Category: Other

24 is a magic number

At 6 PM tonight, a new local Swedish TV channel started broadcasting. Three local daily papers in Norrbotten in the north of Sweden are the driving forces behind this new channel that will publish short news stories in a 20 minute news cycle. The new tv channel is called 24Norrbotten and apparently the number 24 has some magic glow to it that makes so many traditional media companies brand their new ventures something-something-24.

Here are a few examples, all from Sweden.

24Norrbotten

e24

24nt

24direkt

IT24

Update: Via Same Same But Different I read that 24Norrbotten has a sister channel, in the Linköping region, called 24Corren (surprise!). 24Corren was launched on Oct 15 with the same 20 minute news cycle concept.

24corren

Tags: , , . Ping.

Norwegian journalist taken off the air because of blog post

It’s not a good week for bloggers. Yesterday we could read about the Swedish woman who got fired from her job for blogging (although the CEO of the company said that other factors also led to the decision). Today I read in Journalisten.no that a Norwegian journalist Trine Grung lost her job as host of the tv show “Bli ny: Mor og datter” because she criticized a colleague, Elin Tvedt, on her blog.

– She has been taken off the project, but her contract is still running, says Program Director Eivind Landsverk of TVNorge.

I really don’t have an opinion if that reaction from TVNorge was too hard or not, but Heidi Nordby Lunde, aka VamPus, says it well:

– The blog is not a private conversation, and you must face the consequences of that. [my translation]

Tags: , , , . Ping.

Social media important in the 2010 election says Moderate Party

Moderaterna, the Swedish Moderate Party which is part of the ruling right-wing coalition, predict that blogs and social media will become an integral part of the 2010 election campaign. In a speech this weekend in Sollentuna outside of Stockholm, Secretary-general Per Schlingmann said that the web will be the hub in the next campaign (my translation below).

The web will be the hub in the campaign. In ten days we will release our new digital platform which will create new opportunities. How well it turns out depends on us. How open do we dare to be? Dare we let go? For me one thing is clear: in the election 2010, every Moderate blog will be valuable, every Moderate video, every Moderate Facebook group. Let us make sure that there will be as many as possible. I am also convinced that we will carry out more activities where we will meet voters directly, but these activities will be co-ordinatet online and will make it easier for people to take part of our campaign.

The prediction that the next election will be web-centric is not very risky, but nevertheless it is interesting to see that the Moderate Party is stressing social media tools so actively almost two years ahead of the election.

During the last few months, blogs have made a huge impact on the political arena, first and foremost from the FRA debate, i.e. the resistance to the new controversial Swedish wiretapping law that enables FRA, Swedish National Defence Radio Establishement, to screen and store all digital traffic passing Swedish borders. Blogs about politics and society are also one of the most popular categories in the Swedish blogosphere. The blog portal Knuff.se lists the 50 most linked to blogs in Sweden and currently about 24 of the top 50 are commenting regularly on political topics.

A question I would like Swedish party strategists to answer is how they plan to engage with female voters via social media. If my latest blog survey BlogSweden 3 is anything to go by, female blog readers don’t see blogs as an interesting channel for news about politics and society. While this was the most popular topic among male blog readers (49.2% of all male blog readers), the situation was radically different among female blog readers.

Female blog readers prefer reading blogs about (Jan 2008):
– Fashion and design (53.0%)
– Everyday life experiences (51.6%)
– Photography and art (26.6%)
– Parenthood and children (24.3%)
– Music (22.0%)
– Literature and writing (17.2%)
– Movies and tv (16.9%)
– Journalism and media (16.7%)
– Sex and dating (16.5%)
– Politics and society (14.4%)

Tags: , , , , , . Ping.

Online opinion against Nike Park in Tokyo

Nike has bought the naming rights to a public park in central Tokyo with the purpose of building a skateboarding area and a café. Miyashita Park will be renamed “Nike Park” and in total, Nike plan to spend around 600m yen (5.6 million dollars) renovating the park. But the investment also comes with some downsides, at least if you’re not a skateboard fan. Nike plans to charge a fee in order to use the skating area or even entering the park, which of course is a controversial change for a place that used to be open free to the public. A number of homeless people will also be forced to leave the park.

The story is quite interesting since Nike obviously is investing heavily in restoring a run down area with the purpose of achieving positive associations to the brand. But the resistance is quite strong and vocal, which we can see by studing how the story is debated online. Human rights activists have founded The Coalition to Protect Miyashita Park from Becoming Nike Park which of course has a blog, and anti-Nike posters are spreading across the blogosphere (see examples here). Trendspotting also claims that “human rights” activist are much more active in Japanese blogs than “Nike lovers”.

The story is also featured on the front page as one of the most linked to news on Japan’s number one social bookmarking site Japan Soc, which would possibly indicate that Nike has got some work to do to change public opinion in favour of their initiative.

Tags: , , , , , . Ping.

iReport citizen journalist could face jailtime

The citizen journalist “Johntw” that falsely stated the Apple CEO Steve Jobs had been rushed to hospital after a heart attack is now under investigation of the SEC, reports Wired.

Assuming the Securities and Exchange Commission can prove the fake news writer published the post with the purpose of manipulating the stock, there would likely be criminal charges, says [attorney Scott] Vernick.

“These sorts of financial crimes or attempts to defraud investors carry criminal penalties and the possibility of imprisonment,” says Vernick.

Wired writes that in a similar case from 2000, a 23-year-old community college student was sentenced to 44 months in prison for issuing a fake press release about a company called Emulex.

LA Times reminds us that Steve Jobs’ health has been an issue before, for example when Bloomberg accidentally published Jobs obituary two months ago.

CNN reports that the false content was flagged and quickly removed from the site.

Tags: , , , . Ping.

Steve Jobs heart attack rumour will hurt CNN

Apple Inc saw its stock rapidly fall 9 percent today after a rumour was started that CEO Steve Jobs had been rushed to hospital after a major heart attack. The story was first published by a citizen journalist on CNN’s site iReport.

Citizen reporter Johntw wrote: “Steve Jobs was rushed to the ER just a few hours ago after suffering a major heart attack. I have an insider who tells me that paramedics were called after Steve claimed to be suffering from severe chest pains and shortness of breath. My source has opted to remain anonymous, but he is quite reliable. I haven’t seen anything about this anywhere else yet, and as of right now, I have no further information, so I thought this would be a good place to start. If anyone else has more information, please share it.”

apple stock Fortunately Apple were able to quickly dismiss the story as nonsense, but the rumours had already had a negative effect on Apple’s stock, which after the rebuttal climbed up again. We don’t know it this was a deliberate attempt to manipulate Apple’s stock or someone who was just pulling a prank on CNN and/or Apple. But it illustrates clearly how an anonymous person can have a huge impact on several brands by just posting a few lines of lies on a web site. And for a trusted brand like CNN it is of course troublesome to be hosting such content.

Silicon Alley Insider writes that “Citizen journalism apparently just failed its first significant test”. Skeptics of user generated content are of course gloating now. At least, crisis consultants will not be out of work in the near future.

Tags: , , , . Ping.