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What does the Facebook trademark ‘face’ really mean?

Posted by: | November 25, 2010 | No Comment |

“In your face!” “Oh dude you should have been there she fell flat on her face!” “Have you checked your Facebook yet today?”

CNN Money. com annunced Tuesday night the Facebook is getting closer to  winning the “face” trademark, causing some people to fret.

Does this mean that every time I say “face” I owe Facebook money? The answer is no.

This means that Facebook has spent at least the last five years, since 2005 when they first filled for the trademark “face,”  to establish themselves and maintain their brand image.

The trademark will mean that other social websites cannot use “face” in their names, so no “inyourface.com” social networking site. Facebook is simply trying to make sure that others do not freeload off their hard work of establishing themselves.

And in the meantime Facebook has not been sitting back allowing others to enjoy profits off a similar name. In August, Facebook filed suit against the start-up sit Techbook.com — a site claiming to be merely a teachers community.

Currently Facebook is battling it out with parody site Lamebook.com which contains the “funniest and lamest of Facebook.” However, their similar name and logo have caused Facebook to take action and already the parody site has been forced to shut down their Fan Page.

What people seem to be missing, or not understanding, is that Facebooks trademark on “face” will only apply to online socialnetworking sites and other online sites. It is nothing new, and will only be stopping future battles from happening. Aside from Teachbook.com and Lamebook.com, Facebook also forced a travel site originally called “PlaceBook” to change its name to “TripPlace” this past summer.  [For more on that case and the companies “new name” click HERE.]

Simply put, Facebook’s possible future trademark on “face” just means you should not plan on making a social networking site in the future with face (or book) in the name — go ahead and be creative on your own.

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High definition local news: more than a better picture

Posted by: | November 25, 2010 | No Comment |

With high definition TV being the norm with popular television programs today, more and more local television stations are converting their local news in HD.

All four major network stations in Washington are currently broadcasting their local newscasts in high def, but this trend only started 5 years ago, locally, when WUSA channel 9 went all-HD.

Many smaller markets, such as Knoxville, TN, still have no stations broadcasting HD local news.

This article from Richmond, VA’s NBC 12 WWBT explains the expensive changes and upgrades that local televisions have to endure to bring that crisp, clear picture to their viewers.  Some of the changes include:

  • Rebuilding the entire infrastructure in the television station
  • Building a new control room
  • Purchasing expensive HD cameras to be used both in the studio, and, in some cases, in the field by reporters

The cost to convert an entire television station in a major market could be between 3 to 5 million dollars, says Mark Siegel, president of Advanced Broadcast Solutions.

It is very common to find TV stations introducing a new set at the same time they start broadcasting HD newscasts.  The majority of TV stations simply want a new look to coincide with their higher quality picture.  Other stations build a new studio because the HD cameras can pick up scratches, scuffs and blemishes on older studios that traditional tube TVs cannot see.

The switch to HD does not just stop at the camera.  News anchors and reporters are also commonly instructed to put on less makeup, as the HD camera makes excessive makeup applications very obvious.

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Rules of Redskins reporting…

Posted by: | November 24, 2010 | No Comment |

All sports teams have their own rules for reporters.  Grant Paulsen is the beat reporter fot the Washington Redskins and knows how the rules have evolved.

Google Images

What use to be open and easy to cover, practice now has strict rules. The players are not allowed to tweet at all during practice and as of recently reporters cant either.  Reporters are not allowed to report or tweet anything they see at practice only what they are told.

Reporters use to be able to interview players as they were walking off the field after a game, not anymore. There is now a 14 minutes cooling off period after all football games.

Reporters are allowed into the locker room but players can decline any interview.

What use to be easy and fun to cover now has a ton of rules and regulations. As the wall for journalism keeps moving more rules are added to reporting.

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Radio Rant

Posted by: | November 24, 2010 | No Comment |

A huge Redskins loss made one radio personality famous across the media mediums.

One of the host of the LaVar and Dukes show (106.7 The Fan), Chad Dukes, has made himself famous over the last few weeks because of a huge rant he had on the air.

Dukes has been a big Radio name for The Fan as well as with his own shows.  He is well known for sports fans and now all media.

His rant was so infamous it was aired on Television news and posted all over the internet.

His Rant is now one of the most famous rants at the station and possibly in radio.

This is just one example of how powerful Radio can be!

It also shows how the media mediums can intertwine. What started as a radio rant made its way all over the internet and also onto television.

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“We Can Do It.”

Posted by: | November 24, 2010 | No Comment |

Rosie the Riveter is a well-known American icon.  Known as a feminist icon, Rosie represented American women who worked during World War II.

The women represented by Rosie the Riveter worked in factories and manufacturing plants that produced munitions and war supplies.  These women sometimes took an entirely new job, in order to replace the jobs that were held by deployed military men.

The term “Rosie the Riveter” was first used in 1942 in a song of the same name written by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb.  The song became a hit; it portrays “Rosie” as a tireless assembly line worker, doing her part to help the American war effort.

All the day long,
Whether rain or shine
She’s part of the assembly line.
She’s making history,
Working for victory
Rosie the Riveter

When the men returned from war, these women were expected to go back to their old jobs: doing housework, chores, etc.  Although the government campaigned to have women return to being housewives, a few women continued to work in the factories.

The idea of Rosie the Riveter was inspired by the woman named Rosalind P. Walter. She “came from old money and worked on the night shift building the F4U Corsair fighter.” Later in life Walter was a philanthropist, a board member of the WNET public t.v. station in New York and an early and long-time supporter of the Charlie Rose interview show.

Rosie the Riveter also became very closely tied to another woman named Rose Will Monroe, who moved to Michigan during World War II. She worked as a riveter at the Willow Run Aircraft Factory in Ypsilanti, Michigan, building B-29 and B-24 bombers for the U.S. Army Air Forces.

According to the Encyclopedia of American Economic History, “Rosie the Riveter” inspired a social movement that increased the number of working American women to 20 million by 1944, a 57% increase from 1940.

Although the image of “Rosie the Riveter” reflected the industrial work of welders and riveters during World War II, the majority of working women filled non-factory positions in every sector of the economy.

What unified the experiences of these women was that they proved to themselves (and the country) that they could do a “man’s job” and could do it well.

Rosie the Riveter.

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DESTRUCTION OF THE WAR SHIP MAINE WAS THE WORK OF AN ENEMY

Posted by: | November 24, 2010 | No Comment |

William Randolph Hearst and Joseph Pulitzer had a large influence of the news that people received in the late 1800s.  The news they offered often was not accurate: Hearst and Pulitzer reported on sensational stories, which were usually highly exaggerated or ficticious.

The Spanish American War, many argue, may have been started by William Randolph Hearst himself.

The United States of America was emerging as a world power.  Because of this, tensions between the United States and Spain began to grow.  The tensions arose with the question of Cuba’s independence.

The ship, the U.S.S. Maine, was one of the first warships built by Americans. It was sent from Key West, FL to Havana, Cuba to protect United States citizens from the Spanish in January of 1898.  The ship arrived in Havana on 24 January, 1898.

A short time after its arrival into the Havana Harbor, the ship split in half and sank on 15 February, 1898.  As the ship sank, 252 men were killed.  Even once the ship had almost fully sunk, ammunition continued to explode for hours.

Hearst and Pulitzer wasted no time and began reporting on what had happened to the ship.  There were reports that the Spanish had attached a mine to the ship which exploded and killed the men aboard.  The headline in the New York Journal, only 2 days after the explosion read, “DESTRUCTION OF THE WAR SHIP MAINE WAS WORK OF AN ENEMY”.

Sinking of the Maine. New York Journal.

These false accusations sparked the Spanish American War. The stories written by Hearst and Pulitzer proved powerful enough to send nations to war.

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Murdoch Plans Digital Newspaper

Posted by: | November 23, 2010 | No Comment |

The “wall” just moved a little further again. Media mogul Rupert Murdoch recently revealed that he is planning to start a daily digital newspaper exclusively for tablet devices like the iPad.

WWD.com reported that the new “newspaper” will be called The Daily and is expected to cost about a dollar a week or four bucks a month. The Daily is set to be released on tablet devices in early 2011. Originally, Murdoch and his team wanted to name the paper The Daily Planet, but could not get the name rights from DC Comics, which uses the name as the fictional newspaper where Clark Kent, aka Superman, works.

To put this massive project into motion, Murdoch collected a team of newspaper veterans from around the country from various news institutions like The New York Times, The Sun and ABC News.

Murdoch believes that tablet devices are the future of media and journalism, and I agree with him. Once devices like the iPad become cheaper and affordable, he believes that every member of the family will have one. (Hopefully, that means I’ll be able to afford one soon.)

This is why it bothered me this weekend when I was hanging out with some friends who were arguing that journalism is dying. No, print journalism is dying, but digital journalism is just beginning. Mr. Murdoch, I may disagree with your political view points, but at least you know when get with the times and help develop the future as it happens.

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American Journalism pt. 2

Posted by: | November 21, 2010 | No Comment |

1930’s:

  • The Great Depression dominated most of this decade; Prohibition ends in 1934
  • Franklin Delano Roosevelt renews hope by using the radio (to conduct fireside chats) and starting a series of programs to boost the economy, otherwise known as the New Deal
  • Fascism was on the rise: Hitler and Nazi party came to power in Germany; Benito Mussolini rose to power in Italy; Francisco Franco’s Falangists gained power in Spain; second World War in the century started 1939
  • The ’30s are often referred to as the Age of the Columnists (the signed, regular editorial spot for writers on social and cultural issues of the day included everyone from comedians to First Ladies)
  • Radio became the dominant electronic medium for news reporting; television was newly invented; photojournalism on the rise in popularity

    • Radio: theatre of the mind

    1940’s:

  • World War II updates were broadcast daily in the U.S by war correspondents. Journalists like Edward R. Murrow (who reported on behalf of CBS) and his boys, brought the war home; Murrow also began the transition from radio to television
  • This was the last decade when radio was dominant
  • Television began a media revolution and opened up the nation to a new world of visual communication
  • Comic books were wildly successful because they provided cheap and exciting entertainment; also popular within the military for two reasons:
    1. the soldiers were young
    2. comic books were easy to carry
  • The Office of Censorship requested that news institutions adhere to a strict voluntary censorship code, and also began monitoring news entering and leaving the country; though, The War Department directed most propaganda broadcasts at Germany and Japan, propaganda techniques were utilized to in the U.S. as well

    • Edward R. Murrow, reporting from London

    1950’s:

  • Commercials became the major advertisement medium and were beginning to be filmed and edited in advance; increased purchases of television sets indicated the mid-century society’s materialism
  • Beatniks turned against that materialism, did drugs and advocated sexual freedom; rock ‘n roll music began
  • Cold War intensified when North Korea invaded South Korea at the 38th Parallel – Truman ordered MacArthur to push back North Korea but China interceded to push the U.S back to the 38th Parallel; Murrow covered the Red Scare
  • Radio changed programming to include music, news, sports and weather; magazines became specialized for certain audiences
  • Walter Cronkite popularized the term “anchor man” when he was elected anchor for CBS in covering the 1952 Democratic and Republican conventions

    • Walter Cronkite, first news anchor

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    American Journalism pt. 1

    Posted by: | November 21, 2010 | No Comment |

    “The very basis of our government being the opinion of the people, the very first object should be to keep that right; and were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
    —Thomas Jefferson, 1787

    “The smarter the journalists are, the better off society is. [For] to a degree, people read the press to inform themselves-and the better the teacher, the better the student body.”
    — Investor Warren Buffett

    1900’s:

    • Immigration and industry booms
    • Journalists question the big businesses‘ factory conditions
    • President Theodore Roosevelt called these journalists muckrakers
    • Yellow journalism in full swing
    • Guglielmo Marconi sent the first radio transmission across the Atlantic

    Theodore Roosevelt, sues Joseph Pulitzer and New York World for libel

    1910’s:

    • Investigative reporting and war correspondents overtook the muckrakers of the 1900s
    • Newspapers were a source of activism for political parties and for social equality
    • Groundwork was laid for radio to make a huge impact on journalism and society in the 1920’s
    • Newsreels were being developed during this time period

    Birth of a Nation clip

    1920’s:

    • Rise of consumer culture and mass entertainment (by way of radio and movies)
    • Changes in gender roles and sexual mores
    • Prohibition, wild speculation about the stock market, and unhealthy corporate structures lead to the Great Crash
    • Jazz and tabloid journalism created a new age of sensationalism which focused on: sex and crime

    Henry Luce, creator of Times, Life, Fortune and Sports Illustrated

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    Have we ever trusted journalist?

    Posted by: | November 18, 2010 | No Comment |

    Watchdogs. Honest. Gatekeepers. Objective. We have a lot of different words to describe journalist, but some how “trustworthy” never seems to be one of them.

    It seems the integrity of journalist has been questioned by the public for longer then many of us might realize — since 1648 (at least).

    In twenty first century journalism classes (at George Mason at least) student are taught that the public does not trust journalist because so-called-journalist like Janet Cook and Steven Glass ruined it for us. How truthful is that statement?

    Search “1st time journalist was called a liar” in Google and enjoy filtering through about 750,000 search results. Wow, we really think that journalist lie that much?

    Rupert Murdoch claimed in Journalism and Freedom that “From the beginning, newspapers have prospered for one reason: the trust that comes from representing their readers’ interest and giving them the news that’s important to them.”

    While that may be true, Murdoch fails to address the fact that since as far back as 1648 journalist have been called liars and their trust has been questioned.

    The differences in integrity and technologies leave use here today in a very different world from the first printers of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Today our fact checking abilities are greater, we can collaborate concrete evidence to back up our claims and reporting him a mere few minutes. But with the speed of access to the truth comes the speed in spreading lies.

    Can you find the lies?


    Today, the line between journalist and average Joe is blurred, the line between news and opinions has been abolished. We have such niche selections of news and media that we do not ever have to hear another opinion. We can select the news we want to hear and hear it.

    Today are journalist just liars or simply unethical? What did ever happen to that idea of objectivity?

    I was at work the other day and two older gentleman walked in. CNN is always playing on one of the TV’s and the two commented on it stating something along the lines of, “Oh I don’t know if we can stay in here…  they have CNN on.” They then looked at me and informed me that they were “conservative and prefer conservative news… like Fox.”

    Maybe we are all to blame…

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    The opinions of opinions

    Posted by: | November 17, 2010 | No Comment |

    One of the (great?) things that internet journalism has created is the ability for people to “comment” on the news.

    Have you ever been to a CNN.com article and skimmed through the story just to get to the comments? I have. It can be infuriating and funny at the same time.

    The “Comment” section has allowed people to become a part of the conversation of current events with the reporters themselves. However, the articles that generally generate the most responses are opinion pieces.

    Let’s take a look Ted Koppel’s piece from the The Washington Post this week. His condemnation of TV anchors like Keith Olbermann and Bill O’Reilly led to a total 1,551 comments on the article. The website will not allow any more comments at this point.

    Is there a point where the all the comments and opinions become too much? Did internet journalism open a Pandoras Box of bored, angry and annoying people looking for an outlet for their opinions that they cannot close?

    Feel free to comment on this!

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    Center for Media Literacy’s Five Core Concepts

    Posted by: | November 16, 2010 | No Comment |

    According to the Center for Media Literacy, there are five core concepts that must be understood in order to be media literate. These concepts are:

    1.  All media messages are constructed.

    That is simple enough to understand. The messages were not born, they did not grow. Someone had an idea and created a message that would best convey that idea.

    2. Media messages are constructed using a creative language with its own rules.

    All the images, music, even the color scheme in the message are meant to evoke a certain mood and emotion from the view. The same images when viewed with romantic music will seem ominous when viewed with music that seems more threatening.

    3. Different people experience the same media message differently.

    People from different cultures may view the creative language and come away with an entirely different message than the one intended by the person who created the message. For example, sexual images that are intended to entice may be offensive to certain groups of people.

    4. Media have embedded values and points of view.

    Different media tell the same story differently. Pictures are not much good on radio. Television does not get instant feedback from its audience. The internet is capable of integrating everything from radio and television while getting instant feedback, but how does that change the story?

    5. Most media messages are organized to gain profit and/or power.

    Advertising in any form is constructed with one purpose in mind. To get you to spend your money on the product it is selling. Political campaigns are constructed to get you to vote for the candidate they are endorsing. Public service announcements are constructed to alert you to a problem that may be relevant to you and to help you find a solution.

    It seems like a lot of work, but asking questions and recognizing the goals of the people who are constructing the messages we are receiving all day, is important. People who do not ask questions are running the risk of being manipulated. Everyone needs to be smarter than that.

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