past the jumps. The general person doesn't have the time to read a full story and I think this has effected our regard for good journalism.

Another thing Keith Williamson talked about was Leonard Shlain's book  The Alphabet versus The Goddess: The Conflict between Word & Image. In Shlain's book he talked about how matriarchal societies and goddesses were transformed when we learned how to read and write. He claims that our ability to read and write changed our goddesses from female to male. He also talks about how males represent the left brain and females represent right brain. He said that we are now moving into a more left brained time and that is why females are more integrated in society. When we were learning how to read and write, that is more of a left brain time. I think this is interesting to consider because i think journalism is changing and society will change as a result.

Another thing to consider is what came first, journalism changing or society changing? Did we learn how to read and write because we became a more patriarchal society or vice versa.

The advent of Google wave may be the new step in creating and collaborating. I think, if done right, this could be a great tool for businesses and individuals alike. There are many features that could allow communication to be taken to the next level: it allows real time chatting, interactive documents and interactive emails. These are all on one "wave". I watched this hour video and got very excited about this new form of communication. Check out this video, even though it is an hour long it is worth your time.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/v_UyVmITiYQ&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&hl=en&feature=player_embedded&fs=1"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param></object>

There are many things I enjoyed about the Communication week session with John Stossel, but his ideology was not one of them. Despite my lack of agreement with Stossel, there were things I learned from the session: Stossel knows his audience and uses many rhetorical strategies to appeal to them, and the baby boomer generation has a different view of the role of journalists than that of the current journalist. 

 During the session, I enjoyed listening to the rhetoric he used to appeal to his conservative audience. Stossel is a Libertarian. Libertarians believe in smaller government involvement, lower taxes and more individual freedom. Stossel stressed limited government in his speech, which has been his speech for years. Stossel told the audience that he was a man who would fight against the government and stand for the businesses. He stated that businesses should be able to compete and survive in a free market. Both ideas are central to the conservative Republican viewpoint. Sigmund Freud has a theory that we filter things we don’t want to hear and focus on what matters most to us. In this case, I think Stossel knows this about his conservative audience and recognizes that he should talk about limiting government and the free market the most.

Another tool Stossel used to appeal to his conservative audience was outrageous examples. During a session where he was discussing how government doesn’t allow companies to compete because of safety regulations and possible deaths, Stossel used examples of business ventures that were not analogous to his original thought. They were sensational. He took his microphone and went out in the audience to ask if individuals, “Would you allow me to make a toy that would kill 300 people a year?” or something like that. Most people said no and Stossel stated that the government would deny the production of cars today if they were just starting to hit the market. I think this is sensational. One cannot predict how the government would act if such an occurrence were to happen. In fact, the government probably would allow cars because they wouldn’t be as fast and dangerous, just as they were allowed in the past because they were safe. He also used other examples of Natural gas, which many conservatives are against using.

The last thing I learned at the session was that there is a generational gap between myself and the baby boomers when it comes to technology and journalism. I knew this before, to an extent, but I am clear after the Stossel session that there is a wider gap than I thought.

Before the session began, I decided I would not take a notepad and pen to take notes on during the session. I decided that I would take notes on my phone, which is a Blackberry with the Word application. During the session, I would occasionally bring my phone out and write about three key phrases. The lady sitting next to me was very upset by this. I believe she thought I was texting, so she taped me on my shoulder and told me I should put away my phone and that I was being rude. I told her I was taking notes for a class and she continued to shake her head in disappointment. For the sake of being nice I just grabbed a piece of paper and pen from Katie and kept taking notes. I couldn’t get this out of my head during the rest of the session. Why couldn’t she understand that I wasn’t being rude and that I was listening to him? Why couldn’t she understand that my phone is similar to a computer? Then I answered my own question, she just doesn’t and will not understand because that generation didn’t have these types of technologies. The thought was very frustrating.

For social networks, it's game on

By Jon Swartz, USA TODAY

For 45 minutes a day, Phillips, a 41-year-old marketing contractor in the Silicon Valley town of Morgan Hill, Calif., gets lost in the digital game on Facebook, managing crops and animals on her virtual farm.

"This is my escape from city life; it's my relaxation," she says. "Since Day One, I've been a complete addict. I lose sleep at night, worrying about my farm."

Phillips is one of more than 56 million monthly users of the game created by Zynga, a company that specializes in social games for platforms including Facebook, MySpace, iPhone and Bebo. FarmVille had just 354 users on June 20, the day after it launched. It's widely believed to be the largest and fastest-growing social game ever.

FarmVille's addictive qualities tend to sneak up on the casual interloper. Then again, so has its entire genre: Games are the killer app on social networks. Tens of millions of consumers are opting to play simple, quick games on Facebook, MySpace and elsewhere — often via their mobile devices. An estimated 100 million people are recent devotees of social games such as FarmVille, Mafia Wars, Sorority Life and Bejeweled.

The gamers, many of whom eschewed traditional video-game consoles, have spurred revenue for Facebook. The 5-year-old social-networking site recently announced it was operating in the black — a major feat in an industry beset by doubts about its ability to be profitable.

Meanwhile, the radical change in the way Americans play games has had a ripple effect on the $45 billion gaming industry. Developers large and small are designing easy-to-play diversions in hopes of capitalizing on the craze. For some, such as Nintendo and Electronic Arts (EA), it's a return to simpler graphics and elementary objectives.

Social games are expanding the audience beyond traditional young male video-gamers and casual gamers, who tend to be women over 35. Such games are the hottest thing going in the $13 billion online-gaming market.

Atul Bagga, a gaming analyst at market researcher Think Equity, expects the $500 million to $600 million social-gaming slice of the online market to at least double, to $1 billion, in 2010.

"It is one of the fastest areas of media growth, period," says Pete Moran, general partner at DCM, a venture-capital firm that has invested in social-game developers RockYou, PlayFirst and Outspark.

Pay to play up

Social games are free, widely available and easy to play. They load in a few seconds and require only a few minutes at a time to play. They allow friends already in contact via social-networking websites to match wits for bragging rights.

"People, at their core, like being social," says Andrew Stein, vice president of mobile business development at PopCap, maker of Bejeweled, a gem-swapping game with 10 million monthly active users on Facebook.

Gaming is the most popular application category on Facebook and MySpace. There are eight games on Facebook with more than 12 million monthly active players. That surpasses paying customers for World of Warcraft, the most popular multiplayer online game.

With the equivalent of a large nation of people matching wits on social games, many social-networking companies see dollar signs after years of struggling to come up with revenue models for their business.

"It has the most promising profit potential for us," says Mike Trigg, vice president of marketing at social-networking site Hi5. One-third of its 60 million members play games on the site. Popular games can generate $2,000 to $5,000 in revenue each day.

Much of the revenue is pouring in via a new model in the USA called "freemium," as well as old-fashioned advertising.

The freemium model, with roots in Asia, is built on the concept of giving away games, then charging players 25 cents to $10 to buy so-called virtual goods that enhance their gaming experience.

Micro-transactions can be for virtual farm tools, poker chips or swords, depending on the game, says Craig Sherman, CEO of Gaia Online, a social-gaming website that introduced the concept in the U.S. in 2004. It sells more than $1 million in virtual goods a month.

"You can have plenty of fun and not spend a nickel," says Rob Solomon, a partner at Technology Crossover Ventures, which has invested in Super Rewards, a monetization service for online games and social networks.

To get deeper in games, though, you have to buy virtual goods or invite friends to play via online invitations, creating a potential domino effect on spending, he says.

The worldwide virtual goods market is $5 billion to $6 billion this year, with gaming accounting for about 75% to 80%, says analyst Bagga.

That bodes well for companies such as Offerpal Media, a leader in virtual-currency monetization. In two years, Offerpal has helped facilitate 250 million transactions — more than half of them in gaming.

Meanwhile, advertisers are gravitating to the popular social-gaming sections of social networks to reach tens of millions of consumers.

"It's attractive real estate," says Hi5's Trigg. Hewlett-Packard, Verizon and Netflix are among major brand names running banner ads on MySpace's gaming areas.

'Things can change so quickly'

The social-gaming movement took off in 2007, when Facebook opened its site to applications developers.

The chatty nature of Facebook's enormous user base makes for potential distribution — think electronic word-of-mouth among millions of friends — that game developers would figuratively kill for.

Microsoft, by comparison, has sold more than 30 million Xbox 360 consoles to date worldwide, and Sony has moved 24 million PlayStation 3 devices.

"The eye-opening moment was when Facebook launched the open platform," says Sebastien de Halleux, chief operating officer of games maker Playfish. "It does not favor brands, retailers or marketing, but pure content. There is no (retail) shelf space to compete for."

Playfish's first game on Facebook, Who Has the Biggest Brain?, launched in December 2007 with 200 friends. One month later, 100,000 had played the game. By March 2008, 1 million had played. Today, 20 million.

There are hundreds of players in the burgeoning social-gaming market, but three stand out:

•Zynga's coterie of games —FarmVille and Mafia Wars included — boasts more than 125 million monthly active users, or about three times the audience of Twitter. It's the dominant developer on Facebook, and is credited with the first social game, Zynga Poker, in July 2007. Its newest game, CafeWorld, has zoomed to 10 million users in about a week.

"I would be surprised if they don't go public," says Mitch Lasky, a general partner at Benchmark Capital. He cites Zynga's estimated $150 million in revenue this year. Zynga declined comment.

•Playdom, with more than 25 million monthly active users — most of them on MySpace — sold more than $200,000 worth of virtual pink Volkswagen Beetles in two days, Playdom says. Its revenue is about $75 million this year, Lasky estimates.

•Playfish has more than 50 million monthly active players across 10 games on Facebook. The company's three most popular Facebook games —Pet Society, Restaurant City ("It could not exist outside of social networks," de Halleux says) and Country Story— attracted more than 32 million players in August.

As popular as social games are, users' loyalty can be fleeting.

The churn rate for social games is high — two to three months for most titles. Hot gaming categories seemingly change with the seasons. Before Mafia-tinged games were big, zombie games were in. Farm games are hot now; aquarium-themed games are on the upswing.

"Things can change so quickly — just look at FarmVille," says Charles Hudson, vice president of business development at Serious Business, a 2-year-old start-up that makes social games.

A good chunk of players — 25% to 33% — play a particular game two to three months before moving on, says Ro Choy, chief revenue officer at RockYou, a developer of games played by more than 10 million people a month on Facebook and MySpace.

By comparison, only about 5% are defined as active users who play a title for more than a year.

There also are concerns about privacy. Some users take umbrage at what they call aggressive settings on Mafia Wars and other games that send promotional messages, without their approval, to Facebook friends and Twitter followers.

"People have accused us of being spammy," says Zynga CEO Mark Pincus.

He says when a user takes an action during a game — say, adopting a stray cow on FarmVille— an e-mail notification is sent to the player's friends. He adds that such notifications are optional, and that players can choose not to send them. Meanwhile, friends of players can choose not to view such notifications.

Keeping it simple

The new model of gaming simplicity and convenience didn't come entirely from the Facebook/MySpace/Twitter era.

The megapopular Nintendo Wii and Activision's Guitar Hero helped usher in the concept of gaming while socializing, says Trip Hawkins, the Electronic Arts founder who now runs Digital Chocolate, a games developer for social networks, handheld devices and consoles.

Those games, in particular, served as a bridge from traditional games to social games. Games went from complex and graphics-rich to simple and social. A major influence was Nintendo and its introduction of the Wii console in late 2006.

"Nintendo changed all that with Wii. They, like us, did not compete on high-end graphics, production values," says Playdom CEO John Pleasants.

"It was more about simple graphics, short games and socializing."

But socializing on Wii and Guitar Hero has limits: Only four people can play at once, and they have to be in the same place.

"The Wii democratized social gaming, but the always-on Internet took it further," says analyst Bagga. "So, many people who would not play games now do so on Facebook."

Melissa says: Many companies use Facebook and MySpace as platforms to launch games and applications. None more efficiently than the creator of Farmville, Zynga. Major game companies are switching over to social networks becuase they realize this market is growing. According to the article, over 100 million people are trying out these social games on social network platforms. This is BRILLIANT because just as we have learned in "The Elements of Journalism", people enjoy being social and it is part of our make-up to communicate through all mediums, including games.

I just recently heard of Farmville when I was chatting with my friend on Facebook. I asked him what he was doing and he proceeded to explain Farmville to me. At first, I was laughed at him and told him he was wasting his time, but after reading this article I decided to give Farmville a chance. I now am the proud owner of a goat, a cow, a chicken and several trees and crops. Aren't you proud? Well, I am, but most importantly I have learned that this is a great way to communicate. As you add more "neighbors" you can become a better farmer. When you have neighbors you can help them with their farms. It is really interesting to see how people have become addicted to another form of social media. I know it has been hard for me to move on with real life when I have to make sure the cows are milked and the wheat is harvested.

I think it is also very interesting that the article touches on a bit of convergence, the internet has allowed more people to be more participatory in gaming. Wii and Guitar Hero only allow certain people to play, yet Farmville is free and everyone can play as long as they have the internet and a social network.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-30686_3-10357411-266.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1

I read a great article on the FCC's proposal of Net Neutrality. I think this is a great example of Friedman's Flatteners. Friendman discussed the advent of the internet as a mini flattener. The internet allowed many people to get connected and eventually became a platform for people to create and send content all over the world from your fingertips. Now, the Net neutrality rules are making the world even flatter.

The Net neutrality rules allow companies to compete more on an even playing field. Before now companies were allowed to manage the traffic of their consumers online. For example, if Cox preferred Google as a search engine Cox would encourage its customers to use Google. Well, now that is illegal. All companies will be able to compete for everyone's business.

Unfortunately no matter what the FCC does, companies will still manipulate traffic. The FCC does not have the ability to control large corporations. It would be a slap on the wrist to these companies. However, many companies see that people desire an "open" internet and are taking steps to make this happen.

Now there is discussion of using these FCC rules on wireless connections. For example, Skype can not be used on Iphones. If these regulations were in effect. Iphones must allow Skype to be used on their phones.

What are your thoughts on the Net Neutrality Rules put in place by the FCC?

BLOG FROM SIX PIXELS OF SEPARATION:

There's Nothing Like Pressing The Flesh