New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Askforit is a new platform combining consumer demand with advocacy to accomplish change. Users can now share what they want, then find other people to rally around the idea and create enough visible demand to make a difference.
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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

To find his answer, Sullivan turns to professional storyteller Anne Rutherford. Rutherford, a Portland native, says that the art of storytelling isn’t lost, only misplaced; she tells Sullivan that we, as humans, are hard-wired to respond to story, only we’re currently lacking the opportunities to be in situations where stories can be told: “Whatever [your] age, whatever [the] circumstance, if it’s a good story and it’s well told, [..] we have the ability to respond to that. However, what I think we’re losing is the opportunity to be in those situations.”

“Those situations” Rutherford is referring to are those gatherings around campfires or even water-coolers, places that have become the cultural setting for story. Sullivan worries that we’re so immersed in digital realities that our storytelling muscles have weakened. With today’s technology, it’s true that most of us spend less time conversing face-to-face and more time communicating through interfaces, but I wonder if that means, as Sullivan’s article suggests, that storytelling has “lost” its opportunity.

It is my argument that social media makes story-telling even more possible today than in earlier years. While I’d agree with Sullivan that we’re not sharing stories in the same manner as we used to, I’d suggest that Story itself is an evolving beast, something that grows and mutates with time. Throughout history, storytelling forms have changed with technology— from oral traditions, to the printed word, to most recently digital media—but the elements of narrative can be detected throughout, as Story manages to creep its way into every linguistic or visual expression.

With tweets limited to 140 characters or less, it may seem like there’s no room for storytelling on Twitter, as story requires character development, plot, setting, etc., but we need to keep in mind that while storytelling styles change, Story itself is immortal; As Robert McKee says in his seminal text, Story, “The archetypal story unearths a universally human experience, then wraps itself inside a unique, culture-specific expression” (Story, 4, my emphasis).

As McKee suggests, story is both universal while also being “culturally specific” —meaning that it not only captures something essentially human, but also adjusts to the social expressions available at the time. (Neanderthals painted on the walls; we tweet. And if you’re tweeting, you’re a story teller too—though you may not even know it.)

If we’re the social media generation, it’s not that we’re losing the opportunity for story, it’s that we’re telling our stories differently. We need to recognize how authors engage with social media as story. At The Social Times, our story is the story of social media; we’re interested in the characters, settings, and plots unfolding in our online worlds. As Sullivan’s article evidences, there’s a cultural pessimism about social media: while many recognize the internet as a potent tool for communication, others worry that new communications technologies (Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, etc.) have eroded our old ones, and that digital discourses have robbed us of our ability to talk to one another.

But is social media really a bankrupt form of communication? As someone involved in social media story telling, I see more opportunities for online authorship than in any other media. Let’s take Twitter for example— one of the newest story-telling platforms of our age. At worst, Twitter is just a cultural wasteland where we dump or verbal garbage, but at best, it’s a ripe tool for social narrative, a fertile frontier for those brave enough to pioneer it.

While many use Twitter for shamelessly meaningless updates (“just toasted some bread” and “just buttered my toast”) others engage with Twitter is more meaningful ways. In a recent article, I wrote about a professor by the name of Dan Sinker. Sinker created a Twitter account under the name @MayorEmanuel at a time when a man by the name of Rahm Emmanuel was actually running for mayor of Chicago. The fake Twitter account recieved a small following overnight, and by one week into the real mayor’s campaign, the fake @MayorEmanuel  had more Twitter followers than the real Rahm Emmanuel.

@MayorEmanuel authored elaborate and detailed stories in a series of tweets—all 140 characters or less. Sinker sustained his audience by telling a layered narrative involving five fantastical characters, including duck named Quaxelrod and a dog named Hambone. His story got so much media attention that Stephen Colbert asked Sinker to be a guest on his show, and Simon Publishing groups offered Sinker a publishing contract.

Sinker exemplifies how the creative class can engage with social media spaces like Twitter in innovative ways. What’s more, his overnight success demonstrates how audiences across the blogosphere are still receptive to story, and that the art of storytelling is more alive than ever.That Sinker’s tweets are being translated into print form demonstrates that Twitter itself is a storytelling tool.

But is Dan Sinker an exception to the rule? Perhaps—but perhaps not for long. It may be that few people regard Twitter as a platform for storytelling, but more users like Sinker are beginning to recognize social media’s potential for story.

Facebook is another example of storytelling at its finest. Each day, we log into our Facebook accounts to participate in the telling of our own story. Whether we realize it or not, each time we comment on a friend’s photo or post a link on their Facebook wall, we’re mapping our digital stories and tracking online footprints across the digital world.

There’s a growing market for online services that print your Facebook feed, with Yearly Leaf and JotJournal being two examples. This impetus towards tangible hard-copy records of our digital lives testifies to the fact that social spaces like Facebook have become our public diaries. We want to print them and hold them because we’re familiar with the printed form, and I’d argue we’re anxious over the fact that we store our identities online rather than in hard-copy format because we’re transitioning between our cultural-specific form of expression. We’re hungry for storytelling forms that make sense to us.

At the same time, if a Facebook feed can be converted into a printed diary, or a series of tweets like Dan Sinker’s @MayorEmanuel can be translated and published, or a blog like Salem Pax’s can be formatted into a book (The Baghdad Blog) then this demonstrates how social media does not usurp or undercut story, but instead, it provides story with more manifestations.

Story is a chameleon. Like a  chameleon, sometimes Story’s form is apparent, while other times, its camouflaged. Whether we choose to recognize it or not, story is alive and well in the age of social media; it’s that  shape-shifting lizard just beyond your homepage.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

At the 2011 Clinton Global Initiative University (CGI U), President Bill Clinton announced that MTV and the College Board, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, will develop a first of its kind social media tool to help students find money for college.
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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

A recent article in The Globe and Mail reports that Canadians are about to find out whether or not 140 characters can make or break a political campaign. Globe columnist Bill Curry writes that by mid afternoon on Sunday, “more than 14,000 tweets  had been sent out during the first day-and-a-half of the campaign.” Canadians will vote on May 2nd to elect their new government representatives. “If there was ever a question before, it’s clear now” Curry writes, “Canada’s first social media election is under way.”

In addition to running political commercials, the political parties are tweeting and blogging, hoping to reach the more than 16 million potential voters online. Perhaps government parties were inspired by the trajectory of Barack Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, a landmark moment in which politics and social media collided with an explosive impact.

With political parties engaging with social media, there’s hope that politicians can reach a younger, web-savvy generation, as more than half of Twitter users are under the age of 24.  According to a recent Twitter poll by Sysomos, 31 percent of tweeters are ages 15-19, and 35 percent are aged 20-24. The next largest group of people on Twitter (15 percent) are ages 25-29, which can be compared to the smallest percent of Twitter users, those 55 and older, who make up only one percent of tweeters.

But can social media deliver a coherent message? Social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook are known for their fragmented mode of delivery, with tweets limited to 140 characters or less, and Facebook updates restricted to only 420 characters. Can we be sure that youths seeking political information online won’t get lost in the clamor, and, more importantly, how can we be sure that social media isn’t just clamor?

In his seminal text Amusing Ourselves To Death, cultural theorist Neil Postman argues that new media have transformed politics from a coherent discussion to a fractured discourse, where information is delivered in sound bites rather than fully fleshed out arguments. While Postman focused on the societal impact of the television—he wrote in 1985—his concerns are just as valid (if not more so) today. If anything, new media has become more instantaneous and fractured than ever before.

While Postman argues  that technology shapes political conversations in a negative way, others are more optimistic about social media as a political tool.  The recent citizen uprisings in the Middle East demonstrate how spaces like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube are being  employed by a new generation of social activists (Wael Ghonim, a notable leader in the uprisings in Egypt, and founder of the Facebook group “We are all Khaled Saeed,” is only thirty).

In North America, popular culture icons like Lady Gaga are engaging with social media to raise awareness about sexism and homophobia—concerns that get overlooked amidst the wars overseas. So perhaps it isn’t that social media will make youths politically interested, but instead, social media provides a platform for politically interested youths.

But are Canadian politicians talking back to today’s youth?  The Globe and Mail suggests that although the upcoming election is being dubbed “the first social media election,” few politicians are engaging with digital audiences. A recent Globe article tells of several groups and individuals to unsuccessfully tried to initiate conversation with political parties via Twitter. Globe columnist  Siri Agrell suggests that “few candidates seem to have grasped the instantaneous connection possible through Twitter, or the impact it could have to communicate directly with voters in this way.” So while politicians may own a social media account, they’ve yet to establish a social media presence, and they’ve yet to grasp the social aspect of so-called “social media.”

Social media provides the potential for a social conversation, so if politicians want to secure the support of a new generation of voters, they’d better start speaking our language—and they’d better start talking (read:tweeting) back.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Research experiments used to be conducted in laboratories – men in white overcoats carrying test tubes with neon specimens inside, or gigantic computers sparking like lightning (maybe I’ve watched Frankenstein too many times). But today, some of the most interesting research isn’t being conducted in a lab, but on the internet.

The internet has not only provided a landscape of information, it’s also shaped the way we, as a global society communicate with one another.

Marshal McLuhan argues that in order to understand a society, you need to understand how that society communicates. How do we speak to one another, and how are our messages received? In our information age, most of our communication is done online, through Facebook, Twitter, email and other forms of social media, so what does that say about us?

In an effort to understand what this digital discourse means, Kostas Marvpalias of the Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art Design & Technology in Ireland is conducting a research project examining “cyberphyshology.” He’s interested in studying online personalities and behaviors in a social media setting in order to understand how we can improve online education.

Marvpalias is calling for internet users to contact him if they’re interested in participating. What’s most interesting is that participants need not travel overseas to take part; Instead, Marvpalias is interested in meeting people online. The study won’t take place in a lab, and white overcoats are optional.

Marvpalias is interested in intelligent e-learning systems, user modeling, and the social web. Specifically, he’s investigating people’s personalities and learning styles in relation to their use of social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Last.FM and Flickr.

His goal is to identify what aspects of people’s personalities and identities are encoded in their daily activities on the social web, and whether an intelligent system can provide instant personalization to a user just by scanning his or her online social activities.

In other words, what do your social media imprints say about you? Each time you log onto Facebook or Twitter, you’re generating code, and Marvpalias hopes to read and interoperate that code to see whether or not conclusions can be drawn. The study hopes to answer whether or not human behavioral patterns can be tracked and measured by the information they generate online, and whether or not this information can be used to improve online education.

His project research page, which can be read about here, stipulates that participants must be 18 years of age or older, must be fluent in English, and must have at least one social media account on one of the following websites: Facebook/Twitter/LinkedIn/Foursquare/Last.fm/Flickr.

If you qualify, you can easily participate by clicking the “I wish to participate” button on their homepage. After clicking, you’ll be asked to allow this application to access your profile data. Since the study is anonymous, names, addresses and emails will not be stored, and other personal information is kept private. You’ll then be prompted to complete a short personality test followed by a short learning style test. The whole process should take a maximum of 20 minutes.

Participants will be helping leading researchers gather information about human behavior and the impact of social media technologies on our everyday lives. To learn more about the study, or to take part, visit Marvpalias’ research webpage here.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

At The Social Times, we’re interested in social media. As the arts columnist, I’m interested in the ways artists engage with spaces like Twitter, Facebook, Flicker, Myspace and WordPress. Any good artist today will find a way to use these cultural tools in interesting and innovative ways.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Have you ever want to sing Happy Birthday to your sister who lives across the country? Even record your baby’s first words and share the sounds with your family and friends on Facebook?

BabbleOn is a social media app for smartphones that records messages to post on Facebook and the BabbleOn Community. The application was created by President Michael Mills, Vice-President Tommy Mills and Raster Media. The free App can be found at any App store for Babbleon.
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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

For parents or teachers, YouTube and other social networking sites can be a double-edged sword. Though they are rich with educational content, they also contain explicit videos, inappropriate comments and ads. But now, there is a way for users to safely access educational content on YouTube and Web 2.0. They can use a filtering program called GoLiveCampus.com by iBoss Web Filters.
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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Parents of kids who like to surf on the Internet might be able to breathe a little easier. The popular children’s television network Nickelodeon is raising its voice to educate kids on digital bullying. Nick, the popular TV network for kids ages 2 to 14, began an on-air public service campaign today. The campaign features some of its stars offering advice on what kids can do when confronted with hostile texts, emails or Facebook posts.
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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Most Facebook users might be familiar with a certain status update that is being circulated around saying that Facebook is going to use photos of you, your family and friends in advertisements. The reason for using the photos is to fool people into believing their friends endorsed a product or service.
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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The McClatchy Company, the third largest publication company in the U.S., is another major publisher venturing into the social shopping business. The company, which involves 30 daily newspapers, including The Miami Herald and The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and 43 non-dailies, is offering daily discounts on its local newspaper websites. The New York Times and Denver Post have also ventured into the social shopping business.
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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Instant Messaging clients like Messenger and ICQ once made terms like WTF and LOL mainstream, as they were used in person-to-person chats, but it can be said that the rise of social media has meant that these terms now live in the public domain, and are becoming ubiquitous in today’s culture. Oxford Dictionary agrees, as they’ve added a whole slew of WTF words to the library.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The Cleveland Indians is setting a trend in the social networking arena. The Indians plan to rule Twitter in their hometown by encouraging fans to tweet questions to the team faculty or players.
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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Just released for Mac users is a new social-networking utility called Frenzy. Introduced by Aptonic Software, the new function allows the user to turn cloud storage service Dropbox into an impromptu social network for sharing links and files.
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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.