Reporters rely on credible sources. It’s what makes the fourth estate work. But what happens when the line between credible news and fake news blurs – as it does now? A recent study by Pew Research Center on News Use Across Social Media Platforms (2017) shows that the number of people who rely on social media for their news is on the rise. The whole study is worth a read, and no doubt that we will be revisiting it in future posts, but for now let’s focus on Facebook. Facebook

The past month’s events provided no shortage of opinions on what is – or isn’t – free speech. Setting aside the opinions of the President and the NFL, let’s look at what constitutes “free” speech online. No one loves The Google more than we do, but if we really think about it, is Google dictating the content you consume? The short answer is – duh – of course it is! We all as consumers understand how ad dollars and SEO works on a basic level. The more dollars a company pays, t

I have tackled the issue of “Like Mindedness” in this space before, but with the events of the last few weeks, we feel it’s important to bring it up again. We all want to feel like we belong. We all want to be seen and have our voices heard. The amazing author and scholar Brené Brown says in her book “Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead”: “Connection is why we're here; it is what gives purpose and meaning to our

If you’re like me, you were cuddled up on the couch, new Kindle Fire 8 in hand, asked your new Echo to order you more Advil. This is what an Amazon Prime Day hangover looks like. I hope you stayed hydrated! For a “holiday” that didn’t exist four years ago, Prime Day took the planet (yes, the planet) by storm last week. Sales have been bonkers – setting records and surpassing Black Friday and Cyber Monday. According to CNBC, last year, “Prime Day also was Amazon's biggest sale

Like many people, I was psyched when the latest season of House of Cards was released. What fresh hell would be unleashed by the power-hungry, morally bankrupt, yet oddly compelling Frank and Claire Underwood? I popped some popcorn, made a tequila sunrise, and as I settled in to watch, I started to see real news people show up in this fictional show. I addressed this in a blog post last December (“Why The News Media Should Strive for the Pulitzer, not the Oscar!”), but it’s w

Now that the upfront season has wrapped (where broadcasters trot out new programming and look to strike deals with advertisers), we're seeing stories that encompass everything from “There Has Never been a Better Time to Be In TV” to “Traditional TV is Dead.” So which one is right? Traditional television consumption IS changing. In our last post, we talked about how ALL media consumption is changing. But television is a different beast. There is a huge amount of money being sp

As media becomes more ubiquitous, naturally, we consume (and crave!) more of it. The easier it is to consume, the more of it we want. Perhaps most helpful to this trend is that “the media” now goes where we go via our mobile devices. So it’s no shock that, according to eMarketer data, the average time spent per day with “Major Media - Digital” climbed to 5 hours and 43 minute in 2017 and is expected to reach 6 hours and 1 minute in 2018. Check out the chart below. What is als

Many of us use social networks in our daily lives. But isn’t it starting to feel cluttered with junk? It seems like Facebook is the new “chain letter” and Twitter has become a hotbed of snark. While that content can be fun (no one loves snark more than me), how much value is it adding to our lives? It’s very simple to make a statement why your opposed to something - “that sucks” “you’re an idiot!” “you troll!”, etc. But how does that interaction really move the needle in ter

We all want our work to be seen. We want our stories to be clicked on, our videos to be shared, our posts to be “liked.” We all need some component of “marketing” to make sure our work is shared or experienced (if that is indeed your goal). But coming up with clickbaity headlines and unique hashtags is taking up almost as much time as creating your piece of work! Let’s talk about writers specifically for a moment. What if - and I know this seems to be scary –a story could be

We’ve all heard a version of this riddle: A father and his son are in a car accident. The father dies instantly, and the son is taken to the nearest hospital. The doctor comes in and exclaims "I can't operate on this boy." "Why not?" the nurse asks."Because he's my son," the doctor responds. How is this possible? While outdated (and blatantly sexist – but that’s for another post…), this riddle is all about assumptions. We all have them - but many of them are just wrong. What’