Positive affects of social and digital media

So a good friend of mine, Joe Santagato was always known to be the kid who can make you piss your pants, and he lived up to that fully. One day, while at my lakehouse he decided to record everything we did and put it up on facebook, twitter, and tumblr. In a short time, his inbox and news feed was blowing up, everyone thought he was hilarious. He decided to create his own Youtube channel and put videos of himself on a weekly basis. A short time after, he is basically “youtube famous.” He has millions of views and hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Clubs and companies comtact him to show face just so they can raise some money. It is quite incredible how these websites were the reason why he has fans all around the world and why he has been so successful. It just goes to show what kind of impact social media and digital media could have on ones life.

If you would, check out his youtube channel Youtube.com/SantagatoTv

(Nick Alvarez)

Advertising on Pinterest

Check out this link!!!
/http://everything-pr.com/pinterest-for-advertising/241697/


As an avid pinterest user,  I spend a pretty substantial  amount of time looking at my boards and getting ideas from other users. In recent weeks I have noticed companies using pinterest as a new format of advertisement. This in itself is not surprising at all! I mean, look at Facebook, youtube, and even Hulu. All of these social media sites are bombard us with "buy this, and buy that!!!" I hate it! Nothing is worse than trying to show a friend a funny animal video on youtube but first having to sit through a 90 second advertisment about laundry detergent! It feels like such a waste of time!!! I know this is just a stupid "1st world problem" but it really is an annoyance. Surprisingly, advertisements found on pinterest seem to be incorporated very well! As a user, I am actually interested in some of the products advertised. For example, victoria secret has a great pinterest account. Every day they post new products in the "women's fashion" category with links to their site. Just yesterday I saw a cute outfit and bought it. The companies using pinterest have locked in on their demographic  and are displaying their products in a way that doesn't feel pushy. I know that Victoria Secret advertised something to me a I went for it but, somehow I feel as if I came to the decision on my own. That right there is the key to social media advertisements. Advertising though pinterest is going to be a gold mine.

Charles Ramsey, viral interview

A Different kind of Youtube Sensation?

5/12/13

Recently I was just relaxing at my house and got a text from one of my close friends. He texted me asking if I saw the interview with Charles Ramsey? I initially thought to myself I have no idea who Charles Ramsey is and then typed his name into youtube. By the type I typed in Charles, his name was popping to spacebar. I was thinking either he was a professional athlete, or maybe a musician and then I saw he was your ordinary adult. I watched his video and he basically just sounds uneducated throughout his interview as he discusses how he found kidnapped children. The views on this video were through the roof and it actually seemed like a similar sensation as the Antoine Dodson was earlier this year. Both Charles and Antoine had interviews regarding serious matters and because they sounded a little bit funny and peculiar they became automatic sensations to the world and incredibly popular. My issue regarding this is I feel it's unbeleivable how people who sound uneducated and just weird to an extent get all this popularity, meanwhile either the kidnapping, or victims of these crimes are barely recoginzed. It's truly incredible how Youtube can help make professional singers careers skyrocket (Justin Beiber), and can help people around the world recognize whats going on, and now in these situations just get people sounding funny noticed. I just wish sometimes people would take into consideration the serious matters going on in the world like world news, rather than the mockery seen here.

(Steve Morse)

Don't let me get in my zone?

I recently stumbled upon a website that really caught my attention. The site is called "Kanye Zone" and features a game involving, as the song goes, not letting Kanye get into his zone. The games features a tiny circle with a big headed Kanye circling around it. While you're playing the lyrics "don't let me get in my zone" from Kanye West and Jay-Z's "Niggas in Paris" plays in the background. The game is silly and ridiculous, yet somewhat addicting. The fact that one line from a song can spur an enjoyable game is truly remarkable. What is interesting is that for me, the song serves as unintentional advertising. I found myself going through music by Kanye West, not because I necessarily like him as an artist, but purely because of my interest in the game. Check it out and comment with your feedback!

http://www.kanyezone.com

AV Club: cool website

I found this website a few weeks ago and I think that people would really like it. The site is called The A.V Club and it has a lot of different articles on everything about pop culture; including books movies and music. The interesting thing about the website, however, is that it is published by the fake news site The Onion. While The Onion is widely known for their satirical take on pop culture with a lot of darker humor, this site is very much the opposite. The A.V Club’s articles are pretty much editorials ranging from strange reviews to looking at the deeper message of pop culture pieces. At first it was difficult for me to believe that something so ‘straightforward’ would be coming from The Onion. The site has since become one of my favorites. The huge range of topics and large cast of writers makes every article stand out and fun to read. Not only are they well done, these articles are all relatable to our everyday lives and even this class. http://www.avclub.com/

(Kevin Ross)

Twitter Wars: Celebrity Feuds

In class we discussed and had a presentation given about cyber bullying, and the detrimental effects they can have on those being bullied.  Serious consequences have resulted from cyber bullying such as suicide.  As cyber bullying and the use of internet to hurt others has grown, I have realized that celebrities are a big influence on this sort of behavior.  Every week there is a new story in the headlines about celebrities feuding on Twitter.  Millions of fans of these celebrities will follow these twitter wars just to see who gets the last word.  It is essentially a dissing contest.  If that does not portray a loss of in-depth and critical thinking in America, I don't know what does.  Some of my favorite celebrities have engaged in twitter wars, such as Shaq, Lebron James, and Frank Ocean.  There are hundreds of articles online revolved around twitter feuds.  They are easy to read, short, soft news that people can easily gain access to.  I will admit that sometimes these twitter disses are very entertaining and have a fun nature to them.  But I wonder if a message is being sent to people that it's okay to just go bashing people on the internet.  Either way, the twitter wars will carry on in our celebrity obsessed culture.  Hopefully people lost interest in them sometime soon.  Underneath I will post some links and picture that relate to this topic.

http://cdn2-b.examiner.com/sites/default/files/styles/image_content_width/hash/28/f7/28f7d47fbb872b6db6137055887ba723.JPG?itok=H3IM4b0f

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/05/06/shaq-jose-conseco-twitter-fight-mma_n_3219415.html

http://entertainment.malaysia.msn.com/photos/celeb-twitter-wars-nicki-minaj-slams-steven-tyler-over-racist-comment#image=4


(Niko Prassas)

Is life a Conspiracy theory?

 Following September 11^th I was still very young so I simply thought what I was being told by the television and my parents was true about the attacks. Then years down the line I began hearing that it may have been a conspiracy theory. I didn’t pay much attention to it because I thought it seemed a little far fetched though. Then I began looking at a lot of things throughout the years the other day. The Sandy hook shooting, and even now the Boston marathon bombing has conspiracy threories behind them. In my eyes I don’t only find these theories ridiculous but I also find them offensive. There ridiculous because the pieces don’t all fit together, and offensive to think our government would be wanting our country to be put in such travesty. These theories are created by people, then put onto the internet and then spread throughout people all over the world. People see this, then believe it, and then spread it to friends and family, only problem is it has false information. Here is an example from the Daily Mail.

(Steve Morse)