It seems the eBook battle has begun in earnest.
Over the weekend, I received an e-mail prod from Amazon touting “FREE 3G wireless, no contracts” for its Kindle reader. It seems a direct smack at Apple’s iPad, which provides that 3G connectivity with a pesky contract from everyone’s favorite AT&T.
But Amazon’s deal isn’t perfect. The “free” refers to book and content downloads from the Amazon store. If you want to browse the Web or download personal files, you’ll be paying extra.
Still, the promise of free 3G for some content may nudge other providers to sweeten their deals. One can only hope.
Like this:
Be the first to like this post.
Someone send a management consultant to Tribune Tower, please.
This week, Chicago media watcher and blogger Robert Feder provided the inside scoop on the 119 things you can’t say on WGN-AM radio. CEO Randy Michaels dictated a list of “forbidden ‘newsspeak’ words and phrases” that should never be said on the station.
And the news director added another wrinkle: Turn in your fellow workers who use such phrases on air.
My gag reflex kicks in at the thought of the CEO dictating taboo words such as “laud,” “seek,” and “youth,” and asking coworkers to report violators to the higher-ups.
What’s sad about this scenario is that the idea is noble: Eliminate newsspeak and catch phrases from the airwaves. I found myself nodding in agreement with most items identified in the memo. What self-respecting writer wouldn’t cringe at “close proximity” or “completely destroyed”?
But I recoil at the thought of being ordered to speak in a certain way. Journalists and newscasters are knowledge workers who need creative freedom to thrive, especially in a newsroom environment fractured by economic chaos.
Management study after management study shows such workers respond poorly to top-down edicts. Why not appeal to their sense of professionalism instead?
Like this:
Be the first to like this post.
A few years ago, researchers Esther Thorson and Margaret Duffy conducted a meta-analysis of media-usage studies to develop the Media Choice Model.
The model focuses on four communication needs that people seek to satisfy when they choose media sources: information, connectivity, entertainment, and consumption.
A new study from the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism reveals how information and connectivity may be blending in the new-media environment.
Half of all adults surveyed — whether they get news online or not — said they rely on those around them for the news.
Online, the expectation of news-sharing grows:
- Almost two-thirds of online news users (65%) said they do not have a favorite online news source.
- Three-quarters of online news users receive news via forwarded e-mail or social-networking posts.
- More than half (52%) share links via e-mail, Twitter, Facebook, and other sites.
- One-quarter say it is important to be able to follow a news organization through a social-networking site.
But it goes beyond those who are online news users. Nearly a third (30%) of all Internet users get news from people they follow (friends, professionals, and others) on social-networking sites.
Though the national survey of 2,259 adults (margin of error: +/-2.3 percentage points) focused on news, the findings have implications for anyone trying to provide information on the Internet.
To engage the online public, it is critical and necessary to weave in social components to construct a foundation of trust and credibility. Your users must understand your values. That investment may lead to peer sharing and build your community of users.
Like this:
Be the first to like this post.
