News At The Speed Of Internet

On Twitter itself I saw someone complain Fox News and CNN had dropped the ball. I guess he was expecting them to have crews standing by in Tallahassee in case anything ever happened at midnight.

There’s a new boss in breaking news.

CNN is on with news from Tallahassee. People have been shot in the FSU library.

CNN didn’t break this story. I first got the news on Twitter. That’s becoming more rule than exception.

FSUShootingInternal640Florida State’s original tweet about a DANGEROUS SITUATION caught fire! News like this explodes through social media. It becomes unavoidable.

Meanwhile, it’s still the traditional news sources we turn to once we get the tipoff. That’s why the TV went on. But their resources pale in comparison to crowd sourcing. Right now it’s social media CNN is relying on!

I saw someone complain Fox News and CNN had dropped the ball. I guess he was expecting them to have crews standing by in Tallahassee in case anything ever happened at midnight.

There’s a new boss in breaking news.

When Companies Shift The Burden To Their Customers

att-u-verse-logo-600x400Having a blog allows me to kvetch, even about small things… like what happened this morning.

My experience was shared by many. Consider this a class action kvetch. I represent the thousands, possibly millions, affected by today’s nationwide outage on AT&T U-verse.

My local TV stations remained. Everything else disappeared. I didn’t know that at the time.

The tuner was set to 1202, CNN. Black. I tuned up a few. I tuned down a few. Nothing. The channel number and program synopsis was still there. No program.

Downstairs, Helaine was watching GMA on 1007, KABC. She was problem free.

Both our cable boxes were acting the same way, but because I didn’t tune a few hundred channels down I didn’t know it! Just enough knowledge to be dangerous.

I rebooted the cable box. The box must be the problem, right?

I did this three times. No change.

There was nothing on AT&T’s site, nor on their social media accounts. Later, I realize this was because they were maintaining ‘radio silence.’ They were getting tons of complaints and not responding.

All signs I could grasp pointed to a problem in my house. But I was being gnawed at. My logical computer mind was bothered by the way the signal died. It didn’t fit. The problem didn’t correlate with the box’s internal hardware.

I rebooted the hub. AT&T sends channels to my individual cable boxes via IP. It’s just data. I have one TV with a WiFi box and three connected via Ethernet. And, of course, there are computers and phones and printers and tablets and who-knows-what connected too!

Rebooting the hub meant stopping Internet and TV throughout the house. Didn’t help.

I tried calling the AT&T phone line. Fast busy. A fast busy indicates the circuit, rather than an individual line, is busy. Probably call volume.

That was actually reassuring! Maybe I wasn’t alone?

I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck. Cable has gone down before. I started doing deeper searches.

No news organization had picked up on it. I did a Twitter search for people tweeting to Uverse. Bingo. My story, a thousand times.

I tipped off @LanceUlanoff at Mashable

When reached for comment, an AT&T spokesperson explained the outage, “Due to a power-related issue triggered by a third-party at our video hub, U-verse customers may be experiencing a loss of national channels. Technicians are working to resolve the issue and we expect to have service fully restored by early afternoon. We apologize for this inconvenience.”

By keeping off social media and failing to post something on the company’s website, AT&T hoped to keep this quiet. They mostly did.

However, they shifted a real burden to their customers. My troubleshooting time might not be individually valuable, but multiply it by all the people who did just what I did and we’re talking big numbers.

I understand there will be glitches. I still consider the service reliable. The bone I pick has to do with 21st Century communications.

AT&T valued their own concerns over mine.

If you’re wondering why customers sometimes dislike companies, here you go.

How Facebook And Twitter Differ For Me

twitter logoI use Twitter and Facebook differently. Facebook has conversations. Twitter is more a shout into the darkness.

I follow interesting people on Twitter. Some are funny. Some are profane. A few are silly.

Each describes himself in a self written mini bio.

@KevinSpacey
Former shoe salesman now making a go at film and theater. Wish me luck…

@TheEllenShow
Comedian, talk show host and ice road trucker. My tweets are real, and they’re spectacular.

@pattonoswalt
Mr. Oswalt is a former wedding deejay from Northern Virginia.

@ElaineStritch
Legend, Hat aficionado, Lady who Lunched

@bobsaget
I like long walks on the beach…and then to be dragged through the sand by an off-road vehicle, and then hurled off a catapult.

@StephenKing
Author

@HillaryClinton
Wife, mom, lawyer, women & kids advocate, FLOAR, FLOTUS, US Senator, SecState, author, dog owner, hair icon, pantsuit aficionado, glass ceiling cracker, TBD…

@jeffgarlin
comedic person of some notoriety

@Jeff_Daniels
Professional Pretender

Not all of them are active tweeters. I just like them in my eclectic mix. Clever people. The world in 140 characters.

Breaking news shows up on Twitter faster than any other source. That’s correct whether the rumor is true or false!

The response I get on Facebook dwarfs what I get from Twitter. Still learning.

The Oscars As A Synergistic Social Media Triumph

oscar selife

Did you watch the Oscars? We did. I suspect numbers will be up this year. It has little to do with Ellen’s performance or anything on-the-show, though she and it were very entertaining.

The Oscars has written the playbook on leveraging social media. It is the synergistic wunderkind! Truly a two screen show.

If you’re on Twitter you can’t not watch the Academy Awards. It our common experience. We’re watching TV together as a family. Welcome back to the sixties.

Of course the Oscar telecast has to bring something to this stew. It’s live. It’s unpredictable. It’s enthusiastically embraced its marriage with the second screen.

Don’t underestimate that last move. Few have done it as effectively or with the ease shown by Ellen tonight.

There were Twitter references everywhere. Ellen set up the selfie you see atop this entry during the show.

Long before midnight Sunday, the photo had been retweeted more than 2 million times, breaking a record set by President Barack Obama with the picture of him hugging First Lady Michelle Obama after his re-election in 2012. Twitter also sent out an apology because all of the retweeting disrupted service for more than 20 minutes after 10 p.m. ET. – AP via npr.org

She took another with Liza Minnelli. And then there was the (real) pizza oscar pizza guydelivery guy. It’s a good night to be @BigMamasNPapas.

My last few years in TV saw a push to engage viewers via social media. We were trying to make you more ‘sticky.’

The fact I have so many followers on Facebook and Twitter speaks to my belief in that. We never did it this effectively.

Has anyone?

Bad Night For Reddit

reddit_logo

I didn’t get to bed until 5:00 AM. Most of the night was spent watching screens. WCVB’s streaming video was full screen on one computer monitor. A second screen scoured text based sites like Boston.com, NYTimes.com, Twitter.com and Reddit.com. A TV across the way grazed between MSNBC, CNN and Fox.

Reddit was particularly interesting because of a feeding frenzy surrounding their discovery of the identity of the two suspects in the Patriots’ Day bombing. Reddit’s discovery was made without police or help from old line media. It was an air tight discovery, supported by statements from people who had gone to school with one of the suspects.

Unfortunately, it was wrong. It was totally wrong. It was cruelly wrong.

Reddit fingered a missing Brown University student named Sunil Tripathi.

Imagine the grief this wildly speculative and vindictive coverage caused the Tripathi family, already wondering where their son was.

Journalists aren’t perfect. CNN’s John King can teach a graduate level course on that.

Traditional media doesn’t get a pass, but normally shows restraint–much of which you never see. Restraint was evident in every newsroom I worked in. We always ‘knew’ more than we said. We always waited to be sure. Someone was always there to say, “Not yet.”

I’m a Reddit fan. I go there many times every day. I consider it a great tech source. However, what went down on Reddit was no better than a 21st Century lynch mob!

In this instant info world we need to be extra diligent. Diligence is in short supply with self edited social media.

We need more caution. There are real people and families behind these names.

What I Know About Social Media

Are you on Facebook or Twitter? Me too. I enjoy the interplay.

It’s part of my job too. My bosses don’t require me to do what I do, but it’s necessary for people on TV. It is, TV people in denial.

I’m lucky. I was on TV when you had fewer choices and we had larger audiences.

Even if you don’t watch every day, if you live in Connecticut you probably know who I am. That’s much less likely to happen for someone starting today.

Will social media get you to watch me more often? Who knows? I’ve heard both sides from people I respect. All I can do is hope you will watch FoxCT when you can. That’s my hardest sell.

There’s a line I use when I give a speech. It’s told as a joke, but over the long run it’s true: I’m paid by the viewer.

Facebook has made itself difficult for me! They limit the number of friends I can have! If you try and ‘friend’ me on my original “Geoff Fox” page you’ll get a note back from Facebook saying, “Negatory, good buddy.”

Because of that I started the Fox on Fox page (which you really should like).

Both run similar posts and pictures. Both are as open and accessible as I can make them. Non-friends can reply and comment, but I don’t get to stalk your photos. Totally unfair!

I have buried the lede. The reason I’m writing this is to talk about reach. I’m am on short term disability from work. You haven’t seen me on TV in a month.

During the last week my Fox on Fox Facebook page reached 8,740 people. 6,960 like the page. They have between them 1,376,981 friends! I have no idea what value that stat holds.

Last week my blog had 8,665 visits from 5,239 unique computers. They read 11,771 pages.

Stats aren’t available for the Geoff Fox Facebook page. I won’t even venture a guess what the traffic is, but I have 4,713 friends and another 2,854 who subscribe to my feed.

Then there’s Twitter. 3,540 followers there. Who knows how many are real or even read my tweets. I get much less 2-way involvement on Twitter.

These numbers are surprising. I’d never tallied them before. Even off-the-air I can now reach tens of thousands of people. That’s never been the case for individuals before.

Stormy Saturday

Social media is a real puzzle for old school media like FoxCT. If we satisfy people on Twitter or Facebook, where we make no money, will they stop coming to the TV station? That’s no trivial matter!

This has been an interesting weather day in Connecticut. Severe Weather, well forecast over the last few days, headed in.

I’m still stuck at home, but I had a text conversation early this afternoon with Dan Amarante at FoxCT. He was getting ready for a busy day and lots of cut-ins.

“I will handle Twitter,” I typed.

Social media is a real puzzle for old school media like FoxCT. If we satisfy people on Twitter or Facebook, where we make no money, will they stop coming to the TV station? That’s no trivial matter!

The prevailing wisdom is by engaging our audience on a variety of platforms you will come back to the mothership for your TV news viewing. That might be 100% wrong. I don’t think anyone really knows.

I started posting on my Twitter and Facebook accounts, the Fox On Fox page and @WeatherCT Twitter account.

The amount of data available at home is amazing. Radar, surface obs, computer guidance — yup. I even have an account on the Weather Service’s chat server. It is surprisingly valuable. Most of our competitors aren’t using it. They should.

The watches and warnings for Connecticut come from three Weather Service Offices and the Storm Prediction Center. It’s days like this where the lack of coordination between offices becomes a problem. Warnings artificially end where an office’s jurisdiction ends, even if it should extend farther.

I tried my best to relay them as quickly as possible. Living in a 140 character world is tough.

No tornadoes in Connecticut, though two were confirmed in New York City close to the Belt Parkway and JFK. Very unusual.

We had seven reports of significant weather related damage in Connecticut, though most people saw nothing worse than lightning and sporadic heavy rain.

On Twitter someone asked, “Do you get paid to do that?”

No. It’s just what I do.

Last Night’s Quake: It’s Tougher To Disregard Twitter

Not a TV network, not a newspaper, not a wire service, I found out on Twitter from Sean Percival (@Percival) who I follow, though I forget why!

Computers do a great job of keeping records. That’s why I know it was 2:27 AM EDT when I sent,

Seeing tweets from SoCal of possible earthquake. Nothing on USGS site yet.

Not a TV network, not a newspaper, not a wire service, I found out on Twitter from Sean Percival (@Percival) who I follow, though I forget why!

Quake?

That’ll get your attention.

Next up was Ken Levine (@KenLevine), baseball broadcaster, former disk jockey (he was radio’s Beaver Cleaver), Emmy award winning writer for M*A*S*H and other shows.

Might have felt an aftershock. Since I don’t have THX and even if I did, the TV was off. I’m guessing aftershock.

By this time USGS’s automated system had spit out a series of web pages. It was listed at magnitude 4.4 (since revised to 4.5) in Yorba Linda, home of the Richard Nixon Presidential Library, in the OC.

The quake took place at 2:23:34 EDT. Percival’s tweet is time stamped 2:24!

USGS doesn’t predict quakes, but they do predict damage! A computer model, PAGER (Prompt Assessment of Global Earthquakes for Response) quickly assessed the situation. There was some worry, but not much. There was a 65% probability damage would be under $1 million, 95% it would be under $10 million.

Calculations for loss of life were similar. PAGER calculated a 76% chance of one fatality of less, 100% fewer than ten would die.

This time of day the cable news networks were rerunning their primetime lineup. Nothing. Even when Fox News cut-in for a scheduled live brief, nothing!

At 2:43 AM EDT I tweeted,

Fox News does live news update and doesn’t include quake. Seriously? Back to recorded stuff.

As was the case when Sully landed in the Hudson and with much of the Arab Spring, Twitter was there first. Studio based news wasn’t there at all!

I spoke with my Hollywood based daughter a few minutes ago. She and Roxie were on the floor when the earth moved. She felt it! Her first. If Roxie felt it she showed no signs.

Stef felt an aftershock (aka – another earthquake) within the last half hour.

How Social Media Scratches An Itch

Rick Springfield is taking advantage of social media. He is keeping his fans energized. This is promotion in the 21st Century and pity the performer who doesn’t embrace it!

One of my Facebook friends recently told me about a similar online gig for Thirty Seconds to Mars. The Leto Brothers get it.

Helaine is sitting on the other side of the sofa. Her laptop is on. She’s watching a live Q&A session featuring Rick Springfield. He is relaxed and funny. From time-to-time he punctuates an answer by picking up his acoustic guitar and playing a snippet.

For a dedicated Rick Springfield fan like my wife&#185 this is nirvana. This online appearance coincides with Springfield’s annual three day concert series in Milwaukee.

Why Milwaukee? Who knows. Some things you just have to take on faith.

Rick Springfield is taking advantage of social media. He is keeping his fans energized. This is promotion in the 21st Century and pity the performer who doesn’t embrace it!

One of my Facebook friends recently told me about a similar online gig for Thirty Seconds to Mars. The Leto Brothers get it.

From KROQ: In order to get fans fired up about the new album, the band will invite people for a sneak peak into their studio, April 27th for a live webcast. The digital presentation will include a live performance, preview of their live tour film, sneak peek of their documentary film ARTIFACT, and a discussion with the band.

I follow Howie Mandel on Twitter. He might be the best at leveraging his flock. Whenever Howie has a show (live or TV) he chats it up on Twitter. Often his mentions come as replies to questions from fans. Smart.

Howie Mandel ‏@howiemmandel
Ok RT @BethHaven: @howiemmandel: can I get a rt? We are spending the night with u 2morrow in aberedeen wa

Helaine says Kathy Griffin is terrific with this too. I’ll have to follow her.

The conventional methods of promotion are fading. Fewer people listen to radio, watch TV, read newspapers and magazines. The best way to maintain and build is to engage… maybe the only way.

I have friends on-the-air who are unable or unwilling to reach out like this. I don’t think we have a choice anymore.

&#185 – I sometimes ask her how things are in the Rickdom. She doesn’t appreciate that.

The Media Overvalues Twitter

The discussion framed Twitter as a place for political discourse. Maybe it is, but that’s a minor piece of what Twitter is.

I embrace social media. I am on Facebook. I am on Google+. I am on Twitter. Of those three the most misunderstood and incorrectly valued by the press is Twitter.

Today Howard Kurtz interviewed Jeff Jarvis on CNN’s Reliable Sources&#185. They discussed a Jarvis originated tweet with the hashtag #f*ckwashington. (The original didn’t have an asterisk and it’s sort of juvenile that I choose to use it since you all knowthe actual word anyway.)

The discussion framed Twitter as a place for political discourse. Maybe it is, but that’s a minor piece of what Twitter is and unless you know what you’re looking for beforehand politics is impossible to stumble upon.

I have a few special Twitter searches set up on my computers. They’re not looking for keywords. They’re looking for people within a specific geographic region. There’s one centered on a 15 mile circle around New Haven. Another does the same for Hartford.

My original thought was locals would tip me off when something was going on in either place. It works sometimes–not dependably. Most time it’s worthless.

Having this localized firehose of messages lets me see tweets without worrying if they’re sent by people I care about. There’s no concern over the subject matter either. Not all tweets are geotagged yet, but if it’s sent near New Haven or near Hartford there’s a chance it gets to my screen.

New Haven has Yale University. Hartford is the state capitol. You would expect some political talk and smart discussions. And yet I rarely see political or learned tweets! They are a rarity.

Here’s a brief sample received within the last few minutes:

  • Damn, tht was short lived smh oh well. Better luck next time
  • I should brought some weed for this car ride #DecisionsRegreted
  • @Liana_Gianna Yeayeayea, I wass likee ahaa oh heyy lianaa.

You get the idea.

This is not to say there aren’t valuable tweets. They’re just tough to find in all the noise.

The people you want to hear from are already writing elsewhere… and not limited to 140 characters. I continue to come back to Twitter, but sometimes wonder why?

&#185 – CNN’s Reliable Sources hosted by Kurtz examines the media and its role in news and society.

The Nigerian Scams Come To Facebook Email

If Facebook is going to get into messaging in a big way as they said last week they need to stop these scams before they hit my inbox. The legacy email providers have already learned how.

I got a Facebook email from Jonas Ugwudekede today. Well, that’s what the return address said. The email was ‘signed’ by Kyrian Madunagu and included a ‘real world’ email link with yet another name. It makes no difference. Most likely none is the real name of the person who sent it.

Though the email offers $40,000,000 the sender really wants to extract cash from me. It’s a ‘419’ or advanced fee scam. Ground zero for these is assumed to be Nigeria. The scam itself is actually older than the Internet! These things used to come via snail mail.

This is the first time I’ve gotten a ‘419’ via Facebook.

To the scammer knowing my Facebook name is more valuable than knowing my regular email address. Facebook has some personal information and links to my friends you can’t easily get elsewhere.

If Facebook is going to get into messaging in a big way as they said last week they need to stop these scams before they hit my inbox. The legacy email providers have already learned how. For Facebook to have any credibility they’ve got to step up too… right now.

Embracing What We’d Formerly Hide

Because of social media, things like Facebook, Twitter and even this blog, viewers are drawn behind-the-curtain into what we’re doing.

At the TV station we’ve changed our our shape, our look and our name. Our newscasts, now 16:9 on a mainly red accented set and with bolder graphics, are called News 8.

I’ve been through these format changes before. You move on and forget the old. In fact the old is never mentioned.

That’s changed.

Because of social media, things like Facebook, Twitter and even this blog, viewers are drawn behind-the-curtain into what we’re doing. It’s totally unexpected by me. I’ll bet it’s unexpected by my bosses too.

Someone’s been posting to Twitter photos of our logo appearing on-air. A few of our staffers joked on Facebook about anchors (now including me) reverting to our old name. Our viewers are following the conversation and joining in.

For the station it’s probably a good thing. Viewer involvement builds brand loyalty.

But who knew? Who expected this? Not me. It’s a new world.

Should I Care About Letterman? I Do

It was obvious the audience was also caught off guard. They didn’t seem to get the drift of what he was saying.

“I’m glad you folks are here tonight, and I’m glad you folks are in such a pleasant mood, because I have a story I’d like to tell you and the home viewers as well.” – David Letterman

letterman-ticket.jpgI rushed home and quickly turned on the TV. I wanted to watch David Letterman’s mea culpa. I am not proud this was must see TV.

A few quick notes. The Letterman extortion story exploded because of the Internet and social media. It wasn’t long after Letterman’s audience exited the Ed Sullivan Theater that the twittering began. Though Letterman was mum the accused perp’s name surfaced by 11:00p and his CBS News affiliation a few minutes later.

Social media led mainstream media by a mile. The Washington Post/CNN’s Howard Kurtz is a perfect example of the new pecking order.

“Weird: I tweeted, Anderson Cooper’s person saw it, seconds later I’m phoning in to CNN on the Letterman affair(s). Talk about Twitter power” – Howard Kurtz via Twitter

I’m a big Letterman fan and have been for nearly 30 years. I watched his confession tonight–that’s what it was.

I knew Dave was a flawed man, but this wasn’t a flaw I’d expected. My assumption was his shortcomings were beyond his control. This decidedly is not.

It was obvious the audience was caught off guard. There was no context so they originally felt Dave was setting up some bit. They didn’t get the drift of what he was saying. More than once there was awkward silence as they grasped to understand what was unfolding. They would have benefited by being pre-tweeted.

I wish I knew if tonight’s revelations would affect my ongoing viewing or even my opinion of Letterman in general. Though disappointing, these affairs of his aren’t at the Polanski level nor what suspect was Michael Jackson’s dysfunctional worst. I still enjoy Woody Allen movies and he’s been pretty skeevy as an adult.

I am conflicted. My opinion will certainly be swayed by the opinions of others.

Why should I care anyway? But I do.