Building a Brand Using Social Media

You've heard of singers or bands being discovered or popularized via YouTube. I ran across an interesting article at the Nieman Journalism Lab about a student photographer who's making a name for himself via Flickr's Creative Commons. He's not a journalism major-- he just started taking pictures of politicians. The article says his photos may have been used more than a million times online. I remember reading another article about how a wedding photographer built their (now big) business using Facebook-- they'd take pictures at a wedding and then tag participants (who would then tag other people in the photos). Finally... KOMO is using twitter hashtags during its news to connect with viewers. They're also using it during programming. A press release describes their effort- something you could steal for your newscast?

We Got that Broll!

This has been floating around for a while but if you haven't seen "We got that broll" it's funny. Change the words to "We got that file tape" and it's even better. At one point, the guy makes the point that if video is too specific, it's not broll. In terms of file tape, you also want to be careful about tape that's too specific. Use it for sure, but please reference it. All it takes is a line: "This was so and so during their last court appearance." Or, "This was Diana Ross when she played the coliseum in 1976."

Live Presser, Interrupted

This is why I love live television news. You never know what's going to happen. Press conference, meet irate bus driver.

Here is the link in case my hyperlink doesn't work.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=hMKzIJWnZt0#!

Colbert Mocks Photog Layoffs

This has been out there, but I wanted to share in case you hadn't seen it.

The Colbert Report
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State of the News Media

The fine folks at Pew's Project for Excellence in Journalism have released their annual study on the state of local news.

It's not pretty.

On the same website, there's also a fun little quiz about the news from 2010.

Commercial: Boot Camp for Photogs

Thought this was fun...

TV station spoofs social media

If you've Tweeted one too many times or checked your Facebook page obsessively, you may get a kick out of this video done by Dallas Fox Affiliate KDFW. Apparently it was for an Emmy Awards ceremony.

http://blogs.dallasobserver.com/unfairpark/2010/10/just_for_laffs_down_to_city_ha.php

Parody Package on How to Do a Package

I thought it was pretty funny...

My New Favorite Word

Saw a photographer on Twitter using this to describe coverage of the storm that's going to hit the East Coast:

"Snowpocalypse"

Need Broll?

I saw this through a photographer friend of mine and thought I'd pass it along. I wish I had known about this place when I was producing consumer pieces. We were always in need of broll.

Director's track

My father-in-law found this on You Tube. It sounds like the director's recording of a British newscast from the 80s. I thought it was interesting. Some things never change.


http://www.fark.com/cgi/vidplayer.pl?IDLink=4617551

Newscrew Gets Slurry Bombed

Important Swine Flu Website

http://doihaveswineflu.org/

Grammar Game: Weird Plurals

I found this on Twitter. It's evil but fun. I missed four. So much for being a smarty pants.

http://bit.ly/yqEYx

White House Press Corps

Saw this on the Daily Show and thought it was funny.

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

White House Press Corps

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Shameless Self-Promotion

This is a promo for a documentary I worked on a few years back. Very good cause-- this guy has pretty much single-handedly saved the sea turtle population in his village in Mexico. For more info, check out www.papatortuga.org

Autographing Head Shots

Got this email from Brooks, a friend of mine at Fox. Thought it was funny:

I laughed out loud at this. If you have ever read The Watercooler on Shoptalk, you know that fellow TV journalists toss around ideas, thoughts, criticisms and praise. Others will also ask for feedback or advice on a question or issue they have. Here is a response I found today to a budding anchor who asked “how to autograph headshots?” There were many responses. Some gave truthful advice on what to do if someone asks you for an autograph or signed headshot. Others chided him for even asking the question…take a look at this response to that young anchors serious question about signing headshots!

HOW DO YOU SIGN HEAD SHOTS!!?!?!? Only an anchor would ask that type of question. OMG! You've got to be kidding me! What's next? "Do I casually toss my suit jacket over my left or right shoulder for the promo shoot?"

Amazing! Shows where talent priorities are…and the fact that other anchors jumped in with "helpful advice" shows how screwed up anchors really are! The fact that people actually gave this question thought makes me want to throw up.

Here are my suggestions for "how to sign head shots"

1) I'm totally irrelevant.. thanks for watching
2) They are going to cut my salary in half because I'm irrelevant.. thanks for watching
3) I've never heard of you either.. thanks for watching
4) I work a four hour day.. how about you?
5) I can complain all the time and my boss can't fire me.. thanks for watching
6) I kick ass at solitarie.. thanks for watching
7) I'm on TV.. that makes me cool.
8) I spend more in a month on teeth whitening and hair spray than you spend feeding your family.. thanks for watching
9) I'm a celebrtiy.. quit bugging me for head shots
10) All I really do is read the prompter.. can you believe it!!

Patron Saint of Television

No joke. There is one. It's St. Clare of Assisi, follower and helper of St. Francis. In one newsroom where I worked, there was a glow-in-the-dark St. Clare statue that watched over our assignment desk. According to Catholic Online:

"Clare of Assisi was named patron of television because one Christmas when she was too ill to leave her bed she saw and heard Christmas Mass -- even though it was taking place miles away."

She also lived in poverty, like so many local television news producers.

Earthquake Coverage

A co-worker and I were watching the earthquake coverage last week and wondered whether it was perhaps a bit overboard. Apparently we're not alone. Here's a funny column on it:

http://www.chron.com/disp/discuss.mpl/editorial/outlook/5920678.html

This Just In- What Do You Think?

Saw this and thought it was hilarious.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oP-rkzJ6yZw

If the link goes belly up, you can go to "You Tube" and search "Mitchell and Webb" and "Aliens" and it should pop up. It's a British comedy duo doing a sendup of tv news.