VOVOX Express

http://www.vuvox.com/presentations/01a7a8a6f4

TWEETS

Social Media Responses

I've found that using Facebook for leads on Journalism assignments can be both good and bad/annoying. I say this because people on Facebook can see everybody's status updates with the Live Feed feature, but a lot of people post new things so often that others get annoyed and start ignoring them. When I post status updates people will often comment on them but they are usually joking comments, so when trying to get helpful info it can be hard. I won't directly copy and paste the comments I received from my post in need of help or feedback pertaining to DPS's bike laws on USC's campus because many of them included obscenities. But I got the general idea of how people felt about it and if they were concerned or not. then after they commented me I sent them messages to see if they would be willing to speak with me more seriously about a story.

My Facebook post said: Is anyone irritated/frustrated by DPS's bike rules on campus? Need feedback for my journalism class.

From this, I received 5 comments and 1 "like."

I say it can be good because ALL of your Facebook friends have the option of seeing your status, so you're reaching a very large group of people. But, in many cases people will just skip over it or will not post anything useful. All this said, I do use Facebook for most of my projects that need input about issues where controversy surround them.

Facebook vs. Twitter: News War

So, I've had a Facebook for a while now and use it for mostly social networking and fun to pass the time, but I haven't quite gotten into the Twitter craze. And quite frankly I really don't understand it. However, I just recently made a Twitter account for a class assignment and I have to say, I still really don't like it nearly as much as Facebook.

The assignment for class was to compare the way news media sites utilize social media such as Facebook and Twitter, to get news out to people through different ways. Now, businesses like CNN, NBC, The Los Angeles Times, and The New York Times are all trying to keep up with the ages and expanding the way they deliver news. Already, most news programs and companies have fully interactive internet sites to reach the younger generations but that still doesn't reach everyone. A lot of college and high school students don't check news sites regularly or read the paper, so to try and reach those populations they have to bring the news to them. Most of those students do have either a Facebook or Twitter, so in attempts to make the news more accessible, they have created Facebook pages and Twitter accounts where students can see what's going on more easily.

I monitored CNN's International Twitter and Facebook page as well as The LA Times World pages for a week to compare and contrast the differences. I found that for both CNN and LA Times the Twitter accounts had many more posts and were updated much more often. I think the reason for this is because there is an older crowd that checks twitter pretty regularly and although older people have started using Facebook recently, it is still dominated by people between 17-28 years of age. On the both Twitter's the posts are short sentences designed to draw readers into the story and they are then directed to a link where they can view the full story. The Facebook format is a little different because they include pictures and videos in addition to links. It also allows users or (friends/fans) to make comments on each post which makes it a lot more interactive than Twitter.

In terms of improving either one- honestly, I cant think of much to do with the Twitter, simply because I'm not that familiar with it and also because the Twitter pages appeared to have much more updates and stories then the Facebook pages.

Surprisingly though, I found that I liked the Twitter better for stories because it wasn't so busy and filled with comments and pictures. I found that this was both a good and a bad thing for Facebook. On one hand the pictures draw the reader in, but they also made it seem more busy. With the Twitter I could read the quick teases for each story and decide which to click on. If I were to improve Facebook I might try to keep the updates in sync with the Twitter accounts.