I'm sure I won't be the only one to touch on the Wikileaks controversy, but hopefully I can help provide some background, a summary of the various dominating schools of thought over it, and the role Wikileaks plays in 21st century online journalism.
For those unfamiliar with the site, Wikileaks is a nonprofit organization that publishes documents and other materials that would otherwise be inaccessible to the public at large. Founded in 2007, the site quickly garnered several new media awards from prestigious organizations such as The Economist and Amnesty International.
Most recently, Wikileaks is making headlines after releasing a quarter-million classified diplomatic cables to major news outlets such as The New York Times and The Guardian. Major revelations in the documents include evidence the U.S. State Department spied on the Secretary General of the United Nations, Saudi Arabia urged the U.S. to invade Iran and serious corruption within the Afghanistan government.
Reaction to the leaks has been mixed. Some praise Wikileaks for its contribution to transparency, with noted media critic Jeff Jarvis blogging "The only solution to leaks is then not more secrecy but more transparency," while others have criticized the leaks, claiming they put Americans in danger and some information is better left secret.
What does this mean for online news?
Obviously it is impossible to say for sure because leaks continue to be reported and the entire episode is ongoing. That said, I would argue Wikileaks impacts online journalism by elevating the importance of crowdsourcing and collaboration and, on a broader scale, reintroducing Americans to hard news.
Wikileaks operates by releasing thousands upon thousands of documents, and then asking others to sift through them for the important information. If this method of reporting is to become the norm, then crowdsourcing will subsequently grow in value.
In a broader sense, I believe Americans are suffering from the shock of substantial, hard news. The average news consumer has been lulled by the atrophy of journalism as cable and a lot of online news consists of horse-race stories of little consequence to the reader. Now that readers are confronted with serious news with serious implications, they are scared and don't know how to react.
Obviously I am generalizing, but I think there is some truth to the claim that much of the outrage over the leaks comes from a consumer base being unsure how to react to hard, consequential news because it is so rare.
Showing posts with label Doug. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Doug. Show all posts
Monday, November 29, 2010
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Social Media Event planning
Social media for events
Anyone involved in a campus organization, or remotely knows anybody involved in a campus organization, is frequently faced with a barrage of Facebook invitations to various events the group is hosting. I remember the first specific organization event I was invited to, it was a University Democrats meeting the spring of my freshman year. The volunteer coordinator decided to make an event for Dr. Jensen speaking at the meeting, and the meeting was subsequently packed. From then on, every University Democrats meeting had a Facebook event, but diminishing returns took its toll and the impact now is virtually nil, because they are using social media completely wrong when preparing for an event.
Mashable suggests 5 ways to utilize social media for an event: help attendees connect with each other, broaden participation, encourage attendees to share information, provide recreation, and put it all together.
The most important suggestions for students to take away from the list are broaden participation and encourage attendees to share information. Broadening participation simply means allowing those who aren't at the event to enjoy some of its experiences. Not all, but most, student events are extremely behind in this sense. There is no reason why every event isn't live tweeted, or even broadcast online.
Secondly is sharing information. While this concept is obvious to multimedia students, to others, it is less clear. For a social network event to be successful the creators of the event need to solicit conversation and information sharing from members attending the event. This performs two functions. 1) It gives members more of a stake in attending the event, because they have already put time and effort into planning it, and 2) It shows everybody that lots of people are attending and excited about the event, and the more people that people perceive will attend an event the greater the hype is and more people will attend.
Mashable also has advice for using social media to enhance events. The most valuable advice they give is to "engage attendees in conversation before, during and after the event. It’s an innovative approach that integrates social media throughout the entire process."
This is the concept lost on most college students. While they are excellent and expeditious at using social media to inform about events, they tend to be seriously disabled when it comes to using it before and after. Some tips are having the event organizer actively engage in conversations leading up to the event, livetweeting throughout the event, and then reaching out to attendees for advice about improving the event afterward.
Take this Facebook event for a speaker on campus. I know all the important details based on it, but there is no presence on the wall and I haven't received any messages or solicitations. Subsequently, I know about the event, but am not anticipating it at all and don't plan to attend.
To wrap up, social media can do wonders for events, but when using it for event planning then make sure to engage the audience, encourage attendees to engage each other, and make it an organic and continuous process.
Anyone involved in a campus organization, or remotely knows anybody involved in a campus organization, is frequently faced with a barrage of Facebook invitations to various events the group is hosting. I remember the first specific organization event I was invited to, it was a University Democrats meeting the spring of my freshman year. The volunteer coordinator decided to make an event for Dr. Jensen speaking at the meeting, and the meeting was subsequently packed. From then on, every University Democrats meeting had a Facebook event, but diminishing returns took its toll and the impact now is virtually nil, because they are using social media completely wrong when preparing for an event.
Mashable suggests 5 ways to utilize social media for an event: help attendees connect with each other, broaden participation, encourage attendees to share information, provide recreation, and put it all together.
The most important suggestions for students to take away from the list are broaden participation and encourage attendees to share information. Broadening participation simply means allowing those who aren't at the event to enjoy some of its experiences. Not all, but most, student events are extremely behind in this sense. There is no reason why every event isn't live tweeted, or even broadcast online.
Secondly is sharing information. While this concept is obvious to multimedia students, to others, it is less clear. For a social network event to be successful the creators of the event need to solicit conversation and information sharing from members attending the event. This performs two functions. 1) It gives members more of a stake in attending the event, because they have already put time and effort into planning it, and 2) It shows everybody that lots of people are attending and excited about the event, and the more people that people perceive will attend an event the greater the hype is and more people will attend.
Mashable also has advice for using social media to enhance events. The most valuable advice they give is to "engage attendees in conversation before, during and after the event. It’s an innovative approach that integrates social media throughout the entire process."
This is the concept lost on most college students. While they are excellent and expeditious at using social media to inform about events, they tend to be seriously disabled when it comes to using it before and after. Some tips are having the event organizer actively engage in conversations leading up to the event, livetweeting throughout the event, and then reaching out to attendees for advice about improving the event afterward.
Take this Facebook event for a speaker on campus. I know all the important details based on it, but there is no presence on the wall and I haven't received any messages or solicitations. Subsequently, I know about the event, but am not anticipating it at all and don't plan to attend.
To wrap up, social media can do wonders for events, but when using it for event planning then make sure to engage the audience, encourage attendees to engage each other, and make it an organic and continuous process.
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