Twitter takes on the Advertising world

For the first time tonight, I decided to review an article from a major online news source that wasn't Australia-centric.  After viewing The New York Times, I came across this article discussing the announcement of advertising plans over the last few weeks by the microblogging platform, Twitter.

The first thing that struck me about this article was the length.  At over 1,100 words, it's nearly double the average online article length.  Secondly was the depth of reporting.  For an article covering a social media platform's use in advertising, the journalist had really provided a well rounded story.  Within the major Australian online news sites that I have reviewed so far, such an article would never have received such attention.  As can be seen from my review yesterday on the article by news.com.au, Digital Advertising and technology stories have been treated largely as overview articles.  Very little in-depth reporting with clearly a large amount of the story pulled from one official source.  I have usually had to go to blogs such as Mashable or Gizmodo to find detailed stories on digital technology.

Here, however, the journalists have gone to great lengths to provide a very objective story.  They have gained quotes from a number of reputable sources, citing several digital strategists from very well-known world-wide advertising agencies, such as BBDO, which really cements the credibility of this story.  It is very clear that these professional journalists working for such a reputable paper have considered the "Who, what, where, why, when" of journalism, thus resulting in a very readable article.

One may argue whether this article is really newsworthy or not.  "Advertising breaks it's way into another part of our lives".... just for something completely different.  However, I do believe it is very newsworthy; niche news, yes, but newsworthy none the less, particularly for the advertising industry in which I work.  It is quite controversial within the industry, as Twitter is definitely a "buzz" word for clients, most advertisers are unsure how to utilise Twitter effectively, and there is quite differing opinions as to whether it is even effective or not.  Additionally, they journalists have chosen a very current topic, therefore, through these items alone, the article presented is a very newsworthy one for the advertising industry.

Is there anything Google can't do?

Just when you thought Google would safely stick to the confusing realm of algorithms and metadata, it would appear that Google is on its way to creating self-driving cars.  Amazing, right?  Odd, perhaps.  Scary, a little bit.

This concept was fairly heavily discussed on the web yesterday and I thought I would take a look at how two different online sources reported this:  news.com.au,  a more traditional online news publisher, and Mashable, an aggregation of bloggers writing about all things social media.

The article by News, within its Technology vertical, was very much an overview of the story.  Very little detail was provided by the journalist and it merely stated the facts.  The headline was very straightforward ("Google tests self-driving cars"), which is to be expected.  Current SEO practices would point a journalist in this direction for headlines.  The layout is very clean, which allows for easy reading, however the story doesn't really provide the reader with any particular angle or new piece of knowledge.  It is merely stating the facts, which were clearly gained from Google's own blog announcement.  The journalist would have done well to have included other thoughts on the story or other expert opinions, other than Google's, for a more well-rounded story, particularly seeing as it was so heavily discussed online yesterday.

Mashable, on the otherhand, present a more in-depth discussion on the topic.  Again, their headline isn't particularly striking, however the author provides much more background information on the story.  They have obviously researched what others online are saying about the topic, referencing not only Google's blog, but the New York Times, TechCrunch, and other well-respected sources in the industry. As a result, the author presents not only the facts, but issues of concern to the public (such as safety), as well as possible pros and cons of the new technology.  They even discuss the cynical opinion that such technology merely provides the user / driver the opportunity to use and absorb Google products and advertising.

It is not surprising that a lengthier, more in-depth article is presented on Mashable, as it is a site that focuses on Social Media and online and web technology.  Such a site is always going to be more opinion led.

Facebook Places Launches in Australia

I wanted, this week, to take a look at how one of the major online newspapers treated the launch of Facebook Places in Australia.  This is a topic that I’ve covered before, when the application was first launched in the States, however I looked at how the story covered by a different major newspaper and a few well-known blogs. 

As I’ve mentioned before, Places has been launched as the Facebook equivalent to the very popular iphone application, FourSquare.  It’s essentially a location-based application used to “check in” at a particular location and find out information about a particular business or surrounds.  Whilst initially seen as a direct competitor to FourSquare, it would seem that both FourSquare and Gowalla are tieing their products in with Facebook Places.

The article in the Sydney Morning Herald last Thursday is largely a copy-based article, with little imagery.  It contains one image of screenshots of the application, but otherwise the layout is fairly content-heavy.  There are numerous links surrounding the article itself, as well as ads and other drivers to other content.  The advertising displayed on this article could be a little more relevant to the likely reader – A Woolworths ad may have been better places somewhere else on the site.

As for the content of the article itself, I think the journalist does a good job of objective reporting and discussing some important issues surrounding the application’s release.  The story focuses largely on the privacy concerns surrounding Places and other location-based applications.  Whilst this is not an entirely new angle (much talk already exists around Facebook and Privacy).  The Journalist uses relevant quotations from Places’ product manager, giving the article credibility and authenticity.  However, I do think some of the objectivity is lost by the use of the phrase "Stalkbook" in the headline.  I feel this is an unnecessary play on people's pre-existing privacy concerns and somewhat negates the level of objectivity achieved through the main article.

Social Media and Journalism

Mashable, today, put forth quite a lengthy article on the future of Social media in Journalism.  I felt this was appropriate to review for obvious reasons, however, particularly as it focused on Social media, not just online in general.

I really enjoyed this article as I felt that it put forward some thoughts that are not always considered.  The author puts forward the notion that Journalists need to give up the idea of being the only authority when reporting news - not a new idea - but they do make an interesting point when they say that "enlisting a community of intelligent contributors" can help journalists provide daily community coverage.  I think there is an emphasis on "intelligent contributors" here - there are so many people playing in the social media space and information is not always valuable, relevant or credible.  Sorting this, curating this, will be come a main task of journalists.

What I do really like about this article is the conversational tone that is set right from the start.  Within the first section, the author asks the reader "... we would love to hear your thoughts and observations in the comments below" and this sentiment is echoed at the end of the article.  I feel that this really reflects the nature and topic of this article brilliantly.  It focuses on social media, collaborative reporting and conversations, and by asking readers to take part in a conversation is paralleling the focus of the article itself.

As far a the layout of this story goes, there were 2 main elements that concerned me.  Firstly was the number of hyperlinks within the article.  This is the standard way of referencing online, however the fact that there were 5 hyperlinks within the first paragraph and a half, was quite distracting.  Readers are spending less and less time deep reading as it is and adding this many links is likely to send your reader away from your article.  Additionally, whilst the story was organised in to easily discernable headings, the screengrabs that were used weren't clearly referenced.  The images spanned the entire width of the blog with little reference, thus it was difficult to actually identify whether the image was actually part of the story or was perhaps an ad.

Otherwise I felt it was a very well-written article that covered many angles of the story in depth.

Facebook Places and concerns over privacy

There has been much talk today over the release of the Facebook "Places" application in the US, a rival to iphone apps like Foursquare.  I looked at 3 different articles on this particular unveiling and the different ways they were treated by each publication.

Firstly, I noticed this article in the Daily Telegraph.  This article fairly blandly reported the release of the app, without really giving an opinion or going for a particular angle.  It is interesting to note that the article quotes "Some experts", without actually noting who they are, which does make you question the credibility of the article.  Not to say that the expert opinions are untrue, however their authenticity could be doubted.  The article does go to the trouble to quote the Facebook vice-president, however doesn't actually cite the reference for that quote.

This article only briefly mentions (in one short sentence) the privacy concerns that seem to be rattling the internet community at the moment.  However, this article this evening on Mashable, seems to go into much more depth on the privacy concerns.  Mashable is a social media news site, so it is understandable that it would report such a social-related story in greater depth.  In fact, it ran a number of stories on the app today:

http://mashable.com/2010/08/19/facebook-places-iphone
http://mashable.com/2010/08/19/facebook-places-guide
http://mashable.com/2010/08/18/facebook-places-poll
http://mashable.com/2010/08/18/facebook-launches-its-location-features-live

The Mashable article cites other Facebook privacy related concerns that were raised earlier in the year (in fact, the Daily Telegraph article didn't provide any hyperlinks at all).  The also cite the ACLU, a civil liberties group in Northern California; a reference that may be a valid one, but I do question how reputable they may be.  They may be well know in America, however they are not known to an Australian audience.

I actually found the ACLU article cited by Mashable a very interesting read.  They've taken quite a different approach and seems to be quite fear-focused.  Whilst the Daily Telegraph report does not differ much to a basic press release, the ALCU is focusing on the monster that Facebook appears to have become.  The use of taglines, such as "facebook is rolling out a "here now", privacy later", and phrases like "safeguarding your location information" clearly have a specific, persuasive purpose; to convince users to be wary of the app.  It is quite successful in doing so.

It really felt like there were 3 tiers of reporting here on the same issue:
- The Daily Telegraph with its fairly bland, seemingly-unresearched (or at least not originally researched) Press release
- Social media report from Mashable which felt fairly impartial
- ACLU website's somewhat scare-mongering report on facebook and it's failure "to build in some other important privacy safeguards."

Social Media as a news wire

This is not an article I am analysing - just one I wanted to share with the group.

Another article on the changing way we consume news and the role that social media plays in delivering it.

Use of Social Media by the Police

I found this article on Gizmodo today regarding a group of New Jersey Police that are using Facebook as a means to name and shame criminals in their area.  It is an interesting article and raises a few issues around the privacy of such "Name and Shame" processes.  However, I wanted to review this article from an Information Architecture standpoint, rather than the story itself.

GIZMODO article header, 14/08/10

"More" dropdown

The navigation used across the site is very clear and simple, outlining the 5 major areas of interesting, with a "More" drop down that encompasses all other categories within the site.  The page does show a simple breadcrumb for this article, which is purely "online".  As Gizmodo articles tend not to be hidden down deep within multiple sections, the breadcrumb does not provide much information other than that it fits within the "Online" section.  The other important thing to note about the article header is the prominent position of the Facebook "Like" button.  It is at the top of the page on the right hand side.  This is a very common and easily recognised position for such an element. The remainder of the share functionality sits at the bottom of the page  It also indicates the importance Gizmodo places on sharing via social media; appropriate for a site that is focused on technology and all things online.

An element that I really like about this article header is that both the Author and the Date are hyperlinks. This allows the user to find more articles by the particular author, as well as additional news from that particular day.  It is an effective way to encourage users to move around the site and spend more time there.

There are a number of hyperlinks included within the article itself, including the facebook page in question.  The article does also link to the Courier Post article from which the story was obviously based.  This particular paper structures their page quite differently for this story.  Their header includes similar functionality (clickable author name, social media share functionalites), however they place a very large banner add within the middle of the page, right within probably some of the most important real estate on the page.

Courier Post page structure for same article

This is a highly unusual place for a banner ad and one that I find incredibly distracting.  The page looks incredible messy and I found it quite difficult to focus on the story itself when compared to the clean and streamlined Gizmodo page.