Feb

18

Netflix Sows Confusion, Announces DVD Plan That Already Existed [VIDEO]

February 18, 2012 | comm361, journalism  |  2 Comments

Mashable article by Joann Pan

netflix-dvd-only-plan

In the past few months, Netflix as an entity has been behaving very erratically, turning itself into a corporate equivalent of Joaquin Phoenix circa 2008-2010.  Now it seems the service has made another blunder with a blog post that promoted its DVD-only service as a brand new option available to customers, despite the fact that this service has been available for some time now.  Apparently, the blog post was meant to announce the addition of the new URL dedicated to the service.  The mistake stirred up confusion among customers who are well aware of the company’s separation of services.

How is it that the company that almost single-handedly brought about the fall of the media rental giant Blockbuster keeps on making errors like this?  The answer seems to lie in poor communication with its customers.

Back in July, the company tried to split its services into two separate entities: Qwikster for DVDs, and Netflix for the streaming service.  This caused a tremendous uproar from customers who felt that the company was destroying the business model that had made them start using the service in the first place, and more than 800,000 customers cancelled their subscriptions.

Netflix seems to be operating in isolation from the rest of the world.  The anger at the company’s attempts to split its services (which nearly doubled the price that customers had been paying) was practically universal among subscribers, and many people lost a lot of faith in the company at that point.

If Netflix plans to clear its name of the faults of this past year, it had better start communicating through social media more effectively, and maybe ask for its customers’ opinions once in a while.

 

 

Feb

16

Skillset #2

February 16, 2012 | comm361, journalism  |  Leave a Comment

Feb

14

Briggs Chapter 4

February 14, 2012 | Uncategorized  |  Leave a Comment

Microblogging has emerged as an abbreviated form of blogging that carries its own set of unique advantages.  First, it’s fast.  News stories often break first on Twitter.  Updates from sporting events, conferences, shows, and other places are often made on Twitter, often accompanied by photographs or links to other relevant information.

Second, it’s straightforward and simple.  The 140 character limit means that tweets cannot be excessively verbose.  This forces the writer to boil down their message into a lean, succinct statement that is too short to possibly lose the attention of their reader.  Links to full stories and photographs may be added to beef up a post for those who wish to investigate an issue further.

Third, it fosters communal collaboration.  Twitter can be used as a crowdsourcing tool by requesting feedback through the process of retweeting.  Followers of a certain user can retweet a message and add their own response or comments for the original poster to see.  Incidentally, retweeting a post means that the original message is spread beyond the original poster’s network, which gives them an otherwise inaccessible audience.

Feb

13

Briggs Chapter 3

February 13, 2012 | Uncategorized  |  Leave a Comment

In the age of the internet, the audience can be a powerful tool for effective and memorable reporting and storytelling.  Crowdsourcing and open-source reporting are two techniques that were not possible before the advent of digital journalism (at least not in the ways they are used today).

Crowdsourcing involves using the audience to help accomplish a specific goal.  For example, crowdsourcing is a cornerstone of Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia that allows users to add or modify its content.  News organizations might use crowdsourcing to gather opinions on a popular issue or gather statistical information to use in stories or presentations.

Open-source reporting involves using the audience to gain general feedback rather than using them to gather specific information.  It allows for a more collaborative newswriting process, while at the same time promoting transparency and a lack of bias.

Finally, linking within an article gives readers more territory to explore while following a story or topic.  They add richness to a reporter’s story because it allows them to harness the vast resources of the internet in a subtle, efficient way.  Linking helps build a network of outlets who will mutually gain the respect and trust of their readers by linking to one another.

Feb

13

Briggs Chapter 2

February 13, 2012 | Uncategorized  |  1 Comment

Blogs are modern tools  that offer both the writer and the reader attractive benefits.  For the audience, blogs offer an outlet for news and recent innovations that focuses on a specific interest like sports, technology, cars, science, or pretty much any subject imaginable.  They allow the reader to voice their opinion through comments.  Since blogs are often written by a single author, readers can thereby expect a certain level of consistency not offered by other sources.

For the author, the reader’s benefits are translated into benefits for the writer.  A writer can focus on their own specific interests when keeping a blog, making publishing particularly fun.  Since audience members can comment on posts, the author can receive instant feedback on a story they’ve published and fix grammar mistakes, further clarify a point, and so on.  Since the blog belongs to the author, they can use their own voice and become what Briggs calls “an authority with a personality.”

While blogs sound like fun, maintaining a reputable blog requires considerable work.  Stories must be tailored for the blog platform, which means they are direct, succinct, and not entirely self contained.  This means that the use of hyperlinks is encouraged to give the reader additional sources and information

Any blog of significance is updated frequently and early in the day.  A blog is that isn’t frequently updated seems static and uninteresting, and if the reader feels this, they won’t hesitate to move on to a more prolific blog.  With RSS feeds, not having current information to write and comment on is no longer an excuse.

Feb

13

Briggs Chapter 1

February 13, 2012 | Uncategorized  |  2 Comments

The internet is , at its most basic level, fairly easy to use.  However, using the internet to spread a message effectively is not quite as simple.  While a person can host a blog or even create a basic website with little or no knowledge of coding or HTML, learning these skills can be a valuable asset to anybody wishing to use the internet as their journalistic outlet of choice.

Knowing how to use HTML can allow a person to build and maintain a website of their own from scratch.  While it can be complicated at first, extensive practice and use of HTML can allow a user to create a website tailored to their exact needs that template-based websites cannot offer.

RSS feeds allow for much more streamlined internet-based information gathering.  Whether the feed is dedicated to personal interests, traditional news, or both, it eliminates the need to visit and sift through a multitude of different websites to catch up on trending topics and new stories.

With an RSS reader, the stories come to the reader instead of the other way around. The reader can see all of the new and important articles displayed in a list, and can pick from that list which ones they wish to read, dramatically reducing the time needed to find out what the talk of the day is online.

Feb

6

Journalism Next: Introduction

February 6, 2012 | Uncategorized  |  1 Comment

The industry of journalism has enjoyed a state of relative consistency in the past century.  Now, however, the industry is at a point where it might not look the same as it does now in six months.  A lot can happen in six months.  An established newspaper could go under, a magazine might become an online-only venture, and new, innovative media will pop up while some others will vanish.  Essentially, this is a time where things are moving so fast in the industry that it can hardly keep up with itself.

Many journalists and news outlets are being forced to adopt new methods of packaging and delivering their messages to their audiences.  This can be difficult, especially if the journalist or outlet has been doing things one way for their entire career, never having been asked to evolve.

The great thing about being one of the journalists of tomorrow is that while everything is new, nothing is particularly foreign.  We have no habits to overcome in the interest of keeping up with the changing face of journalism.  We grew up with this kind of change.  Now, the challenge is not to see how well we successfully adopt the tools available, but rather it is to get good at finding where improvements can be made and how technology can be harnessed to better serve our audiences.

Feb

2

Media Pyramid

February 2, 2012 | Uncategorized  |  2 Comments

 

My primary media consumption comes from Facebook, Tumblr, and Reddit, with Reddit being the most important one.  Reddit is a community-driven site with countless “subreddit” communities devoted to certain interests and acts more like a funnel or channel for the rest of the internet, so most of my media consumption through Reddit is not technically Reddit’s content, but rather content from hundreds of different sites.

I subscribe to GQ and National Geographic in print, and so when I get a new issue, I read it from cover to cover, as well as visit their websites occasionally to see content that has been posted since the last issue came out.  I get most of my television and movie content from Netflix (which is not very much compared to many of my friends), and I read Broadside almost every week.

When I make long car drives, I usually turn on Sirius/XM radio and listen to the comedy channels, but I’ll flip to the BBC station or NPR once every blue moon.  Finally, I have the New York Times app for my phone, so when there’s a breaking story, I get a notification and I might check out the full story if it piques my interest.

« go back

  • Archive