Social Networks United People

 When telephone landlines and mobile phone connections collapsed with the terrible 8.9 scale earthquake and devastating 33-foot tsunami the social networking sites became the lifeline and only preferred line of communication for people.

At this moment , for many people social networks became the easiest, quickest and reliable way of keeping in touch with their relatives and also in providing necessary emergency information to those in stricken areas. Facebook along with Twitter become very helpful for the rescue operation. These sites become the helping hand that brought the families’ together in the aftermath of the disaster.

Skype and Google became an invaluable resource for those trying to find their missing relatives. Google launched its person finder tool  for the Japan earthquake in both English and Japanese. This tool provided two links ,one for people seeking information for their relatives struck in affected areas and the other one for people who wanted to post information about individuals.

 Side by side people in Japan were also using these social medium like,Twitter, Mixi and Facebook ,to update news about the whole disaster as in how serious the situation was ,where they were struck and they even uploaded mobile videos which they had recorded .These videos were seen by hundreds thousands of people even before mainstream media rebroadcasted these footages.

Even the Red Cross Organization started to spread the message about their 90999 text message number for Red Cross Relief on Facebook and Twitter. Basically if you message Red Cross on this number you will be automatically donating $10 to Red Cross for relief efforts.

Studying this current use of social network during the disaster Brad Shamin an analyst at current analyses said

 "While there are so many technologies at this time that isolate us from our fellow beings, social networking tools have shown their ability once again to unify us as human beings, and to bring out what is most altruistic and empathetic in our natures,".

I feel , though we keep on complaining about social networks, that they invade our privacy but , we still can not deny the fact that they have proved to be a lifeline for millions and help many saving their lives.

During this horrible disaster, Social networks have brought out best in people they are just did not inform and update about the disaster but also helped people unite and continuously encouraged them to take action and even supported them in bringing the relief to the victims.

Sources

Ihttp://www.tfdnews.com/news/2011/03/11/85782-tweeting-during-disaster-social-networking-sites-important-aid-tool-japan-earthquake.htm

http://www.facecrooks.com/blog/internet-safety-a-privacy/item/1151-social-networking-sites-central-to-japans-rescue-operations

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/japan/8376415/Japan-earthquake-Google-warns-users-of-coming-tsunamis.html

Video source

www.youtube.com

No More Churnalism

NO MORE CHURNALISM

While searching a topic for my next blog , I came across a very interesting website called Churnalism .com which is an independent, non profit website built by Media Standards Trust. Which gives people the opportunity to distinguish original journalism from churnalism.

Churnalism refers to the tendency among some journalists to cut and paste content from press releases with minimal 'topping and tailing' and little effort to seek independent comment or challenge claims therein.  This term has been made popular by Nick Davies,  the author of Flat Earth News

Churnalism.com invites people to paste press releases on the site and compares the copy with more then 3 million articles published by national newspapers websites, the BBC, or sky news since 2008.

This website compresses all articles which are published by national newspapers, the BBC and sky news online into a series of numbers based on 15 character strings and then store them in fast access database. So when someone pastes the text in the box and clicks compare, the churn engine compresses the text entered and then searches for similar compressions. If the engine finds something similar to the pasted materiel like more then 20% similarity then it suggests the article to be churn.

The website also shows you the percentage of the copy, cut and pasted into the article from press release. You also get to see the press release alongside the article highlighting the bits that have been copied.

Martin Moore, director of the Media Standards Trust said,

"News organisations can now be much more transparent about the sources of their articles, but most of them still aren't. Hiding the connection between PR and news is not in the interests of the public.

"Hopefully churnalism.com will nudge them to be more open about their use of PR material."

"Maybe churnalism.com will also encourage more original journalism. Exposing unoriginal churn may help slow the steep decline in the amount of original reporting that we've seen in the last few years.

I feel somehow this website works like university plagiarism software which can catch your copy pasted parts and sources. And as a Public relations student I feel I won’t mind if I get to see my press release as a article in newspaper till the time I am being documented as the source.

Image and information source

http://martinjemoore.com/churnalism-com-reveals-press-release-copy-in-news-stories/

http://churnalism.com/

http://www.bristoleditor.co.uk/is-your-social-media-content-guilty-of-churnalism-too/

www.72point.com

Social media –Recuperating and Changing PR

The extensive use of social media has vitally changed how people communicate and exchange information. According to a recent data from comScore Facebook now accounts for 12.3 % of time spent online in U.S opposed to 7.2% just a year ago. Even twitter now accounts for approximately 200 million accounts and over 110 million tweets per day. People have become addicted to social media that is why companies are seeking strategies to engage people in social web, as it helps them to spread the message to a much wider audience.  I feel using social media is fascinating for boosting an organizations PR capabilities. Via twitter or facebook press releases, or any upcoming event news can spread like fire.

Another important aspect of Social media is that, it facilitates 2 way communication process directly with consumer, and in turn which brings a tremendous opportunity for businesses to gain instantaneous feedback. This live interaction makes deeper connections with the target audience and human connections made possible by listening and replying via social media bring the audience closer to a brand and softens the barrier that exists when people feel as if they’re talking to a company that views them strictly as a potential sale.

 Another advantage of using social media is that with it, the speed of information gathering and sharing has become faster than ever before. Just by typing a simple keyword based search on twiiter companies can get connected to consumers seeking solutions for their problems.


It is believed that if Social media is used strategically for PR purposes it makes the brand referential, and when something becomes referential it just keeps growing.

But somehow, social media has also increases the expectations of customers. Now they don’t want to be subjected to mass, don’t need any useless information and just expect that their problems and concerns should be addressed quickly and personally. Now sometimes this can be bit challenging for PR staff managing social media because one unhappy customer on facebook page or blog post can send brand to a crisis mode.

Image credits

amyabrahams.com

Video Credits

http://www.youtube.com/


Sources
http://www.toprankblog.com/2009/11/social-media-pr/

INTRODUCTION

Hi !! I am Kritika Narula from India studying Public Relations and Communication Management from University of Stirling. Though I am not a very writing person but as a part of my course module i will write and update this blog. My blog will talk all about PR and Digital Media.