10 ways to push messaging platforms beyond their boundaries
Plus Facebook ads, mobile reporting equipment, and more from this month’s mobile lab newsletter — subscribe!
Melody Kramer put together a great list of 10 interesting ways you can use messaging platforms and services to go beyond the basics and extend the medium even further. The list, published by Poynter, includes creative ways other news organizations have used these kinds of platforms, as well as a few ideas of her own. One of the common themes here, among others, seems to be specificity and specialization — pick one thing or subject and do it really, really well.
Click here to read the full story.
Facebook is putting ads everywhere in hopes of finding the next News Feed
Facebook’s nearly ubiquitous and iconic News Feed has been the main money-maker for the company over the last five years. Unfortunately for Facebook, it’s running out of places to put the ads that generate the bulk of that revenue. Kurt Wagner of ReCode says there is simply nowhere else in the News Feed to put them without doing some serious damage to the average user experience, which would also have a negative effect on the company’s revenue. Since it can’t put any more ads in the News Feed, it’s putting them virtually everywhere else in the hopes that doing so will uncover Facebook’s next cash cow.
Click here to read the full story.
Can’t afford professional reporting equipment? Just use your phone.
A new report from the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism has found that interviewees are less intimidated by smaller, hand-held equipment such as mobile phones and are more likely to approach a reporting using a smartphone to report the news than a big TV crew with professional equipment. Finnish journalist Panu Karhunen, the author of the study, conducted a two-pronged investigation into the ways mobile journalism affects accessibility. Caroline Scott of Journalism.co.uk says Karhunen wanted to find out whether journalists can get closer to the story and the subject using mobile technology instead of big, expensive reporting equipment.
Click here to read the full story.
What you really need is a newsletter (not necessarily an app)
According to a new digital news fact sheet released earlier this month by the Pew Research Center, it’s more important for digital publications to have a quality newsletter than it is for them to have a mobile app. Laura Hazard Owen of Nieman Lab says the rate at which digital news outlets are building new apps is slowing, although those numbers do not appear to include mobile-responsive websites. In fact, one of the most prevalent emerging publishing methods was the newsletter. The fact sheet found that a full 97 percent of the news outlets studied offered newsletters, while 92 percent of those studied also maintained an official presence on Apple News.
Click here to read the full story.
Chart of the month:
Upcoming trainings & events:
HOW TO SOLVE LEGAL ISSUES ON SOCIAL MEDIA
Everyone’s a publisher now. Whether your company has a whole social media team or one person with a smart phone, you have to stay within your own lane on the information highway. It’s crucial to understand the dos and don’ts of copyright and libel law before posting. Learn how you can say everything you want and need to say without being exposed to legal risks. This webinar runs on August 16 starting at 1:00pm and costs $39. More info.
MOTION GRAPHICS FOR SOCIAL MEDIA
You’ve seen moving ads on your social media feed. Creating your own well designed animations including text, shape, photos and video is easier to achieve than it appears. Find a way to spice up the campaign for your business, film, nonprofit, or event. The webinar will run on August 30 at 1:00pm and costs $39. More info.
MOBILE MEDIA: PRODUCING VISUAL STORIES WITH YOUR IPHONE
This two-day certificate workshop provides all skills necessary for shooting quality video on your iPhone. We’ll take you through how to capture key moments from events, product launches, conferences and interviews to publishing on social networks or your website. Tuition for this workshop is $865 and it runs on September 27–28 from 8:30am to 4:30pm daily. More info.
BUILD A BOT: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND BOTS FOR NEWS
Come make a Facebook Messenger bot with John Keefe, bot developer and app product manager at Quartz. Class meets Wednesdays, Oct. 25 and Nov. 1 from 6:30 to 9 pm. The cost for this workshop is $249. $199 Early-bird summer deal runs until August 31. More info.
Bots, AI, and messaging apps
- Propaganda bots dominate social networks in some countries by Jon Fingas
- Does AI Enhance Or Replace Human Intelligence In Advertising? by Diaz Nesamoney
- It looks like Google’s voice assistant app is tanking on the iPhone two months after it launched by Jeff Dunn
- Please Prove You’re Not a Robot by Tim Wu
- Pushing messaging platforms beyond their boundaries by Melody Kramer
- Chat app Telegram, not much loved by the Russian government, still attracts a loyal readership for news by Anastasia Valeeva
- Netizen Report: Authorities in China and Indonesia Threaten Whatsapp, Telegram Over Political Content by Global Voices Advocacy Netizen Report Team
- On the heels of its own success, Spain’s Politibot is opening up a chatbot builder for other outlets by Shan Wang
- 5 chat services with the potential to change democracy by Khari Johnson
- Say hi to Sarahah, the anonymous messaging app ruining Snapchat for teens by Rachel Thompson
- Here Are 6 Do’s and Don’ts for Creating Effective Chatbots by Mitul Makadia
Revenue and sustainability
- How blockchain is used in media and advertising by Shareen Pathak
- Accidental Ad-Blocking: The Brand-Safety Snag that Advertisers Can Fixby Tyler Johnson
- How in the World Does Venmo Make Money? by Joe Pinsker
- Five User Requirements for Online Ads by Therese Fessenden
- Google’s new play for mobile ads by Sara Fischer
- ‘There’s a lot more crap than there is premium’: Buyers cast doubts on publishers’ pivot to video by Lucia Moses
- People Have Come Up With A Shameless Way To Generate Massive Video View Counts On Facebook by Craig Silverman
- Advertising Drives Majority Of App Publisher Revenue by Gavin O’Malley
- FaceApp adds paid selfie styling effects by Natasha Jones
- Facebook Wants to Help Brands Tailor Their TV Ads for Mobile by Lauren Johnson
- Six years later, the Financial Times is back in the App Store. (Apple still won’t get a cut of subscriptions.) by Laura Hazard Owen
Innovation and entrepreneurship
- Roku is leading Amazon, Google, and Apple in the media streamer raceby Jeff Dunn
- RJI Fellow expands work on mobile news app for smaller news organizations by Christopher Guess
- With help from local papers, USA Today is boosting the ambition and publishing speed of its VR projects by Ricardo Bilton
- Augmented Reality: Marketing’s Trillion-Dollar Opportunity by Jay Samit
- BuzzFeed’s new audio morning briefing was made for Amazon Alexa by Daniel Funke
- NBC News launches ‘Stay Tuned,’ a twice-daily Snapchat news broadcast by Sarah Perez
- Why assumed knowledge is the ‘enemy of the push alert’ by Molly Long
- We may have seen the future of TV news this week, and we like it by Jefferson Graham
- Otherworld aims to make local news and events relevant through location-based storytelling by Mădălina Ciobanu
- In Remote African Tribes, Mobile Phones Are Amazing Tools, but There’s a Downside by Timothy D. Baird
- The Wall Street Journal tested live push notifications, with some help from the Guardian’s Mobile Lab by Shan Wang
Social tools and platforms
- Is Facebook Ramping Up Its Test of an Explore Feed Alternative News Feed? by David Cohen
- Look out, YouTube and Facebook: Amazon’s coming for video publishers by Sahil Patel
- Snapchat releases Snap Publisher: self-serve ad creation tool converts horizontal videos, websites into vertical video ads by Tim Peterson
- Facebook is putting ads everywhere in hopes of finding the next News Feed by Kurt Wagner
- How to use SEO data in your social media strategy by Jordan Kasteler
- NBC News invents the script for a twice-daily Snapchat news show by Christine Schmidt
- Google introduces the feed, a personalized stream of news on iOS and Android by Casey Newton
- Surprise, Echo Owners, You’re Now Part of Amazon’s Random Social Network by Kashmir Hill
- Chips and Salsa: Using Social Media to Win Young Broadcast News Consumers, and Train Journalists by Rick Brunson
- Snapchat’s super-secret publisher help page by Brian Morrissey
- Twitter plans to shut down SnappyTV in favor of new TV-clipping tool by Sahil Patel
- Facebook has acquired a content rights startup called Source3 to help fight video pirates by Kurt Wagner
- Facebook tries to prove Instant Articles beat mobile web by Josh Constine
- What sort of limited Internet does Facebook’s Free Basics offer? Not much local content, but plenty of corporate services from the U.S. by Shan Wang
- Google Is Developing Technology for Snapchat-Like Media Content by Amol Sharma and Jack Marshall
- Facebook Is Testing a New Way for Users to Connect With Their Elected Officials by David Cohen
- Facebook moves closer to YouTube and TV with new shows, Watch platform by Sahil Patel
- Conde Nast’s Croi McNamara: ‘We’re big YouTube believers’ by Aditi Sangal
- How Top Publishers Are Restoring Trust on Social by Gabriele Boland
Design and development
- The Ethics of Mobile App Design by Angelica Valentine
- Feed your need to know by Shashi Thakur
- Human Technology Teamwork: The Role of Machines and Humans in Good UX Design with Don Norman [VIDEO]
- How app developers can avoid TV’s advertising mistakes by Evan Waters
- How Bibblio Wants to Drain the Swamp of ‘Related Article’ Recommendations by Robbert van der Pluijm
- This Danish startup evolved into a “newsletter company” because that was what its readers wanted by Joseph Lichterman
- Google is testing autoplay videos directly in search results by Samuel Gibbs
- Are Notifications A Dark Pattern? by Andrew Wilshere
- A Quick Guide to Creating a VR Experience by Andrew Coyle
Research and reports
- Report: Are super-short video ads stifling creativity? by David Kirkpatrick
- Mobile journalism helps reporters get closer to the story, new Reuters Institute research finds by Caroline Scott
- What audiences think of journalists’ social media use by Denise-Marie Ordway
- Small Pictures on Big Screens: Scaling Up from Mobile to Desktop by Amy Schade
- Saving Journalism: What Big Media Can Learn from Non-profits by Sam Ford and Jeff Pundyk
Commentary and more
- How CNN told the story of London’s Grenfell Tower fire on mobile platforms by Jessica Davies
- Tech Tools That Increase a Reporter’s Productivity by Erik Sherman
- People who get news from social or search usually don’t remember the news org that published it, survey finds by Joseph Lichterman
- Facebook’s Support for Subscriptions Is a Double-Edged Sword by Mathew Ingram
- Public Service Announcement: You Should Not Force Quit Apps on iOSby John Gruber
- Here’s how to protect your mobile phone by David P. Willis
- Google’s New News Feed Is Scary-Good at Personalization by Will Oremus
- How Flipboard pivoted to mobile at an opportune time by Sara Fischer
- Turn off your push notifications. All of them. by David Pierce
- Nielsen Adds YouTube and Hulu Skinny Bundles to Traditional TV Ratingby Alexandra Bruell
- Facebook worker living in garage to Zuckerberg: challenges are right outside your door by Julia Carrie Wong
- How to Teach Facebook Live in the Classroom by Chandra Clark
- In 2017, the one thing every digital-native news outlet needs is a newsletter (not an app) by Laura Hazard Owen
- We’re in the early stages of a visual revolution in journalism by Cory Haik
The Center for Cooperative Media will curate information about our efforts and the work of our grantees, along with relevant industry trends via this monthly newsletter, the contents of which will also be published on the NJ Mobile News Lab blog.
