Success of the Canadian spin-off

Brad Smith Canada's first bachelor

Just this last week was the series premiere of Bachelor Canada, another attempt at a Canadian version of an American franchise television show. Growing up as a kid, I quickly learned one thing; Canadian television is dismal in comparison to American programming. Why though? Where is our creativity? Are we not able to create just as entertaining media? In the past, even our imitations have not been as successful as their American counter-parts.

The landscape of Canadian broadcasting has been a very well oiled machine for American producers. We would buy their content, adding both revenue and advertising dollars to their budgets. Season after season, this cycle would repeat. Their entertainment filled our primetime hours, and still is. Recently Canadian producers have seen a new breath of life in their work, it stems from co-national productions. A few of those TV shows:

·      Rookie Blue

·      Flashpoint

From left to right: Ronnie Seterdahl Negus, Christina Kiesel,
Jody Claman, Mary Zilba and Reiko MacKenzie.
Stars of Real Housewives of Vancouver.

The success of these shows has built the foundation for Canadian viewers to be interested in Canadian content. That’s why I believe new Canadian spin-offs will be more successful then their predecessors. Real Housewives of Vancouver, following the lives of 5 wives with intense drama and backstabbing, was met with mediocre reviews but successful viewership ratings. The same applies to the newest addition to the spin-off family, The Bachelor. The show had huge viewership, lots of press coverage and has been deemed a success in all aspects. There is more to come; Big Brother Canada is currently casting. What will come of these shows, and the future of Canadian spin-offs? No one can really know, these days the success of any TV show can quickly dissipate. What I do believe however is that there has been a change in tide, Canadian television may not be as dull as it once was and is slowly growing some muscle internationally.

Photos from: The National Post and Slice.ca

Does This App Make Me Look Fat?

          Have you ever been out shopping by yourself and couldn’t come to decision about whether or not an item was worth purchasing?  PickN’Tell, a new application, is revolutionizing the way we shop.  Now, even our loneliest of shopping excursions have the ability to be social experiences.  It is the first app of its kind to link both the virtual and physical retail experience by using an app alongside an in-store display.  The app was released in late July and already has an extensive list of retailers on board.

PickN’Tell has three main objectives:

1. Instant Feedback:  Immediate opinions from your virtual friends and followers
2. It's all about you:  Keep tabs on your favourite stores and must-haves
3. Collect Prizes and Points:  Get the scoop on sales, events and discounts

How it works:

• Retailers that have partnered with PickN'Tell have inserted a high-tech mirror into their stores 
• The mirror or tablet allows customers to photograph or video themselves.  Customers can then either upload the file to Facebook, Twitter, or just their PickN'Tell account.
• Followers view the video or photo which also has the clothing store location and barcode information
• Users can then scan product barcodes for more information and save barcodes for their wish-lists.

Here is a video to better understand how the application works:

Here are some of the benefits:

• Provides incentives for both customers and retailers
• Earn coupons, prizes and discounts 
• Get honest feedback instantly from friends and followers
• Connect with bloggers, designers and stylists
• Retailers have access to "get-to-know your customer" toolbox which measures trends as well as consumer behaviour analysis

Availability and Pricing:

• The App is free and is available for download on ITunes and the Google Play Store.

Do you think this app will reach a critical mass in terms of usage?

Power to the People!

             Welcome ladies and gents, I hope you enjoy where I’m going with this one. I feel that the internet has changed the world, for the better! More than any other time in history, we the people are able to right the wrongs and change people’s lives via the global online community. A great example and probably something you've heard about was the woman in the United States, a bus monitor. Karen Klein was accosted by several youths on a bus, this was all recorded on video by 8th grade kids.

           As sad as that scene was, there came something out of it, a random act of global kindness. This video made its rounds all over the world via social media, eventually ending up on the front page of the internet, also known as Reddit.com . From here a Toronto man, Max Sidorov, caught wind of this and decided he was going to send Karen on a vacation. What came to follow was one of the most positive and selfless acts by humanity. Not only was there a fund started for her, but it ended up exceeding $700’000 so that Karen could not only take some time off, but retire out right! Random people, not knowing this woman, came to set what was wrong - right.

            The power of the people is even more present in the example of how the internet created the Tesla Museum (now soon to be). There was an article that popped up on Reddit, posted by the creator of the wildly popular blog The Oatmeal. Matthew Inman, created a list of all Nikola Tesla's inventions and contributions to humanity. Most are oblivious to what he created, as there is no museum to honour his accomplishments. So, here's where it gets good, the land where Tesla's lab was, known as Wardenclyffe, had been put up for sale and set to be demo'd. Seeing this travesty, Mr.Inman then put together 1 blog post called 'Let's Build A Goddamn Tesla Museum', honestly check it out. The goal was to raise $850'000 to split the cost with the state of New York.

 Put it this way, there were enough anonymous donations to not only buy the land outright, but pay for the costs of the building, see here. The power of online community not only brings people together, but helps to sift out those truly in need. Never have we, as a society, been able to harvest this much social momentum as individuals. The medium of information has shifted, transparency and whuffie (subtle, I know) rule all. The more open we are with helping others, the stronger we become as a society. Peace, love and boom goes the dynamite!


-DP


Tweet #HumberPR

Is social media changing the way we watch TV?

Today, social media has become a key aspect in television shows. Social media has become an essential part of TV viewing and has changed the way that many people watch their favourite TV shows. Now you can have to opportunity to interact with your favourite characters, actors and other fans.

Shows now have Facebook Fan Pages and Twitter accounts, and provide fans with the opportunity to "live tweet" or “live blog” with the use of hashtags throughout the show to interact with their fans.

Hashtags

Hashtags are now seen at the bottom of television screens, with shows encouraging their viewers to interact online and voice their opinion. Tweets and comments from fans are often displayed on screens as well, and can be used in television shows. You can also track hashtags, which allows other viewers to hear what other people are saying about their favourite show.

Talking to your favourite characters and actors

Ever want to talk to your favourite character? Well, it’s now becoming more and more common for fans to talk to their favourite characters. Television shows like Degrassi, Glee and Community have created character Twitter accounts.

Fans now have the opportunity interact with their favourite characters and even have conversations with them! This also provides fans with a behind the scenes look at characters lives “outside” of the show another way to see interaction with characters.

Do you like to interact with others through social media when watching your favourite television shows?

CIA now using social media to monitor international affairs

As I was reading through the Toronto Star, I came across an interesting article that took social media to a whole new level for me. When I think of social media I think of users being that of businesses, organizations, and every day people - so I was intrigued to find out that the CIA is now using it as well.

CIA using Facebook and Twitter

In Virginia and other agencies throughout the USA the CIA is following tweets (up to 5 million per day). The CIA is also using its' Open Source Centre to go through Facebook, newspapers, TV news channels, local radio stations, Internet chat rooms and anything overseas that anyone can access and contribute to openly.

Due to these social medias, the CIA knew about the uprising in Egypt before it happened, and used Twitter to create a report for the White House on what the public opinion was when Osama Bin Laden was killed.




Why social media?

The CIA realized that social media could be important to them in 2009 when they noticed the Twitter-sphere rock the Iranian regime during the Green Revolution. They also realized that they could track online use in China, or find out the mood of online users in Pakistan.


The people behind the computer

When I learned that the CIA was using social media, I pictured a bunch of college students sitting behind computers mindlessly monitoring Twitter feeds looking for information. When I read more into the article I found out that the people behind the computers are analysts that usually have master's degrees in library science and multiple languages. They are able to take the feeds in any language, cross reference them with local newspapers, and than translate them to compile them into reports.

Where will social media take the government

The CIA has integrated their social media findings into the presidential daily briefings. With this information they are able to give the president an international snapshot of what is going on. They also use this information to give him feedback on the effects of his presidential addresses in different parts of the world. For example, in the presidents address about Mideast issues within 24 hours the CIA was able to find that there was an overall negative response from Turkey, Egypt, Yemen, Algeria and the Persian Gulf.

The government can now also use social media as a key resource to to follow any fast-moving crisis. Generally speaking, the public have now become the journalists being able to upload pictures and tweet about situations that are taking place across the globe.

Do you think that social media will take over the jobs of journalists to report news? Do you believe that the CIA is opening the door for other government agencies to use social media to monitor national and international affairs?

Facebook- The newest media hub

With Facebook having a reported 800 million users, Mark Zuckerberg has clearly developed a revolutionary social media tool. But with anything that is as popular as Facebook, you must keep improving it in order to keep users interested in it. Right?

At a recent Facebook strategy conference, held in San Francisco, the company unveiled their plans of transforming into a media hub. Not only does Facebook want to continue being the leading website for social communication- but they now want to offer new features which will help them market out new products too.

With new partners such as Netflix, and Spotify, you will be able to see what your friends are listening to or watching on their computers. Their hopes are that this slight change will have a positive impact on sales for their partners. In the long run, these changes are absolutely essential for the company’s growth, but some Facebook users don’t see it this way. Truthfully, I think most are just concerned that they won’t be able to ‘figure out’ the new Facebook.

In the Facebook Blog, after a recent posting about the news, there were comments from almost five thousand users stating their outrage:

“Facebook is completely ruined, it's confusing, it's not fluid and it's hardly user friendly. I hate it now which is a shame because I have absolutely it loved for the last four years”

“I WANT MY OLD FB BACK! I DO NOT LIKE YOU DECIDING WHAT I WANT AND DON'T WANT...... IT IS MY CHOICE...NOT YOURS!”

After I read some of these comments, I stopped to think about why people thought Facebook (which is ultimately a free service) was always going to remain unchanged. I have come to my own personal conclusion that many users on the web aren’t aware of how Web 2.0 works.

In a recent lecture during my Social Media class, Andrea Tavchar (our professor) talked about the difference between Web 1.0 and 2.0.

She explained that Web 1.0 was merely an information hub, whereas 2.0 conveys a two-way communication platform. This allows you to communicate with people all over the world, spark conversations, and voice opinions. It also allows companies to grow with how easy it is to find information on its target audience.

When Facebook was developed, it created a whole new way for companies to collect information. They can now pay Facebook to find out what your favorite colour is, favorite food, favorite bands, and favorite hair products. The amount of information they can collect is endless.

Now ask yourself, why wouldn’t you take advantage of this if you were a product developer for a company?

All Facebook is doing now is collecting more data from its consumers, and marketing to them to turn a profit. With the amount of active and committed users they have and can influence, they are sure to be successful with this.

I believe what they are doing is an absolutely genius business move. I will continue to love and support Facebook, maybe even more so because I respect the risk they took in doing this.

Will your loyalty to Facebook stay as is? Or will you run and never look back?