:: LNR Journalism ::

Facebook’s mobile viral channels: Mechanics working for Wooga, social gaming

What has social gaming to do with the future of news? Remember last years Gartner study about  gamification ("Gartner Says By 2015, More Than 50 Percent of Organizations That Manage Innovation Processes Will Gamify Those Processes")? - It can't be wrong to understand social game mechanics and to see how they might be helpful to deliver news and information in other contexts as well.

TechCrunch :: Wooga, which is Europe’s biggest social game developer, is an example. Today, the Berlin-based company is saying that it has crossed 11 million downloads, which is respectable considering that the company only really entered the mobile space three months ago when it brought Diamond Dash to iOS. For those who are unfamiliar, Wooga is a Berlin-based social game developer that is second only to Zynga in terms of daily users on Facebook. It’s raised more than $32 million in funding from investors including Balderton Capital and Highland Capital Partners.

Diamond Dash was one of the first games that really made use of Facebook’s new viral channels for native mobile applications after they launched last October.

Continue to read Kim-Mai Cutler, techcrunch.com

27 minutes of an experiment: Make Joseph Kony famous ... to raise support for his arrest

invisiblechildreninc | YouTube :: KONY 2012 is a film and campaign by Invisible Children that aims to make Joseph Kony famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice.

Invisible Children is a US-based campaigning group, founded in 2004 by film-makers, which has been working in Uganda – building radio networks, monitoring LRA movements and helping displaced children and families. The goal of the campaign was to raise awareness of the activities of Joseph Kony, a Ugandan warlord who leads the Lord's Resistance Army, in the hope of bringing him to justice.

Adam Westbrook: The upside down rhino rule of great video storytelling

vimeo :: video.fu on Vimeo is a collection of the most remarkable short-form online video journalism and storytelling collated, just for you, by Adam Westbrook, studio.fu.

One example you find in Adam Westbrook's video.fu gallery - 
Flying Rhinos from Green Renaissance on Vimeo.

[Adam Westbrook:] It’s not uncommon for clients to ask video producers or their PR agencies to “do them a viral”. But to even try to predict such a thing is to misunderstand its very nature.

Clipped from: vimeo.com (share this clip)

Continue to read Adam Westbrook, adamwestbrook.wordpress.com

"Yes, keep me" or "not really"? - how a Facebook question went viral

AllThingsD :: A Facebook user named Heather Marie Hollingsworth posted to her Facebook friends on April 2, “Cleaning out my friends list in the next few days…Do you wanna stay?” with the options “Yes, keep me,” “Don’t Care” and “No, not really.” As of this morning, “Yes, keep me” is winning by a landslide, with 3.98 million votes out of a total of 4.11 million.

Liz Gannes asks "Was this a planned viral scheme or a highly successful accidental appeal to human insecurities?"

Continue to read Liz Gannes, networkeffect.allthingsd.com

A South African boy called ‘Vicus’: finding a (viral) YouTube sensation

memeburn :: Recently a video of a young South African boy playing guitar and singing “These Arms” by All 4 One went viral on YouTube. Not too much time later Sony International sends down a team to South Africa to find the kid and make all his dreams come true.

But no one can find him…

Continue to read memeburn.com - The quest for ‘Vicus’: Finding a YouTube sensation

Local content is good - Viral video: 'Handbag Hero' fights off robbers

BBC College of Journalism :: An excellent example of user generated content, this clip shows a pensioner fighting off robbers in broad daylight with nothing more than a handbag. The footage of the attack on a jewellery shop in Northampton UK was described in the Guardian's write-up as "a film that instantly became an internet viral clip."

It's only a minute and a half of footage, but it acts as a salutary reminder: local is good.

Continue to read - www.bbc.co.uk - BBC College of Journalism Blog - 'Handbag Hero' fights off robbers

BuzzFeed tracks "the Web’s obsessions in real time" - if it's worth it or not

BuzzFeed features all kind of things people like to pass along to their friends: "an outrageous video that’s about to go viral, an obscure subculture breaking into the mainstream, a juicy bit of gossip that everyone at the office will be talking about tomorrow, or an ordinary guy having his glorious 15-minutes of fame. And when you read BuzzFeed, you’ll always know the movies, music, and products that are on the rise and worth your time." (o.k. I have some doubts regarding "worth your time" but that was the marketing part)

Clipped from: www.buzzfeed.com (share this clip)

Continue to explore www.buzzfeed.com - BuzzFeed Tracks the Web’s Obsessions in Real Time

The ice cream cone man and a photo going viral

The man racing across 15th Street NW is in mid-stride, his striped dress shirt is untucked and splattered by sleet and snow. His left fist is clenched and his hair is speckled with snow. The look on his face says it all: focus, determination, pain.

Clipped from: blog.washingtonpost.com (share this clip)

Now this man's quest for cream has gone viral. So, what's the story behind the photo

Continue to read blog.washingtonpost.com

Social media storm over weatherman’s firing

WTNH, New Haven's ABC affiliate, made the decision not to renew weatherman Geoff Fox’s contract after 26 years of being with the station.

In response to Fox's release something very interesting has happened: his fans have rallied around him using social media. And it appears WTNH isn’t listening or, if they are, they’re not participating. And the lack of engagement is hurting their image.

Continue to read Steve Safran's www.lostremote.com - Social media storm over weatherman’s firing

To delete or not delete incorrect tweets? - the Tucson reporting

Twitter as a viral real-time news services is unmatched but to use it as a distribution channel for breaking news requires journalists to understand its pitfalls as well.

Today saw an incorrect reporting about Giffords' death spreading on Twitter. NPR Senior Strategist Andy Carvin, in charge of the Twitter account, tried to explain what had happened. One of the reasons why reporting about the Tucson shooting was so confusing was that - as lostremote's Steve Safran explains - "early reports were mixed and often conflicting". Tweets were sent by NPR News, Reuters and CNN.

Safran's main question: Should you delete tweets in cases like this?

Andy Carvin in the comment section of Safran's article:

My main reasoning for tweeting this was simple - on air and online we were reporting a major change in the story, and our twitter accounts weren't reflecting this change. Automated tweets don't repost when a story is edited after the fact - only publishing a new story with new details would do that - so I felt I needed to update the public manually.

Follow the public debate www.lostremote.com - How incorrect reports of Giffords’ death spread on Twitter