Welcome to a new political era

The 2016 U.S. presidential election has just been concluded and the world saw Republican candidate Donald Trump win over rival and Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton, but the outcome shocked many because Clinton won the popular vote and Trump’s election-related statements within and outside social media garnered controversies. The world is now asking how Trump won. Did Facebook and Twitter help him win? The U.S. president-elect thinks so.

With social media having its role in the elections, it is now evolving from a communication tool to a news and information platform. Media analysts also ponder on the idea of predicting election results through social media after posts and tweets were used in forecasting results of both the European Union membership referendum in Great Britain and the U.S. election. The U.S. elections also cast a different light on social media because instead of enabling democratic discourse, people seemed to use it in spreading more negativity. Facebook also received a lot of flak on its handling of fake news appearing in its News Feed, but its CEO Mark Zuckerberg denies the company’s influence in American politics because he sees the website as a medium for sharing information.

The elections also have ramifications in journalism: there are reports of journalists fearing for their safety after receiving hate messages and threats over social media; journalism’s delivery system seems to be flawed given examples of how disjointed the current media landscape is; and journalistic standards collapse when networks begin choosing revenue and ratings over credibility and facts.

Here are other stories of interest:

• Christopher Lydon, the man who invented the podcast 13 years ago, explains how he did it and why podcasting is important in the “age of Trump.”
• Donald Trump’s campaign and upcoming presidency has made fact-checking relevant
• Facebook aims to revamp its Safety Check tool as a crisis hub as users rely on it to keep in touch with their loved ones during a disaster.
• Twitter Chief Operations Officer Adam Bain parts ways with the company and is replaced by Anthony Noto, the company’s chief financial officer.
• If you want to develop your own voice as a writer, here are some tips on how to find that voice.
• National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) is here again, and if you’re planning to participate, here are 10 tools to help you start writing your novel.
• A website called Bright Side compiled 10 ways for a fast, effective, and convenient search on Google.

Image: “American bald eagle” by Getty Images. Used under a Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0) license

Ditto is a seasonal collection of stories on publishing, media, communications, and topics that concern editorial professionals from the most credible sources on the Web. We hope to educate young professional writers and editors about industry standards, breakthroughs, and trends, among other things. Usually, you’ll find news and commentaries in here, but from time to time, we also feature tweets, visuals, games, freebies, and other fun but useful stuff that caught our eye.

Public news consumption and journalistic objectivity and accountability in the social media era

The values of both traditional and new media seem to have merged as the popularity of social media as news platforms has significantly grown in recent years. Public news consumption also seems to be shifting away from traditional to digital media. Journalists should keep up with the changing media landscape and not take journalistic principles like objectivity and accountability to the public for granted now that news and information can be accessed with just one click.

As journalists increasingly use social media in their work, it seems they need to be reminded of two important principles in their line of work — objectivity and accountability to the public — amid developments like dubious sources and trend lists as reported below:

• Columbia Journalism Review revealed how phony news sites trick journalists and how the news industry seems to consider errors related to reporters’ use of questionable information as a “forgiveable sin.”

• NYU technology researcher Danah Boyd said that recent controversies regarding Facebook’s “Trending Topics” go beyond the issue of neutrality. She asserted that Facebook must be accountable to the public because it is among “powerful” institutions that need checks and balances in the interest of the responsible functioning of society.

 

Here are other interesting posts in our reading list:

 

• Facebook announced that it has developed a new AI called “DeepText” that can understand textual content with “near-human accuracy.”

• The Independent claims that Facebook is always listening. Facebook can gain access to a user’s microphone to listen to the user’s conversations to help serve “more relevant ads” to the user. Quartz offers tips on how to stop Facebook from accessing your phone.

• Philippine President-elect Rodrigo Duterte has expressed his opinion on how he would address the problem of media killings in the country in a recent press conference. He said that the journalists who are corrupt and who accept bribes were “legitimate targets for assassination.” Meanwhile, journalists’ groups in the Philippines have slammed Duterte’s statement about the problem of media killing in the country.

• Facebook has taken down reporter Ed Lingao’s post against former President Marcos’ burial at the “Libingan ng mga Bayani,” citing violation of “Facebook community standards.” Some Facebook users have called out the site for violating press freedom and reposted Lingao’s article on their timelines.

• In Australia, the long-running Helen Liu defamation case spells bad news for journalists’ right to protect their sources when the New South Wales Supreme Court ordered Fairfax journalists to reveal the names of sources in the stories that alleged that businesswoman Liu had paid $150,000 for the campaign of former Australian Labor defense minister Joel Fitzgibbon.

• The accessibility of social media may place organizations at risk of having a social media crisis. Here are some tips on preventing social media armageddon.

• Researchers have found that alcohol ads on social media successfully encourage people to drink. However, another study shows that social media may also help identify students with “alcohol identity” at risk of having drinking problems.

• Author Lisa Portolan shared several theories on the roots of social media addiction.

• The UK’s National Environment Research Council (NERC) got itself in a tight PR situation when it crowdsourced the naming of its new ship and “Boaty McBoatface” got the most votes to be the name for the new research vessel. Here are some lessons on brand control on the Internet.

• A recent study suggests that “Grammar Nazis,” or people who are obsessed with correcting others’ grammar mistakes, may not be nice people after all.

• Here’s how to make the most of Twitter’s newly implemented changes.

• Mobile livestreaming apps like Facebook and Periscope need a waiting room to keep people entertained while they wait for their livestreams to begin.

• Is today’s “selfie culture” bad for our brains? Philosopher-psychoanalyst Elsa Godart discusses the impact of “egoportraits” and how there is a real danger of losing the connection and consciousness of the world around us.

• A study from the University of Southern California found that the longer you spend time commenting on posts, the shorter and less sophisticated your comments become.

• Paleoanthropologist Genevieve von Petzinger has found markings around Europe that may point out how writing began.

• Are you a workaholic? If so, working for long hours may take a toll on your health and productivity. Here are tips on how to break your addiction to work.

• Do you want to know how productive people send their e-mails? This article provides six ways on how to do it.

• Gmail is now the world’s largest e-mail service. Nathan McAlone shares 17 tips and tricks that will change the way you use Gmail.

• Halifax student Curtis Bureaux is using social media to spread love and make people smile by making a heart, taking its picture, and sharing it online.

• Goodreads has launched a new service called “Goodreads Deals” that sends e-mails to users when e-books are offered at discounted prices.

Image: “Survey Delves into Journalists’ Social Media Habits” by Marketwired Blog. Used under a Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0) license

Ditto is a fortnightly collection of stories on publishing, media, communications, and topics that concern editorial professionals from the most credible sources on the Web. We hope to educate young professional writers and editors about industry standards, breakthroughs, and trends, among other things. Usually, you’ll find news and commentaries in here, but from time to time, we also feature tweets, visuals, games, freebies, and other fun but useful stuff that caught our eye.

Filipinos’ electoral engagement as seen on social media

Social media seemed to have played a distinct role in the recent Philippine national elections. The run-up to the May 9 polls was marked by high engagement as Filipinos typed with vigor and/or fury, voicing out their opinions and support for their candidates through the means of social networking sites. This led to the Philippines landing a spot in Twitter’s “Top Social Media Countries in the World.”

Meanwhile, teenagers, comprising most of the social media users’ population, have been a challenging audience for some sectors, especially those who perceive the youth as having low awareness or interest in details about history and Philippine politics. As the recent electoral period has seen, however, using social media as a catalyst can become a game changer for campaigns to consider in capturing the youth’s attention for future elections.

Here are more stories of interest:

• Peabody Awards and Facebook team up for the launch of the Futures of Media Award, which is described as the “new prize honoring excellence and innovation in digital storytelling.”
• Studies from Pew Research Center and Dartmouth’s Tiltfactor Lab explore how the Internet affects what and how we read.
• The New York Times, along with Associated Press, has decided to stop capitalizing the word “internet.”
• Garner’s Modern American Usage becomes Garner’s Modern English Usage as the new edition integrates an “inclusive approach to World English.”
• Typography, believe it or not, can have life or death consequences, especially on road signs.
• For writers, The Atlantic author Ian Bogost writes a review about Freewrite, a smart typewriter made for writers who don’t want distractions from the Internet.
• Twitter recently made changes within its interface, such as making usernames, photos, and videos no longer part of the 140-character limit and providing the option to retweet one’s own tweets and replies.
• Facebook’s “Trending Topics” feature is once again under controversy when leaked guidelines allegedly show the involvement of editors, instead of algorithms, in selecting news for said feature.
• Jeff Jarvis, in a piece for the annual Tinius Trust report titled “Death to the Mass,” explains why “media must rebuild its business around relevance and value, not volume,” and how the Internet changed the old mass-media business model.
• Scammers have been lurking in the Internet for their next victims, so let this be a call to protect ourselves while navigating the social networking sites safely.
• Social media can also be a tool in saving lives as demonstrated during the tragic landslide in Aranayake, Sri Lanka last May 19.
• Different cultures define the concept of deadlines depending on how people perceive time.
• Our work environment can have a negative effect on our mental health, according to the Mental Resilience Survey.
• Here is an infographic with seven ways on how to stay calm under pressure.
• A 10-minute mind cleansing routine is always handy for a boost in clarity and creativity.

Image: “The 2016 Elections” by Angelo Lopez (AAEC). Used under a Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0) license

Ditto is a fortnightly collection of stories on publishing, media, communications, and topics that concern editorial professionals from the most credible sources on the Web. We hope to educate young professional writers and editors about industry standards, breakthroughs, and trends, among other things. Usually, you’ll find news and commentaries in here, but from time to time, we also feature tweets, visuals, games, freebies, and other fun but useful stuff that caught our eye.

Adapting and adopting innovations in social media

Twitter just announced that its user growth is still in a slump despite the introduction of its Moments feature. This seems to show that in the age where everything for a social media site could change in an instant, one of the keys to surviving the social media rat race is to offer innovation whenever possible.

Users could easily come and go, so social media sites offer new content and retool features as a way to make them stay. Whether it be through big moves, such as Facebook lining up new features ranging from indexing all user’s posts, testing out emoji reactions, instant articles, to rolling out a notification card system, or via small changes, like Twitter changing its star-shaped “favorite” button to a heart-shaped “like” button, these are decisions that site owners need to make to tip the scales in their favor.

Whether it’s for the upcoming elections or for the Internet’s biggest phenomenon, social media use plays a key role in how trends develop. With social media, site owners have an opportunity to showcase their flexibility and tech-savviness and a platform to discuss society’s biggest issues. It also powers the cycle where users adapt and adopt technology.

Here are the other stories that made it to our reading list:

• An interview from The New Yorker with journalist-writer Svetlana Alexievich, this year’s Nobel laureate for literature.
• Is fact-checking still relevant in the age of shorter news cycles and the growing popularity of user-generated content? Find out more about its importance here.
• Science attempts to dissect and further explain what writers dread most: writer’s block.
• Hackers these days are getting more resourceful by the minute, and they now use social media to get users’ private details for their crimes.
• A U.S. Federal Appeals Court rules that Google’s book-scanning project does not infringe on copyright and should be allowed to continue. The case against Google was filed by the Author’s Guild about 10 years ago.
• The ability to Google something on the Internet apparently overinflates self-assessment of intelligence.
• The three communication skills you need for a career in digital media which can also help you build a strong résumé.
• The three levels of listening which can help you become a better and effective communicator.
• Here are six lessons on what academic research tells us about making data visualizations.
• Can’t think of anything to write? Here’s 10 things to help you start.
• Here’s a piece from Time.com aptly titled “7 Things You—Probably?—Didn’t Understand About Punctuation!!!!” with lessons taken from David Crystal’s new book, Making a Point: The Persnickety History of English Punctuation.
• A slideshow with 26 time-management tips to help you be more efficient on your work.
• Take a breather from work with 55 useful and inspiring websites.

Image: “50 Days of AWE” by AWSC. Used under a Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0) license

Ditto is a fortnightly selection of stories on publishing, media, communications, and topics that concern editorial professionals from the most credible sources on the Web. We hope to educate young professional writers and editors about industry standards, breakthroughs, and trends, among other things. Usually, you’ll find news and commentaries in here, but from time to time, we also feature tweets, visuals, games, freebies, and other fun but useful stuff that caught our eye.

Sending love to all mothers

Last May 10, the world celebrated Mother’s Day by giving thanks to all mothers: biological or adoptive, stepmothers and mothers-in-law, stay-at-home and working moms. Google’s Doodle for the occasion showcased various forms of motherly love ranging from a swan and her cygnet, a cheetah with her cub, to a child running to her mother for a hug.

People look up to their mothers for their selfless love, dedication for their families’ well-being, and wisdom. This issue is dedicated to resilient women everywhere. Here are selected articles for the queen of the house:

• A mom’s job is surely tough. The challenges of motherhood come with opportunities to learn unique skills. One successful entrepreneur and mother listed the reasons why moms make for a great hire.

• Mothers really know best when it comes to life lessons. This article lists nine unforgettable lessons people learned from their mothers.

• Working mothers have maternity leaves. But what if fathers can have more paternity leaves to help their wives get back on their feet?

• There are also tips for the working mom-to-be in preparing for the birth of her baby while trying to sort things out in her job.

• Aside from the usual (but powerful) “I love you” and “thank you,” these things will certainly make our mothers feel special.

• The NGO Save the Children released a map showing the best and worst (yes, the map has it) countries to be a mother.

Other posts of interest include:

• Fresh graduates will have to step up their game to land a good job. Here’s some advice to help them settle in as they join the job hunt. Also, here’s an insider’s view on some workplace secrets.

• E-mails are an efficient communication alternative but they are also prone to misinterpretations. Look out for these five rude e-mails that you might be sending out every day.

• Here are five simple steps to ease up at work.

• Check out this guide from LinkedIn on how people should take a “#WorkSelfie.”

• There are moments when you just stare at your computer screen, thinking of what to post or tweet and consequently, wasting your time. Here are four techniques on how to save up to six hours a week on social media.

• Social media interaction can get tedious and monotonous over time if what you share or what your audience see stimulate insufficient interest. You might want to consider these seven ways to keep the conversation going.

• How much of your posts on social media show your real life? On Instagram, college freshman Madison Holleran looked like she had it all: intelligence, beauty, and even athletic prowess. Behind the photos she shared, however, was a struggle holding her back from living a happy life.

• Here’s a critique on Filipinos’ use of the word “Gayweather” as they reacted on the outcome of the Mayweather vs. Pacquiao boxing match.

Image: “Mother” by James Goodman (Flickr). Used under a Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0) license

Ditto is a fortnightly collection of stories on publishing, media, communications, and topics that concern editorial professionals from the most credible sources on the Web. We hope to educate young professional writers and editors about industry standards, breakthroughs, and trends, among other things. Usually, you’ll find news and commentaries in here, but from time to time, we also feature tweets, visuals, games, freebies, and other fun but useful stuff that caught our eye. 

Social media as news platforms

Journalist Elizabeth Jane Cochran, under the pen name Nellie Bly, once said “energy rightly applied and directed will accomplish anything.”

In celebration of Nellie Bly’s 151^st birth anniversary last May 5, Google presented a Doodle tribute showing her milestones that left a legacy in the field of investigative journalism and in the world.

The field of journalism has changed drastically over the last two decades, particularly due to the Internet. The emergence of social media platforms will have an impact on the future of journalism and communication as the new source of news and as the vital tool for information dissemination. Examples of social media-influenced journalism in the last two weeks include:

 

• In Philippine news, Mary Jane Veloso was granted a last-minute reprieve on her execution for the crime of drug trafficking in Indonesia. The Philippine Daily Inquirer, one of the top three newspapers in the country, however, published an article with an erroneous headline implying that Mary Jane had died. Here is a blog post reflecting on how this incident shows what is happening to journalism today.
• The Baltimore riot has been the topic of major U.S. headlines because of the violence, the looting, and the city’s state of emergency. Here is the back story and timeline on Freddie Grey’s death, the investigation on six police officers involved, and the alleged police brutality that led to the riot.
• Al Jazeera used their social media app unit AJ+ for real-time reporting on the Baltimore riots.

 

Here are other posts in our reading list:

• In the wake of the retracted Rolling Stone rape story, a columnist who had been a Pulitzer Prize juror discusses the relationship between fear and good journalism.
• The 12 rules of Facebook etiquette to keep in mind.
• 15 helpful charts that creative (and non-creative) people need in their lives according to Buzzfeed.
• Are you always a Negatron? Thinking about the worst case out of one failure? It’s probably cognitive distortions which can harm your career. Know how to recognize and stop them. Ask these questions when you are facing a difficult situation.
• Check this Proust Questionnaire, written by Marcel Proust himself, designed to discover new things about old friends or other people’s character.
• Since 2011, The New York Times has produced amazing opinion documentaries or “op-docs”. Here are 10 amazing op-docs from The New York Times.
• Are you looking for new books to read? Here are the bestseller lists in Europe for the month of April.
• Pew Research Center’s director of journalism research Amy Mitchell published an article regarding the state of news media this 2015.
• If you’re looking for some motivation to get you started on that long-delayed novel, take a look at Buzzfeed’s 27 pieces of wise writing advice from famous authors.
• This is how social media is ruining your chances of getting a job, but not in the way you think.
• A former assistant vice president of a banking institution left her position to pursue the opportunity of becoming a full-time freelance writer. This article contains tips on how to make such career a sustainable one.
• A British backpacker blogs about his series of adventures in the Philippines “in the hopes of inspiring others to ditch their desks” and travel around the country. Here are some reminders on the travelling dos and don’ts.
• The Daily Egg’s five tips for writing web copy that will help turn readers into customers.
• An experiment conducted by researchers from the U.S. shows that the next time you are nervous about a presentation or are in an intense emotional state, a “linguistic shift” – using the right pronouns or addressing yourself by name – may help calm or psych you up. You can also follow this technique to conquer your nerves before your presentation.

Image: “Social Media” by Yoel Ben-Avraham (Flickr). Used under a Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0) license.

Ditto is a fortnightly collection of stories on publishing, media, communications, and topics that concern editorial professionals from the most credible sources on the Web. We hope to educate young professional writers and editors about industry standards, breakthroughs, and trends, among other things. Usually, you’ll find news and commentaries in here, but from time to time, we also feature tweets, visuals, games, freebies, and other fun but useful stuff that caught our eye.

Reinventing old habits for success

 

 

Nobel laureate Günter Grass once said, “Writers know that sometimes things are there in the drawer for decades before they finally come out and you are capable of writing about them.”

Our selection for this issue takes up some of the reasons why some of our ideas could get stuck in what Grass referred to as “the drawer.”

And whether the fear of making mistakes, being too busy with work, or wasting too much time trying to get over that writer’s block is the one preventing you from opening the drawer, remember that writing is our second nature and the slumps will always come to an end at the right time, with the right actions.

Bear in mind that every obstacle presented is an opportunity to improve one’s self. So pick yourself up, grab your pen, get thinking, and prepare to face the day ahead with these articles guiding you along the way:

• It’s hard to write when you think of yourself as “smart.” Why not change the frame? This article suggests that you think of yourself as “fascinating” instead.
• You’ve probably read (or heard) about a popular Mashable article on “Why Zuck and other successful men wear the same thing every day”. Attention, women: you can wear the same thing every day too!
• Grow as a leader by asking more questions instead of answering them as told through infographics.
• Writing at a 5^th grade level may actually be good. Find out how through the F-K Scores.
• Wasting time can boost productivity and creativity. Here are things to do the next time you feel stuck at work.

Other stories of interest:

• Anthony Doerr’s World War II novel, All the Light We Cannot See, bagged this year’s Pulitzer Prize for fiction.
• A blogger’s take on what the recent acquisition by professional network LinkedIn of online education specialist Lynda means.
• Lost your phone? For Android users, you can now find it through Google.
• A reading list on all things typography.

Image: “Motivational” by rajaisa (PicHost). Used under a Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0) license.

Ditto is a fortnightly selection of stories on publishing, media, communications, and topics that concern editorial professionals from the most credible sources on the Web. We hope to educate young professional writers and editors about industry standards, breakthroughs, and trends, among other things. Usually, you’ll find news and commentaries in here, but from time to time, we also feature tweets, visuals, games, freebies, and other fun but useful stuff that caught our eye.

On time management, emotional intelligence, and developing habits

It’s the second quarter of the year. How are you doing with your goals and resolutions? Our picks for this week include a book review on how you can get yourself to develop habits that will help you with your goals, as well as readings on managing your schedule so you can leave work on time and prioritizing using psychological distance. Check out:

• Writing that novel or article might have been on your list for the longest time. Can’t find time? Yes, you can.
• If professional growth is on your list, expressing your viewpoint to your boss “without coming across as a jackass,” is one important thing to learn.
• Also, it’s important to keep our emotional intelligence in check especially at work. Here are some signs that we are falling low on EQ and what we can do to improve.

Other posts of interest:

• Here is a report on what went wrong in the Rolling Stone magazine story about a rape at the University of Virginia that the magazine’s reporter later apologized for. The investigation commissioned by Rolling Stone itself was conducted by the Columbia University School of Journalism. Interviewees from Columbia include its Philippine-born dean of academic affairs Sheila Coronel.
• If you’re an AP Stylebook user or watcher, read up on the latest revisions to what is considered a journalist’s style bible.
• The Edelman Media Network reports on the impact of social media on news consumption and how media strategies must adapt in 2015 and beyond.
• There seems to be a new craze – adults, coloring books, and crayons.  A Scottish artist whose coloring books for adults have become an international hit says that an “analog” activity like coloring not only reignites creativity but also relieves adults of stress.
• Here’s a new trick to improving memory – link an event to your feelings.
• A writer offers some new neologisms. How about “skinjecture,” “brattle,” or “smearch”?
• Hootsuite offers a few more ideas on how to promote your blog on social media.
• “Writers open our hearts and minds, and give us maps to our own selves.” Here are four rewards of reading for the human soul.

Image: “time” by Sean MacEntee (Flickr). Used under a Creative Commons (CC BY 2.0) license.

Ditto is a fortnightly collection of stories on publishing, media, communications, and topics that concern editorial professionals from the most credible sources on the Web. We hope to educate young professional writers and editors about industry standards, breakthroughs, and trends, among other things. Usually, you’ll find news and commentaries in here, but from time to time, we also feature tweets, visuals, games, freebies, and other fun but useful stuff that caught our eye.

Technology and changes in the workplace

Less than a year since Samsung’s Note 3 and Apple’s iPhone 5 were released, we now have the Note 4 and the iPhone 6. Technology is rapidly changing; so is almost everything around us. In this post, we share some readings about changes in the work environment, their impact, and what possibly lies ahead.

On change, writing apps, overcoming creative block, pet peeves, and more

“Change is constant. Change is inevitable.” This applies to language, writing, and journalism too, especially in this age of technology. Perhaps at one point — when we were being sticklers for “proper” usage — we have corrected someone’s misuse of hopefully, literally, or enormity. However, people’s use of these words has changed, and we understand what they mean nonetheless, which is the point of language. Technology has also evolved, and it is changing how we write, edit, check for facts and plagiarism, and think about business. Here, we list recent stories on these changes, along with some creativity tips and fun reads.