Tag: online media

Twitter is the new internet

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

Republican online guru Patrick Ruffini makes an apt analogy on TechPresident about Twitter. A decade ago, the Internet was the revolutionary media frontier compared to TV; today Twitter is a new niche frontier on an increasingly mainstream world wide web.

Of note, Ruffini points out that Republicans are ahead of Democrats in terms of using this software; projects like the #dontgo movement have shown the utility of this rapidly growing communications vehicle.

The more I thought about it, the less surprised I was – recall that it was conservative bloggers who, in 2004, made the first big splash with blogs by exposing shoddy CBS News reporting that ultimately cost Dan Rather his job. At the time, blogs were relative newcomers to the political scene, and members of the more traditional media establishment complained that bloggers weren’t “real” journalists and couldn’t be trusted for news.

The internet and blogs have become more mainstream, Team Obama was able to harness online enthusiasm and the narrative has developed that conservatives are a step behind. One could just as easily point to the use of technology like Twitter to suggest conservatives are ahead of the curve – but using technology that mainstream media outlets haven’t quite wrapped their head around yet.

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Like we needed a study to tell us this

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

A Nielsen study has revealed that most YouTube viewing happens at work. No surprise there: cubicle life offers a high-speed internet connection and plenty of co-workers to forward hilarious emails.

If you’re trying to get a message out through online video, this is something to consider deeply. If most people are watching at work, what does that mean you have to do to make your video effective?

It certainly means that the shorter your video is, the better. If someone is watching at work, it’s probably while taking a short break from their job. By keeping your videos to around 90-120 seconds, your viewers will be able to concentrate without looking over their shoulder for the boss. Sometimes it’s tough to make your point in such a condensed time frame, but that’s one of the challenges if you want to be an effective communicator.

Content and language are also considerations. Most people love an obscenity-laced tirade delivered at the top of one’s lungs, but some clips would take on a whole different meaning at work:

And when you’re developing your content, it’s worth remembering that people who watch videos at work often receive them from a friend or co-worker. What reason are you giving for someone to click “forward” and send your email to someone else? Why is your video interesting and/or funny?

Online video is a critical medium to deliver political messages. But writing, filming, and editing is a time-consuming process; you might as well keep your audience in mind so you can realize the rewards of your work.

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Writing your Congressman in 2009

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

Some light reading for the previous evening: the Congressional Management Foundation’s study on Communicating with Congress. I didn’t get through it all but started with the parts for grassroots organizers – that’s the part that directly applies to my day job.

Lots of discussion about communicating with Congress online deals with opportunities; the CMF deals with realities. For instance, email to Capitol Hill is so routine that it has lost almost all effect. If you’re a constituent hoping to make an impact, it’s better to put pen to paper than finger to keyboard; yet citizens are eager to communicate with their elected leaders online because, well, citizens communicate with everyone else online, as well.

It presents daunting challenges for Capitol Hill. A well-funded grassroots campaign can generate calls or letters; an organic movement is more likely to be online. The study offers some solutions, but 535 offices will have to come up with answers of their own.

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T-shirts: saving the internet?

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

There is money to be made in online content – just not by making online content. So writes Wired.com’s Clive Thompson, who observes that through the use of do-it-yourself sites like Cafepress, people who make web comics or online video series can monetize their art without charging a subscription fee. (Which is good because, by and large, subscriptions don’t work so well.)

In other words, making money online follows the same concept as any other activity online: you have to think a bit resourcefully and differently.

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T-shirts: saving the internet?

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

There is money to be made in online content – just not by making online content. So writes Wired.com’s Clive Thompson, who observes that through the use of do-it-yourself sites like Cafepress, people who make web comics or online video series can monetize their art without charging a subscription fee. (Which is good because, by and large, subscriptions don’t work so well.)

In other words, making money online follows the same concept as any other activity online: you have to think a bit resourcefully and differently.

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Open for Questions: Can you Digg it?

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

Change.gov’s “Open for Questions” feature has already attracted over 8,000 submissions. The site is designed to let users choose on which questions are put before the great and powerful President-elect much like Digg allows users to vote on which stories make the site’s front page.

As Mashable’s Mark Hopkins and Politico’s Ben Smith point out, the result is similar to Digg: left-leaning users are voting for questions with pointed criticisms of the current President. (One question urges the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate the Bush administration; another calls for the military to stop hiring “mercenary” contractors.) Questions about Obama’s relationship with Gov. Blagojevich are buried deep.

That’s not a bad thing: the past 220 years should have taught us that anytime there is some sort of election, Americans will organize in an attempt to win.

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The Dying Digital Divide

~ Jim Eltringham ~ 1 Comment

For years, poverty groups have bemoaned a “digital divide” in America and around the world: inequalities in wealth threatened to leave much of the population unwired and, for all intents and purposes, in the dark. Today, the Wall Street Journal covers how in the world’s poorest nations, web-enabled mobile phones are bridging that gap.

This has repercussions in America, as well, as mobile internet access becomes more and more widespread. Not only does it connect new users to the online world, it gives thsoe savvy enough to use it a direct link to those users.

In other words, if you have a story to tell in the next ten years, you will have to consider how to fit that story on the small screen of a cell phone.

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All the news that’s fit to click

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

I wouldn’t have even noticed a difference in the New York Times‘s online layout this morning if it hadn’t been for Mashable calling attention to the new “Extra” layout. In addition to publishing their own stories, the Times links to related stories published by other news outlets and blogs.

This isn’t groundbreaking – other news sites have used the “aggregator” strategy for years. But by listing other news outlets, the Times embraces its role as a true online news source, focusing more on providing relevant information than on feeding users an exclusive diet of Times-generated content. It’s another example of how, in the modern media environment, control and influence are not necessarily synonymous: by giving putting other news sources at your fingertips, the Times paradoxically makes its own site a more valuable news source.

With old-school newspaper circulation failing, America’s most iconic newspaper is showing that old dogs can learn new tricks.

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Modern Media in India

~ Jim Eltringham ~ Leave a comment

In the face of the appalling terror attacks in Mumbai, the Indian blogosphere has been lighting up with reactions.

It used to be that like politics, all news was local. Journalists even had a macabre joke about the newsworthiness of a tragedy based on a ratio of distance to human lives – one dead person in your town was equal to ten in New York City, which was equal to two dozen in California or a thousand halfway around the world.

That’s still true to a degree, but now we can communication with those people halfway around the world is as easy – if not easier – as with our neighbors. Thanks to online media, we can see the real human element to this tragedy beyond the images on our TVs.

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