NDM 50

Social media – a shining light in F1 amid the darkness

Article

For all its problems however, F1 has got one thing right at least - embracing social media has saved the sport from further penury. Bernie Ecclestone has always been vocal in downplaying the importance of social media, but the 85-year-old has had to finally give in and grudgingly start to use the medium to reach out to fans.

The teams and drivers already use social media widely, and fans have flocked in numbers. The platform certainly has its pros and cons, but the onus is on the user to make the best use of it.

For the teams and drivers, social media became an easy way to not only promote themselves but also reward the average fans for their continued support. And for the fans, the medium has given them a chance to voice their love for the sport and get recognised for their involvement.

NDM 49

Will Baltimore Use Social Media to Prosecute Rioters?

Article

"I don't think that there is a strong popular push in Baltimore for further rioting arrests," says David Jaros, an assistant law professor at the University of Baltimore. "I have a very strong suspicion that the mayor's comments about using social media to arrest more rioters is something that is going to quickly fall by the wayside as not necessarily the most effective use of resources."

Baltimore police wouldn't need to rely solely on tips from the community and have previously used facial recognition software to identify suspects by comparing online images to more than 2.1 million pictures on law enforcement databases. 

Services such as NetClean are also developing ways to help police track down offenders by helping identify connections between crimes and media posted on social networks. NetClean product manager Johann Hofmann says metadata from images and video can show the exact GPS coordinates of where an image was taken, the serial number of the camera being used, and the exact time the shot was taken. The service also uses a Microsoft facial recognition tool called PhotoDNA, which can help match faces in social media postings to images in a large database. The service, according to Hofmann, is already being used in Baltimore and other jurisdictions around the world in child abuse investigations involving online images.

NDM 48

IS SOCIAL MEDIA ON THE DECLINE? TWITTER, YELP, AND LINKEDIN REPORT STAGNANT USER BASES

Article

All told, hundreds of millions of people across the world use the major social mediasites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn. This suggests a robust user base that gives the impression that social media is still in demand, yet last week’s earnings reports, which shed some light on user engagement, from three of the big players in the industry suggest otherwise.

Last week saw Twitter and LinkedIn come out with earnings. Yelp — which isn’t traditionally regarded as a social media site, per se — was among those companies that issued reports. The common trend among all three major names was that data on their respective user numbers was disappointing. Accordingly, investors punished the companies’ stocks with strong selloffs after the earnings were released. Only Facebook, which released its earnings back in April, seemed to be doing well.

NDM 47

How social media hijacked the Met Ball

Article

People on Social Media, went crazy after seeing the outfits of a few celebs. Beyonce (pictured) received a good reception from twitter users, however, Rihanna didn't get a good a good reception as they said her dress looked like a condom, pizza and even an omelet.