Sunday, November 2, 2008

Social Media Meets Hollywood



I remember when I first signed up for facebook and it was only used for college students to stay in contact. Then, I remember joining myspace and thinking that it was just a fancy version of facebook where you write comments and decorate the page. Within the past few years, I remember going from just a college focused facebook to watching Rick Sanchez on CNN trying to keep in touch with his audience via facebook, twitter, and YouTube.

It's not just Rick Sanchez who is utilizing this form of media. CNN has been recruiting other reporters to use facebook and they even turn their own visitors into reporters through their iReport website. Users can upload their videos onto the site where a few chosen videos may appear on CNN (iReport, 2008). The site also has the "traditional" form of social communication such as forums, polls, and e-mail.

Celebrities are also taking part in more socialized media. One example is all the bands that upload their songs, videos, and blogs on myspace. Bowling For Soup has a myspace page where they use the bulletins to update fans on their tour schedule, a music player so fans can listen to their music and add songs to their individual playlists, a blog to give more updates to fans, and links for fans to purchase and download music (Bowling for soup, 2008). Stan Lee, the famous creator of Spiderman and X-Men comics, uses myspace to keep in touch with fans, post fan-art, promote his new media and entertainment company, and alert fans of his appearances (Stan Lee, 2008).

With this kind of exposure, there are a few problems that can develop. For example, there is a phenomenon called flaming which is the "deliberate act of posting or writing messages on internet bulletin boards and message groups that have the intent of insulting or creating dissent" (Ellis-Christensen, 2008). Users will often flame members or celebrities, especially on forums. Along with flaming, many users will often develop fake profiles pretending to be celebrities, bands, or even other normal users. So, how do news and celebrity sites combat these types of attacks?

To stop flaming and false information, CNN employees will often fact-check and view videos that are posted before broadcasting them on their website or on their station. The site also has a feature where employees review all posts and will only allow posts that are approved by CNN (The forum, 2008). Comedian Weird Al Yankovich came up with an even more clever idea. On his myspace page, he put a link to his website, and then on his website, he placed a link to his myspace page. He even tells his audience on myspace, "Go ahead, check weirdal.com. Hit the MySpace link. See if it brings you right back to this page. Go ahead. I'll wait.
See? It's really me" (Weird Al, 2008).


As you can probably see, the gap between fans and the famous is starting to slowly close as celebrities and other media sites are entering the social media zone. In fact, just a few minutes ago I was watching an episode of "King of the Hill" with an episode called "Lost in Myspace" and discussed the activities of using myspace for Strickland Propane. It shown some of the negative aspects of using myspace, but it also shows how far this type of new media has come from a few years ago when myspace was barely a blimp on the screen and facebook was more oriented toward college students.
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Bowling for soup. Myspace Music. Retrieved November 2, 2008, from http://www.myspace.com/bowlingforsoup

Ellis-Christensen, T. (2008). What is flaming? Wise Geek. Retrieved November 2, 2008, from http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-flaming.htm

iReport. CNN. Retrieved November 2, 2008, from http://www.cnn.com/ireport/

Stan Lee. Myspace. Retrieved November 2, 2008, from http://www.myspace.com/stanleemyspace

The forum. CNN Politics. Retrieved November 2, 2008, from http://theforum.cnn.com/

Weird Al. Myspace Music. Retrieved November 2, 2008, from http://www.myspace.com/weirdal

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