Social Media And You

A New Kind of Media

The advance of technology has meant a strong shift in how we understand and consume media. Previously, media was understood in terms of information being dictated to us. We now have an element of control over how we interact with this media, which was limited previously. This includes areas such as the Guardian’s Comment Is Free function, where people can comment and question aspects of the news on the newspaper’s internet site. The ‘democratisation’ of media is an extremely positive move, yet there are problems which we must be aware are becoming increasingly prevalent. The rise of ‘citizen journalism’ can help enrich one’s understanding of current events, but can also give rise to a huge amount of information with no ‘filter’ option. This applies to areas of social media which we are familiar with, such as Facebook and Twitter.

The Viral Video
It seems like every day we are told that a particular video has gone ‘viral’. Does this mean that the particular video is newsworthy? Often these ‘viral’ videos can hide political persuasions or marketing ideas. A recent example was the Kony video.

There is no question that this video was a powerful documentary whose popularity was due to people on sites such as Facebook and Twitter sharing the video, similar to the ‘word-of-mouth’ stories which spread like wildfire in our youth. What was interesting was how quickly other facts about the story emerged, such as the hidden political agendas behind the group responsible for the original video, including allegations concerning their evangelical Christian doctrine. That a group of hipsters sporting guns in the jungle in Uganda didn’t arise suspicions from the outset was worrying in itself.

Determing What The Product Is
Perhaps that should read ‘Determing Who The Product Is? Facebook is a hugely powerful tool in promoting your ‘product’, whether that is a traditional product that you wish to sell, or whether that product is a personal endevour such as a blog or non-commercial enterprise. When I worked for Waterstone’s, I was in charge of managing the Facebook feed for the shop in the Jervis Shopping Centre. What I found was an easy way to promote discounts and new books in the shop, but extremely difficult to determine who was actually reading and valuing the information.

What is more subtle is the advertising that Facebook enables on your page. Some of it can be particularly perplexing and bemusing, including advertisements that are clearly directed at different genders. Some of them are remarkably apt, however, and are clearly utilising functions such as the ones that you ‘like’ and advertising similar products. People complain about the ‘invasion of privacy’, but it is important to note that if you are using a free service on the internet, the chances are likely that it is you that is the product.

Twitter has not quite reached this point yet. There are no advertisements (yet) and you can quickly ignore or report those people or companies who have clearly signed up to the service purely to advertise a product that is not necessarily relevant to your interests. Although I have tried to resist Twitter for many years, I recently signed up, purely because of the increasing prevalence of some companies advertising jobs in particular feeds that I may be interested in. The future of Twitter is surely to move towards a ‘Facebook model’ where advertisements are used based on the amount of personal information you have provided to the service. A cynic might argue that they have not immediately embraced this model in the hope that you will become hooked first and so will find it more difficult to cancel your account once this becomes central to the service.

A Podcast, Uploaded.

Here’s a link to my Podcast:

http://bryan-whelan.podomatic.com/rss2.xml

Podcasts and WordPress
I have been having difficulty uploading and subscribing on iTunes, as per the instructions in last week’s class. My difficulty here lies in trying to identify the RSS feed for my podcast. My attempt to verify the feed failed, as it specified that what I was trying to verify was a website. It’s back to the drawing board (and by drawing board, I mean the class slides) for me. Hopefully I will be able to upload to iTunes shortly. My podcast is currently sitting in my iTunes podcast section, but I don’t think it’s uploaded in the traditional sense.

On Using Podomatic:

I found Podomatic relatively easy to use, however there does not seem to be an immediacy in viewing your Podcast once you’ve submitted it. I am also finding WordPress a little frustrating at not giving me the option to imbed links into my posts. In addition to this, it would be nice if there was a feature to directly link the Podcast to your WordPress account.

The main problem I’m having, however, is an issue with the finished product. Listening back to my podcast on Podomatic, I noticed that it cut off a tiny section at the very end, which made it sound like I had accidentally deleted that section myself when editing the podcast in Audacity. Listening back over the saved files in Audacity, however, showed that the recording is perfectly edited. I uploaded a second podcast, and the same fault remains. I’ve tried searching through Podomatic for help on this area, but the search function simply brings up other podcasts. I have a feeling it’s something to do with the length of the podcast one is allowed on a free account, but I can’t find any further information on this. I will have to try a more in-depth search.

Why Podcasting?

It is easy to see why podcasting is so popular, and is already a fixture in the world of digital media. Most people in Ireland and other ‘developed’ countries have access to devices which allow playback of podcasts. A good podcast means people actively seek out a blog or other form of media in order to access their content. Good examples of media outlets which produce excellent podcasts include the Guardian and the Irish Times.

What’s surprising is the degree to which many companies don’t fully utilise the benefits of the service. A good example of this would be. Although fully versed in the world of new media (they are particularly strong in promoting the library through Twitter and Facebook) they have yet to fully exploit the benefits of podcasting, despite having a wealth of interesting speakers, topics and exhibitions to promote. A different kind of problem with podcasts can be found in sites such asand. Some of Newstalk’s podcasts are excellent and of a high quality. One of these would be Patrick Geoghegan’s Talking History podcast. Despite this, there are issues even with such a high quality example. This podcast only features the ‘main’ topic discussed, and so misses out on the second half of the show. This may be due to a time-limit available to Newstalk, however. Another issue which should surely be looked at is how most companies do not use advertisements in their podcasts. While this makes the experience far more enjoyable to the listener, surely the producing company could charge premium advertising space for audio which a listener has actively sought? A general problem with Newstalk would be the differences in standards when comparing one podcast to another. While the Talking History podcast is, as said previously, to a very high technical standard, the Future Proof podcast, while a very interesting programme, has a noticeably lower technical standard in terms of sound reproducing on their podcasts.

It might seem that the only way in which to access high quality podcasts is through large commercial media outlets. This is not necessarily the case. The is a very interesting podcast, seemingly initiated by a non-commercial body. Although professional in content, however, there are slight issues with the sound level and the regularity of the publishing of the content.

Overall, however, the amount of time, space and dedication given by many of the most respected media outlets shows the importance of podcasting in the current digital media world.