1. The Breaking News Consumer’s Handbook [via On the Media]
In my Digital Communications class at Furman, we spend a considerable portion of the early semester focusing on the effects digital media has on traditional media coverage–in particular journalistic methods and values, the concept of objectivity in news reporting, expediency and the value (or lack of) in citizen journalism.
Yes, there is an overwhelming amount of inaccurate information out there ready to entangle the undiscerning or gullible. All too often, media organizations want to be first over accurate. And there are a lot more voices articulating subjectivities that can frequently be pretty darn persuasive.
So the crux of our studies is this: We have to be better news consumers. Because everything has an equal and opposite reaction, we simply have to be smarter gatewatchers in return for the diminishing power gatekeepers have over our collective knowledge.
You can enroll in my course, or you can just read The Breaking News Consumer’s Handbook (which we think news writers can learn from, too).
2. This May Be the Coolest Way Ever to Quit Your Job [via Huff Post Business]
Another salient point in these aforementioned class discussions: Quality digital content will (eventually) prevail over all else, and as content producers, we need to chiefly focus on that ethic to be successful.
If you need proof, just take a cue from the most popular girl on the internet this week and her interpretive dance performance.
Writer Marina Shifrin, who–until very recently–worked for a digital video producer, says, “My boss only cares about quantity and how many views each video gets. So I figured I’d make ONE video of my own. To focus on the content instead of worry about the views.”
Last I checked, her YouTube creation had only garnered a mere 9,780,541 views and received 63,795 thumbs up (I actually had to revise these numbers substantially within only minutes)! These figures don’t even account for the multiplication of her material across innumerable platforms due to social sharing.
I’d love to see how her personal website analytics were doing.
We have a feeling Marina will get herself a new and more enjoyable job in as long as it took her to break it down to that Kanye West song.
3. CIA venture arm backs Spike, which lets you make precise models of anything [via Venture Beat]
Is there any limit to what inventive smartphone technologies can accomplish? If Spike’s introduction suggests anything, absolutely not–this could be a game changer for a multitude of industries.
“A New Zealand company funded by the U.S. intelligence community’s venture capital arm, In-Q-Tel, has built a smartphone technology called Spike that lets anyone take precise measurements of — and make 3D models of — anything in the outside world…The product targets architects, engineers, interior designers, film set locators, insurance appraisers, underwriter/valuers, commercial painters, and arborists, among others.”
Fun fact to assist with our perspective: The camera phone was introduced in 1999.
We’ve come a long way (and where are we going?)!
4. Watch: Desk Knows When You Should Stand, Sit, or Just Breathe [via Fast Company]
Speaking of inventions that can improve our jobs: Recently we shared an infographic that details the impending doom from sitting at computers for great portions of our lives; with posture that would likely not make our yoga instructors kick into handstands with pride; and in company-supplied chairs with price tags that, at the time, kept the accountants happy–until they sat in them all day/every day, too.
Well it turns out there’s hope for us all: Stir, a start-up comprised of Apple, Ideo, NASA and Disney veterans, and whose CEO JP Labrosse helped conceive the original iPod, has developed the Kinetic Desk–“a desk that not only adjust[s] its height, but [takes] the guesswork out of when you should sit versus stand by making those decisions for you, based on intelligent software.”
It’ll just cost you a cool $3,890. But just as you may be one to wait for the second generation of a new Apple product, you might want to hold out for Labrosse’s ultimate goal: a desk that he says “seamlessly integrates into your life.”
If it can cook for me and fold my laundry, I’ll start saving those pennies.
5. Tom Ford on 15 Things Every Man Should Have [via Vogue]
Perhaps the most dapper man on the planet, designer Tom Ford knows a thing or two about the values of thoughtful self presentation and what it can do for you.
A few of the tools you’ll need from his list: a daily read of the paper, a well cut dark suit, a tailored blazer and a classic tuxedo.
Here’s some female commentary from a very-much-in-agreement Brit.
And guys, get some new socks already! Tom demands it.
