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CITIZEN JOURNALISM

EARNINGS and INFLUENCE

From our readings for our Strategic Communication and Emerging Media class this week one of the topics was  “Social News, Citizen Journalism and Democracy.” The reading can be found at the following site: 

http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.871.5728&rep=rep1&type=pdf

The article describes research into “the democratic implications of citizen journalism and social news. The article calls for a broad conception of ‘citizen journalism’ which is (1) not an exclusively online phenomenon, (2) not confined to explicitly ‘alternative’ news sources, and (3) includes ‘metajournalism’ as well as the practices of journalism itself.”

The article makes a strong case for citizen journalism’s democratization of news.  No longer can gatekeepers control the agenda or the process of newsmaking.  However, the creation of a whole class of citizen journalists raises the question of “what kinds of status differentials emerge within citizen journalism and metajournalism networks”, and, more importantly, how do these “status differentials…impact on (the) processes of newsmaking and agenda-setting?”

The article was written in 2009.

First a definition is in order.  Just what is a “status differential?”  A quick google search led me to a research paper that sought to answer that very question, albeit, instead of ‘status differential’ the term described is ‘status differentiation’.  Here is the website for the research paper, which was published in 2007:

http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0022022107302311

JOURNAL OF CROSS-CULTURAL PSYCHOLOGY, Vol. 38 No. 4, July 2007 413-431 DOI: 10.1177/0022022107302311

Written in the Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, researcher David Matsumoto of San Francisco State University begins by explaining that status is another term for hierarchy:

Humans are social animals, and people of all cultures live, work, and play in groups. Groups are dependent on key characteristics for their efficiency, productivity, and survival, including in-group loyalty, cooperation, identification, sanctions for noncooperation, and the like. Because individuals are members of multiple social groups, and because human social networks can be large and complex, these characteristics are especially important to human social life. One characteristic of most groups is the existence of hierarchies. Hierarchies are important because the stratification of leaders and followers is essential for group efficiency. Groups with too many leaders and too few followers, or vice versa, are not as efficient as groups with identified leaders and followers and clear lines of authority. All groups, human and nonhuman, in fact, spend much time and energy on establishing these lines of authority—dominance in a hierarchy—to clarify these social roles. The existence of a hierarchy and differential behaviors of members in the group according to the hierarchy are universal aspects of human life and of all social animals.

Equating status with hierarchy, we can reword and somewhat simplify the question of status differentials.  The question then becomes what manifestations of hierarchy do we see “emerging within citizen journalism networks.” We know the status quo (pun intended) of traditional journalists hierarchical structure.

That structure follows many of the same structures of other business organizations.  Top down leadership structure is the status quo in business.  Citizen journalist, however, often operate outside of the normal business structure.  Some work independently.  For some it is the independence that gives their voice authority, because they are their own gatekeeper, their own filter.  After all, in traditional journalism, status is determined by economics, that is, advertising revenue, circulation, and the demographics of an area usually based on geographic boundaries and the socio economics of the geographic area.  Citizen journalists often operate both in the traditional journalist’s realm of limiting geography, and in the digital cyber world that spans the globe. 

Since citizen journalists usually operate as independent contractors/newspersons, they do not operate within the status stratification setup usually assigned to those in traditional journalism.  It still comes down to economics, however.  Hierarchy among citizen journalist is determined by advertising revenue, and circulation.  How much money are they making (usually from advertising revenue on the internet) and how many people are reading, commenting on, sharing, and otherwise interacting with  what they post on the internet.  Those who are making a lot of money and are widely read often become celebrities.  Those who make little or no money remain in virtual (no pun intended) obscurity. Those who make big money, because they have huge followings, also are in the position to affect the agenda and help to set it, and/or redirect it.  Such citizen journalism stars also impact what news is made, through their contributions, and the conversation that is created around their contributions.  Therefore, citizen journalism is not restricted to the internet. 

However, increasingly, citizen journalists are working on multiple platforms, broadcasting, print, and the internet. 

CITIZEN JOURNALISM DEFINED

Citizen Journalism – “Within this mode, independent news content is generated, and produced by a non-professional individual or organization that is not paid staff. Examples of citizen journalism include blogs, independent news websites, community radio stations, or newspapers.”

Amani Channel, Gatekeeping and Citizen Journalism A Qualitative Examination of Participatory Newsgathering, (2010) Retrieved from

http://scholarcommons.usf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2597&context=etd

New York University professor and citizen journalism expert Jay Rosen provides a very open definition of citizen journalism: “When the people, formerly known as the audience, employ the press tools in their possession to inform one another…that’s citizen journalism.” (2009, thinkpress.com) Rosen’s reference to “press tools” highlights the important role that technology has played in the cause of this phenomenon.

http://cjms.fims.uwo.ca/issues/06-01/jack.pdf

Canadian Journal of Media Studies, Vol. 6(1)

The “press tools” certainly are enabling the citizen journalist to achieve status, and the most influential citizen journalists, those who achieve state, tend to be those who know how to use the press tools to their advantage. 

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Check out the following website for a listing of the top ten bloggers (2014) based on earnings. 

http://www.therichest.com/rich-list/world/worlds-10-top-earning-bloggers/

You can see that the earnings and influence go together.  These bloggers represent the top in the status hierarchy of citizen journalists. 

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Check out the following website for a listing of the top ten Youtube Stars (2016) based on earnings: 

http://www.businessinsider.com/youtube-stars-who-make-the-most-money-in-2016-2016-12/#no-9-tie-colleen-ballinger-5-million-1

A citizen journalist is often a blogger, a tweeter, or someone who posts videos to Youtube.  Since the first blogs in 1999, and the start of Youtube Feb. 14, 2005, citizen journalism has taken off.  At first little money could be made through tweeting, blogging, or Youtube videos.  The first blogs were diaries and journals, mostly of a personal nature.

As the internet expanded, mobile applications became available, and smart phones got smarter.  Citizen journalism became a profitable venture.  But who is making the money in citizen journalism?  My opinion is that the money, most of it, goes to only to a few citizen journalists, while the vast majority makes nothing.  Check out the stats below from lifehacker.com:

 

 http://lifehacker.com/can-i-really-make-a-living-by-blogging-1537783554

EARNINGS and INFLUENCE

I think that:

The status of a citizen journalist is based on earnings.  The earnings come because of the influence and the influence brings the earnings.  Therefore the earnings are directly proportional to the influence and vice versa.  Earnings are quantifiable, while influence is a matter of opinion, and as is therefore qualitative information or data.  My view is that the higher the earnings, the higher the influence.  A research study could be done to measure the influence, based on surveys of the readers of blogs, and viewers of Youtube videos, and then by comparing the rated influence with the earnings reports that rank blogs and Youtube videos by income.  After the influence research is done a correlation could be established between the earnings and the rated influence to substantiate my view that the earnings from citizen journalists correlate directly to the influence of citizen journalists.  The math formula for what I just said reads as follows where earnings is X and influence is Y:

EARNINGS Corr(X,Y)  INFLUENCE

The math formula for the above is

Corr(X,Y) correlation of random variables X and Y

I think that:

Citizen journalists enter into a symbiotic relationship with their publics.  this relationship involves earnings, determining the status of the citizen journalist, and impact, determining the influence on the process of newsmaking and agenda-setting.

 

 

FYI:

 

About YouTube

Launched in May 2005, YouTube allows billions of people to discover, watch and share originally-created videos. YouTube provides a forum for people to connect, inform, and inspire others across the globe and acts as a distribution platform for original content creators and advertisers large and small.

https://www.youtube.com/yt/about/

Check out the following research study and the quote from it below:

In the five years since blogging software opened this form of journaling to nontechnical writers, blogs have exploded on the Web’s landscape. In the process, bloggers are influencing the world outside of the blogosphere, as measured by audience reach, media adoption and political necessity. Attempts to mathematically determine which blogs are the most influential are currently characterized by the shortcoming of just counting blogs and links. This methodology is not unlike asking “who is the most influential scientist in the world” and then counting citations to determine the answer: neither process measures influence within genres, such as politics, cooking or technology.

http://www.uvm.edu/pdodds/files/papers/others/everything/gill2004a.pdf

My Comments Made on the Blog of Sydney Covington: This is his blog address: https://talkstrategiccommunication.wordpress.com/

Here is a special post.  It is my comments made on the blog of Sydney Covington today:  This is his blog address: https://talkstrategiccommunication.wordpress.com/

Hi Sydney,

You astutely point out that we live in a world where young Americans and Westerners are increasingly going mobile, with sales of mobile phones and tablets outpacing the sales of desktops.  Yet you also make it clear that you understand that many people are still using desktops.  It seems that the pressure to upgrade smart phones and tablets is not as intense for desktops, which must be upgraded from time to time also.  I don't own a tablet.  I bought a laptop.  It is possible that I will get a tablet, but I don't want to be face with having to supply data to the tablet.  I see much of the proliferation of mobile as the result of savvy marketing.  Many of us have desktops, laptops, smart phones and tablets.  The cost of these devices (the hardware) and the cost of services to connect the devices to the internet (data) combine to make a lot of money for the technology companies marketing these products and services.  While the laws of supply and demand determine just how many of the devices and services are sold, marketers work hard to increase demand. 

The digital divide is being bridged more by mobile applications, because they are cheaper and require less electricity and broadband access. 

You also point out how demographics, especially age, is influencing how people access information, with younger people using more mobile than desktop access.  It may be a matter of economics for young people who often can't afford the luxury of having multiple data accounts and multiple hardware configurations.  For example, a desktop computer, unless it is an all in one, must have a monitor, and speakers.  Many young people go mobile only because of their budget, while some older people, who already have desktops, simply add on the mobile and so have both.

The home telephone is also more likely to have a land line for older people, plus a cell phone line.  Younger people often have only the cell phone line.  Again, economics often plays an important role in this.  Yet, another cause is often the fact that older more established people have always had land lines, so for them it was a matter of adding on the cell phone.  Some young people, as they sought to get established were faced with deciding whether or not to get a landline, and chose not to.  Telephone company marketing also plays a role.  It seems that television marketer are not marketing landlines.  In fact, they seem to be discouraging the use of landlines. 

Social Media, Murmurations and Polarization

MURMURATIONS

This post was inspired, in part,  by the following TEDTALK video on the week four reading list for our Strategic Communications Class:

FOUR PRINCIPLES FOR THE OPEN WORLD

By Don Tapscott

http://www.ted.com/talks/don_tapscott_four_principles_for_the_open_world_1?quote=1719#t-955958

 Click on and watch the VIDEO BELOW , or part of it before you read my blog:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eakKfY5aHmY

 Physicists studying starlings (birds) and schools of fish look at how group behavior "can spontaneously arise from many individuals at once."   Communicators studying social media look at similar phenomenon in humans.  Viral videos are an example of how huge numbers of  people can spontaneously do the same thing - watch and be influenced by the same video.  The internet has enabled groups of people to behave in similar fashion as never before.  The internet does this by enabling nearly instant communication across space.  As recently as this past week we saw seemingly spontaneous airport demonstrations across the USA in response to the immigration actions taken by the Trump Administration. 

One corollary between the starlings and humans is that the starlings, are "never led by a single individual....the movement of the flock is actually governed collectively by all of the flock members.  If this observation holds true in human communication, it means that the decentralization of power and control in communication brought on by the advent of social media is a natural phenomenon, and possibly could have been anticipated. It also means that the spontaneous action of a group of humans mimics the starlings with the observation that the movement or action of the group is "actually governed collectively by all of the...members" of the group.  Once platforms emerged that allowed groups of people to communicate with each other without a bottleneck filter acting as a gatekeeper, the natural inclination of people to act as a group found its wings.  Once in low level flight, social media took off to higher heights with the advent of mobile social media.  As the song says, there truly "Aint No Mountain High Enough" to keep groups from forming and flying across the globe in murmurations of men and women kept in formation by the lift of social media's enabling air.  

In a sense this is what the starlings are doing in murmuration.  They are all responding to the same message - move quickly because a predator is out to get us.  The us-them dichotomy echoes loudly producing the rapid magical movement of murmuration.   Birds of a feather, as the saying goes, flock together.  Thus, such flocks tend to have an enemy that all of the flock recognizes.  

"These aerial spectacles are caused by a falcon near the edge of the flock. It turns out that the beauty of a murmuration’s movements often arises purely out of defense, as the starlings strive to put distance between themselves and the predator."

"So how do these masses of birds move so synchronously, swiftly, and gracefully?

This isn’t an idle question—it has attracted the attention of physicists interested in how group behavior can spontaneously arise from many individuals at once. In 2010, Andrea Cavagna and colleagues at the National Council of Research and the University of Rome used advanced computational modeling and video analysis to study this question. They found that starling flocks model a complex physical phenomenon, seldom observed in physical and biological systems, known as scale-free correlation."

"Surprising as it may be, flocks of birds are never led by a single individual. Even in the case of flocks of geese, which appear to have a leader, the movement of the flock is actually governed collectively by all of the flock members. But the remarkable thing about starling flocks is their fluidity of motion. As the researchers put it, “the group responds as one” and “cannot be divided into independent subparts.”

When one starling changes direction or speed, each of the other birds in the flock responds to the change, and they do so nearly simultaneously regardless of the size of the flock. In essence, information moves across the flock very quickly and with nearly no degradation."

  

"Last week, a new study on starling flocks appeared in the journal PLOS Computational Biology. The researchers, led by George Young at Princeton, did their own analysis of murmuration images to see how the birds adjust to their flock mates. They determined that starlings in large flocks consistently coordinate their movements with their seven nearest neighbors. They also found that the shape of the flock, rather than the size, has the largest effect on this number; seven seems optimal for the tightly connected flocks that starlings are known for."

Can these findings be extrapolated to the human population?  Do humans "coordinate their communication movements with their seven (or some other set number of) nearest neighbors?  Might the term "nearest" translate to "closest" implying the human proclivity to communicate deeply with a small group of people?  Does the artificial, yet real world of the internet create multitudes of flocks of starling like humans bound by some common denominators, such as beliefs and common enemies?  Research would provide scientifically based evidence of such a phenomenon if it in fact exists.  

POLITICS AND POLARIZATION

The excessive extreme polarization of American society today may owe much of its reality to the social media reality we are living with today.

Today we see extremism manifest around the world.  Could it be that extremism is exacerbated by the  polarization of factions in the world today caused by social media’s influence?   

Check out the following link to learn more about the influence of social media on politics and polarization 

http://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2014/10/21/5-key-takeaways-on-politics-media-and-polarization/

   It is like each side is a group of starlings responding to a predator and engaging in the almost hypnotic murmuration movement starlings are known for.

In our readings this week, we encountered the following:

"A longer-term question that arises from this data is what younger Americans’ reliance on social media for news might mean for the political system. "

The research is pointing to a world of social media where "people primarily seek out points of view to which they already subscribe" (Sunstein, 2001).  This points to the formation of flocks of common minded individuals, with common enemies.

How did the millennials focus on social media for news affect their engagement with the issues during the recent 2016 presidential election?  I personally did not use social media for news, but I am a baby boomer (and proud of it). My choice of news purveyor was the PBS Newshour..  Still, that is a silo of its own.  To hear both sides one has to tune in Fox News along with the PBS Newshour.  The slant on the news is dramatically different on the two networks.

The issue comes down to group polarization, spoken of at the following link:

 http://www.danah.org/papers/2010/BSTS-TwitterPolarization.pdf

In a sense this is what the starlings are doing in murmuration.  They are all responding to the same message - move quickly because a predator is out to get us.  The us-them dichotomy echoes loudly producing the rapid magical movement of murmuration.  So, while murmuration may be useful for starlings, it may be dangerous for humans in some circumstances.  Birds of a feather, as the saying goes, flock together.  Thus, such flocks tend to have an enemy that all of the flock recognizes.  As wise owls (not starlings) we need to proceed carefully.  As communicators we have those who influence us and those we ourselves influence.  We cannot operate on a "click whirr" cue driven basis (Cialdini 2009), as the starlings seem to do when important issues are at hand..  We must not be driven by easy peripherals but rather by harder to come by central route sound arguments.   Polarization is the result of following peripheral routes of persuasion.  Such routes rely on cues based on the credibility of the cuer.  Herein is the danger of being mislead when groups follow cues from those who deliberately and deceitfully get a message to go viral within an already polarized social media group leading to a "murmuration" that can lead the group in the wrong direction.  

WEEK FOUR READINGS FOR OUR CLASS:

 Seems stupid until you try it

http://mc7290.bgsu.wikispaces.net/file/view/Arceneaux_Noah.pdf

Changing Deliberative Norms on News Organizations' Facebook Sites

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jcc4.12104/pdf

What is your social media strategy?
https://hbr.org/2011/07/whats-your-social-media-strategy

Can social media replace email?http://www.businessinsider.com/can-social-media-replace-email-2013-2

Can social network sites enable political action?

http://www.danah.org/papers/Rebooting_America.pdf

Millennials and Political News - Social Media the Local TV for the Next Generation?
http://www.journalism.org/2015/06/01/millennials-political-news/

Dynamic debates: An analysis of group polarization over time on Twitter

http://www.danah.org/papers/2010/BSTS-TwitterPolarization.pdf

Who's behind that tweet?http://www.niemanlab.org/2014/05/whos-behind-that-tweet-heres-how-7-news-orgs-manage-their-twitter-and-facebook-accounts/  (Hall School graduate (undergrad) and Troy Trojan football athlete Micah Grimes is quoted in this story. He is ABC Network's director for social media.)

Social media and the end of gender (This is a TED Talk video)

http://www.ted.com/talks/johanna_blakley_social_media_and_the_end_of_gender.html

How social media can make history (This is a TED Talk video)

http://www.ted.com/talks/clay_shirky_how_cellphones_twitter_facebook_can_make_history.html

Listening to global voices (This is a TED Talk video. You will have to scroll down the page to find this video.)

http://www.ted.com/playlists/21/media_with_meaning.html

Social media has changed what it means to be a leader

http://www.businessinsider.com/how-leaders-can-understand-social-media-2013-2

Steal three social marketing tricks from top brands

http://mashable.com/2013/02/22/social-media-marketing-strategy/

Reporting crisis via texting (This is a TED Talk video. You will have to scroll down the page to find this video.)

http://www.ted.com/playlists/21/media_with_meaning.html

Recasting social media as brand ambasadors

http://cssc.uscannenberg.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/v1art2.pdf

Four principles for the open world (This is a TED Talk video)

http://www.ted.com/talks/don_tapscott_four_principles_for_the_open_world_1.html?quote=1719

Facebook unfriending has consequences

http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/3890-unfriend-social-media.html

How to make a splash in social media (This is a TED Talk video)

http://www.ted.com/talks/alexis_ohanian_how_to_make_a_splash_in_social_media.html

WAAY (Huntsville) reporter fired after posting a list of confessions to her personal blog

http://www.mediabistro.com/tvspy/waay-reporter-fired-after-posting-list-of-confessions-to-personal-blog_b98996

If it is still up, here is the reporter's blog:

http://sheaallensays.blogspot.com/2013/07/no-apologies-confessions-of-red-headed.html

   

- Juggling Mobile Tech with Emerging Media in a Multi-Screen World

"In short, in developed markets, the reality is that we live in a multi-screen world, not a "mobile world" that operates parallel to a "desktop world."

Henry Blodgett, Business Insider

 December 22, 2012

http://www.businessinsider.com/survey-mobile-first-bad-strategy-2012-12

Henry Blodgett succinctly clarifies "the reality" regarding mobile media with his reference to a "multi-screen world."  This world includes mobile media, but mobile media is not the center of it.  The dispersal factor of the internet insures that there is no center in communication, except the individuals, and groups of people who are communicating.  Communicators are the ones juggling the multiple screens that make up modern communications.  Real world jugglers have been known to juggle everything from harmless balls to swords.  The ability to juggle the creation of multimedia content and managing/leading the dissemination of that content across multiple platforms/screens - these are the essential skills for strategic communicator leaders today, particularly for those communicators whose focus is developed countries. The needs of developing countries are more complex, because of the DIGITAL DIVIDE.

"The “Digital Divide” is defined as the gap between those with regular, effective access and ability to use digital technologies and those without. An important step in the direction of filling this gap has been the deployment of mobile networks all around the world. For example, as of today, more than 80% of the World's population is covered by GSM, and more than 2.4 billions of people have access to a mobile phone (Source [1]). With one million additional people newly subscribed every day, it is expected that by the end of 2010, almost 4 billions will have access to mobile phones. While accessing phone services is very important, the gap will be more completely filled when access to a higher level of information technologies will be widespread".

Stéphane BOYERA

https://www.w3.org/2006/12/digital_divide/IST-africa-final.pdf

Jugglers are often seen in circus acts, and they invoke awe in their ability to do what they do. Strategic Communicators will likewise find it quite a feat to juggle the many responsibilities involved in communicating in a multi-screen world.

Seeing ourselves are jugglers can help us conceptualize ourselves and our work, so that we understand the complexity, yet know that there is a method to the seeming madness.  Again, by tapping into social science research to better understand our markets, by spending the appropriate amount of time and energy to become knowledgeable about mobile technology, and a similar amount of time understanding emerging media in its entirety - by doing these three things, juggling them as a juggler would juggle his juggling balls, we increase the likelihood that we will be successful in our navigation of emerging media in a multi-screen world.

Our professor for the Strategic Communications, Emerging Media class, Dr. Steven Padgett, points out to us that "mobile technologies are changing the way people seek information. Some of these changes are positive, some are not. Mobile fits as an emerging media."  He then asks us "how can strategic communication professionals use this tool in an efficient and ethical manner?"  

Mobile communication is centered around cell phones and smart phones.  Smart phones are all cell phones, but not all cell phones are smart phones.  My first cell phone was a flip phone that I used only for making phone calls.  Long after texting became available on a cell phone, I declined to try it.  Even today, I don’t care for texting and only text occasionally.  I prefer to actually speak to a person.  I have seen many times when miscommunication occurred because a text was misinterpreted.  A simple phone call would have eliminated the confusion.  However, at other times, a text can provide more accuracy, for example, when the correct spelling of something is important.

Strategic Communications professionals must learn to juggle many balls.  I bought a set of three juggling balls about a year ago.  They have been resting on a shelf since then.  Tonight, I took them out and worked with two out of the set of three.  I found it quite easy to do this.  So now, I think is a good time to begin to practice the art of juggling, by taking time each day to get better.  Practice, as the saying goes, makes perfect.  Five minutes a day should, in a month produce improvement.  In fact, I expect to incorporate the third ball into my amateur juggling act within two weeks.  30 days X 5 minutes a day will produce 150 minutes of practice, a full 2.5 hours.  My first day is today, the day of this posting, January 27, 2017.  I will keep you informed as the weeks roll on about the progress of my juggling.

Similarly, strategic communications professionals must practice working with mobile applications in order to better understand them, and become adept at working with them.  I have to admit that I have an I Phone 3.  This phone serves my needs in most areas, but in the area of mobile apps the phone is completely out of date.  I cannot download the latest apps because the phone does not support them.  I have come to realize that in order for me to use the many new mobile apps I will need a newer phone.  This brings me to the point I want to make in my post this week.  Each of us lives in a unique environment.  While many apps transcend space, meaning they are useful no matter where you are, there are many apps that are issued for a specific grounded, location based business.

The Troy University radio station WTSU, operates in the Troy, Alabama radio market with expanded coverage into Montgomery and Dothan Alabama.  WTSU does not have a mobile app.  However, radio apps like Tunein allow one to listen to 100,000 radio station, including WTSU, so having it own app is not critical for listening to the station.  However, mobile apps provide other capabilities besides listening.  It is the individuality and uniqueness that a dedicated app brings to a radio station like WTSU.  However, there is a cost associated with almost everything.  Public radio, because of its non profit structure, does not have the flexibility that for profit radio stations have.

Strategic communications professionals can use mobile media in a variety of ways, but that is determined by the nature of the business the professional is working for.  Some businesses have a clientele, a demographic, and a business base that uses mobile.  Other businesses may not have a customer base that is into mobile as much.  So each professional has to size up the business environment, check the pertinent data, and do research, using research skills taught at the Master's Degree level.  The research into the potential uses for mobile media will yield information that can be used to decide the best use of mobile media for a particular business.

Research will examine the demographic, and might include surveying.  In addition, the current trends can be examined to see where things are going with mobile media.

Ethical decisions are important.  Using mobile media should follow the same ethical guidelines as any other communication.

Strategic communicators will have to juggle several activities at once.  Mobile media is just one area.  Mobile first may be practical for some businesses, but the business plan that is mobile only is only appropriate for certain businesses.  Even then, decisions must be made to stay out in front on the mobile platform.  Competition is fierce in the mobile arena, and mistakes can be deadly to a business.

The skilled juggler

is able to keep many things going at once.  The skilled strategic communicator can do the same.  Mobile media, then, can be one ball of many (one of many other communication strategies, such as print, TV, radio, etc, or it can be all the balls, but segmented, with each ball a different mobile media strategy (such as mobile apps, mobile internet, or SMS).  The key is to get them all going and keep them in the air, no small feat, but easier for the skilled strategic communication juggler.

http://www.juggglow.com/en/

Juggglow

combines the art of juggling with mobile technology by connecting your smartphone to the juggling balls via Bluetooth Smart. You can control the color effects of the glowing balls and share your juggling achievements with your friends. The mobile app includes many more features such as games, battles, statistics and tutorials.

The above juggling app shows how there is a mobile application for nearly every activity.  Therein lays the opportunity for expansion into mobile.  Motion = mobile.  Motion is everything, and people, even when sitting still, are still in motion with their mobile phone.  Like the juggler's ball, motion is constant.  Mobile media, because you can take it anywhere, means that anything can be done with a mobile device.  The possibilities are nearly endless.  

So how can strategic communication professionals efficiently and ethically use mobile media?  One way is to learn the art of juggling.  Multitasking means being able to do many things at once.  Mobile implies motion.  Think motion, and how skillfully and ethically managing moving parts will enable efficiency in mobile media.

Efficient, ethical behavior for strategic communicators when using the tool of mobile technology to advance their careers is a worthy goal for each of us to strive for.  Ethics is important when it comes to equity.  We in affluent countries of the West often take our access to technology for granted, including mobile technology.  Ethical behavior for strategic communicators will include concern for equal access to emerging media and mobile technology for rural America, the poor in America, and developing countries.

BELOW IS THE LIST OF TITLES AND LINKS TO READINGS FOR OUR CLASS THIS WEEK:

The mobile Web to bridge the digital divide?
http://www.w3.org/2006/12/digital_divide/IST-africa-final.pdf

If you love something, let it go mobile 
http://www.slideshare.net/mobmarguru/mobile-marketing-and-mobile-social-media

The sites benefiting from mobile
http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-mobile-audience-for-sites-2013-2

The anthropology of mobile phones (This is a TED Talk video)
http://www.ted.com/talks/jan_chipchase_on_our_mobile_phones.html

The politics of platforms
http://web.mit.edu/comm-forum/mit6/papers/Gillespie.pdf

Shape of phones (This is a short and strange TED Talk about the possibilities of altering the physical shape of a mobile phone.)
http://www.ted.com/talks/fabian_hemmert_the_shape_shifting_future_of_the_mobile_phone.html

The mobile phone and the public spheres
https://wiki.doit.wisc.edu/confluence/download/attachments/19300391/gordon_2007.pdf?version=2

iPad adoption is growing like crazy
http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-of-the-day-ipad-sales-in-context-2012-12

We are working hard to get out of paper ads
http://newsosaur.blogspot.com/2013/03/were-working-hard-to-get-out-of-paper.html

This is a picture of me, Eulas Kirtdoll, speaking to a community group in Marion, Alabama, May, 2015