Category Archives: Research

Where Do YOU get your News?

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Posted by Joe on February 12, 2010 – 12:28 pm
Filed under Communication, Journalism, Research

Where do you get your news? This is an important question in the journalism industry. This question will help us determine where we need to go to reach our viewers and readers. Since the early days of journalism, we go where the readers go.  When journalists go out to find answers to their stories they as who, what, where, when, why and how. These same questions are being asked by scholars and researchers in the communication field to figure where people are getting their news.

Source: Pew Research Center

Over the course of media’s history there has been many changes. Changes to how media was accessed, who could access and where they could access it. Before television we had the radio to deliver our news and information. Technology continues to advance and grow. Advancements in technology change the way we communicate and access information. We saw this with television, radio, newspapers and now the internet. Technological advancements also bring about change. Change the way we do things, the way we communicate and the way we gather information. Perception of these technological advancements are important for the journalism field. We need to understand how the public, our viewers, feel about the new technology and what that means for the old technology. A survey by the PEW Research Center did just that. Questions were geared to find whether this new technology has been a positive change for the better. One thing stuck out to me as I was looking at the data from the chart on the right. The fact that internet blogs are not a change for the better is interesting. In an unrelated PEW Research study, “12% of internet users (representing 9% of all adults) say they ever create or work on their own online journal or blog.”1 Each day we are seeing more and more people who are blogging online. However, the public is questioning the motives and validity of these blogs. This is good because we should be skeptical of what we read — how do we know the blogger knows what they are talking about?

Source: Pew Research Center

With new technology offering so many sources to get information, where is the majority getting there news from? A study by the Pew Research Center, most people are still getting their news from telvision. The data does suggest that there is a shift from generation to generation. While the younger generation (18-29) are watching television, they are also going online. The opposite can be said about the older generation (65+), more are turning to TV than going online.

An interesting thing to note is the newspaper column. The newspaper industry is feeling a huge blow with the increase in internet readership. Many people still turn to local newspapers for local news. In general 41% turn to newspapers for local news with majority of the readership from the 65+ age group. Despite the fact that many people go to local newspapers for local news, many wouldn’t mind if the local newspapers vanished.2 Hmm…

So where do you like to get your news from? Do you agree with the statistics from the PEW Research Center? Let me know your thoughts.

  1. http://www.authoring.pewinternet.org/Commentary/2008/July/New-numbers-for-blogging-and-blog-readership.aspx [↩]
  2. http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1147/newspapers-struggle-public-not-concerned [↩]

Jon Stewart Interview

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Posted by Joe on February 10, 2010 – 6:14 pm
Filed under Communication, Journalism, Research, Video

Jon Stewart, host of The Daily Show interviewed Newt Gingrich on Tuesday. Newt Gingrich is the former Republican House Speaker. I embedded the video of the interview on the blog and curious about your thoughts.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Newt Gingrich
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show
Full Episodes		 Political Humor Health Care Crisis

The main reason I posted this video is not to get into a political debate. The main reason is this, many people (especially younger people) are turning to shows like The Daily Show and Colbert Report.  Jon Stewart does not consider himself a journalist, but rather a comedian. Is this a good thing for journalism and the viewers? Do you consider shows like The Daily Show and Colbert Report to be as “newsworthy” as CNN, Fox News or MSNBC?

A study done by PEW Research Center puts this in perspective:

“The Daily Show”, which launched in 1996, now has an average audience of about 1.8 million5. By comparison, Fox News’ primetime show “Hannity & Colmes” had an average audience of 1.9 million in the first quarter of 2008, and CNN’s highest rated show, “Election Center,” captured an average of 1.2 million viewers6. Stewart became host of the Show in 1999 and also serves as a writer and co-executive producer.1

You can read the whole study by clicking here.

Tweets

Read what people are saying about the interview on Twitter!

  1. http://pewresearch.org/pubs/829/the-daily-show-journalism-satire-or-just-laughs [↩]

New Facebook Design

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Posted by Joe on January 5, 2010 – 1:50 pm
Filed under Communication, Featured, Journalism, Research, Social Media, Technology

TechCrunch reports that Facebook has been testing a new design that will be released in the upcoming weeks to all users. The new redesign is said to be completed and a select few are able to test out it. An actual release date has not been set.

Some notable changes to the design1:

  • Search bar moved from the right to the left-center (next to Facebook logo)
  • Navigation bar has been simplified
  • Sidebar is scaled down (similar to Facebook Lite)
  • Duplicate link to profile is gone
  • Settings and login/logout have been combined into an “account” dropdown
  • Application bar is gone (bookmarked apps get listed on left sidebar)
  • Notifications are gone, replaced by a counter next to the application link in left sidebar

If you have the new design let me know what you think! What changes, if any, do you think Facebook needs?

  1. http://www.twitter4groups.com//rta/a/view?f=aHR0cDovL2RpZ2cuY29tL2Rlc2lnbi9GYWNlYm9va19yb2xsaW5nX291dF9uZXdfZGVzaWduX3RvX3NvbWVfdXNlcnM= [↩]

Cool Twitter-Related Sites

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Posted by Joe on January 4, 2010 – 7:17 pm
Filed under Communication, Featured, Journalism, Research

Who doesn’t have a Twitter these days? For many of us, tweeting has become a part of our lives. We tweet about where we are, what we are doing (or going to do), what we had for lunch, dinner and breakfast. We take pictures of the things around us, the cool coffee cup at the local cafe, a rare butterfly that landed on the flower in the park. Twitter has and will continue to revolutionize how we communicate with one another.

So how do we optimize our experience with Twitter? Well below is a list I have compiled that will help you share pictures, text and more through Twitter. Let’s face it Twitter is cool but these add-ons are even cooler!

Twitpic. Share your photographs

Twitmatic. A stream of videos being shared on Twitter

TwitVid. A place to share your videos with Twitter

Tweetburner. Shorten urls, share and track

Twitbin. Twitter conversations via Firefox

HelloTxt. Update your Twitter status and other social network status’ in one place

TweetDeck. Track conversations over Twitter and other social network sites

Mobio. Mobile application to update Twitter

Ubertwitter. Mobile application to update Twitter on Blackberries

If you know of a Twitter application that isn’t on the list, feel free to leave a comment and or contact me.

Protect Against Spam

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Posted by Joe on January 2, 2010 – 5:37 pm
Filed under Communication, Featured, Journalism, Research, Tips

Over the past couple of weeks, I have noticed a lot of spam in my email account. There seems to be a surge of spam emails and then the spam tends to back down. It’s a wave of messages that are suddenly swept away by tools to combat the growing problem. Spam affects us all – whether we realize it or not. There could be dire consequences if we fall for these false messages.

SO WHAT IS SPAM?

Spam in a sense is kind of like the junk mail that you get. All spam is is digital junk mail. Often spam is from people you don’t know – pitching their products and services or possibly stating you won money of some sorts. Some spam even goes as far as putting malicious software, adware, spyware on your computer that could grant them access to your personal data.

Don’t think that spam stops just at email accounts. Spam also affects people who use Twitter, Facebook, Myspace and other social networking sites. Be wary of anyone who you don’t know and the information that they send to you.

SPAM SCAMS

I laugh at some of the spam email that I get because some of them are totally preposterous. If it seems too good to be true, then it more than likely is. If you don’t know or recognize the email from someone you know then it is more than likely spam.

There have been cases where people have been asked to provide personal information such as names, addresses, SSNs, bank information. Your bank will more then likely never ask you for your bank information over email. If you receive an email asking you for this information it is best to contact the bank and see if they really did send you an email message asking for this information. Even if they did, email is not the most secure way to deal with these kinds of issues and should be either done in person or over the phone.

Here is a complete list of email scams that have been plaguing many email accounts. Click here to view.

TOOLS FOR PROTECTION

There are numerous ways to combat spam. Many email services like GMail and Yahoo have anti-spam software built right into their email services. They also offer a spam folder for messages that the service weeds out as potential spam. However, some mail that isn’t spam gets placed into this folder so it’s crucial that you screen the folder to see if any mail gets placed in there that shouldn’t be.

If you’re getting spam from one particular person or company often, you can report them to the Federal Trade Commission by clicking here.

Use and update your spam feature from your anti-viral program. MCafee and Norton both have products to help combat spam. If you don’t have Virus protection on your computer it may be wise to do so. If you’re using a Mac computer, like myself it is up to you whether or not you would like to use Virus and spam protection. There are fewer products and services for Macs because there haven’t been as many attacks on Macs than PCs. However, there are products available if you do chose to make that decision. I have decided to use protection since I use a shared network at my University.

Don’t make rash decisions. Take a couple days to think about it before doing anything. This will help you think things through before acting.