Social Networks, a place for Friends, Business, News, and Much More

While I learned vast amounts of knowledge about media, journalism, and the need for valuable internships, the most important message I left Jan. Term with was the growing importance and impact of social media. While President Obama was meeting with President Hu, China had a seventy percent increase of Facebook membership, the site Check Facebook noted. One in ten people on earth frequent Facebook. It has its own currency, its own interpretation of United States law, and it is changing the world. However, that is only one site in an ocean of digital property, social networking, and cyber text. I learned a great deal from each physical place we visited, but in addition, this trip opened my eyes to the many skills and sites I need to master before joining the professional, but more so, the digital age.

My first thought when reached New York was that New York is a Honda Element. That is to say, if New York was a car, it would be a sleek yet boxy machine, modern and cold, full of more people than you thought was possible, and roaring with power. But that’s not quite it. If New York was a vehicle, it would be your uncle’s second hand Pontiac Trans Am like the Hoff’s night riding vehicle, thirty years past its peak, smelling awful, scratched up and decaying, but still vintage and kind of cool. But that’s not it either. New York is a BWM pulling out of the underground valet lot in the Financial District.  It is a faded but iconic yellow taxi, blaring a horn loudly at no one in particular.

The machines we drive are all in some ways a shadow of ourselves, our cities. Blood pumps through my veins like the cars that clog Manhattan’s streets and the subways that race beneath the city’s skin. These little cells that keep me alive match the millions of lives, of words that drive New York. Last week we visited John Wiley and Sons and learned about the business of words. Publishing is fascinating; it is a village raising books from ideas to the adulthood of hardbacks, novelty products, subsidiary rights, or translations. Publishing is not all copy editing or slush piling. The role of publishers is changing to being content providers. Their goal is to have a seamless transition into electronic media. John Wiley and Sons began in 1807 and published the likes of Poe, Melville, Dickens, Anderson, Hugo, and the Bronte sisters. Then shifted from fiction to science, industry, religion, and women authors. They have always on the forefront of change. As they printed during the Second World War, “books cannot be killed … people die but books cannot.”

In more recent years, the company led the transition to online books or “eBooks”, but until Amazon jumped on board there was little success. However, today this is one of their biggest markets. As Vice President Director of Global Right Kris Kleangan noted, “it’s not print or electronics, but print and electronics.” I was interested to learn about subsidiary rights. Kleangan explained that her job is to exploit the right to material, enable permission and use of product. They work mostly in translation, audio books, digital products, large prints and promotional material. In regards to digital products, Brazil and China are huge markets for social networking and digital media. She believes technology is good.

Anne Smith and Tiara Kelly focused on the post secondary market. Products should “help teachers teach and students learn”. There is a struggle between viewing the clients as consumers versus academics. Smith chided, “we don’t knowingly publish fiction.” In response to the growing use of varied technology in the classroom Smith noted that the use of applications on smart phones and digital media is being tested. As publishers, they actually prefer electronic publications where the overhead cost is greatly smaller.  Unlike magazines and newspapers that went straight to free material, the book publishing world delayed actions to put material on the web, due to financial concerns. Yet then came eBooks. This method of publishing has been vastly popular, and now they are investigating other options, specifically with higher academics in mind. A possible option for academic books is coding in an expiration date or a single desktop usage.  Another goal is to work seamlessly with Blackboard. Currently they are developing tagged content, new digital covers, even more collaboration with MoAC, and concept testing of concept caching, (which designed to mimic geocaching).

We then went to a Publishing Panel. However, they did provide a number of online resources. The first was the American Association of Publisher. The AAP says eBook sales were up 9% this past year. This panel also brought up the muddle mess of Internet law. In 2005 Google had issues to the say the least. Google published a large amount of text for free without permission. However the nature and boundaries of “previewing material” had not been set, and therefore it was unclear and uncharted legal territory. Yet the consensus was once again that eBooks are good, they created jobs. Also repeated from Wiley was the message that in order to get hired, internships and industry knowledge is a huge must. Website literacy must include: Publisher’s Lunch, Digital Book World, Media Bistro, Book Square, and The Publishing Point.

At The Smoking Gun, we learned how print media, if done with integrity, accuracy, and quality, can still push boundaries in a good way. Reporting can be a civil service. Bill Bastone told us “journalism is a public service, not a job or a cash thing or something to be regulated.” He also reiterated that he believes the stigma that accompanies online publications is gone. He argued that their organization was quite different from a TMZ or Perez Hilton, which was a positive difference he believed. When I reflected upon this though, I wondered about the shifting interest in personal authorities. Although popular culture icons are often counted as inconsequential, we are turning more and more to our peers for advice, so perhaps this distinction is not necessary.

We learned from Ketchum, a Public Relations firm, that by connecting people, technology, media, companies and products, that profits can be improved while also improving companies, reputations, and the lives of the consumer and the client.

With so many machines, so many different veins, it has been a little overwhelming thinking about where this might lead us all, but who knows. There are many different cars in our group, and our futures might lead back to this beating, driving, city of words.

Ketchum has five global practice areas: Branding, Corporate, Health Care, Technology and Food and Nutrition.  Other facets of the business include that multiple public relations companies share clients as well as the existence of internal public relations at the company. There are four to ten people on a campaign. Ketchum said the difference between advertising and public relations is that they can do ads, but they focus more on communications and branding. Advertising will use a poster child for a specific product, where as pubic relations tries to connect a feeling or idea with a company. There are four pillars of crisis management: issue management, crisis prepared, crisis management, and litigation communication. Above all they noted, “we don’t spin.”

Bloomberg was a fascination place, not unlike Ketchum. Image was vital to both places. According to Bloomberg, they break 60% of all stories. The buzzword was transparency. However, this felt odd since it came across much more like Big Brother than honest. One of their big emphases was their continuous news. Twenty-four hour news is really four to five hours of news that repeats. Yet I did leave with some good tidbits. New York Bureau chief Karen believed that “you need to follow the sun around the world as far as news is concerned… for there isn’t good news or bad news, only news.”

The biggest issue facing Bloomberg today was one that goes hand in hand with the explosion of digital media. In days past, the issue used to be finding facts and information and stories in a vacuum.  Today it is more of a struggle to shift through to find what matters. Research helps, however it still can take an army to track down the right name.

The combination of research and the digital market was clear at The New York Times Graphic’s department. They focus mostly on maps, graphs, and charts.  However, their graphics are a vital part of their online repertoire. My favorite thing they showed us was a fascinating interactive map of the 2010 Census.

The majority of the employees have master’s degrees, not usually in art, but that is part of their background. In order to work for the graphics department, hires usually need either programming ability to create illustrations like a three-dimensional bridge collapse in a period or twenty-four hours, or vast journalism skills and experience. The knowledge of html, subscript, and coding is a necessary to work there.

However the most interesting thing I left with was the article “Cyberspace when You’re Dead.” The article questions in detail the murky waters of the ownership and purpose of Internet identity and possessions after someone has passed away. Again, the leaning is towards physical property, and the inclination from the legal world is to categorize internet presence under estate laws. However LinkedIn, Facebook, Google, and Yahoo are all considering not allowing a transfer of authority but instead creating a new mode, “memorial status” that would auto-set account settings and preferences to allow friends and family to continue to post but to block hackers and spammers from interacting with the account. The matter is currently in court and under discussion.

On January 11^th, we went to Propublica, and then met with Dr. Sreenivasanvison.

This was my favorite visit of the trip, as well the most relevant to this paper. We learned the history of Columbia’s Journalism school, about New York, and then delved into the world of social networking. Dr. Sreenivasan noted “the ability to synthesize and communicate information to a wide audience will employ you for the rest of your life.”  The first blog we learned about was Tehran Bureau, where the writer capitalized a unique blog market and went onto to receive a large sum of money. It was a testament to the fact that technology keeps getting better, faster, and cheaper. Technology helps, but it is important to remain skeptical. Dr. Sreenivasan said, “we should all be early testers [of technology] and late adapters.”

Technology has shifted our idea of authority. Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter allowed people to turn to their friends instead of pillars of advice. We no longer look to Robert and Ebert to choose movies; instead we check our Twitter or RSS feeds. This inclusion in relevancy has made users part of the story. Dr. Sreenivasan noted, “crisis are the same today as yesteryear.” However, before the story was reported and printed, there was a wall of isolation between reader and text. Now, we expect to be part of the story, to comment, to drive up search engine hits, to click “like” on statuses or stories we react to.

With this narrative in place, Dr. Sreenivasan then went on to share a number of websites that offer a valuable contribution to the networking discussion. Mashable was started out of a basement in Scotland. It now is one of the largest social networking news, commentary, and research sites. It collects news and business articles and press releases as well as more entertaining and extracurricular focused articles. The material helps recreational and business-minded users alike. Paid Content is a little different. It focuses on economic study of social media, but instead of the news layout of Mashable, it is designed like both a blog and a twitter feed. What both of these sites have in common is the fulfillment of niche. Dr. Sreenivasan suggested that for cyber success, the first step is to specialize in an area, followed by delivering that content in an accessible digital form.

All of this assumes the value in social networking and digital presence. However, if that is debated, there are at least four values that are difficult to discount. The first benefit is the ability to post and access new ideas, trends, and news. The second is an extreme expansion in audiences. Social media allows for not only a growth in a single large audience, but also a growth in the number of different audiences.  Thirdly, social media grants attention. It gives eyeballs and high traffic to topics previously censored or ignored. Finally, social media and networking allows for personal branding. Facebook, Flikr, and so many other sites are turning individuals into ideas and assumptions. As Dr. Sreenivasan reminded us, “you are your Google results.”

Another branch of digital media I learned about was the more artistic side of social media sites included Klout, Viddyjam, and the YouTube Lean back. Klout is the most general of the three; it is a site that measures influence on the internet. Now while they include all types of individuals and organizations, it seemed to be mostly driven by entertainment people and artists. However, their research and measurements could be hugely valuable to businesses and other organizations for monitoring their own influence as well as their competitors. Viddyjam on the other hand was similar to the popular and well known, internet radio site Pandora. It creates custom music video playlists while also allowing users to select already prepared stations. Reflecting on both Viddyjam and Pandora against what we learned on January 20^th at PEW at the future of radio, I am interested to see the impact of internet radio in cars. XM options have been pricey and at times restricted to one affluent audience. Yet internet access on phones and laptops as well as things like Blue Ray players has been available and utilized by a much wider audience. Internet radio stations right now compete against each other while also fighting different mediums. Should they be all audio, or is video vital to their progression? Viddyjam seems to directly compete with YouTube’s Leanback. Leanback however is slimmer, simpler, but also takes longer to personalize. I am curious to see if individualization or simplicity triumphs.

The final site Dr. Sreenivasan left us with was Poynter. He encouraged us all to seek out people in our lives and on the web to point to great things. For him, this media blog was his own pointer.

After this I met with my friend Ashley Harris who currently is a music agent for Sony Music. A large part of her job is social networking. She told us that even with vast knowledge of LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Foursquare, and a number of other sites, she still was not up to date with social media. She suggested we look at Pipl and Bit.ly. Pipl is a scary version of the White Pages. With only a last name it delivers a large number of personal details on the searched person. It reminded me of the Zaba search engine, only a little scarier. Bit.ly was far more interesting. It is a service that records web traffic. It can be used with most search engines, social networking sites, and home pages. I was amazed.

New York was filled with more places and experiences than I could possibly include in a fourteen page paper, especially one that also covers the days in Washington D.C. As I look at my subway map, I can now tick off all the different districts on Manhattan, plus a few others that live off this crazy island. As each day has passed we’ve also checked off things to do and see off our media list. Visit ProPublica. Check. Columbia University. Check. TV Guide and AP. Check check. Then there’s the touristy list; lines steadily cross off things like the Statue of Liberty, the UN building, Union Square, 30 Rock, see a show on Broadway, (we saw Avenue Q) and lots more. We’ve explored Manhattan but dined across the world, (Mia and I by ourselves have eaten South American, Indian, Thai, Chinese, Mexican, and American food as well as drank more weak East Coast coffee than we care to admit). It was lovely.

Of course, the lessons are as much experiential as academic; they are on the streets as well as in the numerous conference rooms we have now had the privilege of sitting in, (for the record, Wiley’s is still the best, great chairs, view, and free food).

So in honor of the New Yorker late night man, Mr. Letterman, I have compiled a top ten list of what we have learned so far:

10. Going to the end of a subway platform will grant you three extra inches of space. Which is necessary sometimes.

9. There is GOOD food in New York. And all it will cost is a lot of money and a reservation.

8. A liberal arts education, regardless of the major, is attractive to employers.

7. Research the personality and the current affairs of companies where you want to work. Each company, or branch of that company has a distinct flavor, and it is important to find one that matches both your goals and life. Additionally, knowing about the field and place where you are interviewing is essential to coming off well in a hiring situation.

6. Sometimes New York smells bad, and there’s not a lot you can do about it.

5. New Yorkers are giant babies when it comes to snow, ice, and cold. Come on people. Spokane dreams about having it this good.

4. The art world, whether it is books, museums, plays, or galleries, all compliment studies in communications.

3. Learning to write well is a big deal. It will get you hired.

2. Internships and experience are vital, vital, vital. Do them early and often in your college career.

1. Social media is the single largest force shaping all industries and the majority of lives in this country. Any company or person that is acting in a reactive way to its existence or power is already behind.

Washington D.C. brought new questions to my mind. While I was still focused on the role of digital media and social networking, the governmental environment allowed me to consider other questions about the media. New York was a series of dark canyons lined with garbage and dirty snow, where as the Federal City has been a shining beacon of excitement and sunshine. We spoke with the head of C-SPAN and the president of PBS, and I can soundly say that they were two of my favorite people and places we have visited. At PBS, Paula Kerger impressed me with her knowledge of and ability to weave together politics, journalism, digital media, and presentation skills. However, C-SPAN made me think. Founder Brian Lamb not only came across as an extremely smart man, but he also put total faith in our government’s system while having a healthy view about the people who run it.

But today also continued a debate I have been struggling with for over a week now. The debate is over the role of media and journalism. It seems like many of the places acknowledge the existence of the three branches of government, (the President, the Supreme Court, and Congress), but they also insert themselves as the fourth branch, what I like to call “the watchdogs”. Again and again the people we have met with have rhetorically set up an us versus them, a press against the government fight, all in the name of representing the public and while also delivering us the things that the government and big companies are hiding. However, at the Newseum, there was a list of the first amendment’s liberties and freedoms. They were freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to assemble, freedom of (not from) religion, and freedom to petition.

I agree 100% that this amendment is vital to our government. I agree that freedom of speech and freedom of the press is vital for a democracy. However, I wonder if the proportion and role of the press against the rest of the Constitution and other amendments is at times exaggerated? Is it healthy to always approach the government and business in an aggressive way and align ourselves with the press, who may just be trying to sell more papers or sound bites? I think it depends what world view you approach the media from, but I think I will continue to brew over these questions.

In Washington, PEW Research was both my favorite stop as well as the most interesting.  Each year they publish The State of News report, which is often hundreds of pages long, although we each received an abridged version. I was fascinated. Director Tom Rosenstiel presented incredible statistics and numbers to us. Ninety percent of people use multiple platforms to read the news. Over sixty percent use more than four platforms. In regards to digital media, news is not dying. The New York Times has more than tripled its readership when online publication readers are included. It is more younger, broader, and diverse than ever before.

The problem is not an audience issue, but an advertisement issue. Over forty percent of print revenue used to come from classified. Profits have dropped by seventy percent now due to the popular (free) classified type website Craigslist. News providers must find new revenue.  Yet audiences are moving away from a lean back experience, that is a reading habit where the entire publication is part of the process, including vibrant advertisements. People are turning to lean forward experiences where instead of reading an entire text, then lean forward to seek out one particular piece of information. A huge amount of people never read past online headlines. Television is suffering loss of audience, but instead of amping their online presence, they instead are day shifting to more coverage, or even twenty-four hour coverage. Radio is not declining yet, but as I reflected earlier, internet radio in cars and home venues is stalking nearer.

We also visited both the Student Press Law Center as well as the Reporter’s Committee, both of which focus on legal advice to journalist. The internet seemed to both intimidate and frighten a number of establishments we visited, but both lawyers we met with seemed more intrigued with the emerging field. We learned that more and more courts are treating the web as physical property. Hacking is trespassing. Wikileak journalist will be tried as spies. Your social networks are like your living room, if you do something illegal with your windows open, for example keeping your profile accessible to the public and posting pictures of underage drinking, you are liable. There is little sympathy for privacy in the courts. Like mentioned in the article about cyberspace deceased, intellectual property is the phrase of the day.

All of these experiences are still tumbling through my mind. Social networking is a part of most people’s lives. While I remember the start of MySpace and Facebook, and even the growth of the internet to some extent, my children will grow up with these forces as pillars in their lives. There will not be a difference between existence of Coca Cola, Google, Facebook, or Wal-Mart. This makes me uncomfortable in many ways. I am terrified that privacy is going to die. I am nervous that my rights will be violated and censored. I am scared of anything that looks or acts like Big Brother. Yet I do believe technology is good, and the good far outweighs the bad. I am excited to watch the legal world incorporate digital law. I am excited to watch businesses utilize these forms of media. Most of all I am excited to watch individuals raise their voices and find a place of notoriety. Social networking is the platform from which to lift our thoughts and ourselves in the days to come.

The fourth branch.

I love Washington D.C.

New York was a series of dark canyons lined with garbage and dirty snow, where as the Federal City has been a shining beacon of excitement and sunshine. Well mostly.

Today was our first day of official visits, we spoke with the head of C-SPAN and the president of PBS, and I can soundly say that they were two of my favorite people and places we have visited. At PBS, Paula Kerger impressed me with her knowledge of and ability to weave together politics, journalism, digital media, and presentation skills.

However, C-SPAN made me think. Founder Brian Lamb not only came across as an extremely smart man, but he also put total faith in our government’s system while having a healthy view about the people who run it.

But today also continued a debate I have been struggling with for over a week now. The debate is over the role of media and journalism. It seems like many of the places acknowledge the existence of the three branches of government, (the President, the Supreme Court, and Congress), but they also insert themselves as the fourth branch, what I like to call “the watchdogs”. Again and again the people we have met with have rhetorically set up an us versus them, a press against the government fight, all in the name of representing the public and while also delivering us the things that the government and big companies are hiding. However, at the Newseum, there was a list of the first amendment’s liberties and freedoms. They were freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom to assemble, freedom of (not from) religion, and freedom to petition.

I agree 100% that this amendment is vital to our government. I agree that freedom of speech and freedom of the press is vital for a democracy. However, I wonder if the proportion and role of the press against the rest of the Constitution and other amendments is at times exaggerated? Is it healthy to always approach the government and business in an aggressive way and align ourselves with the press, who may just be trying to sell more papers or sound bites?

What do you think?

My Top 10.

As I look at my subway map, I can now tick off all the different districts on Manhattan, plus a few others that live off this crazy island. As each day has passed we’ve also checked off things to do and see off our media list. Visit ProPublica. Check. Columbia University. Check. TV Guide and AP. Check check. Then there’s the touristy list; lines steadily cross off things like the Statue of Liberty, the UN building, Union Square, 30 Rock, see a show on Broadway, (we saw Avenue Q) and lots more. We’ve explored Manhattan but dined across the world, (Mia and I by ourselves have eaten South American, Indian, Thai, Chinese, Mexican, and American food as well as drank more weak East Coast coffee than we care to admit). It has been lovely.

As we roll pass the halfway mark and into our last day in New York, I can confidently say I am both learning and having a great time.

Of course, the lessons are as much experiential as academic; they are on the streets as well as  in the numerous conference rooms we have now had the privilege of sitting in, (for the record, Wiley’s is still the best, great chairs, view, and free food).

So in honor of the New Yorker late nighter, Mr. Letterman, I have compiled a top ten list of what we have learned so far:

10. Going to the end of a subway platform will grant you three extra inches of space. Which is necesary sometimes.

9. There is GOOD food in New York. And all it will cost is a lot of money and a reservation.

8. A liberal arts education, regardless of the major, is attractive to employers.

7. Research the personality and the current affairs of companies where you want to work. Each company, or branch of that company has a distinct flavor, and it is important to find one that matches both your goals and life. Additionally, knowing about the field and place where you are interviewing is essential to coming off well in a hiring situation.

6. Sometimes New York smells bad, and there’s not a lot you can do about it.

5. New Yorkers are giant babies when it comes to snow, ice, and cold. Come on people. Spokane dreams about having it this good.

4. The art world, whether it is books, museums, plays, or galleries, all compliment studies in communications.

3. Learning to write well is a big deal. It will get you hired.

2. Internships and experience are vital, vital, vital. Do them early and often in your college career.

1. Social media is the single largest force shaping all industries and the majority of lives in this country. Any company or person that is acting in a reactive way to its existence or power is already behind.
There it is. My top ten. Tomorrow is one more day in the Big Apple, and then onto D.C.

I cannot wait.

Cars

New York is a Honda Element. That is to say, if New York was a car, it would be a sleek yet boxy machine, modern and cold, full of more people than you thought was possible, and roaring with power. But that’s not quite it. If New York was a vehicle, it would be your uncle’s second hand Pontiac Trans Am like the Hoff’s night riding vehicle, thirty years past its peak, smelling awful, scratched up and decaying, but still vintage and kind of cool. But that’s not it either. New York is a BWM pulling out of the underground valet lot in the Financial District.  It is a faded but iconic yellow taxi, blaring a horn loudly at no one in particular.

The machines we drive are all in some ways a shadow of ourselves, our cities. Blood pumps through my veins like the cars that clog Manhattan’s streets and the subways that race beneath the city’s skin. These little cells that keep me alive match the millions of lives, of words that drive New York.

Last week we visited John Wiley and Sons and learned about the business of words. Publishing is fascinating, it is a village raising books from ideas to the adulthood of hardbacks, novelty products, subsidiary rights, or translations. Today at The Smoking Gun, we learned how print media, if done with integrity, accuracy, and quality, can still push boundaries in a good way. Reporting can be a civil service.

We learned from Ketchum, a PR firm, that by connecting people, technology,media, companies and products, that profits can be improved while also improving companies, reputations, and the lives of the consumer and the client.

With so many machines, so many different veins, it has been a little overwhelming thinking about where this might lead us all, but who knows. There are many different cars in our group, and our futures might lead back to this beating, driving, city of words.