fastcompany:
How a culture of creative collaboration has helped the company maintain its brand voice amid rapid growth.
The last two years have seen Vice’s (vicenews) growth go into hyperdrive. Such rapid expansion is a strain on any company’s culture, and when your brand has been so inextricably tied to the young, cool and dangerous, flirting with Rupert Murdoch could put a serious cramp in your style. But after 20 years catering to the tastes of youth culture, Vice has arguably held on to its brand and identity, something it sees as its most valuable asset. In fact, in many ways, the edges have been sharpened—see projects like its recent, much-discussed five-part documentary providing an unprecedented look inside terrorist group ISIS. As chief creative officer Eddy Moretti has said, despite its sizable audience and ability to monetize, “the only thing we really have at the end of the day is our brand, if we screw that up we have nothing.”
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“Some would say that we’ve crossed the threshold of photos being too abundant,” says Jurgenson, who’s now a researcher at Snapchat. “[Years ago] if you saw someone taking a photo you’d stop and say ‘That must be important.’ Now, you convey respect and importance by not taking a photo.”
– We are all Glassholes now | The Verge (via nathanjurgenson)
pewresearch:
This week’s news: 31% of public say they closely followed reports about Gaza. Did you?
“Social media has put the propaganda war on steroids. You’re seeing anger and frustration, you’re seeing sorrow and empathy, and you’re also seeing a wide currency of videos, photos, infographics, emergent hashtags, memes.You read over-triumphalist accounts. It can almost sound like they’re rooting for different sports teams, and cheering their side on. That’s very different from the actual suffering that’s going on.”
–
“In Gaza, Epithets are Fired and Euphemisms give shelter”
William Youmans, via The New York Times
futurejournalismproject:
Who Owns Media (US Edition)
Via Gizmodo, which also includes graphics on what brands own what consumer goods, consolidation in financial markets, what auto makers own what cars, and what breweries make what beer… which is important.
Images: Studios and media companies (top), and TV stations (bottom). Select to embiggen.
Those picking up the print issue of The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday morning were greeted by a paper from another era.
“The bull market of 1885 began July 2, with the average price of 12 active stocks 61.49,” reads the first sentence of the top story on the front page. “The rise culminated May 18, 1887, with the same twelve stocks selling at 93.27.”
The Journal marked its 125th anniversary on Tuesday by re-issuing the cover of its first issue from July 8, 1889, along with a helpful guide underneath explaining the ancient headlines. Read more…
barthel:
This continued depiction has, I think, some real-world consequences. Salon’s Andrew Leonard
pointed out that, during the Boston crisis last week, a lot of people on Twitter referred to journalistic snafus by referencing Aaron Sorkin’s The Newsroom — despite the fact that the show has been panned and mocked to a fare-thee-well. Though we may not like the show, its wide visibility and availability as a shared reference has made it the focal point through which we see of the press’ difficulty in balancing speed and accuracy, even though that subject is hardly new. I think Leonard is right, but I’d make one annotation: the people on Twitter making this comparison were, I think, mostly journalists. Media people are thinking of themselves and their profession through these fictional depictions. And they’re almost entirely negative.
Wrote about how most fictional journalists have no redeeming qualities and how this might affect journalists’ self-perception and perception of the news audience.
“I just walked a Pulitzer prize winner through the process of making a tweet.”
– Overheard in the newsroom (via thechicagotribune)
