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Social Media

Palin ‘favorites’ photo that claims Obama is a ‘Taliban Muslim’

This Thursday night, Sarah Palin “favorited” and RT a Twitter posting of Anne Coulter. Coulter had commented “my new church”along with a photo of a church sign. The sign read: “The Blood of Jesus ATLAH World Missionary Church,” and the text on the sign reads, “The blood of Jesus against Obama History made 4 Nov 2008 a Taliban Muslim illegally elected president USA: Hussein.”

By Thursday(11/4) night, all of Palin’s favorites had been cleared on Twitter. Palin claims that she never even knew the function of “favorites” was possible. She had to go back to her blackberry and check what had happened.

Palin responded to ABC’s Jake Tapper

Jake, I’ve never purposefully ‘favorited’ any Tweet. I had to go back to my BlackBerry to even see if such a function was possible

It is obvious how Palin feels about Obama as our President and it is hard to believe her comments on the error.

The link below shows an image of the sign and Palin’s Twitter account with it on her “favorites”.

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2010/11/palin-retweets-photo-that-clai.html?hpid=moreheadlines

http://hotair.com/archives/2010/11/04/new-palin-scandal-her-twitter-favorites-list-is-racist-or-something/

Twitter signs first D.C. staffer- Adam Sharp

Twitter has signed it’s first ever staffer from D.C. Adam Sharp, past C-SPAN employee, is going to advice the politicans on Capital Hill how to use Twitter to reach constituents.

Sharp Tweeted

Will be @Twitter’s 1st DC staff, but join 300+ strong team committed to improving govt, political debate. Start 11/29. #gov20

OnTuesday’s election, many of the politicans used Twitter as a way to congratul

Singer Demi Lovato: A victim of Twitter?

18 year old Singer and actress Demi Lovato is seeking treatment at a rehabilitation center  for “emotional and physical issues”. She recently permanently deleted her Twitter account after taking a break from her it  last September.

A close source of Lovato’s family told People Magazine

She fought through eating disorders and has struggled with cutting. [She] is taking control by getting help.

Demi has also been speaking out against bullying. She said she was bullied in middleschool and decided to escape her troubles and decided to be homeschooled.

It remains in question if when Demi leaves her treatment if she will return to Twitter and social media.

This comes in the wake of the bullying episodes occurring around the nation. Sources reveal that Lovato’s decision to delete her Twitter account was because she was bullied. Twitter might have in fact been a factor in her behaviors. She had a huge following on Twitter.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/39959716/ns/today-entertainment/

How Twitter is shaping sports journalism

In class tonight we had a discussion about sports journalists use (and shouldn’t use) social media and Twitter. How media members communicate with their followers and with each other is a developing issue and we have yet to truly explore it.

However, Twitter has turned into one giant quote machine for sports writers. Gone are the days when journalists need to pick up the phone if they need a quick quote, or go to the locker room after a game to hear a player’s opinion. While some leagues have strict policies on Twitter (the NFL and NBA don’t let players tweet a certain amount of time before the game or during the game), most high-profile athletes have an account, because, like I said in my earlier post, they’re commodities too.

Recently, a pretty huge sports news story broke on noted anti-hero, Boston Celtic Kevin Garnett, who allegedly said alopecia universalis-sufferer Charlie Villanueva of the Detroit Pistons looked “like a cancer patient.” How did they story break? You guessed it – Twitter. Not just some journalist tweeted it though. Villanueva himself was the tweeter.

What does a story like this teach us? Does it mean that the world no longer need sports journalists? Obviously not, ESPN’s profit margin is evidence of that. But it does mean that the job of a sports journalist just got a little easier. While twitter is not a reliable source for news or stories, if you’re writing a story and an athlete tweets about it, it’s fair game to use and can offer a fresh, modern feel to the reader if they’re reader a tweet in the story.

FarmVille Game Cited in Baby’s Murder

Will we soon see a 12-step program for FarmVille addicts?

According to a recent article reported by The Florida Times-Union, a mother from Jacksonville killed her 3-month-old son when the baby’s crying interrupted her virtual game of FarmVille.

Alexandra Tobias, 22, pleaded guilty on Wednesday for the second-degree murder of her son:

She told investigators she became angry because the baby was crying while she was playing a computer game called FarmVille on the Facebook social-networking website.

I have never played FarmVille, but have heard that it’s pretty addicting; apparently people have lost their jobs and have racked up debts through their obsession. However, the fact that a mother killed her own child over a virtual game is extremely disturbing—and it has gone way too far.

This problem is something that Facebook programmers should address. Whether it’s controlling the amount of time that users can spend on the game or doing away with the real-life money aspect, the addictive nature of the game needs to be toned down before someone else gets killed.

Twitter makes commodities of us all

In a recent post on web/tech blog Mashable.com, three small business owners participated in a round table discussion about using Twitter to build their business. The word “no-brainer” was tossed around a fair amount, and if you really think about it, Twitter is a godsend for anyone who cares about people caring about them/their product.

As journalists, we live and die with our readership. The more “Tweeps” we have, the more page views we’ll get when we link to our articles. Small businesses rely even more on their equivalent of readership: customers. Wal-Mart doesn’t really need a Twitter (even though they have many), because they have brand-name recognition, an established customer base of millions, not to mention great prices and near-slave labor.

Twitter allows business like Cupcake Stop (which is one of the businesses in the article) to connect to its customers, inform them of product/menu changes, locations, and build loyalty, which is the foundation of any small business.

What can journalists learn from small businesses? Well, unless you’re Adam Schefter, the football journalist equivalent of Wal-Mart, connecting with followers is the perfect way to commoditize yourself. It’s not just about building a base with thousands of followers, it’s about how you interact with them that can set you apart. As the owner of Cupcake Stop said, he responds to 99 percent of questions on Twitter.

If a reader asks you a question, retweet and respond to it. That reader will likely stick with you, read your stuff, and tell his/her friends about you now because they feel personally connected. This is also a much safer way of interacting with readers than handing out your phone number or e-mail address, for obvious reasons.

Remember, in the modern world of journalism, the only way to ensure that you stay relevant, thus employable, is if you are a commodity that a news organization wishes to acquire. Commoditize yourself, and build your customer base.

Starbucks and social media

Starbucks now gives its customers an easy way to treat friends: online.

Facebook members put credit onto their friends’ Starbucks cards through the new Starbucks Card Facebook application. In the U.S. and Canada, Facebook users can now add between $5 and $500.

Users select a friend, choose the gift amount, draft a personal note, pay and then share a status update with all their Facebook friends.

Starbucks came up with this to use social media to attract business. With more than 15 million Starbucks fans, I think this was a smart move for Starbucks’s business. It is a great example of how businesses are intergrating social media.

This allows users to buy Starbucks gifts for friends in the same city, another state or across the world. It is an easy way to attract more customers. Through the status updates announcing the purchase of a gift, it will likely attract more users.

The way businesses  incorporate social media shows how popular social media has become. It makes me wonder if there will be any limits on what social media can do. This is just yet another example of how social media is changing the world today.

Social Media All Around the World

A new study conducted by TNS, a British research agency, found that people who are online are, on average, spending more time on social networking sites than e-mail. The research comes from 50,000 interviews with people in 46 countries.

 So, who has the most friends on social networks? The study found that Malaysians have an average of 233 friends. They also spend an average of nine hours a week using social media, more than any other country studied. Brazilians came in second with an average of 231 friends. The Japanese have the lowest number of social media friends with an average of 29 and Tanzanians have 38, according to the study.

The research also shows that 88 percent of online users in China, and 51 percent in Brazil, have written their own blog or forum entry. In the United States, only 32 percent of users have done the same.

Finally, the study found that 61 percent of online users get their news from the Internet daily, compared to 54 percent from television, 36 percent from radio, and 32 percent from newspapers.

It’s interesting that Malaysians are the most popular on social networking sites and that they spend the most time using social media. Given the amount of time I see people on Facebook or Twitter in class and around campus, I would have bet money that it was the United States.

Less surprising is the fact that people are using the Internet as their daily source for news. There are many more places to get news online, and it’s much more accessible with laptops and smart phones.

How social media led to Tyler Clementi’s death

Tyler Clementi was a student who killed himself after being secretly filmed having a sexual encounter with another man. He jumped from a bridge, after announcing his plan to do so on his Facebook page, when he discovered his Rutgers University roommate streamed live his sexual encounter and advertised this video streaming on his Twitter account.

This led me to question: has social media has given bullies no boundaries and a worldwide audience?

Clementi’s roommate spied on Clementi with a computer camera and then posted the video on the internet. He made a joke out of the situation and broadcasted the video on the internet, for anyone to see. Clementi was perhaps convinced to commit suicide after realizing that this event was displayed on the internet for anyone, anywhere to see whenever they wanted.

Clementi’s roommate, Dharun Ravi, used his Twitter to humiliate Clementi. He posted various tweets regarding his gay roommate for his 150 Twitter followers to see.

“Roommate asked for the room till midnight. I went into Molly’s room and turned on my webcam. I saw him making out with a dude. Yay,” he wrote. Two days later he sent out another tweet, “Anyone with iChat, I dare you to video chat me between the hours of 9:30 and 12. Yes it’s happening again,” he wrote Sept. 21.

How do we stop people from using websites, such as Twitter and Facebook, from posting inappropriate content? How do we make sure people are not abusing these sites? Is there a way to prevent something like this from happening again?

Clementi responded to his roommate’s actions by posting on Facebook, “jumping off the gw bridge sorry,” he said before taking his own life.

Has social media gone too far? Are people using it inappropriately? How do we control what is posted on social media websites?

For more information about cyberbullying check out what the Cyberbullying Research Center has to say.

Twitter just seems to get everyone in trouble.

Not a day goes by without some sort of story about the misuse of Twitter. From personal life to professional life (and everywhere in between) Twitter is really giving me a headache. Now there are even Twitter debacles from the sports world. Athletes and fans just always take things way too far.

Miami Hurricanes quarterback Jacory Harris reportedly received racially motivated hate messages from some of his Twitter followers after his team’s 36-24 loss to Ohio State on Sept. 11. He threw four interceptions (matching his career-worst). Harris stated that at least one message said that he should not be a quarterback “because he is black”. He deleted his Twitter account last week.

On Sept. 15th, Miami banned players from using Twitter.

ESPN reported on the issue yesterday.

Harris used Twitter on Wednesday to apologize to fans for that performance, and said he skipped through many of the messages he received because they were mainly negative.

“You see some things and you get kind of hurt, because sometimes it’s your fans that say the things,” Harris said. “It’ll be the ones that probably just before the game wrote you some encouraging message, then after the game say they don’t want a black quarterback here. Stuff like that. It’s cool.”

Harris said that he wasn’t letting the messages get him down, and he didn’t want the media to focus on them either. Ha, yeah right.

This issue isn’t just a college-age problem or an American problem. Twitter has been causing problems for athletes across the pond as well.

Kevin Pietersen and Dimitri Mascarenhas, two cricket players from England, were fined for unsavory tweeting in early Sept. After separate hearings following their individual Twitter outbursts, the pair were fined undisclosed amounts.

Mascarenhas, in reference to the chairman of selectors Geoff Miller wrote:

“Chairman of selectors came and didn’t even come say hi.. What a prick … Doesn’t take much to say hello does it??” followed by: “Geoff miller is a complete knob..He had no clue what he is doing..F-ing prick.”

Both athletes apologized.

Long ago are the days when Twitter was irrelevant. It seems, at least for the time being, that Twitter is here to stay and here for people to abuse. Sigh.