WebProNews

Tag: News

  • 2% of Americans Think Brian Williams Is Joe Biden

    Brian Williams has been the anchor of the NBC Nightly News for over 9 years – the top-rated NBC Nightly News. He was also a reporter and weekend anchor for the network for 11 years, until NBC handed him the reins following Tom Brokaw’s retirement. I think he has a pretty recognizable face – I mean, he doesn’t look the least bit like Joe Biden.

    Despite all of this, a majority of Americans (a large majority, I might add) has absolutely no idea what Brian Williams looks like.

    Here’s Pew Research’s Rob Suls with some pretty shocking results to a recent survey:

    In an online survey about Americans’ knowledge about the news conducted last summer, just 27% of the public could correctly identify Brian Williams, anchor of the top-rated NBC Nightly News. Respondents were shown a picture of Williams and asked to name the person in the photo. While 3% were able to identify Williams’ profession (anchor or reporter), fully seven-in-ten either did not know (53%) or named someone other than Williams (18%). (3 percent thought the photo was of former NBC anchor Tom Brokaw and 2% thought it was Vice President Joe Biden.)

    Uh, what?

    Yes, nearly 3 out of 4 people surveyed could not identify Brian Williams from a photo – and the criteria for a ‘correct’ answer wasn’t really that stringent. Responders didn’t even have to get his whole name – Pew accepted responses of “Brian” and “Williams.” But the big stat here is that 2%, or 1 in 50, thought Pew was showing them a photo of Vice President Joe Biden.

    How? I mean, how is it that the anchor of the top nightly news show in the country is unrecognizable to so many Americans?

    For the answer, see the graph below:

    Yep, that’ll do it. Blame Twitter.

    Images via Wikimedia Commons, Pew Research, GIF via

  • Re/code (The New All Things D) Introduced For The New Year

    Back in September, The Wall Street Journal and its tech site All Things D announced that they were parting ways, and now with the new year, we get to see both the new Wall Street Journal tech section and the new All Things D.

    The new All Things D is not actually called All Things D at all, but is a brand new site called Re/code, which operates under a brand new company called Revere Digital, which has launched with backing from NBCUniversal News Group and Windsor Media. Revere Digital will host news sites and apps as well as a series of conferences called Code Conference.

    Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg (the two All Things D / re/code leaders) explain the new company, site and conference in a New Year’s blog post.

    Re/code brings the same All Things D team along for the ride. This includes: John Paczkowski, Peter Kafka, Ina Fried, Katherine Boehret, Liz Gannes, Lauren Goode, Arik Hesseldahl, Mike Isaac, Bonnie Cha, Jason Del Rey and Eric Johnson.

    Swisher and Mossberg write:

    Why have we chosen Re/code as the name for our new creation? Simply put: Because everything in tech and media is constantly being refreshed, renewed and reimagined. And this is the reinvention of ourselves.

    While we are presenting an improved new face, we promise that, if you liked what we were doing at All Things Digital and the D conferences, you will love what we are now planning for Re/code. We pledge to bring the same energy and standards to our news, reviews and events, with the plus of adding in even more talented staff and resources to the mix.

    The first Code Conference will take place from May 27th to May 29th. More events with partner CNBC are planned for “throughout the year”.

    The Wall Street Journal website has redesigned its Technology section. You can take a look at that here.

    Image: Re/code

  • Megyn Kelly Says That Santa Claus is White

    Megyn Kelly was recently criticized for speaking about the cultural interpretation concerning the race of Santa Claus. Kelly discussed Santa Claus Should Not Be a White Man Anymore, which was written by Slate‘s Aisha Harris.

    Harris wrote, “When I was a kid, I knew two different Santa Clauses. The first had a fat belly, rosy cheeks, a long white beard, and skin as pink as bubble gum. He was omnipresent, visiting my preschool and the local mall, visible in all of my favorite Christmas specials. Then there was the Santa in my family’s household, in the form of ornaments, cards, and holiday figurines. A near-carbon copy of the first one—big belly, rosy cheeks, long white beard: check, check, check. But his skin was as dark as mine. Seeing two different Santas was bewildering. Eventually I asked my father what Santa really looked like. Was he brown, like us? Or was he really a white guy?”

    In the age of political correctness, Kelly’s opinion has not been swayed. The following statement was made by Megyn Kelly on her popular Fox television show The Kelly File, and has been subjected to recent criticism.

    “Just because it [an idea] makes you feel uncomfortable doesn’t mean it has to change. You know, I mean, Jesus was a white man too. He was a historical figure; that’s a verifiable fact as is Santa, I want you kids watching to know that, but my point is: how do you revise it, in the middle of the legacy of the story, and change Santa from white to black?”

    Does it really matter how Santa Claus is depicted, or should everyone be free to consider different interpretations of the icon? Kelly is not known for being easily influenced by pressure from others. In a previous interview with The Washington Post, the Fox anchor spoke directly about her method for handling criticism. “The more I respond to the naysayers, the less I have of myself. I don’t have to convince anybody. And nine times out of 10 the people who are haters are not convinceable anyway. In my experience, the people who believe all the negative things about you want to believe them. And the people who don’t believe, despite the negative things that are written, are fans of yours, people who watch and get you, and they’re not going to believe that stuff no matter what,” Kelly said.

    Recent criticism comes after her popular appearance on Jay Leno.

    [Image Via Wikimedia Commons]

  • Ginger Zee Is Taking Over The Weather On GMA

    Long-time Good Morning America weather anchor, Sam Champion, resigned from ABC on Wednesday to take a managing editor job at The Weather Channel. It was a sad goodbye since Champion is one of the main reasons that GMA has been the top-rated morning show for so many years.

    Champion and his co-anchors, Robin Roberts, George Stephanopoulos, Josh Elliott and Lara Spencer said a tearful goodbye as Champion made his final weather broadcast on Wednesday. “I promise there’s happy on the inside but the tears,” Elliott said. “I’m going to miss you and you are the best live broadcaster I’ve ever worked with. Thank you for giving the gift to us and to everybody at home every day.”

    Although Champion will miss his GMA family, he says that taking the new job is just something that he has to do. “I think it’s something that people will go through in their life when you want to stay, doing something you want to, and there’s an opportunity that says you gotta take it,” Champion said. “I’m not going to leave you guys. I’m not going to leave you.”

    Champion ended his final GMA weather report with the phrase that he has said more than 7,000 times before. “That’s the weather around the nation, ladies and gentleman,” he said.

    Ginger Zee, 32, has been hired as his replacement and hopes that she can fill Champion’s shoes. Zee already has experience with the morning show since she has been Champion’s fill-in for the past two years, and has also been the weather anchor for the weekends. Zee talked about her excitement for her new position with reporters, saying that she never thought she would land this type of position at such a young age.

    “You know, some people will work their entire lives and at some point say maybe ‘that’s not the goal for me.’ I have just been so fortunate this whole way, and not to say that I haven’t worked hard,” she said. “There were so many times where I was in Flint, Michigan and I was seriously eating a bean burrito, just one every day because it was 79 cents and that’s all I could afford.”

    [Image via Twitter]

  • Katie Couric Officially Works For Yahoo

    Katie Couric Officially Works For Yahoo

    Yahoo continues to add high-profile names to Yahoo News with the addition of Katie Couric to the staff as its new Global Anchor.

    CEO Marissa Mayer announced the news this morning via blog post, sharing her enthusiasm about the acquisition.

    “I’ve always respected Katie for her thoughtful, charismatic approach to journalism,” she wrote. “From pivotal coverage of natural disasters and historic elections to the Royal Wedding and the Olympic Games, groundbreaking interviews with heads of state and leading tastemakers, her experience is unmatched. Katie is dynamic, savvy and has a way of connecting with viewers that I really admire.”

    Mayer goes on to call her “the face of Yahoo News,” and notes that she will continue to host her syndicated daytime talk show, Katie.

    Couric will cover “the world’s most interesting stories and newsmakers,” according to Mayer, and will shoot features for the Yahoo homepage.

    News of Couric heading to Yahoo broke over the weekend ahead of the official announcement.

    The addition of Couric to Yahoo follows three big name acquisitions from The New York Times: Matt Bai, who is Yahoo’s new National Political Columnist, David Pogue, who now leads tech coverage, and Megan Liberman, who is now Editor in Chief.

    Mayer says this is “just the beginning,” so expect more big journalism hires from Yahoo in the near future.

    Image: Yahoo

  • Maria Bartiromo Is Leaving CNBC, Heads To FOX Business Network

    Maria Bartiromo has been an anchor for CNBC for two decades, covering plenty of news throughout her career, but has recently decided to leave the network. She was one of the first women to become a star on television by reporting on business news.

    After earning herself quite a reputation and fame while working for CNBC, Maria Bartiromo is set to begin working on a program with FOX business.

    In the program, she will discuss the day’s developments on Wall Street. Her new deal will also include exposure on FOX News, which is of course watched by many more people.

    The news of Bariromo’s exit initially broke with a statement from the network, saying “After 20 years of groundbreaking work at CNBC, Maria Bartiromo will be leaving the company as her contract expires on November 24th. Her contributions to CNBC are too numerous to list but we thank her for all of her hard work over the years and wish her the best.”

    After the decision to leave, it kind of brings into question something that she said in an interview this year. She had previously stated that leaving CNN would be her biggest career risk. Check it out.

    FOX Business has been struggling to establish a profile as a network, and has been struggling with views. The thought is that a high-powered anchor like Maria Bartiromo will be able to change that, since CNBC had more than three times as many viewers in the age group that attracts advertisers just in the past week.

    Maria Bartiromo is currently the host of the daytime program “Closing Bell,” and the weekend show “On The Money With Maria Bartiromo.” The well-known anchor joined CNBC in 1993, later becoming the first journalist to report live from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange on a daily basis.

    It has not been said when she will be heading to her new position, but there is no doubt that she will be a big boost for the ratings of the FOX Business network. She has the nickname of “Money Honey” and was even the subject of a song by Joey Ramone, of The Ramones.

    Image via Youtube

  • John Oliver Leaving The Daily Show, Coming to HBO Sunday Nights

    John Oliver’s star is rising, thanks to a truly great 7-year run on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Now, he’s saying goodbye to the show that kickstarted his career and saying hello to HBO.

    HBO has announced that Oliver will star in a “topical comedy series” slated to debut next year. The show will air on HBO’s packed Sunday night lineup, and will air weekly.

    Earlier this year, Oliver filled in for Jon Stewart as host of The Daily Show while the latter worked on a film project. Although it’s hard to match Jon Stewart in the late-night comedy arena, John Oliver did a great job – apparently good enough to catch the eye of HBO’s programming head Michael Lombardo.

    “We weren’t otherwise searching for another weekly talk show, but when we saw John Oliver handling host duties on ‘The Daily Show,’ we knew that his singular perspective and distinct voice belonged on HBO,” said Lombardo. “We are extremely excited that John has agreed to make HBO his home.”

    The show will “present a satirical look at the week in news, politics and current events,” according to HBO – a format that definitely suits Oliver’s talents.

    “I’m incredibly excited to be joining HBO, especially as I presume this means I get free HBO now. I want to thank Comedy Central, and everyone at ‘The Daily Show’ for the best seven and a half years of my life. But most of all, I’d like to thank Jon Stewart. He taught me everything I know. In fact, if I fail in the future, it’s entirely his fault,” said Oliver.

    Oliver first joined The Daily Show back in 2006. Along with various stand-up specials, Oliver has also had a recurring role on NBC’s Community.

    Image via John Oliver, Twitter

  • CBS to Live-Stream Original JFK Assassination Coverage Online

    CBS to Live-Stream Original JFK Assassination Coverage Online

    Next Friday marks the 50th anniversary of the Kennedy assassination, and CBS is remembering the historic event with a “real-time” broadcast of the original 1963 coverage, as it aired on that fateful day.

    At 1:40 pm EST on Friday, November 22nd, CBSNews.com will begin to stream Walter Cronkite’s famous coverage of the event, as it happened 50 years ago. Kennedy was shot in Dallas, Texas’ Dealey Plaza at 1:30 pm EST. The significance of 1:40 pm is that it’s the precise time when Cronkite broke into scheduled programming to alert the country that shots had been fired.

    The coverage will continue for four days, culminating in a broadcast of Kennedy’s funeral on Monday, November 25th.

    From CBS News:

    “Face The Nation” anchor and CBS News chief Washington correspondent Bob Schieffer, who was a reporter at the Fort Worth Star-Telegram on the day of the assassination, will introduce the online stream.

    Schieffer will also recount his extraordinary experience as a young journalist who conducted the first interview with Lee Harvey Oswald’s mother, while giving her a ride from Fort Worth to Dallas to see her son in custody hours after he fired the fatal shot.

    In addition to the as-it-happened web streams, CBSNews.com will provide ongoing coverage of the 50th anniversary commemoration events and in-depth reports on Kennedy’s presidency, including features on the space race, civil rights, and foreign policy.

    Those wanting to relive the famous four days in November can tune in next Friday at CBSNews’ dedicated JFK assassination portal.

    Last year marked the 50th anniversary of Kennedy’s famous Moon speech, and NASA streamed it live on their site in real time.

    Image via YouTube

  • LinkedIn Replaces LinkedIn Today With Pulse

    LinkedIn Replaces LinkedIn Today With Pulse

    LinkedIn announced today that it is replacing its social news product LinkedIn Today with LinkedIn Pulse, which is based on the Pulse news reader app that the company acquired earlier this year. The Pulse app itself is also getting updated.

    LinkedIn’s Ankit Gupta writes on the company blog, “Pulse and LinkedIn technology have been fully integrated to offer a more relevant news experience with content tailored to your professional interests both on the Pulse app and on LinkedIn.com. This is just the first step of many we will be taking to ensure you’re getting a consistent and seamless content experience that is tailored to you. Starting today, LinkedIn Pulse will become the main vehicle for our social news experience across mobile and desktop and will replace LinkedIn Today.”

    Richard Branson

    “In addition to a brand new visual refresh of the Pulse app, now social actions like commenting and liking on Pulse are possible for the first time and will sync with your LinkedIn.com experience,” Gupta adds. “Any channels you follow on LinkedIn will also automatically sync across your Pulse app experience. It also means that the professional news you’ve come to expect and rely on from LinkedIn just got better — infused with added discovery and navigation functionality as well as expanded publisher content.”

    The Pulse app is available for Android and IOS. You can access the web version here.

    LinkedIn paid $90 million for Pulse, and now we get to see why it wanted the app.

  • Gigaom Shuts Down PaidContent As A Brand

    Gigaom Shuts Down PaidContent As A Brand

    Gigaom is shutting down paidContent.org as a standalone brand, and is rolling it into the Gigaom site.

    Last year, Gigaom acquired paidContent along with the rest of the ContentNext Media assets (which included mocoNews.net, contentSutra and paidContent UK – all of which have been living on paidContent.org) from Guardian News a & Media. The amount wasn’t disclosed, but was reportedly low.

    Apparently the paidContent brand itself was not worth enough to Gigom to keep around. Unique visitors on the site have been on the decline with a much more positive picture being painted for Gigaom:

    PaidContent

    Gigaom

    Gigaom Executive Editor Tom Krazit writes, “In a recent survey of paidContent readers, over 75 percent of them told us that they wanted to see more coverage of emerging technology. That’s a natural fit with everything Gigaom stands for, and we therefore decided that honoring the same paidContent commitment to quality under the Gigaom umbrella was the best way to explore the future of emerging media startups, business models, and technologies for our media industry readers.”

    That’s from the last post that will be written for paidContent. The site will remain at the URL for a few more weeks, but all its content will be transitioned over to Gigaom.

    Gigaom sent subscribers of the paidContent newsletter a notice. Here’s the full text of that:

    Thank you for being a paidContent newsletter subscriber. As one of the last remaining independent tech media startups, we have a keen interest in the future of the media business. And, for that reason among many, Gigaom bought paidContent in March 2012 in order to bring increased coverage to our company. But we believe in looking forward and standing together, and in that spirit as of today, we’re going to begin the process of closing down the paidContent site and moving all paidContent content over to Gigaom.

    You’ve probably noticed our recent brand refresh, in which we sought to re-emphasize our blogging roots and organize our efforts around a common theme. This chapter is just part of that story; we want to be a unified company presenting one vision of the future of technology to our readers.

    Starting today, you’ll find the same content you found on paidContent under a new Gigaom channel called Media, in which Janko Roettgers will continue to define the cord-cutting movement, Laura Owen will explore the future of the printed word in a digital world, and Mathew Ingram will proselytize, antagonize, and philosophize about the intersection of journalism, social media, and whatever crosses his Twitter stream.

    As a paidContent newsletter subscriber, you will continue to receive daily updates of our media coverage via the daily paidContent newsletter. In the next few weeks, your subscription will be automatically transferred to the gigaom.com newsletter with a focus on media coverage. If you already subscribe to a gigaom.com newsletter, the media stories will be added to your existing selection. There is no need to do anything but if you would like to update your subscription preferences, please visit gigaom.com/newsletters.

    Thank you for your support of paidContent over the years, and stay tuned for more of the same content you’ve come to expect from the site over at Gigaom.

    Cheers,

    The Gigaom Team

    It wasn’t long after Gigaom’s purchase of PaidContent that rumors came out that Gigaom itself was for sale, but obviously nothing ever came of that.

  • ABC News Anchor Elizabeth Vargas Seeks Treatment

    ABC News anchor Elizabeth Vargas is currently in rehabilitation for alcohol dependency. At fifty-one years old, the host of ABC News specials and co-anchor of ABC’s 20/20 has checked herself into rehab, which has been confirmed by the network. She has worked for the network since 1996, and is married to fifty-four year old Marc Cohn, a singer, songwriter, and musician, who is best known for his song, “Walking in Memphis.” She also has two sons, named Zachary, who is ten years old, and Samuel, seven.

    The New York Daily News was the first to report the story, stating how Vargas has been in a “well-respected rehab center” for approximately three weeks. Vargas has confirmed the story in a statement, which gives reason for her absence on 20/20 in recent weeks.

    “Like so many people, I am dealing with addiction. I realized I was becoming increasingly dependent on alcohol. And feel fortunate to have recognized it for the problem it was becoming,” she said. Those who are close to Vargas, including ABC’s team, continue to support Vargas through her difficult time.

    “We look forward to having her back home at ABC News, where she has done so much distinguished work over the years. Elizabeth is a member of our family, and we will support her in every way we can,” said ABC News representative Jeffrey Schneider.

    Elizabeth Vargas also hopes to motivate others to seek assistance, as she states: “I am in treatment and am so thankful for the love and support of my family, friends and colleagues at ABC News. Like so many others, I will deal with this challenge one day at a time. If coming forward today gives one other person the courage to seek help, I’m grateful.”

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Pew: Half Of U.S. Facebook Users Use It To Get News

    The Pew Research Center, in collaboration with the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, has put out a study about the role of news on Facebook, finding that about half of U.S. adult Facebook users (47%) get news from the social network. This, according to Pew, amounts to 30% of the population.

    Facebook and News

    The study finds that most adults in the U.S. don’t go to Facebook specifically seeking out news, but 78% of them simply get news when they get on Facebook for other reasons. Only 4% consider it the most important way they get their news.

    38% of “heavy news followers” who get their news on Facebook say it is an important way of getting their news. The report, authored by Amy Mitchell, Jocelyn Kiley, Keffrey Gottfried and Emily Guskin, says:

    In particular, younger adults, who as a group are less engaged than their elders are with news on other platforms, are as engaged, if not more so, with news on Facebook. Young people (18- to 29– year-olds) account for about a third, 34%, of Facebook news consumers. That far outpaces the 20% that they account for among Facebook users who do not get news on the site.

    What’s more, these 18- to 29-year-olds get news on Facebook across topics at roughly the same levels as older age groups, turn there as often for breaking news and deem the site as important a source of news.

    As you would expect, the people that are hanging around on Facebook for more of their days are getting more news. According to the report, 67% of those who use Facebook for at least an hour a day get news there, compared to 41% who spend less than an hour a day.

    This is really just a small sampling of the findings. You can check out the whole ten-page report here.

    The report is particularly timely, as Facebook just revealed some interesting findings of its own this week, with regards to how media properties perform. The company worked with 29 partner media sites and found that those who increased the frequency of their posts saw referral traffic climb by over 80%.

    Referral traffic from Facebook to media sites, on average, increased by over 170% over the past year. Specifically, from September 2012 to September 2013, TIME saw a 208% increase, BuzzFeed saw an 855% increase, and Bleacher Report saw a 1,081% increase.

    Image: Pew

  • Apparently There’s Only One Way to Report News About Mike Myers and a Baby

    One of Conan O’Brien’s best bits is his “media reacts” bit, where his team compiles various local new broadcasts reporting news in the exact same way. Seriously, the exact same way. It’s as if there’s one writer sitting somewhere writing a single script and distributing it to W-blah-blah-blah before every evening news telecast. It’s hilarious.

    Well, Mike Myers and his wife Kelly Tisdale are expecting a second baby. I’ll give you three guesses as to the joke everyone made – but you won’t need them.

    via Team Coco
    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • NC Middle School Terrifies Kids with a Masked Gunman

    Imagine that you send your kid to school one day, only to hear that a masked man wielding a gun showed up. You’d assume the worst, right? After all, stories where people take guns into schools never end well. While such a situation happened at a Wayne County, NC school on Friday, no one was harmed–the mask was real, but the gun was fake and was being used to teach the sixth graders at Eastern Wayne Middle School a “lesson.”

    Apparently at a middle school in Wayne County, some employees think that getting a masked man with a gun to rob students is an appropriate way to teach them how to be aware of their surroundings. While some parents might think that’s an extreme way to teach kids a lesson, but not be too upset with it as long as they had a chance to opt their kids in or out, parents of Eastern Wayne Middle School students never had such an opportunity. Parents didn’t learn of the training exercise until after it was conducted.

    The school received quite a few phone calls from ticked off parents, which prompted school officials to send out a letter explaining the situation on Monday. The letter explains that the masked man with a toy gun was part of an “enrichment lesson on exhibiting good citizenship.” The letter goes on to say that after a staff member entered all of the sixth grade classrooms and pretended to rob them, their teachers explained that it was all play-acting.

    (image)

    School official Ken Derksen says that the exercise lacked sensitivity and admits that maybe having a masked man with a gun scare kids wasn’t the best way to teach the lesson. “It obviously did lack that sensitivity that was needed…all of our schools work very hard to promote a safe learning environment…in this situation, the exercise in its original intent was appropriate, but in how it was executed it obviously lacked judgment,” said Derksen, who is a Public Information Officer with the Wayne County Public Schools.

    Would you be outraged if your child were part of such a training exercise? Respond below.

    One parent of a child who has already graduated says that he thinks parents have “every right to be upset.” “I think after Sandy Hook less than a year ago and countless school shootings in recent years, it is quite understandable if these sixth graders were traumatized by the sight of a paid fake masked gunman entering the school,” said Clint Belue. “I think the parents have every right to be upset particularly since they had no knowledge beforehand about the paid fake gunman. Parents send their kids to school to learn, not to be terrorized by a paid fake gunman.”

    So far no action has been taken against the staff member who decided to dress as a masked gunman and scare the kids, but officials are looking into the situation to decide whether it warrants the person being suspended.

    Main image via WikiMedia Commons; Letter image via ABC11

  • PolitiFact Is Going to Start Fact-Checking the Media with New PunditFact Venture

    Want to know if whatever vile garbage spewing from the mouth of some TV pundit is actually true? PolitifFact wants to give you a place to go.

    PolitiFact, the fact-checking operation owned by the Tampa Bay Times, has just announced a new venture called PunditFact. Just as PolitiFact spends its time fact-checking the statements of government officials, Congress, and interest groups, PunditFact will devote its time to fact-checking pundits, columnists, bloggers, and various other talking heads.

    Talk about an undertaking.

    “Pundits on TV and radio, as well as bloggers and columnists, are prominent voices in our political discourse, yet sometimes they blur the lines between opinion and fact,” said Neil Brown, editor and vice president of the Times. “Now we will hold them accountable, much as we’ve done with politicians. PunditFact will be about accountability, not sanctimony. We think consumers of political information will welcome our independent and credible reporting.”

    Thanks to $625,000 in grants from the Ford Foundation and the Democracy Fund, PunditFact will have a dedicated staff to comb through the numerous claims made by political commentators and give them one of the well-known PolitiFact ratings (Pants-on-Fire!).

    “PunditFact will be an edition of PolitiFact that will invoke the look and feel of the national site. Each fact-check will be part of a pundit’s report card, so readers can see whether his or her ratings skew to the True or False end of the scale. PunditFact will publish analyses of its findings — the patterns of the falsehoods, the most popular talking points and stories about how they originated. The website also will tally ratings by news organization and will publish periodic report cards,” says Amy Hollyfield on PolitiFact’s announcement.

    PolitiFact has occasionally fact-checked the media, but with the new venture they can devote more resources to it. There’s a lot of bullshit being vomited out on TV, and in papers. But to tackled bloggers? Good luck, PunditFact.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Twitter Experiments With News By Direct Message With Event Parrot Account

    Twitter has been running a lot of experiments lately, and the latest one deals with helping users keep up with what’s happening in the world. It’s being conducted using an account @eventparrot, which has already accumulated nearly 10,000 followers despite not having tweeted yet.

    It may not be tweeting much anyway, however, as in the bio it says followers will receive direct messages that help them keep up.

    Event Parrot

    Twitter discussed its experimentation process a little bit in a blog post last month.

    “We also experiment with features that may never be released to everyone who uses Twitter,” wrote Twitter VP, Engineering, Alex Roetter. “Those experiments are perhaps even more valuable because they help us decide what not to do –– which is important as we work to keep Twitter simple while improving the user experience. Ultimately, our goal is to learn and keep making the product better; we aren’t necessarily looking to launch all of the experiments we roll out.”

    “In recent months, that trend has picked up –– so much so that it’s rare for a day to go by when we’re not releasing at least one experiment,” he said. “We’re able to run tests more frequently because we’ve built a more robust experimentation framework, which we use to run tests not only on the web, but also in our mobile apps: Twitter for iPhone and Twitter for Android. With the majority of our users accessing Twitter from a mobile device, it’s important for us to be able to test on mobile. Over time, you’ll continue to see us test and introduce new features first on mobile. For example, we recently introduced the people button which suggests accounts for you to follow.”

    One of the ways some of Twitter’s experiments have been surfacing has been through these experimental accounts like Event Parrot.

    It used the account @MagicRegs, for example, before rolling out its new personalized recommendations. I wouldn’t be surprised to see more of these accounts popping up in the near future. Twitter must have quite a bit of experimenting to do with the IPO on the way.

    [via TechCrunch]

  • NPR Buyouts: Plan To Cut Staff By 10%

    NPR Buyouts: Plan To Cut Staff By 10%

    NPR announced on Friday that it will attempt to reduce its staff by about 10% through voluntary buyouts, in order to balance the budget. NPR is a very popular source of news and entertainment for many people, and it is sad to hear of news like this. Hopefully people will not have to miss out on too many of their favorite programs because of this decision. The economy of this country is struggling and since radio broadcasting is a dying business in some aspects, they are forced to analyze their budget and see where they are able to slim down.

    More information about the buyouts is supposed to be available next week, while their last significant cutback came in 2008, letting go of about 8% of their staff at that time. A number of other people have been hired since then certainly, but many of them have been sent to work for their other up and coming outlets such as NPR.org and the various apps that they offer. This announcement was depicted as one of the most significant staff cutbacks in the history of the public radio organization, according to the New York Times. A spokeswoman for the organization was also quoted saying that if the desired reductions are not achieved through buyouts alone, “involuntary measures will need to be considered.”

    Hard times cause people to not be able to be quite as generous to their favorite radio stations, while advertisers are not able to do all that they used to do either. The plans were prepared by a team that was led by NPR’s chief executive Gary E. Knell, hoping to present a balanced-budget plan before departing from the company. Knell announced last month that he would be taking over for the National Geographic Society. NPR, based out of Washington, has said that the buyout is necessary in order to close a continuing deficit, which is projected at $6 million in its upcoming fiscal year.

    NPR and the radio industry as a whole have certainly suffered through the recession, with unfavorable solutions on the rise. This buyout and other measures are intended to help NPR break even in the fiscal year beginning in October of 2014. The organization currently has 840 full and part time employees. NPR states that the recent recession hit NPR and most other media outlets as well, after contributors and advertisers began to scale back on their support. NPR does a lot for the music and entertainment industry as well, with their popular programs such as “Prairie Home Companion” featuring Garrison Keilor and “All Songs Considered,” which features new songs for people to check out.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eYkk62aqKd8

    The public radio station is in trouble in the struggling business world of today’s society. Is there anything the public can do in order to help?

    Image via Youtube

  • Here Comes Facebook’s Big TV Push

    Here Comes Facebook’s Big TV Push

    Facebook announced on Monday that it is launching new tools for media organizations to make use of trends on Facebook. This is the latest in Facebook’s series of releases related to public conversations.

    The new tools come in the form of two APIs: the Public Feed API and the Keyword Insights API. The former will display a real-time feed of public posts for a specific word. It only works with public Page posts and public Profiles that have “Follow” turned on.

    The latter aggregates the total number of posts that mention a specific word in a given time frame, and can display anonymous, aggregating results based on gender, age and location.

    The APIs are rolling out now, but only to a few select partners, including: Buzzfeed, CNN, The Today Show (NBC), BSkyB, Slate and Mass Relevance. Facebook’s Justin Osofsky writes:

    Starting today, selected news organizations can begin to integrate Facebook conversations into their broadcasts or coverage by displaying public posts of real-time activity about any given topic. For example, CNN’s New Day can now easily incorporate what people on Facebook have to say about the latest, breaking news event during their show.

    Partners can also use these tools to show the number of Facebook posts that mention a specific word over a period of time, including a demographic breakdown for the people talking about that topic. For instance, now every week during the ‘What’s Trending’ segment of The Today Show, NBC can easily include how many people on Facebook talked about a popular subject, where it’s getting the most buzz, whether it’s most popular among males or females, and with which age groups. Mass Relevance, a technology company that enables social experiences, is also leveraging these new tools in interesting ways to highlight the trends and conversations happening on Facebook for their media clients.

    Availability will come to additional media outlets soon, as the company says it is beginning discussions with other media partners and marketing developers.

    The company also shared some stats about the NFL season opener from Thursday: 20 million likes, comments and shares on Facebook by over 8 million people. Here’s an infographic showing the relationship between TV events and Facebook engagement:

    Facebook and TV

    It’s been happening gradually for years, but we’re clearly seeing Facebook adopt more of a Twitter-like strategy of late, at least when it comes to public posts. It’s going to be interesting to watch what kind of effect, if any, this has on Twitter moving forward. Will Twitter get as much love from media outlets as it has historically with Facebook providing its version of what Twitter has been offering?

    Twitter meanwhile continues to push further and further into the TV world with things like a partnership with Nielsen, TV ad targeting, and the recent acquisition of Trendrr, to name a few.

    Twitter is also still shattering its own records in television engagement. The recent finale of Pretty Little Liars garnered 1,973,418 tweets, making it the most tweeted-about episode of a TV show in history.

    Image: Facebook

  • Nancy Pelosi Won’t Be Speaker Again

    Nancy Pelosi Won’t Be Speaker Again

    House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi has announced that she will not be Speaker of the House again. However the 73-year-old says she will run again for her seat.In an interview published Friday in the National Journal, an inside-Washington magazine, Pelosi was asked whether she wishes to return to the top job. Pelosi said she did not, pointing out that she has held the post.

    “No, that’s not my thing. I did that,” Pelosi said.

    However, Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill discounted Pelosi’s comments, saying they’re in line with her stock response when she’s asked about running for leadership positions. Hammill said Friday that she’s working hard to win back the majority for Democrats and that, if the effort is successful, her colleagues would elect their speaker.

    “She was simply saying she doesn’t ‘wish’ for things,” Hammill said.

    Pelosi became the first woman to ever be Speaker of the House in 2007, when democrats won the majority. She lost it to current speaker John Boehner in 2011 in the landslide 2010 midterm elections when Republicans gained control of the House. During the interview, Pelosi was asked if Congress, after the long recess was starting to feel “repetitive”. She replied,

    “Oh, it’s Groundhog Day Central. There’s no question about that. It’s not productive. It’s a waste of the taxpayers’ dollar. It’s a waste of our time. And it’s time that’s not working [for] the American people. [The Republicans’] agenda is nothing, and their timetable is never. But having said that, hopefully there are some among them that realize we have a responsibility to govern.”

    She was then asked if she thought it was because of the 20 or so Republicans dominating conversations from the right, she responded,

    “I think it’s more than 20. Here’s what I have to say to my Republican friends out there: Take back your party. This isn’t the Grand Old Party that used to have such great leadership. The name “Republican” in some ways has been hijacked by obstructionists. They are nowhere on the spectrum of trying to get the job done, and they claim the name without bringing to it the greatness, the leadership of the past.”

    The interviewer continued by asking if the disjointed Repulican party gave her some leverage when it came to them needing votes, she said,

    “I only have leverage if the other side is willing to govern. If they are willing to govern, we can find compromise. Not if they are just going to hold their ideological position and say, ‘We can be irresponsible because the Democrats are going to be responsible.’ “

    Read the interview in it’s entirety at The National Journal!

  • Twitter Now Shows You Articles Where Popular Tweets Have Been Embedded

    After testing it last month, Twitter is announcing the wide rollout of a new feature called “related headlines.”

    Basically, what Twitter is doing is displaying all of the articles that embed certain tweets under the actual tweet itself, on its permalink page. Twitter says that it will “make it easier to discover stories that provide more context.

    For example, this tweet from NBA player Jason Collins regarding his decision to come out was embedded in articles on ESPN, FOX Sports, Mashable, and other sites. With the new related headlines feature, Twitter now shows you that on the tweet’s permalink page.

    For Twitter, it’s a way to give users more context to every tweet. For users, it’s a new way to discover news and find out exactly why certain tweets are newsworthy. For news organizations, it’s a way to encourage the embedding of tweets in articles. Twitter is telling sites that the could be rewarded for embedding lots of tweets, because Twitter is basically giving a link to sites that do so.

    The new related headlines feature should be rolling out to all users today.

  • NowThis News Launches Video News Channel on Instagram

    NowThis News, an online news startup focusing on mobile video and social sharing, is looking to harness Instagram to deliver short bits of news on the go.

    Back in June, Instagram launched video on the network on the heels of a massive surge in popularity for Twitter’s Vine. It quickly exploded in terms of use. Instagram video allows users to record up to 15 seconds, and also offers multiple filtering options.

    NowThis News is the first outlet to harness the power of Instagram video to deliver news through a devoted channel. What they call a new “network,” NowThis News: Instagram Edition is described as a “24/7 video news network on Instagram.”

    “NowThis News is the first and only video news source created for mobile and social,” says Ed O’Keefe, Editor-in-Chief of NowThis News. “NowThis News will create original news video made for Instagram’s vibrant social community.”

    NowThis News has been creating short news videos since its launch in November of 2012, but this new venture caters directly to the Instagram crowd.

    “To be totally candid, we’re not thinking about monetization at this point,” O’Keefe told Business Insider. “We’re concerned with, how do we create totally original content for Instagram…Whatever your preferred platform is, we should be there with original content that is intended for the platform that we’re on.”