Swine Flu

I first heard about the Swine Flu from my younger sister Bailey who is in middle school. I then saw a facebook status with reference to the Swine Flu. Then it was on the news and next thing you know I find an email about it from the University. Word travels fast in a high velocity media world. When I googled Swine Flu to find out more, I came across 3,090,000 results. I then looked at a Wikipedia definition, a Washington Post article, and finally a Medline Plus article. I was amazed at how much information you can find in just one click. We used to have to wait till the next day the papers came out with information on such topics but now we can go straight home and pull up 1-2 web pages and find "googles" of information pertaining to the newest buzz. The ways we can so quickly and effectively access media in our day is amazing to me. I am grateful for it and feel it is a tremendous blessing in our time to be able to connect to such media and information in a blink of an eye.

Social Networks Epidemic

According to this year’s Razorfish FEED report, consumers are

adopting these new technologies faster than you can imagine.
Today’s digital consumers have moved well beyond merely
sampling Web 2.0 technologies and services. They are now
adopting these services at a breakneck pace and readily
experimenting with new, more sophisticated offerings en masse.
“The concept of social networking is evolving
and morphing. It’s now about making the
entire Web social instead of just creating a
ghetto of destination sites where people have to
go to socialize.” There is no telling what these

new networkingcapabilities can do for the

business, marketing and advertising worlds.

Social Network consumers are ever ready and everywhere.

They are open to all kinds of new ideas and ways of advertising.

It is exciting to think of all the possibilities.

The real value for advertisers is the role of social
influence in persuading consumers to purchase.
Nearly half of all respondents (49%) indicate they
have made a purchase based on a recommendation
through a social media site. Is this the end of traditional retailers?

Will we be forced to rethink the way to reach consumers completely?

We are still in the early days of this media evolution but
it is an inevitable and fast growing change.

It is predicted that in a few years these

Social Networks will be like air.

Who doesn't have a Facebook or Twitter account?

What's New About Sunday Papers?

By Butch Ward
Managing Director, The Poynter Institute

In This article, Stan Tiner, editor of the Sun-Herald in Gulfport, Mississippi, said after feeling the impact the economy has had on both it's newspapers and readers, that he and his newsroom were launching a new effort to improve their newspaper beginning with the Sunday paper. After all, Tiner said, "it still accounts for 90 percent of our revenue!" "We want to make the Sunday paper the best it's ever been," Tiner said. I believe the newspaper is a dying medium for the newer generations but it is a needed one none the less. My friend works for the Standard Journal here in Rexburg, Idaho and has felt this very need with consumers that come into her office complaining that an article they had wanted to read in paper form is only available online. For those that have not caught up with the media and it's ever changing technology, these online ways to consume news and information is just not cutting it. Stan Tiner and his newsroom are going after the right approach to try to improve and save this media that is seemingly hanging by a thread on one end while others are clutching it with both hands. It was interesting to read the questions this article was asking its readers of what they would personally like to see in Sunday papers. This feedback is a good way to improve and I wish newspapers around the nation the best of luck in these efforts to keep their readers and in making new ones.

Reality Television

Reality Television is a genre of TV programming that has achieved, within the last few years, an explosion of success in hits such as the Survivor Series, Fear Factor, The Bachelor, American Idol and so on. Reality television which takes ordinary people, sets them up in extraordinary situations on a world stage with other similarly commonplace individuals, and makes them the focus of a nation’s attention on, for example, an hour every Tuesday night are becoming the norm for new and upcoming television shows.Why this explosion of success and popularity you ask? I believe there are 3 main factors that effect the popularity of these kinds of shows. First there is the appeal for winning mass amounts of money. The Second appeal is of instant fame and the third is the plain old fact Reality television shows have become a guilty pleasure for viewers nation wide. People all over the nation have become dependent on watching these shows and if they are not careful, will begin to base their values and ways of thinking on the way these seemingly normal every-day people behave and act on national television. Reality Television seems like reality but how real can you act with a full on camera crew in front of your face every day documenting your every move? Reality Television as solely a guilty pleasure can do no harm as long as there is balance and objectivity in what we get out of them. Sure money and fame are appealing but they aren't really what life is all about.