ABC News Joins With Facebook

ABC News has noticed that Facebook is a huge social networking site that attracts millions of people from the younger generation. Therefore, ABC News has elected to establish a partnership with Facebook that allows its members to electronically follow ABC reporters, view reports and video and participate in polls and debates. The two organizations plan to sponsor both the Democratic and Republican presidential debates in New Hampshire on January 5th. The announcement is a sign that news organizations are beginning to notice and attempting to capitalize on the power of Facebook and other social networking sites. Media companies like The New York Times and The Washington Post have produced pages to put on Facebook and some newspapers, magazines and television stations have invited users to join special pages that are also set up to follow political coverage. David Westin, president of ABC News, has noticed that debates are going on Facebook all the time. This new collaboration allows ABC News to follow and participate in these debates by providing information and gathering information as well. Facebook members used to only be able to send an email to a generic ABC News email address if they wanted to make a comment. Now, they can send private messages or post directly on an ABC News reporter's wall and reporters can engage in conversations with members. This seems to be an intelligent investment; Eloise Harper, an off-air reporter, used a digital camera to record a 50-second clip of flags falling down behind Hillary Rodham Clinton at a campaign appearance in Iowa. The clip has been viewed over 350,000 times on ABCNews.com and Facebook.

This article reminded me of Chapter 10 when we talked about how news must have an impact on its target audience. We also talked about how people over 30 follow the news more than people under 30 and young people are most likely to get their news online. In recent years, news organizations have had a difficult time attracting the attention of adolescents and young adults, especially in political matters. But news organizations have figured out that one of the most widely used mediums in the younger generation's world is friendship databases like Facebook. I am certain that presidential candidates such as Barack Obama and John Edwards agree with this collaboration because it brings their name to young adult's attention more than it would have been if just mentioned on the 5 o'clock news. If news organizations want to hear the input of younger people in political matters or even bring important issues to our attention, there is no better way to do so then bringing it to our attention when we log into Facebook. From reading this article, I learned that news organizations take into account the opinion's of the younger generation more than I thought they would have. I am happy to see that organizations like ABC News are starting to realize that people my age don't commonly sit down and watch the evening news, and putting political issues somewhere that we are actually going to see it (the home page on Facebook) is a much more logical way to present information to us.

The Article

The Zune

INFORMATION:
Product: The Zune
Parent Company: Microsoft Corporation

Year of the Ad: 2007
Agency that Helped Produce the Ad: McCann-Erickson
Where I Found This Information: Research on Google
Program That Ad Ran On: I'm sure this ad has run on many programs but I saw it while watching "A Shot at Love with Tila Tequila" on MTV.


Q&A:

I enjoyed this ad because I am a big fan of music and I always love commercials about products that allow us to listen to great tunes. This particular commercial had a very surreal and psychedelic aura to it and some of the places the man in the commercial traveled to just because he listened to the Zune were very complex and entertaining. This ad gets your attention because experiences like jumping from a lively mountain of human beings onto a trampoline that shatters into a million pixels of an ice cream cone are not obtainable for the common man but sound like a lot of fun. The ad is effective because most people enjoy relaxing on their couch with a pair of headphones blasting their favorite song but would definitely enjoy being swept into a dreamlike world with their favorite song playing in the background. Entertainment is definitely used in this ad because reality does not give you the same kind of unique pleasures to the eye. For example, Microsoft is telling us that a person who does not own the Zune would never be able to climb into the ear of a giant statue only to be greeted by flying musical notes. Puffery is also utilized because most people realize that simply listening to a Zune will not literally suck you through the screen into a fantasy-like world. The ad is selling an experience unlike any other because Microsoft is trying to say that with the Zune, you will be taken to places that your imagination wouldn't have been able to take you without this amazing product. The placement of the ad was extremely strategic because the age group that watches reality shows on MTV is the most likely age group to buy an MP3 player. I did not buy the product after seeing the ad because I already have an Ipod and I do not need another MP3 player.