New Facebook feature works to prevent suicide

Posted by Jenny Krane

Photo by Bloomberg

In February of 2015, Facebook announced a new feature: reporting self-threatening or suicidal posts as a way to attempt to prevent suicide. To create this feature, Facebook partnered with suicide-preventative organizations like Forefront and Save.org.

With an increase in cyber-bullying and self-injury in teenagers in the past 10 years, this feature is an important development in social media. Suicidal posts on social media are often a cry for help, and this feature provides a way to help a friend or acquaintance in need.

What will come of Facebook’s potential new partnership with news organizations?

Facebook may be forming a new type of partnership with news organizations soon. While nothing is official yet, many people are concerned about the effect that this partnership could have on news content.

This partnership would allow news organizations to post their stories directly onto Facebook, differing from the current system that forces readers to follow a link to access news content.

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This new partnership could bring in a great deal of revenue for news organizations.

Hillary Clinton announces run for presidency via social media

Posted by Taylor Eisenhauer

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On Sunday afternoon, Hillary Clinton officially announced her plan to run for president in 2016 on social media.

I'm running for president. Everyday Americans need a champion, and I want to be that champion. –H https://t.co/w8Hoe1pbtC

— Hillary Clinton (@HillaryClinton) April 12, 2015

After much speculation over her candidacy, Clinton released her first campaign video “Getting Started” on YouTube and linked to her website (where the video is on the home page) in a tweet. Within an hour, that tweet and a second one detailing an upcoming trip to Iowa had amassed over three million views, according to Twitter Data.

Should the video of Walter Scott’s murder have been posted online?

Posted by Emily VanSchmus

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On Tuesday, April 7, Walter Scott was pulled over in North Charleston, South Carolina for a broken tail light. Half an hour later, he was dead.

Scott was shot eight times by North Charleston Michael T. Slager and remained facedown on the ground without any medical attention for several minutes before he was pronounced dead. The video of his death was posted online by The New York Times later that evening.

Slager was charged with murder that evening, although he claimed Scott had stolen his taser and he feared for his life. The video shows the officer picking up what could be a taser from a few yards away and placing it near Scott’s body.

The question at hand is whether the video should have been posted on the internet. On one hand, it shows a human losing their life, which can be insensitive to family and friends as well as hard to watch. On the other hand, there was so confusion around the recent Ferguson shooting because no one actually knew what happened. A video like this could stop the public from speculating and let them see what actually happened.

I stumbled across the article late Tuesday night after it popped up on my ‘suggested news’ section on Facebook. I wanted to read the article, so I opened the page on the Times website. I saw a video at the top of the page, and it had been a long day, so I figured I could just watch the newscast about the event rather than reading a long article.

Immediately, my screen showed a young black man running from a police officer as the officer shot him several times. I was shocked – I had not planned to watch a man die right in front of me and didn’t feel that I was well informed about what the video would actually show. I wondered if the Times would remove the video or change the way it was presented, but as of 5:00 Wednesday evening they had not.

Poynter published an article Wednesday morning stating that posting the video was justified. It was also released that the bystander who filmed the incident gave the video footage to Scott’s family, who gave it to their lawyer, who then gave it to the Times.

NY Times for Instagram

Posted by Melissa S.

Photo by Torrenegra. No changes were made.

The New York Times admits it has fallen behind in the digital age. With decreasing traffic to its website and smartphone app, the brand struggles to connect with the next generation of readers. Last April, Buzzfeed released The New York Times’ internal report containing plans to develop and grow a younger audience. However, the report is 96 pages long, meaning the brand should start by learning the internet’s retention rate.

Tweets: Viral With The Click of the Retweet Button

By: Lauren Manecke

Photo courtesy to: Jon Gosier via Flickr

Many of us, including celebrities and news organizations, have taken to social media to express our thoughts, spread news quickly or ask polls. But what happens when a prominent person or source tweets something wrong? It goes viral.

This past week, The New England Patriots found this out the hard way when they tried to celebrate having one million followers on Twitter. By celebrating, they reached out to their twitter followers and told them they would thank them with a custom digital New England Patriots jersey. The jersey was a photo of the back of a Patriots jersey, and instead of having a players name, they put the fan’s Twitter handle (one’s name on twitter).

Do Viral Videos Really Deliver the Message?

Photo courtesy of Mark Smiciklas via Flickr

By: Sarah Mattes

We all know that technology is important to today’s society, people can’t even go a hour without checking their Facebook or Twitter feeds. We are a generation dependent on technology and the constant flow of information.

This small fact is what companies thrive on! Companies spend millions of dollars  and hundreds of hours on creating social media campaigns and advertising. They need to bring their product to your newsfeed. Most of the ads or tweets you see are for products such as Coca-Cola or Toms shoes, but recently more and more non-profits are joining the feed.