Read about it at my new self-hosted blog, http://www.bethanygarton.com/thoughts-travels/moving-to-washington-d-c/. I will no longer be using this account, so please update you links.

Thanks!

-Bethany

While Rupert Murdoch’s lieutenant, Les Hinton was busy warning the news industry about “geeks bearing gifts” in India, Arianna Huffington spoke at an FTC-sponsored journalism conference in Washington D.C. Chief Executive of News Corporation Rupert Murdoch, spoke directly before Huffington, who later posted an article on her news site for the purpose of debunking some of Murdoch’s “increasingly desperate revenue models,” and exposing some of the more ridiculous statements he has made.

“So now sites that aggregate the news have become, in the words of Rupert Murdoch and his team, ‘parasites,’ ‘content kleptomaniacs,’ ‘vampires,’ ‘tech tapeworms in the intestines of the Internets,’ and, of course, thieves who ‘steal all our copyright.’

                My favorite line from her article came in her response to the metaphor given by a German publishing executive. He said "If it's your business decision to offer beer cans for free, fine. But don't take our beer and offer it for free," to speak about how news sites will recycle and repackage content from other news organizations. Huffitington noted that, while beer can only be consumed once, consumers of information might be one of missions and wrote:“It's a false metaphor. And if you start from a false premise, you will inevitably be led to a false conclusion. Or, to put it another way, if you chug-a-lug too many of old media's metaphoric beers, you will end up staggering down the street of illogical thinking and banging into the lamp post of wrong revenue models.”

                Huffington listed many of News Corporation’s own subsidiaries’ Web sites that aggregate, I mean “bloodsucking and stealing” content from all over the Internet. To this, Huffington says, “Talk about having your aggregation cake and bitching about others eating a slice too.”

                The motto? Desperate times desperately call for better journalism.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/arianna-huffington/journalism-2009-desperate_b_...

                Today, more than 800 media delegated from 87 countries kicked off the first day of the World Newspaper Conference in Hyderabad, India. Dow Jones CEO Les Hinton (which publishes the Wall Street Journal and is a News Corp subsidary) reiterated the conclusion that it seems the industry as a whole has reached: that free content undermines newspapers and threatens their quality and their very existence.

Some highlights from his speech in the session, "Newspapers: a multimedia growth business":

                “I think all of us need to beware of geeks bearing gifts.”

                “Let’s not forget the basic economics: The rates on our ad cards increase when there is less competition, not more.”

                “Implicit in the false gospel of the Web is the faith that free is superior. And those who dare think otherwise are heretics and fools. Charging for online news, they say, is unfair. By asking us to pay, newspapers are depriving readers of something they need and should have. Deserve, even. But neither the newsstand nor the Web is a lending library.”

                His remarks were interesting and passionate, but I take it with a grain of salt. He is a representative of one of the largest news businesses in the world, and the transcription of his remarks reads like a tirade with too much agenda and too little imagination.

http://paidcontent.org/article/419-world-newspaper-congress-dow-jones-ceo-beware-of-geeks-bearing-gifts/

                When Redbox stands began sprouting up all over Wichita, I ignored them . I associated Redbox with McDonalds and drive-thrus, but when I went to Europe this summer, I learned to love kiosks. I could rent a bicycle from an automated machine in Vienna and I could purchase international train tickets without standing in line. I rented my first dvd through Redbox on a whim, and I have been hooked ever since.

                Last quarter, Redbox’s revenue was $198.1 million—almost double its revenue from the previous year. Kiosks have proliferated across the nation; last year there were about 12,000 and this year that number has reached 21,000. The $1 rentals undercut Blockbuster and other movie retail businesses, and make new releases available to a wide audience at a fraction of the cost of purchasing that same DVD.

                DVD sales are in decline, and there have been many recent articles about the possible causes of this decline. The Redbox phenomenon has been cited as a possible force for the loss of revenue, which seems like a perfectly valid argument, but I view the waning popularity of DVD purchases as inevitable. When DVDs were a new technology, they were innovative. Sales rose and movie studios have relied on DVD revenue to finance their blockbuster projects. As DVDs have become a commodity instead of a luxury, people are no longer willing to pay as much for them. Redbox reinforces this idea by selling a movie viewing for the same price as a McChicken.

                One interesting trend to follow in the next few years will be Blu-ray. Wal-Mart and Target have offered deeply discounted Blu-ray discs , and Blu-ray players can be found for as little as $80. Could it be the new DVD, and how will movie studios adapt to consumer demand for digital forms of movies?

                I rarely see commercials that I want to watch multiple times, but on one fateful night I caught a commercial for a mat-like device that can wirelessly charge personal electronics starring two flabbergasted coworkers. I liked the commercial so much that I watched it on YouTube five minutes later and shared the video with my friends on Facebook.

                The Powermat commercial plays on the product’s strongest trait—it’s cool to use. A person can simply lay a phone or PDA on the mat and it charges the battery without cords. The commercial shows the coworkers experimenting with the device and uttering:

                Woman: How the [bleep] does it work?

                Man: [Bleep] if I know.

                Female boss : “It’s [bleep]ing quantum mechanics!

                The commercial also taps into the power of human perception by implying the use of profanity.  The approach will not appeal to all audiences, but it resonates strongly with the viewers who respond with amazement when they encounter Powermat for the first time. This specific commercial ran on some male-skewed programming and channels to reach new technology early-adopters, but Powermat also utilized product demonstration and print ads to reach groups like business travelers.

                Woot is an Internet retailer that created an innovative “one day, one deal” business model. Woot sells one featured product per day until its stock is sold; new items are posted at midnight and products are never announced before they are posted. Woot specializes in discounted electronics, but occasionally sells odd items like stuffed, caped monkeys and the coveted “bag of crap;” a grab bag filled with random ovestock. With more than 1.5 million registered members and sales of $117.4 million, Woot is a viral force to be reckoned with.

                Woot’s marketing strategy is inextricably tied to its business model. Die-hard Woot fans wait until midnight to see what item will sell that day. The community can rate the product sale and make comments about its specifications with reviews and pricing comparisons. This active participation further cements

                My favorite aspect of Woot is the company’s personality. Everything is written in a consistently snarky, irrereverent,  tounge-in-cheek style. The daily product descriptions are one of the trademarks of this hybrid blog/store. Woot uses Google AdSense, and has targeted keywords like “Google Stock” to prompt the text ad, “Filthy rich? We’ll help. Throw away your newfound cash at Woot. You’re welcome.” This unique approach to search engine marketing may have not made sense to the first Google stock investors who saw the ad, but once technology blogs saw this ad and others like it, Woot got free publicity and many “props.”

Another of the company’s forays into the realm of advertising and public relations was when the company bought the url: www.ifyouwanttoseewhatsonwoottodayitwouldbeeasiertojusttypewoot.com, which redirects to woot.com and pokes fun at single-serving Web sites. Woot has perfected art of Internet sarcasm, which is probably the primary reason that it is my home page, and why I check it every day.

Since I began following Jay Rosen on Twitter, I’ve read many of the articles he links to. When I saw this:

I quite literally jumped out of my chair. I created a Web site and researched Drupal, but I never thought that it would get this much high-level attention.

The Obama campaign used technology to connect to voters in ways that had never before been attempted, and now, the tech-savy administration has made another bold move by overhauling the programming on the White House’s Web site. The newly-redesigned site used Drupal, an open-source content management system.

"We now have a technology platform to get more and more voices on the site," said White House new media director Macon. “This is state-of-the-art technology and the government is a participant in it."

The use of open-source code is actually thought to make the site more secure because people from all over the work collaborate to find and fix errors and weaknesses. By utilizing this public involvement, the code goes through rigorous testing—from maybe a dozen administration programmers, to thousands of programmers in the open-source community who are constantly refining the programs.

The White House’s adoption of this free open-source software could signal more state and local governments to utilize this free resource. Besides the benefits of peer review and cheap implementation, Drupal boasts a huge library of user-designed modules that could integrate the administration’s communication efforts.

I am a proponent of using open-source software, but I’m not a programmer. I agree with its philosophy of collaboration, and I would like to use my communication skills to spread the word about the benefits of supporting this community of innovators.

The large-scale protests that rocked Iran after the farcical election, occurred when I was in Europe. My access to the internet was sporadic, and I was never around a television or radio. The information that I was able to gather gave me hope that maybe Iran could change. I hoped that the population would force the power structures to change and become more democratic. I thought about the brave students and journalists who were able to smuggle video and photos out of the country and expose them to the world, and I prayed they would be safe.

The powers did change, but not in any way that democratized the government. The protesters were violently repressed, and the Iranian government relied on fear, censorship, and other cowardly tactics to suppress dissent. I'm a fairly non-confrontational person in my personal life. I have difficulty asserting myself in certain situations and I don't enjoy editorializing or throwing my opinions into the public to be scrutinized, but when I recognize injustice, I refuse to ignore it.

Iran's formerly state-owned telecommunications monopoly was recently "privatized," and acquired by he Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. The IRGC was created as an elite military force to "protect the revolution" which can be interpreted in a number of ways to serve their self-interest.
While the entire situation is outrageous, the takeover of the Iranian telecommunications monopoly is a move that both interests and frustrates me. Telecommunications access helps people to contact each other within and outside of the country. That communications enables collaboration, which proved to be quite an annoyance for the IRGC and the government. During the protests, cell phone and internet service were disrupted in an effort to keep incriminating information from being transmitted, and to keep protesters from being able to organize.

Now that the IRGC owns the only means of communication in Iran, they will be able to further censor and snoop through the private data of citizens. This acquisition gives the corps even more economic dominance and control over the state. I feel strongly about the need for an information sector that exist separately from the government. I feel fortunate that the U.S. faces issues like the decline in ad revenue, because in comparison to the problems in other parts of the world, it seems minimal.

Social media is now an integral part of the news business. Many journalists have personal accounts, and many readers comment and link to news that they provide. In order to deal with these new tools, institutions like the Washington Post and National Public Radio have created guidelines to how journalists should behave when using services like LinkedIn, Twitter, or Facebook.

These two organizations seek to provide quality, verifiable information, and maintain their credibility in the eyes of the public. The general goals may be the same, but their tones differ.

The Washington Post:

“Social networks are communications media, and a part of our everyday lives. They can be valuable tools in gathering and disseminating news and information. They also create some potential hazards we need to recognize. When using social networking tools for reporting or for our personal lives, we must remember that Washington Post journalists are always Washington Post journalists.  The following guidelines apply to all Post journalists, without limitation to the subject matter of their assignments.

“When using social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn, My Space or Twitter for reporting, we must protect our professional integrity.  Washington Post journalists should identify themselves as such. We must be accurate in our reporting and transparent about our intentions when participating.  We must be concise yet clear when describing who we are and what information we seek.”

NPR:

“Social networking sites, such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter have become an integral part of everyday life for millions of people around the world. As NPR grows to serve the audience well beyond the radio, social media is becoming an increasingly important aspect of our interaction and our transparency with our audience and with a variety of communities. Properly used, social networking sites can also be very valuable newsgathering and reporting tools and can speed research and extend a reporter’s contacts, and we encourage our journalists to take advantage of them.

“The line between private and public activity has been blurred by these tools, which is why we are providing guidance now. Information from your Facebook page, your blog entries, and your tweets - even if you intend them to be personal messages to your friends or family - can be easily circulated beyond your intended audience. This content, therefore, represents you and NPR to the outside world as much as a radio story or story for NPR.org does. As in all of your reporting, the NPR Code of Ethics should guide you in your use of social media. You should read and be sure you understand the Code.”

Both codes acknowledge that the use of social media tools is something that cannot be ignored, and that they can be used for newsgathering purposes. The two guidelines begin to diverge, however, when The Washington Post warns of the potential hazards that the use of these tools created. While the Post clearly outlines what journalists should avoid doing, NPR explicitly encouraged their journalists to use them.

The Post and NPR outline that their journalists are expected to use discretion with their use of the tools, but although they say virtually the same thing, NPR comes across as the more innovative and daring of the two because of its encouragement and positive tone.

During NPR shows like Talk of the Nation, the hosts take on-air questions from callers, but they also take questions from users on Twitter and Second Life. If papers utilize social media effectively, it can more effectively build stronger relationships with their readers, and turn them into loyal stakeholders.

There were many interesting panels and events during Communication Week at Wichita State. I attended most of them and benefited from the advice and suggestions of the professionals who participated, but the panel that I found most applicable to my current course of study and interests was "Where are We Going?" It was a privilege to listen to three executives from some of the biggest names in local advertising and public relations, and to hear what trends they anticipate in the coming years.

Sam Williams, CEO of Sullivan Higdon & Sink, said that agencies will need to understand how to communicate to consumers who only look at what they want to see, and be able to implement a plan to grab their attention. Businesses want ad agencies to provide them with measurable results and he said that in 5 years, many of the methods agencies rely on today may not even exist. He echoed what I've been reading all semester. Change is coming, and it's faster than ever.

Armstrong Shank CEO Susan Armstrong said that instead of pushing a message, agencies need to try to pull consumers in. Agencies must think globally and strategically. She also identified some of the most important skills for navigating the industry:

She also gave students a list of useful links, using the social media tool, delicious.http://delicious.com/armstrongshank/wsucomm

Deanna Harms, Executive Vice President of the Greteman group said that consumers are empowered, and they know what they want. She said public relations is really a combination of many things, including media relations and relationship management. She said the power of slogans will be diminished and value-added skills will be the most important aspect of campaigns. She also advised students to follow up after interviews because even if they can't be hired, the person they interviewed with may know someone who has a job.

All of these professionals have had many years of industry success, so I will try to keep it fresh in my mind as I look for internship and job opportunities.