Impact of multimedia tools

Multimedia tools include a combination of text, audio, still images, animation, video, or interactivity content forms. These multimedia tools add an additional dimension to basic computers displays such as text-only.

Take for example this New York Times article titled Snow Fall The Avalanche at Tunnel Creek by John Branch. His use of multimedia tools as well as vividly descriptive text really brings this story alive to the audience without being over powering. It’s hard to not to put yourself in the survivor’s shoes after watching the video clips and wonder how you would have dealt with that situation.

It is my experience that photos and videos have the greatest impact as far as telling a story and reaching the audience. There is something about these mediums that really pulls on the heartstrings of those who view them. I think it’s easier to dismiss information when it’s presented in a plain text-only format where as images from still photos and videos is a visual confirmation of the information being presented.

It can be a struggle to use multimedia tools effectively. It’s important to ensure you choose multimedia tools that enhance your content as they can sometimes distract your audience.

West Seattle Blog and Blogging Best Practices

Perhaps one of the most popular hyperlocal blogs is the West Seattle Blog. This blog represents a small, but civically active neighborhood in Seattle. It was started when a power outage in the neighborhood sparked the need for an instant and neighborhood specific news source.

From its start WSB has only grown averaging nearly half a million visits each month. The West Seattle Blog is a regular source for reporters and a first thing in the morning read for most residents in West Seattle and beyond.

Timing is important especially today when we receive a constant flood of information from social channels. The perfect timing will depend on your audience. In the case of WSB they’re timing of creating a neighborhood news source of instant need to know information through their blog, came after a power outage which highlighted the lack of this need.

Once created the engagement is what created the buzz of this blog and creating a stronger community within the neighborhood of West Seattle. WSB has an avid community forum where discussions regularly end up on the front page, and then the occasional evening news.  Not only does WSB engage through the blog itself but it engages through multiple social media platforms such as: facebook, twitter, flickr, youtube, pinterest, and google plus.

This hyperlocal blog’s timing along with its content, frequency, engagement, and use of social media has helped establish its authority as the go to blog for most residents as well as reporters in the West Seattle area.

Press Release for Joe Paterno’s death

Penn State coaching legend Joe Paterno dies at 85

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. – Joe Paterno, the longtime Penn State coach who won more games than anyone in major college football, died Sunday of lung cancer. He was 85.

“His loss leaves a void in our lives that will never be filled,” released in a statement Sunday morning by his family to announce his death.

“He died as he lived,” the statement said. “He fought hard until the end, stayed positive, though only of others and constantly reminded everyone of how blessed his life had been. His ambitions were far reaching, but he never believed he had to leave this Happy Valley to achieve them. He was a man devoted to his family, his university, and his community.”

The Pennsylvania hospital where Paterno died conformed the cause of death as a spreading lung cancer.

Mount Nittany Medical Center said in a statement that Paterno died at 9:25 a.m. Sunday of “metastatic small cell carcinoma of the lung.” Metastatic indicated an illness that has spread from one part of the body to an unrelated area.

The hospital said Paterno was surrounded by family members, who have requested privacy.

Former U.S. President George H.W. Bush also released a statement.

“I was deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Joe Paterno,” Bush said. “He was an outstanding American who was respected not only on the field of play but in life generally -- and he was, without a doubt, a true icon in the world of sports. I was proud that he was a friend of mine. Barbara and I send our condolences to his devoted wife Suzanne and to his wonderful family.”

Joe made an incredible impact, these last 61 years. That impact has been felt and appreciated by our family in the form of thousands of letter and well wishes along with countless acts of kindness from people whose lives he touched.

He leaves us with his “living legacy” of five kids, 17 grandchildren, and hundreds of men whose lives he changed in more ways than can begin to be counted.

The family requests, in lieu of flowers or gifts, that donations be made to the Special Olympics of Pennsylvania or the Penn State-THON, The Penn State IFC/Penhellenic Dance Marathon.

Accompanying Facebook Post:

Social Media Tools

I will admit that with all the social media tools available today, my knowledge of them all is pretty limited. While I knew of blogs and how they worked this is my actually my first attempt at blogging. I’ll have to say it’s not a natural thing for me. I’m more familiar with Facebook and Twitter thanks to my job as a public affairs officer in the U.S. Army.

Due to being a manager of social media for my job I’ve become extremely familiar with Facebook and its privacy settings which has helped me in my personal use of it as well. I encourage you to take a look at the Facebook page I manage for my command, The 76^th Operational Response Command, and to follow it if you like. You can find it at: http://www.facebook.com/76THORC.

Twitter is another social media tool that I use for my job. While I use Twitter, all I really know about it is you post using 144 characters which I find limiting, however the reach can be greater due to how many people use twitter now. I currently have it set up at work where what I post on Facebook is also tweeted on Twitter and ensure my posts follow the 144 character restriction. If you are interested in seeing the 76^th Operational Response Command’s Twitter feed you can find it at:  http://mobile.twitter.com/76thORC. I’ve also dabbled in YouTube for my job as well, but don’t use it much now as we do not have the video capabilities at my current position. 

One of my passions is photography, and while I still consider myself an amateur photographer I use photo sharing sites to display my photos. I have a Flickr account at: https://www.flickr.com/photos/njshutterbug/  as well as I have an account with viewbug.com. I'd share the link, however unless you are a member it's not accessible.

Like I said before I know there are tons of social media tools out there, I don’t really have the urge to learn any new ones, as the ones I use work for my needs.

The Age of Unrestricted Web Publishing, How to Discern the Truth

Today I read an article from the New York Times by Denise Grady entitled, "U.S. Scientists See Long Fight Against Ebola.

The article focused on the deadly Ebola outbreak sweeping across three countries in West Africa is likely to last 12 to 18 months more, much longer than anticipated, and could affect hundreds of thousands of people before it is brought under control.

The article drew on multiple sources which consisted of scientists, epidemiologist and researchers. These sources included Bryan Lewis (Epidemiologist at Virginia Bioinformatics Institute at Virginia Tech.), Tom Skinner (Spokesman of Centers for Disease Control & Prevention), Dr. Thomas R. Frieden (CDC Director), Alessandro Vespignani (Prof. of Computational Science at Northern University), Jeffery L. Shaman (Associate Prof. of Environmental Health Sciences at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health), Thomas Giesbert (Ebola Expert at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galvenston), Lone Simonsen (Research Prof. of Global Health at George Washington University), and Stuart T. Nichol (Chief of CDC's Viral Special Pathogens Branch). 

I had never heard of any of these experts, so I did a Google search of the names cited in the article and found multiple sources that could collaborate their positions and credibility in their respective fields of epidemic research and tracking. 

While the article contained numerous sources in these fields there were no sources listed. Just this announcement/advertisement - A version of this article appears in print on September 13, 2014, on page A1 of the New York edition with the headline: U.S. Scientists See Long Fight Against Ebola. Order Reprints | Today's Paper | Subscribe. Even though the New York Times has a positive reputation for it's reporting, however, how can the audience trust that the information from the sources cited isn't manipulated to address one side of this topic?

How do you know what you know?

Each one of knows lots of things. We know our name. We know our address. We know the sum of two plus two. However, at times people can have conflicting things they know to be true. How do we come to know things? How is it possible for different people to know different things to be true?

The two ways I can think of is through personal experience or what we are told or taught. Each of us knows things we learned on our own. For example stubbing your toe is painful. Knowledge like this we pick up early in life. If you know something and you didn’t experience it yourself, someone had to tell you. The earliest form of being told something is through our education. Where we learned things  to be true, like “dog” is spelled “d-o-g."

I would stand to believe that it's a combination of our personal experiences and what someone tells us that assists us in determining what is true. Taking into consideration how reliable we consider the person telling us something.

Today while checking my Facebook news feed I came across a post a friend of mine had shared a link via The Weather Channel, Small Meteorite Strikes in Nicaragua’s Capital City of Managua. This particular post caught my eye knowing that an asteroid was due to pass close to Earth over the weekend.

In the article a Government spokeswoman, Rosaio Murillo, said a committee formed by the government to study the event determines it was a “relatively small” meteorite that “appears to have come off an asteroid that was passing close to Earth.” House-sized asteroid 2014 RC, which measured 60 feet in diameter, skimmed the Earth this weekend, ABC News reports.

I determined to be true by the reliable sources were attached to this article. These sources involved The Associated Press and The Weather Channel. I believe that reliability is a great factor to people’s trust in what shows up through social media to be true.

Social media can provide instant news faster than traditional news outlet or sources and can be a great wealth of information, but there is also an ever-increasing need to verify and determine accuracy of information. I believe with social media people need to be their own researcher to determine what is fact versus opinion or false.

Influence of New Media

New media, ever evolving and continuously morphing is all around us. From the Internet overall to micro blogging sites, new media allows on-demand access to content anytime, anywhere, on any digital device as well as interactive user feedback, creative participation and community formation around the media content.

Upon initial thought of what new media I use on a daily basis my gut response is just Facebook as a way to keep in touch with friends and family. Given more thought, it more of a small list including my iPhone, Gmail, Twitter, YouTube, Flickr, Pinterest, YouTube, Linkedin as the other main sites I use on a day-to-day basis.

Social media communication tools have profoundly changed our lives and how we interact with one another. When you just wake up and open your eyes, you don’t have to walk outside to get the newspaper, just take your phone and scan the Internet or your newsfeed on Facebook. If you want to listen to music or see a music video just go to YouTube. Our friends on social media are increasingly becoming trusted sources of information through social media. I can’t recall how many times I was informed of something because a friend of mine posted it on Facebook.

Social media has not only influences how we meet and stay in touch with people, its influenced how we reveal ourselves. Before the goal with communication was to reveal very little, now the shift is to be more transparent with our thoughts and feelings, to reveal our humanness. Some using today’s social media communication tools as if it was their own personal diary, where some tend to share too much.

These social media communication tools and the constant sharing of information allow me to have access to so much content. This increased content allows me to take it all in and develop my own perspective on events of topic on social media sites.

However, with this inundation of content it is difficult to weed out what is credible from what is a hoax, scam, opinion, or just incorrect information.

I think social media has both positive and negative influences? For me it allows me to stay in touch with those I want to remain connected to despite not living close together. It keeps my up on what’s going on in the world to include breaking news events.

On the other hand the constant sharing of information tends to overwhelm me to where I tend to not want to engage or pay attention to the information scrolling across my screen. It some cases it forces me to disengage for periods of time.

It will be interesting and a little scary to see the evolution of new media and how our society communicates with each other.