Tag Archives: CNN

#OBL and The Social Media Newsroom

The era of social media is making the “where were you when…” question obsolete and is now challenging it in a way members of older generations would not begin to fathom. While the query that will help shape the future of news dissemination could be considered an addendum to the “where were you when…” proposition, we the people of the social media generation are interested in “okay… but how exactly did you find out?”

Social media has evolved from a platform of expressing your likes and dislikes to become a major hub from which we share stories, compare thoughts, and create dialogues with the members of global community and the evening of Sunday, May 1st, 2011 was no different.

I’ve always been intrigued by the way that social media seems to take a news story, regardless of accuracy, and give it enough force to help blast a rocket to the moon. That being the case, I’m always particularly skeptical when it comes to breaking news on the social mediasphere, so as I laid in bed Sunday night blasting off my final musings of the day, I was caught off guard when I started to see the people I follow announce bin Laden’s death.

Therein lies the question: who out of those you follow do you consider to be a reliable enough source that you take their social channel posts as the be all that end all? In this instance, I had to weed through celebrilosophers, comedians and moms, to sources like @WhiteHouse, @TIME, @AndersonCooper, and @nytjim to verify the story.

Despite the skepticism involved in some of the breaking news on social media, I knew that I would find dependable sources to verify, or at least give more insight, on the matter all before having to flip to my favorite news channel or news site. Thus beginning the cycle of news breaking to news confirmation all on the social mediasphere.

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This post originally appeared here on Big Fuel’s blog Content to Commerce.

Making the Blind Tweet See…

Turning a blind eye is always a simpler undertaking than accepting the pains of reality. This, of course, can be used in a variety of contexts, however, for the sake of this blog let’s use it in relation to the current state of affairs in the Middle East and American culture.

If we take a quick glance at the events of the past week we’d see that the social mediasphere has been ablaze with James Franco, Oscars, and… Charlie Sheen? Yes, it was amazing that the seemingly amazing super-artiste/ultimate scholar Franco has joined the social mediasphere – most likely at the behest of the powers who be at the Academy. I myself am a major devotee of all things Franco – a self-proclaimed Franco-phile if you will, and despite all of the criticism he garnered for his hosting responsibilities, he definitely helped bring many a wandering eye over to the awards’ telecast this year. Also worth noting are his amazing (read: ridiculous) videos…

Now to this whole Charlie Sheen nonsense. We’ve all known since the 80s that the man formerly known as Carlos Estevez was the black sheep of the Sheen/Estevez clan – he did, of course, turn down the epic role of the Karate Kid, and was never as cool as Gordon Bombay was in the 90s. Both Sheen-arios are merely blips on the proverbial Sheen radar which has come to measure the many antics in the 20 years after Mr. Miyagi helped a young Ralph Macchio soar to teen idol status. (Writer’s note: Sheen obviously rose to such a level himself, but for his killer bad boy image thanks to films like “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”). There were many strippers, arrests, rehab stints, physical assaults… the list goes on… leading up to the current joke that Sheen is making himself into. The Twittersphere is on fire with Sheen related trending topics – mostly because his soundbites are just so absurd that the average literate human being’s mind goes haywire after soaking in his nonsensical musings.

There’s a problem though – while Charlie Sheen is busy #WINNING and doing whatever it is one does with #TigerBlood, Middle Eastern countries are in a series of (what is turning out to be) domino-effect civil unrest. The irony here is that while we’re busy using our tweets and status updates to interpret the deeper meaning behind Franco’s photos (there aren’t any, the man just likes cats) and figuring out why no one has imposed that California “you’re an adult, and you’re crazy so I’m going to put you under psych evaluation” rule onto Sheen yet (Note: California code 5150 allows for involuntary psychiatric hold if you were interested) – people in the Middle East are using their 140 characters to start overthrowing authoritarian regimes.

It’s time we all tune in to what’s happening in the Middle East. There are a lot of effects of the melee hitting our coasts – among them the almost $5.00/gallon gas pump situation. Try giving your Sheen-dar a break for a bit and allow the left side of your brain an opportunity for propitious usage. It’s easy to ignore the obvious, especially when you feel it doesn’t pertain to you, but if Middle Easterners can turn their tweets into political action, the least we can do is read up on what’s going on.

These sites have been providing me with some solid information on the current state of affairs in the Middle East – links will bring you to their ME tabs:

Ground Rules

Okay I was talking a big game yesterday when I expressed my frustrations over knowing what is essentially useless knowledge – i.e. American Idol drama, celebrity baby mama drama, which reality star is in cahoots with another, etc. etc.

The point of removing myself from gossip related “news” sources is for a completely selfish purpose. Like I said, I am tired of knowing things that don’t really matter in the greater scheme of things. CNN has always been my homepage since I first bought my laptop four years ago, however, I incidentally find myself continuously bypassing their bylines and heading to my “Gossip” bookmarks (10 sites… EEEEK) and get my daily fix of scandals.

I mentioned in my previous entry that I’m going to stray away from Twitter and Facebook – let me now amend that. I spent some time today considering what the rules should be in regards to my social media presence and decided that if I see something I want to comment on, instead of doing it via my Facebook/Twitter account, I’ll call that friend and let them know what ever snarky, witty comment that I would have made online. There’s really nothing but goodness to come out of this – I’ll end up spending more hard time with my friends instead of soft time. I’m the worst when it comes to communicating with my friends, so hopefully this will have a positive effect on the relationships with my peeps.

This isn’t my first time stepping back from the gossip world, when I was on Semester at Sea the only sites we had free access to were The New York Times and Wikipedia – needless to say I learned a lot about the recession (it was the fall of 2008) and endless information via Wikipedia’s “Random article” button (God bless that button, I still use it now). It took me a few weeks to figure out that Britney had her life back together, among other gossipy related things from 2 years ago (clearly the return of Britney Spears was the most poignant). It’s time to remember what it’s like knowing valuable knowledge.

I have predetermined my online news sources: New York Times, CNN, Time Magazine, BBC, and the Los Angeles Times (just to mix things up)

The goal is to do this for a month. If I try and read a gossip site (or watch a Hollywood show)  I must drop to the ground and do some sort of physical activity i.e. 10 push ups, or 100,000 crunches. Hopefully at the end of the month, I’ll be filled with good knowledge and have some sick abs.

Anyone else down for the journey?