HCRHS Media Lit

"Here's why I hate the convention: The stand-up has zero journalistic value. It wastes time. It wastes precious reportorial resource. It turns the world into a mere backdrop for entertainment. It's a fake. Take, for example, all the stand-ups we see these days at the George Washington Bridge because of the Christie scandal. Local TV news does it:"

"Project Look Sharp is a media literacy initiative of Ithaca College that develops and provides lesson plans, media materials, training, and support for the effective integration of media literacy with critical thinking into classroom curricula at all education levels."

""Farmed and Dangerous" takes branded content to another level by not including any branding at all in the show. Social Media Week organizers dubbed it Unbranded Entertainment. Chipotle and other advertisers placed commercials in the show, but by not including branding in the show itself, the restaurant has taken a risk that few marketers would entertain. But Chipotle's chief marketing and development officer, Mark Crumpacker, said on a panel at Social Media Week, in which I participated, that he didn't consider it a big risk at all. Citing McDonald's significant marketing budget, which dwarfs his company's, he said Chipotle couldn't afford to rely on traditional advertising. The hope is that PR, buzz and social media will do much of the heavy lifting for the chain's message."

"Parents, teachers and schools worry about teenagers posting their lives (romantic indiscretions, depressing poetry and all), leaking passwords and generally flouting social conventions as predators, bullies and unsavory marketers lurk. Endless back-and-forthing over how to respond effectively - shutting Web sites, regulating online access and otherwise tempering the world of social media for children - dominates the P.T.A. and the halls of policy makers. But as Dr. Boyd sees it, adults are worrying about the wrong things. Children today, she said, are reacting online largely to social changes that have taken place off line."

"Researcher danah boyd is obsessed with how teenagers use the Internet. For the legions of adults who are worried about them, that's a good thing. With a Ph.D from the University of California, Berkeley, and a masters from MIT, and as a senior researcher with Microsoft, boyd is something of a star in the world of social media. For her new book It's Complicated, she spent about eight years studying teenagers and how they interact online. She says she wrote the book in part to help parents, educators and journalists relax. "The kids are all right," she says."

"In an effort to change the limiting culture of Hollywood, which continues to fail to represent the full spectrum of humanity, we're proud to introduce The Representation Test - a media literacy tool that grades films on how well they challenge the status quo."

"Almost a year ago, Jeff Gordon teamed up with Pepsi Max to prank an unsuspecting car salesman. Gordon disguised himself and took the salesman along on a test drive, only to dangerously speed around town. The salesman's terrified reactions, and subsequent reaction to discovering it was a NASCAR driver all along, earned the Pepsi spot more than 40 million views on YouTube. But not everyone was so impressed by the viral video, mainly Jalopnik reporter Travis Okulski. Okulski was among the first to point out inconsistencies in the original ad, writing it off as a staged performance by several actors. Okulski's accusations apparently angered Gordon, who decided to seek revenge with a similar driving prank."

"From NSA sweeps to commercial services scraping our Web browsing habits, to all kinds of people tracking us through our smartphones, Angwin says we've become a society where indiscriminate data-gathering has become the norm. Angwin has covered online privacy issues for years, and in her new book she describes what she did to try to escape the clutches of data scrapers, even to the point of creating a fake identity."

"The print ad above, featuring the actress, is drawing praise, but also some criticism for excessive Photoshopping. It's not on the usual social-ethical grounds but because, as Emily Leaman over at Philly Magazine suggests, the ad looks more like a "pre-pubescent 12-year-old boy than the strong, broad-shouldered, post-pubscent Jennifer Lawrence we know in movies like Silver Linings Playbook and The Hunger Games.""

"The FCC decided in its infinite wisdom that it would be a good idea to launch something called a Multi-Market Study of Critical Information Needs. Said study would investigate, among other things, "the process by which stories are selected," how news outlets are fulfilling "critical information needs" and if there is "perceived station bias." Journalists would be asked, among other things, if they ever had story ideas squashed by management. The project was set to launch with a pilot project in Columbia, S.C., in the spring."

"Kent State University is one of only 15 universities across the country to receive a grant from the National Association for Media Literacy Education (NAMLE) to screen Eyes Wide Open: This is Media, a documentary that explores individual roles in the changing media landscape. Kent State's School of Journalism and Mass Communication will host the premiere at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 20, in the FirstEnergy Auditorium in Room 340 of Franklin Hall. The event is free and open to the public. Produced by Pivot TV, the documentary is a call to awareness about the critical balance between being connected, being responsible and being private. "This is a must-see and an eye-opening video for everyone, especially millennials engaged with social or traditional media," says Federico Subervi, Ph.D., professor in Kent State's School of Journalism and Mass Communication and National Association for Media Literacy Education member."

"Facebook's News Feed, a homepage built by our friends and organized by our clicks and likes, isn't really a "news" feed. It's an entertainment portal for stories that remind us of our lives and offer something like an emotional popper. In fact, news readers self-identify as a minority on Facebook: Fewer than half ever read "news" on the site, according to a 2013 Pew study, and just 10 percent of them go to Facebook to get the news on purpose, as opposed, say, being assaulted by a breaking news event when you're just scanning baby photos. To see this more clearly, let's compare the BuzzFeed network's most viral stories-i.e.: the stories that go biggest on Facebook-to the top stories on Twitter and the most-searched stories. First, here are the top stories on Twitter in 2013. It's a blend of news, like terrorist attacks and music shows, and evergreen silliness with Ryan Gosling and Kim Kardashian. "

"FRONTLINE explores how the perennial teen quest for identity and connection has migrated to social media - and how big brands are increasingly co-opting young consumers' digital presences."

"Shows like this were helping America sort through its conflicted emotions and anxieties about our changing demographics. Showing an interracial couple on the All in the Family spinoff, The Jeffersons was considered daring in the early '70s. A few decades later, interracial couples are, if not common on TV, at least no big deal."

"Journalists need to generate a national discussion on the future of the internet"

"News literacy is a relatively new field in media studies that focuses on defining and teaching the skills that citizens need to evaluate the credibility of the information they encounter, and on examining the role that credible information plays in a representative democracy. It's also a subject that most students find inherently engaging and relevant. In fact, a recent study found that 84 percent of young people between the ages of 15 and 25 say they would benefit from learning these skills. 3 Exercises in News Literacy"

"Technology is fundamentally changing the nature of relationships in America, and online dating sites are an important part of that story. See how your views about online dating stack up with the rest of the population by first answering a few questions, then compare your responses with the 2,252 randomly sampled adults who took part in a nationally representative survey conducted by the Pew Research Center."

"We are proud to present the Lean In Collection, a library of images devoted to the powerful depiction of women, girls and the people who support them. Jointly curated by Getty Images and LeanIn.Org - the women's empowerment nonprofit founded by Sheryl Sandberg - the collection features over 2,500 images of female leadership in contemporary work and life. A portion of proceeds from the Lean In Collection will go toward the creation of Getty Images grants for images showcasing female empowerment and to supporting the mission of LeanIn.Org."

"Sheryl Sandberg's Lean In organization is taking aim at institutional sexism in an unlikely medium: stock photos. Born out of the memoir of the same name by Facebook's chief operating officer, the non-profit has partnered with Getty Images to create a stock-photo library of 2,500 pictures that portray women in a positive light. Those will be available to Getty customers like corporations seeking an image for their website, creative directors at ad agencies and photo editors at media outlets."

"A Super Bowl ad is no longer just a Super Bowl ad. For most brands in the big game, the ad itself is the anchor for something that plays out -- largely on the web and in social -- for weeks before and hopefully for months after the game is over. So, how are the Super Bowl advertisers doing? Overall, quite well. Four days after the Super Bowl, the campaigns have racked up 344 million views. That's up 31% from last year at this time when Super Bowl ads had 240 million views, according to Visible Measures. Below you'll see how the 2014 ads stack up"