On the Media: Imagine That

In the "On the Media" podcast episode entitled "Imagine That," the hosts reflect on how the media got the idea of a Trump presidency so wrong. On of the most interesting points of the podcast was the fact that the President's real power lies in rhetoric. There's an intricate system of checks and balances in place to make sure the commander in chief can't get too powerful. Becasue of this, the hosts of "On the Media" said that Trump will mostly be running into dead ends to accomplish what he wants to accomplish and will be instead spending his time blaming the media and others for his shortcomings.

The media was so sure that the GOP nominee would be someone like Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio. But because the dismissed the even idea of Trump being president, that allowed material for Trump to build on. Now that Trump is president, the media is trying to figure out what happened. While it's very possible that fake news may have contributed to the rise of Trump, if the media had treated Trump like any other presidential candidate and not reported on him every time he made a crazy comment or criticized someone on Twitter, Trump wouldn't have gotten the attention that allowed him to ride the wave to the presidency.

Now that Trump will be president, we have to start treating him differently. If the media continues to  give him attention for saying outlandish things, Trump will continue to be able to blame the media for his mishaps. If the media goes forward in 2017 and reports on Trump's specific policies instead of finding the sensational headlines for Trump, Trump will begin to lose the attention he thrives on. By media taking a back seat and doing less of what it does best - generating clicks- this Trump phenomenon will move on like a bad dream come 2020, or even sooner.

UPDATE on Facebook Campaign

So on Wednesday, Dec. 7, I experimented with yet another type of video. I did a Facebook Live video of my morning newscast. This video generated substantially more engagement than any other post during my campaign.

Looking at the statistics, I was first surprised to see so many unique viewers. While it's true that most people didn't watch the video for longer than 15 seconds, it was great to get so many viewers. According to Insights, this post reached 605 people so far, which is a far cry from the 82 followers I have on my Facebook page right now. This is clear to me that Facebook is promoting Live videos much more than regular videos. This will be something I try more of in the future because of how much engagement it received relative to everything else on my page. 

My Campaign: Spencer Ricks, Journalist

I learned a lot about how to promote and market myself while starting and managing my Facebook page: "Spencer Ricks, Journalist." I started it with the intent to showcase my work as a journalist and show a "behind-the-scenes" look at being a journalist. Ideally, I would have started it sooner so I have more of a track record on it. But none the less, I will continue to post on it in the future and maintain the page with content.

I've experimented posting links to my articles, videos, and pictures. But my posts definately got the most engagement when I posted relevant, dramatic, or "breaking news" content. The number one post on my page for engagement was one about a death on campus:

The second most engaged with post was a helpful piece for students about a carshare program on campus:

And finally, my third most popular post was a picture of myself filming a football game: 

Because a lot of my audience was my friends and family, pictures of myself were usually pretty popular. But the helpful articles for students and the dramatic, breaking news story was the ones that got the most engagement. Knowing this, I would have focused more on posting dramatic, eye-catching stories. Because these types of stories are somewhat rare for me to cover at Dixie State University, it could have come down to bland headlines for the rest of my articles. 

I was thinking my videos would get a lot of engagement. I posted five videos, three of which were very different in nature. I posted two Snapchat videos, two edited "Radio Dixie 913" news-shorts videos, and one time-lapse video of me editing my radio newscasts. However, even though these videos took the most amount of work to produce and post, they were some of the least viewed posts on my page. In the future, to increase engagement with videos on my page, I would have experimented with more variety with videos, including with length. I am also planning on testing out a Facebook Live video on my page soon.

I will definitely be continuing to post on my Facebook page in the future. All in all, I had 41 posts on my page since August, which isn't near as many as I would have liked. Looking back, I would have posted something on my page every day so I can keep my audience in the loop. I would have also liked to advertise my page if I had the funds so I could reach a bigger audience than just my friends and family.   

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Well Informed: Implicit Bias test

I took the Harvard Implicit Bias test on Male and Female words with Career and Family. My result somewhat surprised me, because it's not the way I would have previously categorized myself. My result was this: "Your data suggest a strong automatic association for Male with Career and Female with Family."

Even though I work with several females and I have no problem with women working, I was raised in a traditional conservative home where my father worked and my mother stayed home, which is probably where my implicit bias came from. 

However, despite this revelation of my implicit bias, it does not mean I can't choose to look past it. While the test indicated that I have a "strong automatic" implicit bias against women with careers, I laud women in the workplace and I personally believe we'd have a lot less problems as a world if we had more women leaders. This is part of the reason I voted for Hillary Clinton. Some of my political heroes are women like Margaret Thatcher and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. 

It's no secret America as a whole has a implicit bias to women in the workplace. With American women only being paid 80 percent of what men of the same occupation are being paid, the U.S. is ranked as the 47th best country for women to work. Those are embarrassing statistics. But it is a problem that is fixable. 

After the genocide in Uganda, it was a tough time to be a woman in that country because of all the violence and extremely conservative views on women's role in the workplace and in in government. Women didn't even have the right to vote in Uganda before 1980. Since then, laws were signed to give more rights to women in Uganda and increase diversity in the government. Long story short, women now make up 35 percent of Uganda's parliament. 

If Uganda can turn on a dime and allow so many new opportunities to women in such a short amount of time, the U.S. can do the same. It would take passing policies like placing a minimum on the amount of women who are to serve in government positions, and enacting laws to enforce workplace diversity. It would take some time, but I believe the U.S. can move toward reducing this implicit bias against women in careers that I have, according to the implicit bias test. 

On the Media: Unreal

The top story in this week's "On the Media" was about Steve Bannon's rise to power in the media world with Breitbart News. Knowing it's strong right-wing slant, it has been easy for me lately to disavow any article posted on social media from Breitbart News. However, this story about the history of Breitbart News and how it's shaped politics in this last election was eye-opening to me. 

Breitbart News, while openly an ultra-conservative news site, is not one of the websites that is known for perpetrating fake news. The podcast episode talked about how Steve Bannon started Breitbart News after being frustrated with the "mainstream media's" reluctance to cover any corruption claims with the Clinton's during Bill Clinton's presidency. There were lots of conspiracy theories and opinions about how the Clintons were corrupt and mishandling money, but through Breitbart News, Steve Bannon started a platform to investigate the stories about the Clintons. 

Eventually, according to the podcast, Breitbart News became an avenue for legitimate journalists at bigger "mainstream media" newspapers to learn and also investigate the stories about the Clintons. 

Breitbart News now touts itself as being a place to show the hypocrisy in the media and in politics. While Breitbart often uses exaggerated click-bait headlines and content to attract alt-right readers, most if not all of their stories are based on fact, which is still commendable at this time while social media is being pummelled by outright fake news right now. 

The podcasters interviewed Josh Green, who covers politics for Bloomberg News. In October 2015, Green wrote an article on Bloomberg News about Steve Bannon entitled "This Man Is the Most Dangerous Political Operative in America." Long before Bannon was a household name like it now, Green wrote about the history of Bannon and why he's so dangerous to the fabric of "mainstream" American politics and the establishment.

In his article, Green writes: 

"To succeed, Bannon will need to activate the anger and disgust with cronyism that’s as powerful among supporters of Sanders as it is among fans of Trump. In Tallahassee, as GAI’s phone keeps ringing, the vehicle for achieving this is clear. Editors and reporters at prominent magazines and newspapers, including ones that had passed when approached with Clinton Cash revelations, are calling to ask when the next salvo will arrive—and might they arrange an exclusive?For many, the answer will be yes. 
'We’re going to go to the investigative units, not the political reporters, and just give them the stuff,' says Bannon. 'We have faith they’ll take the stories and do the additional reporting.'"  

Steve Bannon has launched a war on the establishment and by investigating the "conspiracy theory" stories about the Clintons, Jeb Bush, and the other former establishment juggernauts. By giving this content to the investigative journalists, Bannon has hurt the establishment far more than any attacks from political opponents could do.

Bannon, through Breitbart News, is part of the reason Donald Trump is now the President-elect because of this slam campaign against the establishment he's achieved from harnessing the anger from working-class white America.

 

Facebook page insights

Here are the insights for my most recent posts on my facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/spencerricksnews/