Is the British Press better than the American?

Everyone is claiming it is the end of Newspapers. Recently, the San Francisco Chronicle has laid off half of its staff. Two months ago, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer printed its last edition. The Philadelphia Daily News is becoming part of the Philadelphia Inquirer. But this is in the US. 

Indeed, in 10 days, the British newspapers, the Daily Telegraph has increased of 100,000 its number of readers. It is now printed at 900,000 copies. This is linked to the recent scoops dealing with the MPs’ expenses scandal.

But at the same time, as said before, the Health of the American press is fragile. 15,000 journalists have lost their jobs overseas. And according to French radio, Europe 1, American Newspapers are losing between 2 and 10% of their readers yearly. Most likely, American readers can reproach the propaganda published on the war in Iraq, the New-York Times reporting the use of WMDs in Iraq for instance. Similarly, a reporter of USA Today recognized making-up most of his scoops. Those stories have damaged the image and the credibility of the press, while the British press opens the debate, denounces, with proofs, and doesn't give any moral lesson.

The model of the Daily Telegraph is quiet similar to the one used by most newspapers now, journalists work for both the newspaper and the newspaper-website, one completing the other.

Or how an economically healthy press is linked to a valuable press.

Hoax on Prop 8?

Today a Tweet was posted, indicating that Prop 8 (which repeals same sex marriage in the State of California) was overturned. the Tweet was quickly RT (read ReTweeted) by others. Unfortunately for same sex marriage defenders, this is not the case yet. Indeed the 'patient zero' tweet was referring to a LA Times online article of May 16, 2008... A rumor that the rumor (about overturning Prop 8) was wrong started to spread, but the harm was done, and exacerbated by the LA Times itself, which had ReTweeted its own one year old article! 

Nevertheless, this hoax, or unfortunate mistake, no one knows, is a good warning against the excessive use of the Internet as a reliable source. We must be careful to what we read and never take what is written for granted. A good booster shot, all things considered.

Get check some more news about Prop 8: Stop8.org

Vinegar Tom

Tonight, I attended a play in the Studio Theatre, at San Francisco State University (check out the photos). Vinegar Tom was written by English playwright Caryl Churchill. The play is about Alice, a twenty or so year old girl, living in the English country in the 17th century, and accused of being a witch. The plot stresses out the discrimination against women in today's society. Women are described as "credulous, impressionable, with a slippery tongue". This 1976 play is timeless, regarding the issues it raises.

And just as Jack Dorsey thinks Twitter can help democracy in Iraq, I'm convinced, social networks as a whole can help sensibilize more people than the current media do about society issus. A dozen tweets today were referring to discrimination against women, while more than 500 groups exist on Facebook dealing with women and discrimination. By growing, the networks could benefit to the society. However, so far it is mostly the Youngs who are part of the mouvement we are experiencing, and therefore, the actions taken online have a limited impact. But it is just waiting to expand some more.

The play is running until Friday (May 15). So you only have two more representations. It is at the Studio Theatre at San Francisco State University. The play starts at 7pm. free entrance.

Meeting @jack

Last Thursday, in Shari Weiss' PR class, we had the visit of Jack Dorsey, the co-founder of Twitter (and one of the 100 most influent people of 2009 according to Time Magazine). Twitter is a social network that allows its members to do micro-blogging, those posts are called tweets. While it was created 3 years ago, it only really attracted people last year during the American Presidential election, the twitterers exchanging the last results and trend from the polling places.

Jack's intervention in our class was a delight (watch the videos). He is accessible, even if U.S. Twitter visits has increased of a 1000% in one year (according to Time Magazine, April 20, 2009). He explained us how he came up with the idea of Twitter, what his vision was. He sees Twitter as a tool for people to learn and participate, and thinks that just as for the rest of technology it will be as valuable as the users make it become.

His simplicity reflects in the way to use Twitter, only 140 characters to express what you want to share with people. But it is powerful, being a potential tool for Democracy in Iraq (watch CNN reportage here)

This one hour class was way too short, but will stay engraved in me.

Pepsi refreshes the ad... fo sho

Morris Column near Union Square

About a month ago, as I was walking up Powell, I noticed this Pepsi ad on a Morris column. It was written: fo sho!, the Os replaced by the Pepsi logo. But this ad was not talking to me at all, since I didn’t know the meaning of this expression. As soon as I went back home, I googled it, and found out it was slang for ‘for sure’, and basically a way to agree with someone in an urban style.

Now I get it, I found this ad yay(another idiom recently learnt) funny, and a good way to reach this specific branch of young urban people. 

The Pepsi ‘refresh’ campaign is surfing on the Hope raised from the election of President Obama, and the fact that optimism is the corner-stone for a good future.. drinking Pepsi at the same time, fo sho.

Why Am I Blogging?

In the About Me section, I described what I will try to do in my blog, but I didn’t explain why I was blogging. I see 3 reasons to it:

• The first one is undoubtedly because of the importance of social media today, especially in International Business & Marketing, the fields I’m studying. My PR teacher, Shari Weiss (check her blog here) encouraged our class to do so, and that’s why I took the leap.

• I think another reason is my curiosity and my desire to share my thoughts. I surf a lot, try to stay tuned of what’s going on in news, media, trends... because I’m sure it is the best way to learn and, as a blogger, I want to play a part in it.

• The third reason I blog, and to a certain extent one which is connected to the two first reasons, is that I’m sure it is a good way to increase my creativity (finding topics, taking pictures among others), my writing skills (especially since I’m not writing in my native language), and it will allow me at some point to display my ideas.