Penny For Your Thoughts?

I do it at home. I do it at work. I’ve even done it during class. I have a full on addiction to Pinterest, the new and fast growing social media site. Linked through Facebook or Twitter, users can “pin” pictures to their own boards after searching through countless categories and other user’s pins. Your friends on Facebook can even follow what you “pin” on Pinterest.

What about this website, though, is so appealing, especially to women? It gives women a chance to not only share comments and photos from their own life, but things they find online that can serve a purpose for them. I have found countless health tips and new recipes on Pinterest. The website allows you to create different boards that help to organize the pictures you find into a cohesive place.

Now that Pinterest has such a high user population, businesses are trying to figure out how to utilize the website to advertise for their products. According to mashable.com’s article on Pinterest, about 82% of Pinterest users are female and about 85% of all consumer purchases come from females. Businesses that utilize Pinterest effectively have just hit a gold mine of advertising potential.

From the outside, Pinterest doesn’t make much sense. Is it just like a jumbled google images search? It may appear that way at first, but looking through countless pictures never seems to get old on this site. At first I wasn’t sure why but now I am starting to realize that it allows you to connect with people and share images at the same time. The images you are sharing aren’t of you, like they would be on Facebook, but rather of ideas and recipes or inspiring messages.

Here is a very interesting breakdown of Pinterest from a males perspective:

Maybe Pinterest in general is targeted more for women, hence why I can’t go a day without logging into the site. I don’t think Pinterest’s popularity will fade anytime soon as it is constantly updated with new pictures. I find it to be an amazing resource for visually finding ideas, especially for “do-it-yourself” things (something every college student should utilize). I have even been pinning while writing this blog post- hey, I needed inspiration!

Photography is a part on online journalism that allows the reader to see what it is that you are talking about and adds an important element of interaction. Digital cameras are readily available to everyone, and must smart phones have a camera of their own that reporters can use for quick photographs.

Almost as important as taking the actual photo, is editing it on your computer for a final product. If you are willing to shell out the money, Photoshop is a wonderful program with many tools to edit and transform your photographs, but there are other free options that get the job done as well.

Some free options include:

• iPhoto
• Windows Photo Gallery
• Express Live
• Flicker
• Photobucket

This is a screenshot from iPhoto

Unfortunately the mostly free online option “Picnik” will be shutting down April 19 and moving to Google+ instead of being its own site.

When editing pictures, there are few simple steps to stick to in order to create the best photo possible for publishing.

1. Edit a copy of the photo- never the original
2. Crop the photo to include the most important information in the photo
3. Resize the photo to fit a blog so you have a low-resolution photo
4. Modify the resolution
5. Tone and color correct the photo
6. Save a web version
7. Keep it simple- try to use the free options if you can for cropping and simple editing

Here is a great tutorial for learning how to use iPhoto ’11 for Mac.

It is important to try to familiarize yourself with the programs with some sample photos so that you become comfortable with the different editing tools before using on an actual project. If you are a student at George Mason University, the STAR lab offers free workshops on learning how to use Photoshop and can be found at ittraining.gmu.edu.

It can be the worst feeling in the world. At first your heart rate increases slightly. You start scowering the area looking for it. Could it be in the other room? Your bag? The car? WHERE IS IT? Full on panic.

No, you’re not searching for a wedding ring, your last will, or the deed to your house. No, you’re having an anxiety attack over your cell phone. Nomphobia, or the fear of losing our cell phone, has become a reality for the mobile dependant citizens of the world.

We use it to text, tweet, browse the Internet, talk to our friends and family, and update our Facebooks. But what would happen if all of this were suddenly lost? It is amazing that such a small piece of technology could have such a hold over our psyche. We seem to forget that it is a block of plastic and wires that can be easily replaced.

For those in a panic, here is a video that may help you track down your addiction.

I experienced a bit of this withdrawal while I was studying abroad in Europe. My Blackberry did not have the capability of texting or calling while in Italy, so I had to turn it off and put it away for a month. The first few days were alien to me. Not texting whenever I wanted, not being able to check my Facebook or Twitter no matter my location? Blasphemy!

Over time though it became liberating to not be a slave to the technology and checking things once back in my dorm room on my laptop became sufficient enough. Cell phones are an amazing invention that can be useful tools, but it is important to remember that there was a time without cell phones and people seemed to be able to survive. It will be okay!

On Monday I attended my second workshop offered through the STAR lab in the Johnson Center. Since I had already attended the first workshop for InDesign, I figured I should follow up with the next lesson to see if learning more about the program would make me like it more.

Once again the class size was extremely small which was helpful because I definitely ran into more issues and questions than I had during the first session. For the second lesson we learned how to use the graphic, text, and layering tools to add images to our layouts and to move around background color.

I found that learning the pen tool to anchor certain points on the layout was a little difficult at first because the anchor points were very small and hard to decipher. Lining these points up was also an issue because InDesign measures things in picas, rather than inches or centimeters etc.

I really enjoyed this session more than the first one because we were actually working with content, rather than just setting up pages. It made me like the program more and I am considering taking the next session to learn even more about the features on InDesign.

The instructor also informed us that they offer handouts on every lesson they teach so that we can download them for referencing when we are working on our own outside of the tutorial. I would definitely recommend this class to anyone wanting to learn the basic tools and functions of InDesign.

About 20 years ago, the Internet changed the way that journalists wrote and distributed their stories. The world of the journalist is changing yet again with the implementation of smart phones. According to Brigg’s, more than one billion mobile phones were sold in 2008. It is now 2012, and there is no doubt that this number has increased.

Smart phones have access to text messaging, the Internet and a camera. All wrapped up in a tiny mobile device is everything that a journalist on-the-go needs. The mobile phone makes it easier for breaking news coverage to be captured through mobile picture uploads and even tweets from places where even a laptop might not be easily accessible. The reporting is instantaneous and easily accessible.

The first images, which are too graphic for my taste to publish here, of  Muammar Gaddafi’s death were taken from a civilian’s cell phone in the middle of the chaos. While the images didn’t 100% prove death, they did transmit breaking news to the public that the dictator had been captured and wounded.

In another instance, Nicola Dowling, a reporter for the Manchester Evening News, was the first to capture images of the car crash of soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo with her Nokia mobile phone.

The picture was clear and immediately ready for publishing because it was taken on a mobile phone.

Although it is increasingly easy for people to capture images, video and to live tweet, reporters should still be diligent about going back and adding detail, checking facts and backing up their credibility.

The images of Gaddafi show him wounded but there is no way to tell that he was actually dead. It would be unwise to pair a photo with a false statement. However, the mobile phone opens up a whole world of possibility for reporting raw footage from the scene of the story.

Chris Brown got himself into some hot water after he sent explicit tweets from his account after the Grammys. Brown, apparently, did not agree with the negative feedback that he was receiving from some viewers.

After I read this story on mashable, I immediately thought of Ashton Kutcher and his “spoke to soon” comments on Twitter concerning the Penn State Sandusky scandal.

Now I understand that everyone has a right to tweet whatever they want, whenever they want. But, I’m happy that I don’t follow Christ Brown. I don’t want to read someone’s thoughts that are just gloating about their own life. And for the record Chris, winning a Grammy doesn’t eradicate a Felony charge for assault.

This is just another example of how Twitter can be either be used for constructive, informative means, OR a way to vent to the world. There is no rule of conduct that celebrities need to follow on Twitter, but for their own PR, I think that they should have more responsibility in what they tweet.

Chris Brown must have some smart people on his side because shortly after this and other similar tweets were posted, Brown deleted them from his account. The damage was done though, obviously, because I can read about it on mashable.

On Monday I attended my first workshop offered through the STAR lab located in the Johnson Center. After looking through the list of different workshops that were offered, I decided that InDesign would be the most relevant to my concentration in PR.

The class size was very small and it was easy to ask questions and get personalized help from the instructor. I was also pleased with the level of expertise that the instructor had using the program. She knew where all of the tools were located and was able to finish the lesson in the allotted time.

The lesson was very basic, learning what tools we would use, how to set up our master pages with grids, columns, and text boxes.

The tools in the program are very easy to find and use. They are labeled so that you know exactly what they are used for just by looking at their name. There is very little ambiguity.

I enjoyed learning the basics of the class and signed up for the second level workshop for this coming Monday, Feb. 20. Hopefully, after taking these two classes, I will have a better understanding of the program and will be able to utilize the skills in a potential job.

At first, 140 characters doesn’t seem like enough space to tell a story. How could you possibly get across your point in such a limited space?

This worry is a thing of the past. The popularity of microblogging has become extremely popular and a useful tool for journalists. Microblogging is the answer to those who are unsure if they can keep up with a traditional blog. This shortened feature allows for quick ideas, thoughts, and links to be shared and to allow for further discussion if needed. It is also an easy way to check on how a friend, co-worker, or even a celebrity is doing.

Some of the most popular microblogging tools being used today are:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• LinkedIn
• FriendFeed

Twitter has allowed journalists to communicate in “real-time” and provide quick information like never before. “Social media platforms such as Twitter enable budding reporters to be part of a more open journalistic culture,” said Alfred Hermida, founding news editor of the BBC News Web site.

Even though Twitter seems like it would be just as big of an information-overload as other social networking sites, its popularity has sky rocketed. Granted, not every tweet is worth reading and not every person is using the site in a useful fashion, as this hilarious short video from current TV explains.

For every mind-numbing tweet sent from Ashton Kutcher or Kanye West, there are reputable updates from news sources providing updates to breaking news and links to additional information. Sometimes breaking news is so popular that Twitter can’t handle the site traffic and crashes, like when Janis Krums tweeted a picture of the emergency commercial jet landing in the Hudson River.

This is an example of how to utilize Twitter for important or breaking news by combining images and words. Rob Quigley, an online editor at the Austin American-Statesman, has a few tips on how to “tweet with purpose” :

1. Quality over quantity. Every tweet should have personality.
2. Ask for story tips from followers. Some reporters are very surprised by the amount of response they receive.
3. Keep control over the account. Don’t turn on the automatic feed.