Message from Michael - YouTube Sensation - April 25, 2011

Message From Michael                              

                                                                                                                        April 25, 2011                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                               

BLACK IS BLACK

LET'S DO THE WIME WARP AGAIN

WOMEN VERSUS MEN IN MEDIA

THE ROYAL WEDDING

PLUGGED AND UNPLUGGED

COCKTAIL CHATTER – SORT OF

 

 

BLACK IS BLACK.  I don't want my baby back.  Not if her name is Rebecca Black.  But more than 300-thousand people do.  But gray is gray for 2.3 Million people who would be happy if she went away.  Yes, yes, yes, this is another one of those headlines of mine that is a reach.  Rebecca Black is a 13-year-old California girl who paid (all right, her parents paid) an estimated $20,000 to have a music video produced featuring her.  So, why should this rate the lead story on this week's message?  Because… hold on to your 45 RPM's here, folks… her video has had 114 Million views on YouTube.  I don't know about you, but I find this stunning.  Let me put a little perspective on this.  That 114 Million is five times as many people as watch American Idol.  For a little more perspective, the number one video of all time on YouTube is Baby by Justin Bieber (who I am assuming she is attempting to emulate), with his 523 Million views.  But (here we go again), her 114 Million would still put her in the Top 40 (isn't that appropriate?) of all time YouTube videos.  All this for a 'bubble-gum' style music video titled Friday with the enlightening lyrics explaining that Friday comes after Thursday and before Saturday.

Now, for some perspective gone mad, let me throw some more figures and factoids at you.  That 300-Thousand represents the number of people who say they "like" the video.  The 2.3 Million represents the number of people who "dislike" the video.  Bieber's video had roughly 635K likes and 1.3 M dislikes.  That is a 2 to 1 ratio.  Her ratio of dislikes to likes is 7 to 1.  Hers was the only video I could find in a review of the top 100 videos where the dislikes so far outweighed the likes.  She and Bieber were the only ones I could find, in fact, where there were more dislikes than likes, which says something about the polarizing reaction to their music.  For example, the second most watched video of all time is Lady Gaga's Bad Romance which has so far had 371-Million views but with 400-thousand likes versus 86-thousand dislikes.  Shakira's Freshly Ground which comes in at number three with 334-Million views, had 319-thousand Likes and only 16-thousand Dislikes.  Still (more perspective here), with 114 Million views, her video scored nearly twice as many views as teen idol Miley Cyrus's Can't Be Tamed (69 Million), significantly more than either of the two hits by teen idols the Jonas Brothers, Burning up (89 Million), and SOS (88 Million) or the very popular High School Musical 2 (64 Million) or even High School Musical star Vanessa Hudgens (104 Million).  You can throw into that Lady Gaga's Born This way (68 Million) and Poker Face (79 Million), and virtually any of the Black Eyed Peas hits.  And it should be noted, the video Friday is available on iTunes where it had only 1,200 likes roughly.

Anyway, you get the point.  As an additional note, her video continues to rack up views.  By the time you read this, I'm sure the views have gone way beyond the 114 Million when I looked.  You can do a search for the video on YouTube, but let me warn you.  The video has generated so many parodies (many of which are getting Million views and more) that you may have trouble finding it.  Look for… seriously… the 'official video.'   As a side note, thanks to my students who prompted me to check on Rebecca Black's video after I had read about it elsewhere. And as a further side note thought, an examination of the top 100 videos on YouTube is an interesting sociological study in and of itself – some aspiring PhD candidate's thesis in waiting.  A final footnote, and sort of sad commentary, many of the comments you'll find on YouTube are pretty vicious and nasty and she has even received death threats.  Did I mention she's 13 years old?  And, oh, yes, she now has a publicist and a manager.

LET'S DO THE TIME WARP AGAIN.  As long as I am on a youth kick, some interesting notes from Nielsen's State of the Media report.  Somewhat 'old news' but still worth noting, the average American watches 34 hours and 39 minutes of TV a week, an increase of two minutes year to year.  But here's what's interesting.  While older Americans (65+) watch the most television (47 hours and 33 minutes per week), teenagers (12 – 17) watch the least amount (23 hours and 41 Minutes a week).  Okay, maybe not too surprising, although I wonder if (in the early days of TV), teenagers watched more than other age groups.  Another thesis in the making.  The heaviest 'timeshifters' were adults 35 – 49 who timeshifted 3 hours and 8 minutes of TV a week.  That teenage group (12 – 17) also was the least interested in time shifting (averaging 1 hour and 31 minutes); 18 – 24 year olds were close behind (1 hour and 32 minutes).

Now, according to that same report, the number of mobile phone users (13+) in the U.S. is 228 Million, and nearly a third (31%) of those, use SmartPhones, with 83.2 Million of them mobile phone web users. Nielsen says 24.7 Million mobile subscribers watched video on their phone which is a 41% increase year to year.  They watched an average of 4 hours and 20 minutes of mobile video a month.  And you want to guess which age group watched the most mobile video… as if you have to guess.  Teenagers (12-17) watched an average of 7 hours and 13 minutes of mobile video a month.  As a side note, the average number of TV's per household in the U.S. is 2.5, but nearly a third (31%) have four or more TV's.

WOMEN VERSUS MEN IN MEDIA.  Based on some of the recent media reports, this could be a weekly feature on the Message. The latest, from Nielsen, shows that women are more 'engaged' online than men, spending more time on fewer sites than men.  They visit more social and community sites, and they watch more TV specials and award shows so they can engage in "community viewing" discussions.  And I will avoid any Mad Men era stereotype style jokes, but the report also finds that women talk more (28%) than men and text more (14%) than men.

THE ROYAL WEDDING.  A couple of quick media notes about the wedding.  One, Britain's Royal Family is providing its own coverage of the wedding via YouTube.  They will use video from the BBC, but use a spokesperson for Buckingham Palace in place of the BBC commentators.  The Royal Family will also provide a live blog and Twitter feeds (#rw2011).  Also, the Associated Press is also planning to offer a live feed of the ceremony, using LiveStream.   

PLUGGED AND UNPLUGGED.  As a sort of follow-up to last week's message on The World Unplugged study about 'addicted' student media users, a survey by Lock Haven University in Pennsylvania found that students spend an average of three hours a day tapping away on their cell phone keyboards.  It was a combination of Facebook, emailing and searching, but primarily texting.  The study reported by eCampusNews says regardless of the medium, the students "rarely" gave it their undivided attention.  As a further follow-up note, one of the professors here at the Grady College asked his class about the report's findings that students define news as personal information and world events.  Their reaction?  Yep, it's true.  And in the interest of setting the record straight, I didn't give credit to the lead researcher on The World Unplugged study.  Her name is Susan Moeller with the University of Maryland.

COCKTAIL CHATTER: Actually these aren't cocktail chatter items, so much as one-liners about things I read and wonder about.  For example, retail gianticus maximus Wal-Mart is getting into the social media business.  It bought social media platform Kosmix.com which searches and analyzes social content data by topic.  Hmmmm… wonder what that could mean. Yahoo is getting into the TV Upfront advertising business, with original video output aimed at getting some of those TV add dollars.  In a similar vein, online video ad network Digital Broadcast Group which started the Keifer Sutherland Web show The Confession is also offering up web shows similar to TV Upfront ad presentations.  Need more proof that online video providers are gunning for traditional TV dollars?  Facebook has created a sort of online ad agency called Facebook Studio aimed at helping 'participants' aka ad agencies produce effective Facebook pages for a client. Facebook is also getting into the lobbying business big time, hiring two lobbying groups and adding staff to its Washington office.  And I say big time because according to the Wall Street Journal, the company spent a measly $351,000 on lobbying last year.  And YouTube has set up a scholarship fund along with grants to find the next great video creators      

SUBSCRIPTIONS:  We encourage people to pass on copies of Message from Michael.  But if you would like to get your own copy, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word "subscribe-MM" in the subject line.  If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word "unsubscribe-MM" in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com.  You can reach me directly at Michael@MediaConsultant.tv.

 

Message from Michael - World Unplugged - April 18, 2011

This is a re-send of the weekly Message from Michael.  Because of a change-over in email services, some people did not get the message.  For those who are getting it a second time, my apologies.

===============================================================================================================

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

NEWS IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER

COMMERCIAL FREE DOESN'T MEAN PROMO FREE

CONFESSION IS GOOD FOR THE SOUL

 

 

NEWS IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER.  And the beholders in this case are university students from around the world who apparently have a dramatically different definition of what is "news."  Yes, note the quotation marks.  According to a study led by the University of Maryland's International Center for Media and the Public Agenda, the students believe that the "everyday thoughts" of their friends count as news just as much as worldwide events.  Not only that but the nearly 1,000 students surveyed don't "discriminate" between news provided by The New York Times, the BBC, or Al Jazeera and what they find on a friend's Facebook status update.  News to them simply means 'something that just happened.'  The study is based on an experiment, similar to one done in the U.S. a year ago, in which students go "unplugged" from all media for one whole day.  Then they write about their experiences.   Just as other studies have found, this one found that the students are virtually addicted to the media.  The authors say that while it may not be a clinical diagnosis, the cravings, anxiety and depression "sure seem real" to the students.  In fact most of the students in the ten countries failed to go unplugged for a whole day (which may raise questions about the study validity), sometimes because of "moments of weakness," sometimes because of work demands but sometimes just because the media is so pervasive.  The study authors, who include researchers from nearly a dozen universities, noted semi-facetiously that if cartoonist Charles Schultz were drawing the character Linus today, he would be clinging to a mobile phone instead of a blanket.

The report notes what many other studies have noted, and that is that the young people are platform agnostic.  However, it says that the students have different groups of 'friends' for different types of devices, with their Facebook friends being slightly different from those they text, who are in turn slightly different from those they call and so on.  In effect they create different 'brand' identities based on the different communication tools.

For broadcasters, the report is a mixed message. The students say TV is still a favorite way to relax "without thinking too much," but that it is mainly "white noise."  Very few of them said anything about TiVo or other DVR systems, and while some of them talked about favorite shows, almost none of them talked in terms of "destination TV."  The students see music, regardless of its delivery system, as both critical to how they feel, using it to regulate their moods, but yet completely unnoticed at the same time.  It both enhances and shuts out the world they live in and then becomes "background news."

For the news media, the report is an even more mixed message.   There is so much news flooding them 24/7 that, the report authors say, "They inhale, almost unconsciously, the news."  It's news served up on the sidebar of their email accounts, on their friends' Facebook walls, or through Twitter.  They've become mostly headline readers who are happy getting their news in chunks of 140 characters.  Unless they are personally engaged, the students don't have the time nor the interest to follow up the news, no matter how momentous that news appears to be.  It's gotten to the point, the authors say, that "students no longer search for news (if they ever did), the news finds them."   Yet at the same time, the authors say students today have a much broader range of interest, but again because "the flood of information is so continuous, and the bandwidth already is so great that there isn't a hole of curiosity that needs to be filled."

The report is not without hope for the news media.  For example, the authors argue that "news" about friends and family can be a "Trojan horse" for media wanting to deliver local, national and world "news."  Yes, there are those quotation marks again.  They argue that journalists should "stop arguing there is a moral high ground to news" and just figure out how to meet their information needs.  And remember how I made the point in a previous Message that you would be hearing a lot about 'news curation.'  Well, guess what the report also argues – that there is tremendous need for news curation, "people and tools to make sense of the 24/7 influx of information."  Somebody needs to separate the dreck and dross and turn it into something digestible.  They argue that media literacy needs to be part of the core curriculum in universities around the world and that news curation, in particular, needs to be taught to journalism students.

COMMERCIAL FREE DOESN'T MEAN PROMOTION FREE.  Okay, is it just me, or has anybody else noticed that there has been an enormous increase in the number of self promotional spots (aka branding and image spots) on National Public Radio.  Everybody from their top journalists to Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers are extolling the virtues of the service.  Do you think it has anything to do with the effort to cut off federal funding?  Newsletter RBR/TVBR recently noted a campaign by a group calling itself Americans for Limited Government which is specifically targeting funding for public broadcasting with an online petition drive.  They've even asked, somewhat humorously, for equal time on NPR to make their case.  On top of that, a service called America's Radio News Network is offering itself as a commercial alternative to NPR. And that may be the real reason for the image spots.  ARNN, as the service refers to itself, makes no bones about the fact that NPR's "implosion" is an opportunity for them, because they offer the only long form alternative without what they call NPR's "perceived bias."  I don't know what it says about the service, but ARNN's catch phrase or slogan is "making, breaking and driving the news."  As a footnote and a reminder from previous Messages on the State of the News Media, NPR averages a weekly audience of more than 27 Million listeners, which is significantly bigger than the combined audiences of either the network news, and dramatically bigger than the combined audiences of cable news.  Also from the State of the News Media report, last year there were 3,446 radio stations which identified themselves news/talk/information – up from 2,634 the year before.  Yet only 30 are all news.  There were 268 NPR "member stations" last year, and 764 stations that carried some NPR programming, many of which (I didn't know) are religious broadcasters.

CONFESSION IS GOOD FOR THE SOUL.  I am not a Diane Sawyer fan.  Never have been.  So, when she took over the anchor chair at ABC News, I was not expecting much.  I was wrong.  Thanks to former Atlanta ABC Bureau chief and fellow lecturer Steve Smith, I watched.  And, folks, there is a dramatic difference in the quality of the programming.  I meant to write about this some time ago when I watched their coverage out of China.  It managed to achieve the hard to achieve standard of being both interesting and informative.  Now, in the interest of equal time and so I can say you heard it here first, look for some significant changes in the CBS Evening News.  And I am not just talking about the anchor change.  60 Minutes Correspondent Scott Pelley who is considered the leading contender for the position visited the Grady College of Journalism.  According to him, the new chairman of news (isn't that a weird title?), Jeff Fager wants to see the evening newscast reflect the same quality as the critically and ratings acclaimed 60 Minutes.  Pelley says they are talking context and perspective, although he prefers the word 'insight.'  More importantly, he says, he wants to give the audience a sense of "wow, I didn't know that."    

   

Message from Michael -- Arbitron and Nielsen reports -- April 6, 2011

Message From Michael                                 

                                                                                                                        April 6, 2011                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         

      A SEXTUPLE INCREASE

      LOVING IT

      EINSTEIN’S THEORY OF INTERNET USE

      TWITTER ME THIS

      EQUAL TIME

      FACTOID(S) OF THE WEEK – TV VIEWING

      WORTH NOTING – PEABODYS AND ADVERTISING

 

 

      A SEXTUPLE INCREASE.  Okay, sure, I could have used ‘six fold increase’ but haven’t we always been told that ‘sex sells’ even if the ‘sex’ in this case refers to six.  Anyway, that is the increase in the percentage of Americans using Facebook in just the past three years – from a mere 8% in 2008 to a munificent 51% now, according to The Infinite Dial report by Arbitron and Edison Research.  As amazing as that increase is, equally amazing is the increase in the percentage of Americans using SmartPhones.  That percentage more than doubled in only one year from one in seven (14%) of those 12 and older having a SmartPhone last year to one in three (31%) this year.  At 51%, the percentage of Americans using Facebook constitutes a ‘majority’ for the first time.  Even more interesting, the report notes that the greatest growth has been in the 35 to 54 demographic, so that Facebook “is on a trajectory to become a mainstream media platform.”  Another majority threshold crossed this year is the percentage of American households (also 51%) having two or more computers at home.  Between the computers, radio and television, Americans are spending more time than ever each day with media, with ‘self-reported daily usage’ at 8 hours and 11 minutes.  That’s up 20% over the last decade (from 6 hours and 51 minutes in 2001).  The point is new media usage doesn’t necessarily have to displace old media usage.

      LOVING IT.  And we’re not talking about McDonald’s.  No, we’re talking iPhones and iPads, satellite radio and Pandora.  When it comes to devices, two thirds (66%) of Americans say they “love” their iPhones; more than half (53%) “love” their iPads.  The Android SmartPhones weren’t far behind (49%), nor were regular SmartPhones (48%), or DVR’s (also 48%).  When it comes to media platforms, more than two thirds (39%) “love” satellite radio and an almost equal amount (32%) “love” the Pandora music service.  Not that far behind were Facebook (27%), Television (26%) and YouTube (24%).  The analysts then calculated the percentage of people who “love” a device or medium against the percentage of the U.S. population using the device or medium to come up with what they called “passionate users.”  Using that method, the hands-down winner was Television with a quarter of the U.S. (26%) being “passionate users” followed by AM/FM radio with a fifth (21%).  Further behind were Facebook (14%), YouTube (12%) and, interestingly, (to me at least) Online Video (10%)  But here’s the kicker:  although the Infinite Dial report makes clear that traditional media still holds a dominant and cherished place in Americans’ lives, when given the choice, six out of ten (58%) “non-iPhone” (an important distinction) SmartPhone users would rather give up their TV than their SmartPhone.

      EINSTEIN’S THEORY OF INTERNET USE.  The question is – does faster Internet speed mean more time spent online.  According to a study of nine countries by Nielsen, the answer is a tentative yes.  Those with the slowest speeds tended to spend the least time and those with the fastest speeds spent the most time, but the differences were not that great.  For example, in the U.S., those with the fastest speeds (8 Mbps or more) spent 25 hours, 48 minutes and 11 seconds online, while those with the slowest speeds (512 Kbps or less) spent 25 hours, 33 minutes and 4 seconds online.  The countries with the greatest differences were Australia, the United Kingdom and Spain.  Roughly half (47%) of the Internet connections in the nine countries surveyed are at ‘fast’ speeds (2Mbps to 8Mbps) while a fifth are at the ‘super fast’ rate.  A fourth (26%) are at ‘medium’ speeds (512Kb to 2Mb) and less than a tenth (8%) are at slow speeds  As a footnote, the Internet World Statistics report shows that there are now more than 2 Billion Internet users worldwide.  North America has the highest penetration rate (78.8%), ahead of Europe (58.4%); while Africa has the lowest (11.4%), behind Asia (22.8%)                 

      TWITTER ME THIS.  Just because you have a lot of followers on Twitter doesn’t mean you have a lot of influence, according to a study by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence.  Yes, that is a real honest-to-goodness association.  The study says it is true, and obvious, that the most followed users were public figures, celebrities and major news sources.  Refer back to my previous Messages – the one about Lady Gaga being the top Twitterer with more than 9 Million followers or the one about Charlie Sheen garnering more than 3 Million followers in a short time.  In fact, out of the millions of Twitter users worldwide, the report says there are only 233 of what it called “all time influentials” meaning they have broad impact.  The report also identified ‘topical influentials’ individuals who become major influencers when the topic they focus on becomes the topic of strong news coverage.  The report makes the point that influencers become influencers through “concerted effort (and) great personal involvement (and by) posting creative and interesting tweets.”  As a side note, the Infinite Dial report noted that while 92% of Americans are familiar with Twitter, only eight percent use it.  And as a foot note, to give credit where credit is due, this report was first brought to my attention by the Journalist’s Resource of the Joan Shorenstein Center at Harvard.      

      EQUAL TIME.  The FCC doesn’t mandate equal time provisions in my message, but in the interests of balance, and because many analysts believe the future of media is going to be a battle between Google and Facebook, let me make some points about Google.  First and foremost, and proof, that the search giant is getting ready to take on Facebook, according to many analysts, is that Google has launched its own version of the Facebook “like” button called “+1” – Plus One.  It adds a ‘social layer’ to the search, although the question is what is the social network added, besides the various Google services like Gmail, Talk, Buzz and Reader.  Website SEOchat.com says it is still debatable whether Facebook should be worried.  Google is also getting into the custom publishing business with the launch of its new online magazine, Think.  And although Google still faces an uphill legal battle in its effort to create a worldwide digital library, it has successfully launched its worldwide art project.  And it is ‘way cool.’  Go to googleartproject.com to tour some of the greatest museums in the world and see some of the greatest paintings in the world.  As I say, ‘way cool.’      

BTW X 2:  The Google Plus One service is not yet generally available, but if you want to test it out, go here -- http://www.google.com/experimental/index.html.  Also, an interesting factoid about Facebook.  According to a report by The Daily Telegraph of Australia, quoting Facebook’s chief privacy adviser, the company removes 20,000 users every day who are under the site’s age limit of 13.
 

      FACTOID(S) OF THE WEEK.  According to a release by NielsenWire, the average American watches five hours and 11 minutes of Television a day with African Americans watching more (7 hours and 12 minutes) and Asians watching less (3 hours and 14 minutes).  Whites watch an average of five hours and two minutes while Hispanics average four hours and 35 minutes.  African Americans play video games more (16 minutes a day versus a U.S. average of 13 minutes) and use DVD’s more (18 minutes versus 15 minutes) but Whites make greater user of DVR’s (27 minutes versus an average of 24 minutes).

      WORTH NOTING:  The announcement of the winners of the Peabody Awards has already been covered extensively, but I would be remiss if I did not send out a congratulatory note to the local television stations that won awards for their news reports.  Three of the station winners probably wouldn’t surprise most broadcast journalists – WTHR/ Indianapolis, WFAA/ Dallas, KSTP/ Minneapolis.  All are powerhouse stations with a strong commitment to investigative journalism.  A special congratulations though should go to the surprise winner -- ‘little’ WILL-TV, the Public Broadcasting Station in Champaign/ Central Indiana for their report – “The Lord is not on trial here”, examining the landmark court case about the separation of church and state.  Not anywhere near in the same category, but at least worth noting is the launch of the anchor-less news at KIAH, Houston.

      ALSO NOTEWORTHY:  Especially since it hasn’t been getting that much coverage, is the ‘new approach to television advertising and buying’ by CBS.  In their new model, the standard using demographics of age and sex is thrown out as “essentially invalid,” according to chief CBS Research officer David Poltrack.  Instead they segment the consumers according to viewing habits.  Poltrack says the data shows there is “no link, none” between advertising campaigns targeting specific age and sex groups, and the actual sales generated by such campaigns.    Admittedly, this does not seem like the kind of story normally in the Message, but this is such a radical departure from past practice that it is worth noting.  Now the question is – will the network be able to ‘sell’ their new approach in the face of the long-standing, built-in bias toward demographic data.      

      SUBSCRIPTIONS:  We encourage people to pass on copies of Message from Michael.  But if you would like to get your own copy, you can subscribe by sending an e-mail to Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “subscribe-MM” in the subject line.  If you wish to stop receiving this newsletter, e-mail Michael@MediaConsultant.tv with the word “unsubscribe-MM” in the subject line. Also, back issues of MfM are available at the website, media-consultant.blogspot.com.  You can reach me directly at Michael@MediaConsultant.tv.