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lany-d-flow · 4 years ago

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A Note on Cherry-Picking: Some Concerns

As someone who is new to engaging in discussion with fandoms, there are plenty of perspectives, views, and original authorities (typically the writers/developers) for me to both observe and learn from. Having a space for fans to discuss the intent, the story of an artist’s work is an important part of not only understanding the message the artist wanted to tell its readers as they draw their conclusions, but also for fans to tell interpretations of their own. Not every story has a concrete, objective outcome for events and dynamics that unfolded in the plot. Some stories have an outcome, yet authors choose to be subtle about what happened and could choose not to specify their message in interviews and commentary, allowing readers to comprehend the story on their own until they eventually see what conclusion makes the most sense in the text. In other words, the canon outcome/the outcome intended by the authority of the text, the author. The result of this practice may cause fans to spend a bit more time reading through the text before connecting the dots, and perhaps sharing their own interpretation even if it is not the writer’s outcome. Such a practice is pretty much fine, if not encouraged to help folks gain some inspiration and use their own creativity for what could have been written.

I have some concerns about one either over-extending their interpretation or forgetting to use the main source and only using a supporting source, though.

By this, I mean intentionally spreading their interpretations over one or multiple platforms as canon, even when the creator’s original work, continuity, and supporting texts would say otherwise. This is something potentially dangerous not just for new folks of the same audience, but even to the creator themself if the fan’s interpretations imply that the creator has a twisted mindset/agenda, which would very likely not be the case.

To make matters worse, some might choose to take singular moments, phrases in text and supporting texts, and creator comments out of context to support their narrative, even though taking a look at said scenes in proper context would help readers see otherwise. But this actually is not limited to the interpretation-spreaders alone, as one who understood the proper message/canon outcome of a work could also use the previously mentioned sources to support an incorrect interpretation of the creator’s work, even if this was not their intention in the first place.

I have especially seen instances of this in a fandom I actively participate in. While the actions of few do not represent the thoughts of many, I believe it is still important to make a distinction of this behavior, to not only help understand what could be a negative influence on the media you appreciate, but also to hold those who want to support the creators’ work to a higher standard, that we may stay true and respectful to the creator’s intent, the context of a text and its key moments, and instead of pulling quotes out of a paratext alone, using them to support an argument that’s using the text to make a more cohesive case.

So, I would like to focus on a specific logical fallacy that connects with what I am talking about, and use examples of this fallacy that could be seen in fandom.

Definitions

To start, I’d like to define some key terms related to what I have previously mentioned. These would be paratext, epitext, and of course cherry picking. @themelodicenigma has written comprehensive work on the subject of paratext and epitext, and cites a text named The Peritext Book Club to define these terms:

The concept of paratext was defined by Gérard Genette as common elements provided within a book (peritext) and elements outside of the book that refer to it (epitext); these elements can affect individual, as well as cultural, perceptions of a text (1997, 4–5). Peritext includes elements that surround the body of the text, such as the foreword, table of contents, index, and source notes. Epitext refers to communications outside the text that can also influence whether and how the text is read. Examples of epitext include book reviews, interviews, author websites and letters, and critical literary analysis. [source - pg. 2] (Gross - Peritext Book Club).

Another way to define paratext, as also mentioned in Enigma’s work, is that of which supports and communicates something about the text. In other words, what the paratext states is an analysis of what one can understand from the original text. Although there is a chance that paratext can have some extra information about a story for worldbuilding purposes, what it generally states about scenarios is what we should be able to discern from the text itself. Therefore, if one wants to strengthen their case for why something is as the author intended, it’s usually best if you analyze key moments from the text, followed by usage of a paratext. However, this is not always done, and we will look at it later.

The other key term is cherry-picking. If we want a good definition, we can refer to the Oxford English and Spanish Dictionary:

Cherry-pick(ing): Choose and take only (the most beneficial or profitable items, opportunities, etc.) from what is available.

This is a common logical fallacy, often used intentionally or unintentionally in practice. Typically, when one wants to prove their point, they will find a source of relevance or semi-relevance that says what they want to hear. Then, they will cite that source as the ultimate Word on what is true, whether or not that is the case. Also, this fallacy can also invite confirmation bias to the user, making their case more fallacious than intended. The problem with this fallacy is that it most often does not address the full context of what the statement is about in the first place. There is also a chance that the source and quote cited are either not officially proven, taken from an outside source that may not be relevant to the topic, as well as taken out of context and warped to the user’s meaning so that their narrative may be supported. If one wants to determine the strength of the source used, they need only check the source cited in the first place and read the material themselves. From there the reader can determine how valid the source actually is to the topic, and continue to point out to other readers why that source is not entirely valid and does not cover the full context of the topic. We can actually see this fallacy in practice with any form of text, whether it’s a paratext, epitext, or the text itself. This is why it’s important for us to fact check what we are telling people and cover the original text when we are making our case.

Unfortunately, some folks in fandom circles end up cherry-picking sources when discussing media--video games, movies, TV shows, books, music, artwork, and so on. Engaging in one particular fandom recently, there is an ongoing debate that fans themselves choose to keep ongoing. Even with texts, paratexts, and epitext(s) supporting one side of the argument, there are plenty of attempts to ignore what the plot of the story ultimately gave us, leading some to attempt to refute what the text gave us and what the creators intended by taking any conceivable scene, line, and written text from the text, paratexts, and epitexts out of context to support their narrative. If one wants to tell whether or not an argument is cherry-picking, they can:

1) find the original source

2) get the rest of the information from the original source, then…

3) discern the context of what’s actually going on in the first place, and see if what the original user was talking about actually lines up with the intent of the creator/original source.

However, this practice is not restricted in this type of scenario alone. If a group has found the answer themself, they could make a case using the original text to discuss what’s going on. However, I have found that there are many instances where only quotes from a paratext and epitext are addressed. So while paratexts and epitexts may support what the user is trying to claim, the user overlooked the main text in the first place. This could raise the question of, “Did you actually look at the scenes in the text?” or “did you NEED to use those supporting texts in the first place?”

And really, I am addressing two sides of this to set a better standard and show that we are not always free from fallacy. It is not necessarily our intention to use a logical fallacy like cherry-picking, but besides twisting original intent it can end up weakening our arguments for questions about the text because we did not actually bother to address the original scene. The text is supposed to provide the full context and cover what grounds it needs to. Using a paratext and epitext alone often don’t cover the full context of a text since they simply provide some support. It’s important to correspond supporting texts to the original media also, not just because of what’s mentioned before, but simply because that’s another important part of preventing misconceptions.

So, I want to provide some examples of how I’ve seen this fallacy being used that’s caused me to raise concerns. Hopefully by the end of this, you’ll understand where cherry-picking ends up being used and how we can do better to stray away from it. For reference, I will try to refer to epitext as “paratext” to avoid having to use both nouns in every sentence. But if the only paratext in question is something like an interview, I’ll use “epitext”.

And yes, I will be specific about the game and characters. I thought about being vague by making the subjects indirectly about the characters, but I do not think my point would be as effective that way. Ultimately, the intent still remains the same, so here goes.

Media to Observe

Game: Final Fantasy VII/Final Fantasy VII Remake

Book: Final Fantasy VII: On The Way To a Smile

Movie: Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Complete

Paratext(s): Ultimania Guidebook, Interview(s)

Topic: The Nonsensical LTD between three characters (Cloud, Tifa, Aerith)

Examples

Claim: Cloud is obviously in love and prefers Aerith over Tifa because he is miserable and pining for Aerith in Final Fantasy VII Advent Children and avoiding Tifa and their family. We saw him away from his family in the beginning of the movie, and we saw Aerith appear in his head and ask for forgiveness from her. He must be asking her to forgive him for having a relationship with Tifa!

Response:

Types of Media/Text to observe: Movie, Game, Book.

Watch the movie and draw your interpretation. Then, check the prequel of the movie (In this case, On The Way to A Smile). Find any guidebooks and previous texts lining up to this continuity. In the case of this moment, there is a book and game that take place before the events of the movie. In the game, Aerith died and Cloud feels guilty about this. Later in the game, Cloud breaks down due to an identity crisis when he believes Tifa lost faith in him being real, and later in the story Tifa enters his subconscious. In this moment, as we help validate Cloud’s memories, we find out the reason Cloud did everything he did before the events of the game was for Tifa to notice him. After validating the truth of Cloud’s memories and the two of them revealing they indeed held feelings for each other, we eventually reach a scene where, before the final battle, the two of them confess their feelings for each other (will come back to this later). After the game, we have a text that covers the limited point-of-view of the game’s characters, one of them being Tifa. We learn from Tifa’s story that Cloud has tremendous guilt for not being able to protect Aerith. However, this actually is NOT THE ONLY REASON for Cloud’s guilt. In the book and movie, we get information that a new disease is spreading. Finding out there is no cure, while caring for a child with this disease, Cloud’s guilt starts to build up even more. The last straw for Cloud is when he himself contracts this disease. Ultimately, feeling guilty for not saving an important friend, feeling guilty for not being able to find a cure for the child he and Tifa care for, and receiving it himself makes him feel so worthless that he believes the best way to handle the situation is to stay away from his family, that they may not see him suffer and eventually die.

Feeling guilty for Aerith is definitely intentional by the creators and it does represent her importance to Cloud. However, when one chooses to take that one piece of writing and interpret it as the one and only reason for why Cloud is behaving the way he is, then try to interpret it as romantic, that completely neglects the full context for why he was straying away from the people he cherished. Cherry-picking one person and posting that narrative on platforms may make an audience feel inclined to take that as fact, that is why it is important that we look at the rest of the text for Cloud’s behavior, because his internal conflict revolves around failure, guilt, anxiety. Specifically, failure to protect the people he cherishes, and this does not have to be--and is not--romantic to be true. And as if this was not enough, eventually the movie received a more fleshed out version that added another very important person that Cloud feels guilty for: his close friend and comrade, who also ended up being the first love of Aerith.

Also, this is a case where you can use the paratext to support your argument against this cherry-picking. TheLifeStream contains a “3N” Interview, where the three main creators of FFVII Advent Children provide commentary about the movie. In one of the questions, Scenario Writer Kazushige Nojima has this to say about Cloud’s behavior:

At the end of FFVII, Cloud saved the world and was on the way to a happy ending but, in the two years towards AC, he returned to the way he was in the past. What happened to him?

Nojima: Cloud never had a boring personality in the first place so when he started living with Tifa and started out his job, the peaceful life that he had never experienced before made him anxious. During that time, he also contracted Geostigma so it’s to protect the ones precious to him or not, he had to face death and ran away.

Nojima: Even though it’s become peaceful, Cloud has lost many people precious to him. And from Cloud’s background, it was the first time he was in a “peaceful” environment. He’s a character that likes to think about what’s going on around him often.

Here, we are given some context on Cloud’s anxiety and guilt. Context that, in other words, is relevant to the narrative of On The Way to a Smile and FFVII Advent Children as it provides ground for another aspect of Cloud’s guilt. If what was mentioned was not enough to make Cloud feel guilty, he feels anxious for getting something he never had before: a peaceful, happy life with his family. It’s pretty easy to recognize that anxiety is not going to help with Cloud’s aforementioned problems, and all of these issues come together to tell a story about a life after conflict, and handling inevitable issues that will arise regardless. It is important to recognize all of these themes and not just cherry-pick one, because it not only misleads the audience, but also reduces the impact of the message the writers wanted us to tell us.

Claim: The Director of the game in an epitext (an interview) said, “When Cloud is around Tifa, a bit of his true self emerges. There is no other source that says this, and it shows that Cloud is only himself when he is around Tifa.

Response:

Types of Media/Text to observe: Games, Paratext.

Source for reference. Director Tetsuya Nomura’s comment:

In a similar fashion, we made it so that the way Cloud talks is dependent on who he's talking to. While talking to Aerith he stands taller and tries to act cool, with Tifa he acts more like himself, and with Jessie you can see his annoyance. Specifically with Aerith he overthinks things and ends up acting a little strange.

There are several different translations of this comment, with the sentence in question varying between “...a bit of his true-self emerges”, “...he loosens up a bit”, or “...he acts more like himself”. While there is some truth to this statement and is well-observed by one of the creators of the game, the interpretation of this epitext is generally taken too far, and doesn’t cover the full context as to what constitutes Cloud’s “true self” in the first place. This is where it’s necessary to look through the text. In this case, the text is a video game.

The truth in this statement stems that Cloud feels most comfortable around Tifa, and generally does not try to put up a facade around her. From here, one should observe traits that represent Cloud’s “true self.” When we see this side of Cloud’s character, we can observe that other characters also see through his facade, and while Cloud tries to keep distance from other characters, either fails to do so or starts to loosen up around the distanced folk. A better way to read this epitext is to take it symbolically, and see how Cloud’s loosened behavior is toward Tifa, then observe how he interacts with others. The bit of Cloud’s “true self” more or less refers to the traits of his true self’s behavior, as the game follows a plot where Cloud made up a false identity that prevents the truth of his memories from connecting with himself. Tifa is the only one who can help Cloud with this, Since this has not yet taken place in the game--which is a remake of the original game--it’s not exactly best to assume the epitext means that Cloud’s true self can consciously choose to come out around only Tifa or whenever he wants.

Similarly, there is a quote from a paratext that says Aerith “melts Cloud’s icy exterior.” This has been cherry-picked by some to tell readers that only Aerith is capable of making Cloud lose his hard-edge. Once again, if we look at scenes within the text itself, it’s pretty easy to see that Cloud’s “rude” and “icy” remarks are not constantly shown throughout the text. What this quote means is that Aerith does a remarkable job at making Cloud be a better individual to those he interacts with in communities along with his friends. It’s best to care more about what impact these characters have on Cloud than trying to perpetuate a narrative that every single one of Cloud’s moments with Tifa and Aerith are romantically motivated, whether or not they are (More often, they are not).

Claim: The Writer stated in an epitext (interview) that things would have gone better with Aerith. This is proof that Aerith was the intended couple and the one that Cloud deserved, but instead Cloud had to have Tifa as a secondary choice.

Response:

Types of Media/Text to observe: Book, Epitext, Movie.

Link to Source analysis and translated comment from FFVII Scenario Writer Kazushige Nojima:

‘Episode Tifa’… first off, there’s the premise that things won’t go well between Tifa and Cloud, and that even without Geostigma or Sephiroth this might be the same. I don’t really intend to go about my views on love or marriage or family (laughs). After ACC, I guess Denzel and Marlene could help them work it out. Maybe things would have gone well with Aerith, but I think there is a great burden from Aerith.

It is important that readers themselves read the epitext in question, as this statement is a cherry-picked sentence from a writer’s entire interview comment taken out of context. In this epitext, the writer is talking on the premise that the relationship between Cloud and Tifa has friction even without the events leading to the movie. He gives some thoughts, hoping that Cloud and Tifa’s foster children can help them work out the issue causing friction between their foster parents--in this case, Cloud’s guilt. After this, the writer gives a hypothetical possibility that, “Maybe with Aerith things would have gone well, but her responsibility is a burden, I think.” In other words, the writer is giving nothing more than a hypothetical outcome that was never in the written text, and thinks that maybe if he wrote out a relationship between Cloud and Aerith there could be a great outcome, but he also uses a keyword: “maybe.” Not only is he speaking on a hypothetical, he is also not stating objectively that Aerith and Cloud are best for each other. This is something a writer has to think about as they write their story, as what they would love to see may not necessarily be the best way to strengthen their story. Ultimately, this epitext should be treated as commentary that can leave some room for one’s own interpretation. But it does not change anything that has happened and will happen in the text.

Claim: Cloud loves Tifa because it’s stated in all of the paratexts relevant to the game, the Ultimanias. Every Ultimania that refers to Cloud and Tifa confirms that they are in love with each other. Therefore, Cloud and Tifa are the canon endgame couple.

Response:

Types of Media/Text to observe: Games, Book, Paratext, Movie.

While this statement does hold truth, it is still an example of cherry-picking; this is simply pulling quotes/referring to words in a supporting text without actually looking at what happens in the text and continuity. Specifically, any scenarios in the text that focus on Cloud and Tifa’s relationship. This is not the best way to tell your audience that the creator wrote the two folks as a canon couple because it’s not looking at the original text. As mentioned before, a better approach is to refer to scenes in the text, analyze them, and then use paratexts to support what you found in the text. As a matter of fact, take a look at the scenes in the text that make people question the canonicity, and if able, actually discuss how one of the scenes is not what some people try to deem it as (in this case, a rejection).

There is one scene that comes into mind that focuses specifically on Cloud and Tifa. Dubbed the “Highwind scene” by fans, the day before the final battle, all the other characters go to their homes to remember their main reason for fighting, leaving Cloud and Tifa with each other. They then talk about how they do not have any other place to go to or call “home.” After questioning if their mission is actually being noticed by outside forces (figurative language for, “is this fight really worth it?”) they recall their past experiences and, depending on Tifa’s affection level, give implications for what they did that night. All paratexts referring to this moment state it as a moment where Cloud and Tifa realize the depth of the feelings the two have held for each other. For the sake of transparency, I will list the quotes from several paratexts here:

When Cloud proposes that the group separates temporarily, she (Tifa) remains behind at the airship and communicates her feelings together with Cloud. The next morning, she departs for the Northern Crater along with her companions, who returned.

“Words aren’t the only thing that tell people what you’re thinking.......”

-Said to Cloud, when he is at a loss for words while they’re alone

Pg. 27 of FFVII Ultimania Omega, Tifa’s profile.

She communicates her feelings together with Cloud in the final stages of the story, and in AC and DC they live together.

Pg. 33 of Crisis Core Ultimania, Tifa’s profile.

Cloud and Tifa, who remain, reveal their feelings for each other and clarify them together.

Pg. 118 of FFVII 10th Anniversary Ultimania

Words aren’t the only thing that tell people what you’re thinking...

--Prarie: What she said to Cloud the night before the final battle when he said there were many things he wanted to talk about.

Pg. 195 of FF 20th Anniversary Ultimania File 1: Character Guide

I will cut the quotes here, but if you’d like to see a much deeper analysis on this nonsensical debate, along with these quotes and the original JP text from the paratexts, check out Squall_of_SeeD’s essay here on TheLifeStream.

Now, these all reference a very intimate moment within the game...

However, in the game there are two outcomes depending on how you treated Tifa in Disc 1 of Final Fantasy VII : One where Tifa says that words are not the only way to express your feelings, and another that does not give the same implications, instead follows Cloud saying they should get some sleep. It is the latter scene that is labelled by some as “a rejection scene,” leaving some to interpret the outcome of Cloud and Tifa’s relationship as “up to the player” whether or not Cloud ends up with Tifa. Disregarding continuity that says otherwise about the previous statement, it is important that we look at what happens in both scenes. Both Cloud and Tifa sleep together no matter what, and Tifa asks Cloud to let her embrace this moment. After this, both scenes have the two wake up and confirm that they have each other, even if no one decides to come back. Not only do the duo’s friends return, they also catch a glimpse of the duo sharing the night. Depending on what scene you get, the reaction from the crew is different, with the “good” one having Tifa collapse in embarrassment and Cloud and crew rub the back of their necks in embarrassment. With the “bad” one, Tifa walks away in frustration, while Cloud rubs the back of his neck in embarrassment. After analyzing these scenes, then you can use the paratext to support your case that regardless of the scene the player got, this was a special night for Cloud and Tifa. The depth of which they take these feelings is what changes, not their feelings for each other, as we know based on previous scenes in the game (Lifestream sequence, Cloud’s “very personal memory I have” as his reason for fighting, etc.) that the two have not only held feelings for one another, but also they made their feelings aware in some form during the Lifestream sequence, with Cloud’s sealed up secret wish revealed to us that he wanted to protect Tifa and wanted her to notice him while Tifa reveals to Cloud that she spent the last 2 years after Cloud’s departure from their hometown thinking about him, hoping to see some mention of him in the press. The big issue with claiming the Low Affection Highwind scene as a rejection scene/canon scene is that it does not provide any evidence in the game’s narrative that everything Cloud thought of Tifa and did for her is suddenly thrown out the window, especially when, despite the difference in what happens between the two scenes, a special moment between them is still shown on-screen. If this was not enough, continuity of the game has this pair, as previously mentioned, deciding to live their lives together and eventually care for foster children, forming a family of their own. If one is going to talk about the canon outcome, it is important to bring things full circle and use the text and paratext together instead of referring to paratext as the Word of God, as being a material that supports what you can already discern from the text, it is the reverse. What this claim all comes down to is the potential to become oblivious to what the text offers. Some folks may be new to the fandom, and seeing people throw around quotes from a guidebook could leave the new fans confused if one does not address what the paratext is supposed to do and how much authority it holds over the text, as if the paratext holds more authority than the text, which we know is not the case.

Conclusion

Without going through every single argument involved in this debate, I believe the examples above give an idea of what this fallacy is, how it can be identified, and how it is not doing justice to the creator’s work. The same concepts apply to any other media, and are likely practiced, intentionally or unintentionally, by fans of said media. What is important is for us to understand how to set an importance of the relationship between the paratext and text, then act accordingly for understanding the context. By doing this, we can minimize the chances that sources are being cherry-picked for the sake of spreading a warped message. OR, in some cases, corresponding sources to a main source being cherry-picked without actually referring to the main source. From here on out, let’s try to take the rest of the cherries off the branch instead of going for the prettiest pairs alone.

Special Thanks

@themelodicenigma

For reviewing my rough-draft and providing constructive feedback on the ideal approach for a topic like this. If you haven’t, I recommend checking out his essays and analyses. He has written exhaustive work on the concept of Canon and subjects of canonicity. Along with that, he also wrote about the subject of paratext, epitext, and Japanese epitext so quite a bit of inspiration from this post came from his work. Seriously, go check out this guy’s blog!

#context #cherry picking #fallacy #concerns #nonsense

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theliterarywolf · 5 years ago

Note

Oh of course a lot of westerners are racist against east Asian people. The fuckers who say "weebs only like Asian artists because they think they aren't political uwu" are just the counterparts to the creepy fucks who actually fetishize Japanese artists, and think anime/manga and the entire Japanese media industry as a whole is some sort of politics free fantasy land. Creepy racist fuckers can only engage in rampant hate or fetishism instead of treating SEA media like any other media.

and it also comes from the mentality, especially in the U.S., you have to be "respectful and Woke" of other cultures combined with the typical laziness of a westerner, especially Americans, to actaully conduct their own research about a culture, so they just assume what fellow nerds spread about a culture is true because it's constantly stated on social media as a fact and gets a lot of likes.

(Also, I hope it doesn't seem like I'm treating Japan as the center of SEA culture or anything or lumping all other SEA cultures with Japan. I just used Japan as an example because it seems like y'all were specifically talking about Japanese anime.)

No, trust me, with this deep-dive I’ve been witnessing between tumblr, twitter, and even some videos on YouTube, I’ve often had to reel back and say ‘I’m not hyperfixating on Japan, am I?’ Because I’ve seen similar mindsets applied to various African countries, various Latin countries, even some European countries.

It’s just that a lot more people, in regards to anime and video games, have been showing their asses more and more lately.

When I saw that comment that sparked this, it rubbed me so wrong because it was oddly familiar to things like European settlers of old going to foreign countries and insisting ‘oh, the savages here are so quaint and life here is so calm... pity about that jungle-speak though’.

And it would be... bad but not as bad if it was just regular western ignorance (hell, again, I used to be in that camp), but now it’s just getting to the point of ‘really? You want to pull this? You really don’t think you should rephrase this? You are getting into kind of bigoted territory, please rephra--’

There was the comment that started my deep-dive, there was that one anituber who was trying to say ‘I don’t know why so many people are against the CGI in the Disney remakes; most of the anime they love so much is just CGI trash anyway’, to which other people, as well as some people in the industry, responded with ‘Um, no... There may be some productions that use CGI for scene tracking, but full-on CGI is still rare to see’, to which the OP doubled-down with ‘Oh, I don’t know why people are misreading what I said~ I’m leaving Twitter for a while, uwu’, or people who make fun of and deride those who DARE to say ‘hey, can we get this Japanese product in the... original, un-neutered state that it came in... without the shoehorned attempts at trying to make it “acceptable for Western family audiences”?’

While the ‘entertainment-first, politics maybe’ sentiment is there in a lot of media (since I’ve seen some discussion about this), those who ignore when different cultural issues actually are present just to say ‘man, why doesn’t anime talk about real issues’ are being... unironically ignorant.

One could even argue... racist.

Was there... was there a time where more people were in the middle of appreciating content from other cultures? Not fetishizing, not ‘patronizing because you a big, strong Westerner who knows better than the poor ignorant minorities’? I feel as though there was a time, even with the advent of weeaboos, but maybe I’m just being nostalgic.

#Anonymous #replies

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raymundsuacillo-blog · 6 years ago

Text

TABOO: The Medieval Mind Within the Modern Filipino

In an era where humanity trails behind the coattails of technology, it is inevitable and evidently expected that people alongside their values progress in pace with the environmental shifts occurring around them. Not much can be said about the Philippines. We are in a nation with conservative presets backed with roaring liberal judgments. As much as history tried to weather the eastern storm with a more westernized narrative, it only gave birth to a nation and people whose sights are poised towards the future yet whose minds are grappled in the past.

Traditions, beliefs, and values are intertwined with history and the culture that serves as society’s foreground. But these historical and cultural facets should not overwhelm the business of politics and the social advancements we have made so far. It is wrong to disregard and sideline these factors in political movements. But to let our medieval values hold our social norms and politics by the neck is a sin in its own sense.

This is taboo. These are the conversations we tried strenuously to avoid and the discourse we vied to kick under the dinner table. In a conservative-esque nation like the Philippines, there are lines one must not come across and there are moral boundaries planted within every social framework. These restrictions have been in place for centuries and we haven’t grown since. We can never genuinely comprehend and understand these issues we deem taboo if we aren’t open to discussing it freely. Only if we learn to pin the obscure will we only find a clearer path to modernity?

Religion in the Philippines is no taboo. But its side effects have been evident long enough for it to mend the social fabric and tinker with our politics. Over 90% of Filipinos are Christian, 80% of which are Catholic. Banking on such foothold, the Church has held power in its pulpits and has even used its sweltering influence to dictate the change in society and in our government. The Church bore the power to take down a dictator. And it still has the power to do so. There is a reason why you can’t look down upon the altar.

But where does the Church fit in this medieval discourse? Frankly, it sits pompously at the center. Like tradition, the Church has embedded its values down to the very helm line of our society. Its propositions, morals, and policies are infused with our cultural norms and have even become our norms. It is through this fusion of Church and stately influence which has quarantined the Filipino mindset from tackling issues that the world has learned to take inconveniently. We have been living with one-sided truths. It is not in the Church’s doctrines neither is it in the Bible where we establish our policies. For the Church heeds its own narrative. And that narrative is not shared by everyone.

The Last Man Standing

What God has put together, let no man separate. This beating mantra has been the battle cry of people who stand at the frontlines against Divorce. We have been told tirelessly told to honor the sanctity of marriage in Filipino households. But when taps run dry, emotions run deep, and domestic violence remains a common Filipino feature, there is really nothing to honor here.

According to recent data by the Philippine Statistics Authority, over 30% of women experience spousal violence from their current partners. In a society where love and matrimony are held to such a high standard, we can never truly tell that love is a safe haven for all. This domestic abuse has led to physical, emotional, and mental bruises that no man can even dare to bear. Abused partners have merely one option to turn to, annulment. But the tedious and blaringly expensive process takes months even years to come into motion. It leaves the abused with no other choice but to exit the process and force themselves to stay with their violent partners or leave such abusive households and face retaliation from a hypocritical society where religious presets become a way of life and personal values become the morals of a 100 Million.

In the years 2017-2018, the Senate has made progress in legalizing divorce. This conversation sparked headlines internationally as the massively conservative state is finally taking steps in swallowing the divorce pill. This is considering that the Philippines is the lone sovereign state to still have divorce illegal after its anti-divorce partner Malta made the act legal in 2011. While commendations trickled down from the thrones of the Vatican, on a global and more realistic sense, we are left grappled in an idea the world has long kept in the past. The world cannot imagine a life where divorce is illegal. But as they say, there is always something unique and painstakingly exotic about the Philippines.

The Talk

In an age of advanced technology, social media has usurped the need for newspapers and tablets have seemingly overtaken the necessity for books. Social media has tightened the loose ends of communication and has engaged millions of people into easier and more convenient discussions and conversations through online platforms. It is easy to think that topics such as Sex Education are more openly brought into light with such technology. But how can the youth initiate such crucial forums on such if Sex Education remains a vague construct and talks about sex and health are literally still kept under the sheets?

According to the Commission on Population (Popcom), Filipino parents still refuse to discuss the barebones and complexities of sex to their children. Sex discussions and Sex Education go beyond the flirtations and the foreplay the general public tags them to be. SexEd opens about sexual health, sexuality, and the repercussions that early and premarital sex may have. Encapsulated within this is the necessary measures in preventing the rampant spread of Sexually Transmitted Diseases such as HIV and AIDS among others. While sex education is being dabbled upon by educational institutions, what echoes within the classroom aren’t generally comprehensive enough for the youth to grasp. These discussions must come from their parents in order to break the stigma around the topic.

It is through this stigma why troubled youth fear opening up about their sexual past. It is in this stigma why HIV/AIDS are set to peak at 15,000 cases in 2019 in a 140% jump because we try desperately to keep the conversations quiet. 500 Filipino teenagers become mothers each day. If Premarital sex, HIV/AIDS, and Teenage Pregnancy aren’t enough to spark discussions, then it is basically useless to even try to fix the problem.

In a country where the age of sexual consent is age 12, parents must exhibit the necessary precautions to keep their children from engaging in premarital and unsafe sex. Schools cannot stress this further for textbooks could only do so much. Despite the common notion, leaving our children ignorant about sex does not safeguard them from doing the act. The retaliation of youthful curiosity is lethal. It’s best we hand them the information rather than letting them seek the information themselves.

#Pride

The colors, festivities and the celebrations are blinding. But if you deep dive into the segregated sectors of society, there is nothing worthy of celebration for the LGBT+. Pride marches are symbols of unity, strength, and the progressive march society is willing to take for the LGBT Community. But that’s all there is. We see gay fashion icons trailing the asphalt in Instagram-worthy outfits together with LGBT couples that find their way at the pulpit of Twitter stardom. Pride marches have only become a mere symbol of the flamboyance of coming out and is somehow sidelining the fight for basic civil rights.

The Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity and Expression (SOGIE) Bill has breezed through the House of Representatives yet has been gripped with strict judgment and brash political backlash at the Senate. The overtly over-religious solons have lionized themselves as preachers to turn LGBT rights into an over-sensationalized lobby for Same-Sex Marriage. While it is respectable to heed religious belief into the Senate floor, it is despicable to use subjective religious doctrines as an excuse to deny people of their right to self-expression.

While we tirelessly demand genuine separation of church and state, what the system dictates, the operator does not follow. Numerous religious groups staged a rally against the legalization of the SOGIE Bill for some stated that it would eventually lead to Same-Sex Marriage. It just goes to show how we only value the LGBT on-screen as best friends or comedic figures but not for the humans they are. We are only tolerant of their actions but never respectful of it.

There are currently no laws protecting LGBT from hate crimes or workplace discrimination. While the Philippines is open to homosexuality, its mindset remains clasped in the past. We will constantly deviate from this conversation long enough for the people to forget. Long enough for the Filipinos to forget once more.

This is a nation that has cultivated numerous ideologies and ideas yet has faltered in comprehending them all. There is no grey area. For as long as we keep these topics and issues in the shadows of the conversation, we can never truly taste the fruits of the progress we have long yearned for. Because these should be embedded into the foundations of our social structures and yet they aren’t. Progress isn’t really about technology. Or how many asphalts we’ve paved and concrete we’ve poured. Progress and change still rest on our moral presets. Our values dictate where we trace our future and where we build a better nation. Unless we are willing to open ourselves to new values then we shall remain in the crevices of our past, in the castles of our Medieval mind.

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bravagente · 7 years ago

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hello dear mod, thank you for everything you do. i have a question i apologise if it's heavier than the tone on this blog. recently a popular italian blogger said that race in italy is racist&was a product of il ventennio. i am french&i understand that we in europe don't like to say the word 'race', but i just want to understand how the construct of racism in italy, especially with all the far right/macerata from an italian persepective. I did read amara lakhous. thanks for everything you do!

Hi! Sorry for the late answer, it’s just such a complex matter to talk about and I’m not entirely sure I have the right perspective to handle it properly both as a white woman and as someone who lives in a city where that’s still relatively not diverse. Plus I study languages so I’m not really in the area - I basically really wanted to do right by this and I hope I will.

Disclaimer: it is true that in Italy the very concept of race, at least the way we know and use it in English is racist and a product of the ventennio. Whichever its etimology and original denotation, the word race (razza) has been very clearly connotated since Fascism: if you say men have razze, you’re implying some men have a pure, superior razza and some don’t. Nowadays in Italian dogs and horses have razze, not people. So, usually, if someone uses ‘race’ in italian as opposed to, say, ethnicity (etnia, colore), you’ll be quite sure they’re racist. It’s not that just because people don’t use the word they can’t be racist, but it does say something about how hard it is for us to cope with the American concept of race and the discourse that follows. The paradox is Americans are rightly very sensitive and careful about what they call race, when from our pov they’re just seeing it all from an inherently racist perspective: there are whites and then there are “people of colour”, all of them. Basically, a white race and then all those other races. Again, all of them. We can’t quite wrap our head around it, especially since we don’t really have a concept of, say, “brown” people. Come over in August, we’ll all be brown. We like a tan. It’s just beyond us.

Moving on to racism. It is possibly the most divisive thing in Italy right now and any conversation about it will escalate quickly because a) no one ever admits to being racist b) not everyone necessarily knows they are, if they are. Like everywhere else, it’s not always glaring. It’s not always a “racist slurs” kind of thing. There are subtle forms of it even here and not just in the alt right: I believe many liberals are actually as racist as one gets, they just don’t show because they never deal with people of colour in the first place. I once interviewed an otherwise pretty decent man who told me immigrants today don’t actually come here willing to work and therefore should be sent back home, another one praised a city he visited because he saw no blacks selling stuff there. I think it speaks volumes on how complex this thing is getting: you can deal with assholes who are 100% assholes. You can ignore them and decide they’re not worth your time and energy. But when they’re half-decent it’s just disheartening and makes you wonder where we’re going. Another reason conversations about racism often won’t end well is they slip into politics and fascism is far from over. Even though more-or-less openly fascist parties didn’t do well at the latest elections, the winners (League and the Five Stars) are firmly anti-immigration, making it about law and order as any Trump of the world would.

Having said this, race as we discussed it might be rooted in Fascism, but is the same true for racism? It is and it isn’t. There’s evidence that sub-saharian Africans were of always discriminated against. We had our own slave markets we don’t learn much of in schools, and while it’d buy and sell people of any race black Africans were definitely amongst them. There’s recently been a lot of discourse about how (in)accurate Still Star-Crossed was, with someone arguing that Alessandro de’ Medici was just an example of a class of black nobles. I’m afraid that’s not true. If I’m referencing to this particular period of time it’s because Renaissance is a personal interest of mine: The Ugly Renaissance will offer information about racism against dark-skinned Africans in 15th-16th century Italy. While light skinned Africans were considered as white as any European, sub-Saharans were thought to be strong and valuable workers, but also “uncivilized simpletons who could never hope to occupy a position of parity with the white majority”. That was a long time ago, sure, but it was bound to remain embedded in people’s mindset. And it did in ways we’d think were behind us by now.

Now, subtle forms of racism aside, there are many racists of the in-your-face, insulting type, more and worse than I ever thought possible growing up. They’ve actually probably always been there, it’s just now they have the Internet so they feel somehow validated and it’s made them unashamed to be openly hateful and ignorant with the support of the right.

However I have to stress that there many, many many more, non-racists. When fascists parade in our streets, anti fascist marches will follow. There’s always a firm reaction, it’s just decency doesn’t make any noise and rarely makes it to the headlines. Anyway I’ll give a few pieces of news encapsulating the two souls of Italy:

Refugee drowns in Venice as people film on their phones and do nothing

Teenager saves black child from getting hit by a train in Milan

Mein Kumpf-owning man shoots black immigrants on sight

Italians protest against racism

Refugee killed in Fermo after defending his wife from slurs

1500 in march to commemorate him

Black man shot to death in Florence

Italians join black people in march to commemorate him

So there’s the bright side I guess, we are genuinely engaged and young people who actually read books know we’re a country with very diverse genes, owing much of our language and culture and even food to “others”. This matters deeply to me because I think othering is the root of most, if not all, issues in our societies. This is a cultural problem first and foremost and I actually believe that. We often speak of inclusiveness or tolerance, but these are all patronizing concepts to me. Who the hell do I think I am to include or “tolerate” someone? No, I have to know in my heart of hearts that “others” aren’t to fear.

Anyway, racism is definitely an issue that exists and that’s getting worse. I’ve personally come to conclude racist behaviours in Italy are caused and fueled by three broader factors that often inform one another.

Ideology is the most glaring: most racists are unapologetic fascists and racism is mounting and growing together with a wave of nostalgia for Mussolini’s party. A lot of fascists obviously never lived under the Duce in the first place, but they have a misguided perception of the ventennio as a time of justice and order where trains would run in time and so on. Something you’ll hear from time to time is that the duce “ha fatto anche cose buone” (also did good things). To these people, the presence of black people or muslims goes hand-in-hand with crimes and chaos: they’ll rape women! They steal and murder! They’re drug dealers! The fact that these things are sometimes true because eventually a rapist or killer or drug dealer will statistically have to be black is irrelevant: if caught off guard they’ll admit to believing every racist stereotype out there.

Xenophobia is more nuanced. The reason I don’t necessarily associate xenophobia with racism is that, until just a few years ago, the most feared foreigners in Italy were the very white Romanians and even Albanians before them. The media are also to blame for the way headlines were worded and they still tend to, often unwillingly, magnify the one crime someone black commits as opposed to those commited by Italians. The Macerata episode was most probably “inspired” by the killing of a young girl cut into pieces by at least one Nigerian immigrant. What do you now, since the news spread every Nigerian person has become a public enemy. Another huge media-related problem is they’ve created an unjustified alarm on the refugee emergency, treating it as if more people than in the past were arriving in our country (they weren’t) and as if the situation was completely out of control (it isn’t, although it’s not easy either). Crime is just one thing, though: people are afraid because our times are scary and dangerous, there are no jobs and the welfare is dying. They are hoping the government will help them and fearing that we’re too many for it to be sustainable. There’s a common misconception for which every immigrant in Italy is being hosted in a hotel and given 30 euros per day while unemployed Italians don’t have any money to buy food: while you can argue that the immigrant will only get 3 of those 30 euros, Italians still live this as if those resources are being spent on foreigners as opposed to themselves because scapegoating is a human, if wrong, thing. Clearly this is turning into a war of the underprivilegeds that will only result in diffidence and hatred, and the staggering misinformation about black people being all but enslaved in some areas of out country isn’t helping.

Conservativism, finally, is a branch of ideology but it’s not necessarily related to actual racism (though it can be). There are some who are entirely cool with people of other ethnicities as long as they “don’t bother” them. They’re too culturally lazy to accept anything different than what they knew as children, they fear Christmas will be cancelled and they don’t want, say, mosques, because they hardly know what they even are. They’re usually the same people who are annoyed by vegans: probably harmless, but they certainly don’t help.

Again I hope this helps. I really tried to be clear and truthful and not offend anybody.

#italy tag #this took me like two months #ask #anon

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itswomanswork · 7 years ago

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The Hidden Growth Assets that All Successful Entrepreneurs Need

“We are transitioning to a business economy where your brand is not just about bricks and buildings but bits and bytes”

Today your brand is defined by its content online. And the data now measures its impact.

The conversations and buzz are often hidden and “ephemeral”. Spreading into the digital corners of human consciousness.

But many businesses are either not aware of them or don’t realize their importance in our increasingly digitized world.

The knowledge economy that sits within our digital world is an eco-system that is moving the foundations of power from physical to abstract and invisible.

Is your marketing manager ready?

Digital marketing took an axe to the job description of the marketing manager. Many of the growth tactics that worked in the past have stalled or stopped working.

The rise of new tools and technology made marketing 101 look a little dated and in need of a renovation. Requiring a serious makeover.

In the past they could hide behind the “Ad” and the PR agency. They did the creative, negotiated with the media and you could blame them if things didn’t work out.

It was easy not to be accountable.

Mass media metrics are almost impossible to measure back to results. Digital has moved accountability from opaque to transparent.

Is your key growth tactician still using the tools they learnt 20 years ago?

Have they evolved and adapted?

Kept learning?

It’s complicated

Today a CMO needs to understand all the new components that make up digital marketing plus traditional marketing.

Here are just a few of the categories that now need the modern CMO’s attention: Many of these did not exist 10 years ago.

Social media marketing – We know what this is.

Content marketing – Adding value to your projects and customer with valuable content.

Email Marketing – It’s been around a while but still key.

Paid digital marketing- Facebook and Google are your top 2 and each of these are disciplines in their own right.

Search engine optimisation – Ranking on the first page of Google is now worth aspiring to.

Paid digital advertising – Facebook and Google

Marketing funnels – Taking people on a digital journey from digital discovery to sales

Influencer marketing – Reaching trusted audiences via influencers.

Marketing automation – cling and managing your complex digital tactics

But before you rush in you need to know where you are starting from.

What are your digital assets?

Digital Assets

In the rush for a quick fix and instant gratification the marketing solution is often seen as Facebook advertising replacing other paid brand building activities such as radio and television.

But digital marketing is not just Facebook advertising. It is just one sliver of what you should be doing.

Playing the long game is what effective digital marketing is also about. Growing and building substantial digital assets. These are assets that will keep giving. Digital marketing and advertising should not just be treated as an expense, but as assets.

If you are well into the digital journey then you will have built digital assets. They are investments in building bits and bytes that show up and include traffic, social sharing and earned attention from Google.

One way of looking at these is to put them in two boxes.

Soft digital assets – Ones that are hard to see and measure.

Hard digital assets – Those that are more visible and can have metrics put next to them.

They can also be described in their totality as digital intelligence.

Digital Intelligence

McKinsey uses a term “Digital Quotient” or DQ to describe the digital intelligence of an organisation.

Distilling the big messy list into the essential 4 provides some clarity.

This is what you need at a high level. This is soft digital power.

Strategy – A long term and bold strategy is what is important here and the mindset to carry it out

Building assets that scale – digital has provided almost limitless opportunity, so scale is achievable in a global economy. Data driven decision making, community engagement and sharing, process at scale enabled by technology

Agility – Learn fast, being prepared to fail fast and often, collaborating externally is now possible and easier.

Ability – Having the right skill sets within the organisation and also access to external resources that know what they are doing can accelerate the growth of your digital assets and performance.

Image source: McKinsey

Soft digital assets

These elements are hard to measure but it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t embrace them and gain insights and understanding. They are core and foundational to “getting digital”.

If we look over the components in the McKinsey Digital Quotient there are a few categories that stand out that are hard to measure.

And they are soft digital power.

Culture – Does the organisation have the mindset for embracing the digital economy. Is the CEO on board? Are the executives dinosaurs or digital natives? And with that comes elements such as risk taking and the ability to embrace some failure as a strength. Learning from mistakes and being agile enough to iterate and evolve quickly.

Expertise – Does your team have the skills you need to move into the future. Or are they lacking the essentials?

Customer experience – What are your prospects and customers experience when dealing with your brand online? Hard or easy. Confusing or intuitive?

Hard digital assets

Knowing where you are starting from provides the baseline to see if you are moving forward when you start making this first steps.

There are many types of hard digital assets.

Digital brand – Online brand and positioning. Share of voice, testimonials on social and other websites. Technology can reveal how you are compared to your competition. This is now measurable.

SEO – Search engine authority. This is broken into 2 key pillars. Making sure your site is technically structured to give the right signals to search engines. And quality content that is linked to by other websites and creates online conversations and reach.

Email lists – What is the size and quality of your vital email subscriber list?

Social media followers – Do you have your own channels and distribution to get your brand voice heard? What networks are you on and are they the right ones.

Website traffic – How many page views are you getting every month. How many unique visitors. People that haven’t visited your site beforeThese are

Social traffic – As we move from an Internet of websites to an Internet of apps and platforms the conversation is happening away from our owned digital assets.

Content assets – Sitting under this umbrella are a range of multi-media assets that provide different ways to communicate with peoples various modalities of consuming and learning. Some like to listen (podcasts) and other like to watch (videos).

External online relationships – What online influencer and collaborations have you put in place?

Measuring these provides the reference point to put a strategy together. To build digital assets that you may have ignored or need to build.

The baseline

Once you have these measured and identified the strengths and weaknesses then you know where to start.

Do you need more traffic

Do you need to convert more of those into leads?

Sales. Conversations. Brand buzz?

So….

What’s your baseline? What do you need to work on?

This will be vital in putting together your digital marketing strategy.

The post The Hidden Growth Assets that All Successful Entrepreneurs Need appeared first on Jeffbullas’s Blog.

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shithowdy · 7 years ago

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I realize this is a personal question from a rando stranger, but: do you mind explaining a little about what made you pull back from being a 4ch raider/participating in lulz culture? a friend of mine works for twitter's abuse dept and she is really struggling how to figure out the best ways to fight online trolling - any anecdote would be useful? (i recognize this is a big ask - feel free to ignore this if it's too much/private to talk about)

No it’s fine to talk about! I prefer to be open about my abhorrent behavior in the mid/late aughts since it was pretty impactful on both people I hurt and my own way of dealing with that kind of culture.

Trolling online these days is so much more organized, methodical, and scientific than it was back then. Social media was still a new concept, and websites had a lot more focus on niche audiences. Peoples’ online presences were scattered across several websites– their art would be on DeviantART, their private musings would be on their Xanga, their most social activity would be a forum attached to an anime fansite, and their different interests would be spread across several messageboards, LJ communites, Yahoo/MSN groups, etc.

Site names have changed and this isn’t 100% untrue now, but for the most part, segmented online presences are a dying breed. Most people share ALL of their work and thoughts on tumblr/instagram/twitter/reddit, all with one account, all very easy to learn about somebody. Things like DA still exist but are tertiary and not a primary method of interacting online. Reverse image searching, google maps, facebook, and people-finding tools also make hunting down someone to harass or impersonate them a lot easier.

I start by saying this because it’s important to observe the evolution of trolling, both in methods and intent. The internet is a completely different animal– before, to use an unsettling analogy, it was almost more about the hunt, now it’s about the kill.

Nothing in particular made me leave the subculture overnight. There was no conscious revelation that I could share in the hopes that others have it. I began roleplaying in World of Warcraft in 2009, and if I had to offer a turning point, that would be it. I went from being an angry little internet elemental to somebody meaningfully involved in a creative community that needed to work together to make each other happy instead of constantly trying to one-up one another. I played a character that was friendly, charismatic, and loved to help people. Between having to be in this constant mindset for roleplay’s sake and just in general getting to know people, I developed empathy for my fellow internet inhabitants.

As time went on it helped me explore more facets of myself, namely my very closeted queerness. RP communities are an extremely mixed bag and I encountered a lot of people openly sharing points of view I’d never considered about the world, eloquent people using a written platform where they can say everything they want to say in one place and consider it as long as they need before putting it out there.

I didn’t leave behind cruel behavior because I was stricken by shame. I just lost interest in it because I found more positive outlets, and listened to people with opinions counter to ones I’d held.

But how does this tie in to preventing abuse? I’m not sure that it does. Obviously there are plenty of cruel, manipulative, dreadful people in RP and other creative communities that have no intention of working as a team or considering others’ viewpoints, so it’s obviously not a result of the environment. But I think the empathy is an important factor– people behave as they do online because anonymity dampens empathy. Even if someone’s Twitter handle is their real name and their icon is their real face, their feelings are ultimately just a bunch of words on a screen, a person that in no way impacts your life. You don’t have to be privy to the devastation on their face as you tell them they’re broken and deserve to die. Bullying is a senseless but perpetual aspect of human nature and the emotional disconnect makes it worse.

Unfortunately empathy is not something Twitter, or any website, is capable of instilling in its users. That is something that needs to be addressed offline. People need to be made more acutely aware of their monkeyspheres, and be asked difficult questions like, “Why do you perceive X as unworthy of compassion? Who are they hurting? What is your goal? Why do you think that needs to be a goal?”And you can’t ask these questions online. You can’t make somebody uncomfortable with their worldview if they can hit backspace at any time and ignore it. But maybe asking the right questions often enough will eventually force them to think about it whether they want to or not.

Regardless, most people who bully do so because they have a perception of what’s “right”. This isn’t always a deep social issue such as racism; sometimes it can be something as simple as not liking how they spend their time, or the way they dress. One of my lowest moments in my teens was against a fanartist who traced various artwork to instead be their OC and a canon character. That’s it. That was their crime. But I was determined to make them stop doing it by any means necessary, and this meant impersonating them on /b/, alerting them to their existence. They figured out pretty quickly that it was me impersonating but they had already fixated on their artwork and I received no backlash, and they continued to hound them across various accounts. For what it’s worth, I did reach out a couple years back to apologize– but the damage remains.

Take that mindset and apply it to anything, from the notion that the bully has been denied something and is lashing out against a perceived cause, to a genuinely devoted moral crusade. The belief that they are “doing the right thing” (teaching a lesson, attacking somebody “bad”, thickening someone’s skin) is a unifying factor. Nobody sits there chuckling about how evil they’re being– they’re thinking, “this will show them”, and they get a rush out of having some control over this perceived slight.

What can websites do? They can take a more active role in moderating their community. They can ban hateful accounts and personally reach out to victims.

What can victims do? It fucking sucks, but don’t engage. I see a lot of debate on this but standing up to bullies online is a lot different than in real life. With a lot of media being based on “sharing”, retaliation opens up the potential for a wider audience of scum and they absolutely thrive on distress and watching people spend their time acknowledging them. You are not showing that bullying won’t be tolerated by refuting their words, you’re just giving them more shit to screenshot into their group chats before they roll in and call you more slurs that you publicize for them yourself by engaging. I say this from the perspective of someone who did that. A blocked/deleted insult is no fun. An insult with a “get a load of this guy cam” reaction image followed by several reblogs of people insulting the anon or saying how unacceptable this is is successful.

What can trolls do? Find a better outlet, you guys. Honestly. It’s a rush to feel like you have some kind of control and power over people by drawing reactions out of them but making people happy feels even better. Cruelty impresses only people that will have no qualms hurting you too.

#oh that got long #randomproxy

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racingtoaredlight · 5 years ago

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Last week, only days after he was nominated by President Donald Trump to replace Dan Coats as Director of National Intelligence, Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-Tex.) withdrew after it was discovered that he had virtually no intelligence or national security experience. Such experience is mandated by the law which created the position of Director of National Intelligence and when it was discovered Ratcliffe had embellished what little experience he had, the already tepid reception he received became downright chilly and it was clear that the Texas congressman would not be confirmed. Ratcliffe’s withdrawal led to a new question: with no pending nominee, there Office of the DNI would need an acting director. The current deputy, CIA veteran Sue Gordon, was reportedly not considered for the nomination by Trump and when it became clear that a new nominee would be needed, and that it would not be Gordon, this created an awkward situation. Seeing the writing on the wall, Sue Gordon resigned her position with an effective date of August 15. Gordon’s resignation, and her departure from the federal government, represents a drain of talent and experience which has been a hallmark of the Trump administration; it started out with the State Department under the leadership of Rex Tillerson, and this exodus spread to other cabinet level agencies such as the Agriculture Department, which is in the process of losing some of its most experienced scientists. This, along with the federal judiciary being filled with hundreds of Trump nominees in their 30s and 40s, will be among the most salient parts of Trump’s legacy.

Andrew McCabe, the former chief counterterrorism official at the FBI and one of the most important “bogeyman of the Right,” throughout the FBI’s investigation into the actions of the Trump campaign in 2016 and the early Trump administration in 2017, has filed a lawsuit against the Justice Department over his termination only hours before his retirement from the bureau was due to take effect. McCabe is despised by Trump supporters because he approved the FBI’s counterintelligence investigation into the Trump campaign, and he has been assailed as a leading member of the so-called “Deep State” of bureaucrats and career Washington D.C. professionals who have stood in the way of Trump’s political movement. Because he was fired before his retirement began, McCabe lost out on government retirement benefits that he would have been due, and the loss of these benefits is the basis of his lawsuit. McCabe’s lawsuit, if it is permitted to go forward, could have serious implications for the Trump administration once the suit reaches discovery. While this is by no means an existential threat to Trump or his administration, it does threaten to shine light on an area which former Attorney General Jeff Sessions sought to keep concealed.

In January 2018, Babe.net, a pop culture website and blog targeted at apparently post-feminist 18-24 year old women, published a story by writer Katie Way in which she chronicled how an anonymous twenty-something women had gone on a date with comedian Aziz Ansari which, she alleged, turned into the worst night of her life. The story, which came out just as the wave of the MeToo movement began to crest, attracted immediate attention. A few months earlier, MeToo was born out of a series of articles outing powerful men for engaging in behavior towards women which ranged from inappropriate to sexual assault. One such article was a lengthy expose of wildly popular comedian Louis C.K., who was long rumored to have used his fame to coerce women into sexually uncomfortable situations and then to force their silence. Aziz Ansari had achieved a similar level of popular acclaim both for his stand-up comedy and for his roles in Parks and Recreation, among other shows. And now it appeared that an emerging media outlet had scooped a story in which Ansari was made to appear to engage in similar behavior to Louis C.K. This story, however, came out just as the scene at Babe.net itself was becoming tumultuous. The site, itself a spinoff from another web imprint, was not profitable and was instead dependent on continued investment from venture capitalists. The office culture of Babe.net, according to several of its former staffers, was little better than the accusations levelled against Aziz Ansari in its breakout story. Babe.net continues to exist today, but it is largely a zombie form of what it was a year earlier, and most of its most significant contributors have moved on to other things.

Anyone who has lived in a city or town in a low-lying area near water, has dealt with mosquitoes. Mosquitoes have been the bane of humanity for thousands of years, but their role in spreading diseases, such as malaria, was only understood at the outset of the twentieth century. Prior to then it was thought that malaria—which literally means “bad air,”—was caused by the poor air in a particular locale; a result of the so-called “Miasma Theory,” of diseases. Taken more broadly, this is about the role of mosquitoes in shaping human history and viewing them, as small and insignificant as they seem, as apex predators. Any book which proposes that human history turned on the role of a single organism is generally suspect; it is certain to have fascinating historical turns, but, because of its singular focus, it is also certain to stretch logic and causation in the interest of making its intended point. Nonetheless, there is one jaw-dropping statistic from this which cannot be ignored: “Just twenty-two years after Columbus stepped onto Hispaniola, a census revealed that the local Taino population had dropped from between five and eight million people to just twenty-six thousand. Along with smallpox and influenza, mosquito-borne diseases led, by Winegard’s estimate, to the deaths of ninety-five million indigenous inhabitants of the Americas, from a pre-contact population of about a hundred million.”

Before the 1980s, musicians of all levels of popularity, were able to make a living off of their artistry. Whether through joining the union and performing in sanctioned-clubs, getting signed by a record company and cutting an album—or albums—in the studio, which were then pressed and pushed for radio play, and through touring, from the dawn of recorded music through the 1980s, a musician could expect to have a reasonable career. This no longer appears to the be case, as the music and recording industry has undergone a series of seismic shifts, starting first with the weakening of musician’s unions and the introduction of Compact Discs or CDs (and less expensive cassettes) in the 1980s, the development of the internet in the 1990s, and the proliferation of songs in the MP3 format in the late 1990s and 2000s. Making money as a musician now seems, other than for the top 2% of artists, a fool’s errand. There are two things interesting about this trend: first, that it has occurred in a context where the sonic quality of recorded music has decreased from what it was on vinyl albums in the 1970s, and second, that it has not deterred young men and women from becoming musicians. This is a meditation on the music industry as it was, as it became, as it is, and as it could be.

Existentialism is a dreary intellectual pursuit. If, at its core, life is devoid of meaning beyond the fact that we persist as living organisms, then the proponents of such a belief system must be dull, unimaginative individuals with whom it is painful to join in a social capacity. While not boorish, existentialists ponder subject matter which would be unwelcome at most parties. And yet most existentialists in the mid-twentieth century were not boring individuals, and instead sought out drink and drugs as a way to prevent the “hardening” of life. Drinking and partying is often seen, especially in the western mind, as a wasteful as it is pleasurable. This mindset, no doubt rooted in the Puritan and Protestant mindsets of preservation of the earthly life as a means to gain just rewards in the afterlife, finds no traction in existentialism. “Partying can involve a similar act of destroying such expectations, as well as expending time, money, food, drink and brain cells. Some might call this a waste, but what are we saving ourselves for? A good life isn’t always a long one, and a long life isn’t necessarily a happy or fulfilled one. Rather, what’s important is to embrace life passionately. Existence is a process of spending ourselves, and sometimes requires leaving our former selves behind to create ourselves anew, thrusting forward into the future, disclosing our being into new realms.” Perhaps the most profound part of that, to me, is “existence is the process of spending ourselves,” which is an acknowledgment that we all face mortality and the ability to face it is, I think, largely based on the ability to honestly say that the act of spending has been enjoyable and satisfying. If that enjoyment and satisfaction be found in a bottle, then so be it. But, and this is important, the expense of life still involves the responsibilities to participate and create; which is perhaps why Sartre cured hangovers with amphetamines. Viewed in this lens, existentialism can be seen to cut through a series of societal norms and expectations about behaviors, and that alone makes it interesting, at least in this context.

Finally, the Center for Politics Crystal Ball takes a look back on the 2016 election and asks the question queued up by the release of the Mueller Report: did Russia’s interference in the election actually affect the results? It is important to consider two things when looking at this question: first, whether the Russian interference had any effect does not take away from the profoundly negative nature of the interference; and second the Russian interference could have had a result upon the election, without actually swaying any individual races. Both of these considerations are implicit in this article by Alan Abramowitz analyzing the 2016 election.

Welcome to the weekend.

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dorothydelgadillo · 6 years ago

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7 Creative Game of Thrones-themed Marketing Campaigns From Brands You’d Never Expect

Whether you watch it or you don’t, you’re probably aware that the premiere of Game of Throne’s final season aired on HBO this past Sunday.

The show has had a cult following since the book series, and the final season premiere drew in a record-breaking 17.4 million viewers.

No matter where you were, it was hard to ignore how big of a deal this was for fans.

The only drop that matters pic.twitter.com/sCv0LbFBrW

— zane (@zane) April 15, 2019

One of the reasons it was hard to ignore was because of the massive marketing initiatives by HBO to build as much awareness as possible and by major brands to, in turn, capitalize on it.

Because most brands don’t have too much in common with mythical kingdoms, zombies, and dragons, it’s been interesting as a marketer to see the creative initiatives they came up with to be both on-brand and relevant to the Game of Thrones theme.

1. OREO

Oreo has been known to get into the spirit with popular pop culture events - and the Game of Thrones premiere has been no exception.

The cookie company released a limited edition pack of Game of Thrones-themed Oreos, pictured below:

The cookie designs feature four embossments representing the groups still battling for the Iron Throne—House Lannister, House Targaryen, and House Stark—as well as The Night King and White Walkers.

Additionally, to make their efforts more shareable on social media, they also re-created the iconic Game of Thrones opening title sequence with Oreo Cookies.

youtube

Clearly, this was a great way for Oreo to get in the spirit about the final season and spread awareness of their efforts.

2. Shake Shack

Popular burger chain Shake Shack not only rolled out a cool ad campaign to celebrate Game of Thrones but they also debuted an entire secret menu to go along with it.

For a limited time at Shake Shack’s Madison Square location in New York City, Game of Thrones-themed items are on the secret menu, including spicy Dracarys burgers and cool Dragonglass shakes.

Additionally, there is a very on-theme trick to getting one: You have to order in Valyrian, a fictional language from the series.

Luckily, Shake Shack offered a helpful translation key for the guest that were not fluent in it.

3. Red Cross

If you watch Game of Thrones (or have even heard of it), you’ll know that there is a lot of death and blood.

So, the American Red Cross creatively worked that aspect into their marketing campaign, launching “Bleed for the Throne,” which encouraged fans to donate blood in exchange to win an actual Iron Throne.

youtube

After donating, fans are brought through an immersive experience, hearing voices of prominent Game of Thrones characters who have literally “shed blood” in their fight to get closer to the Throne.

You wouldn’t normally find a correlation between Game of Thrones and a healthcare organization like the Red Cross, but this campaign goes to show that a creative mindset can really help you achieve results and generate engagement.

4. The New York Mets

Baseball is an American staple this time of year, so it makes sense HBO would seek out the MLB to incorporate the final season into its events.

The two brands saw a partnership in 2018, with the campaign “Baseball is Coming.” and now, they’ve revealed several different themes for this season, starting off with the Mets.

The first 25,000 fans will receive a Noah Syndergaard bobblehead sitting on the Iron Throne.

It’s been said that these bobbleheads will continue to be used for different teams in April and May MLB games.

5. Mountain Dew

Mountain Dew also partnered with HBO to launch “A Can Has No Name” campaign.

youtube

The campaign centers around it’s one of a kind can which appears completely blank when warmed, but once chilled, reveals the kill list of character Arya Stark.

This is a very simple way to make a big impact for both HBO promotion and for Mountain Dew to sell more products to fans.

6. AT&T

AT&T pulled out all of the tricks in order to execute this campaign.

The cellphone provider put together an entire “Game of Thrones” experience in select stores leading up to the premiere utilizing both VR and AR technology to bring the world to life.

They also provided an exclusive look at content, costumes, props, and other show memorabilia to make the experience more valuable.

7. Urban Decay

Cosmetics company Urban Decay launched a limited-edition Game of Thrones collection set to capitalize on the final season hype.

On their website, the company stated:

“We’ve partnered with HBO to create the Urban Decay | Game of Thrones collection, inspired by our favorite places in Westeros and the strong women of the Seven Kingdoms. From the shores of Dragonstone to the frozen lands beyond the Wall, this collection will let you create looks inspired by House Stark, House Targaryen, House Lannister, and the White Walkers.”

The collection features various makeup products, but they took their messaging a step further with incorporating the themes into their product descriptions.

“Get a glow that lights up the Seven Kingdoms with the Mother of Dragons Highlight Palette and its three new shades of Afterglow Highlighter. Command dragonfire with the Dracarys Lip & Cheek Stain, a universally flattering Targaryen red tint."

"Prepare for the long battle with four new shades of our award-winning, waterproof 24/7 Glide-On Eye Pencil as well as our unstoppable, long-lasting Vice Lipstick—because lipstick is always the best weapon."

You’ll be armed and ready with Jon Snow’s Longclaw and Arya Stark’s Needle eyeshadow brushes.”

This is a unique, fun way to ring in the premiere, and provides fans with a piece of memorabilia from the event, along with a great, high-quality product that we can expect from a brand like Urban Decay.

The Power of Newsjacking

All of these examples are prime examples of how newsjacking can be mutually beneficial for brands.

Here, HBO got added exposure for the Game of Thrones final season, and the brands involved got to attract its huge fanbase and be a part of the fun.

This goes to show that when done right, Newsjacking can help brands stay top of mind and catch some of the buzzes from these prominent current events.

It also exemplifies that by getting a little creative with your strategy, you can create a campaign that is both on-brand for your company and relevant to what’s happening in the world.

Since this is the last season of the show, we can expect some of these newsjacking efforts to continue as the season goes on - and get ready to start taking notes for the examples to come for the final episode!

The New York Mets revealed that April 27th will be “Game of Thrones” night at the team’s stadium. from Web Developers World https://www.impactbnd.com/blog/game-of-thrones-themed-marketing-campaigns

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myongfisher · 7 years ago

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Instagram vs. facebook: what’s the better marketing avenue?

When Facebook bought Instagram in 2012, were they preparing to train a successor?

Back then, the billion-dollar acquisition was a bold move, and many criticized Facebook for spending so much on a dinky photo app run by just 13 employees. No one questions the move now, however; although exact amounts are unknown, rough estimates put Instagram’s current value at around $102 billion, ten times the acquisition cost.

Is Instagram the new Facebook?

To be fair, Instagram can’t compete with Facebook on the sheer number of users. Instagram’s 800 million monthly users may have made it the third most popular social media channel, but it’s still a far cry from reigning-champion Facebook’s 2 billion monthly users. So why not invest all your digital marketing money in Facebook and reach twice as many people?

Because, as we explain below, it’s not about the quantity of impressions, it’s about the quality. And for digital brands targeting younger (< 30 y.o.) groups, your marketing dollars might go further on Instagram, especially for visual industries like fashion, beauty, or even architecture.

Later, we’ll explain how to shift your strategies to make the most out of marketing on both platforms. But first, let’s look at how a relatively smaller channel can make bigger waves. It’s all about their DNA, which for social media is another way to say, their algorithms.

Instagram vs. Facebook: the algorithms —

Long story short, it’s not about your visibility per se, but more about your visibility with the right people.

Getting back to basics for a moment, the algorithm for a social media feed refers to the actual code that determines which posts are seen by which users, and in what order. Long gone are the days of chronological feeds where posts appear in the order they were published—and good riddance, frankly, considering this organization structure doesn’t scale well when you follow hundreds of accounts.

The seeming randomness of your social media feed makes strange partnerships, like Garry Shandling and the Pope. Via Facebook.

So, social media channels use algorithms to give you a more fulfilling experience, where you see more posts you actually like, and less of the irrelevant ones from your weird aunt. But don’t pat these channels on the back for their altruism—the algorithm also gives them more control over their advertising ventures.

As you can imagine, this isn’t an exact science, so each social media channel has to shoot in the dark a little when determining the right criteria on which to organize their feeds. Therein lies the difference between marketing on Facebook versus marketing on Instagram.

So what does Instagram’s algorithm do better for marketing? The actual algorithms are unknown trade secrets, but Alfred Lua of Buffer researched both the algorithms for Facebook and Instagram, and came up with some speculations that proved accurate when tested. These are the factors that determine a single (non-advertisement) post’s rank.

Instagram’s Algorithm

Engagement. How many hearts and comments on each post.

Relevancy. Are the post’s genres relevant to the user?

Relationships. Posts from accounts that the user interacts with more frequently are ranked higher.

Timeliness. More recent posts are ranked higher.

Profile searches. Posts from accounts that users search for regularly are ranked higher.

Direct shares. Posts from accounts the user directly shares with others are ranked higher, and the person who receives the shared posts gets a rank boost on their own posts.

Time spent on post. The time spent actually looking at a post (not scrolling).

Facebook’s new algorithm

Friends and family. Posts from people the user knows personally are ranked higher. This is important because it means posts from brands are demoted.

Engagement. How many likes, comments and shares the post receives, factoring in time.

Encouraging engagement. Posts likely to start to a conversation are ranked higher.

Images and videos. Visual posts are ranked higher and text-only posts are ranked lower.

Bait is demoted. Posts that aggressively bait for likes, shares, comments, votes or tags are ranked lower.

Promotional posts are demoted. Posts trying to push people into buying a product/service or join a contest are demoted. Also, Facebook checks text against known advertisements and demotes unofficial ads.

Promoting a product like the Han Solo Star Wars movie is easy when your fans do all the work. Via Instagram.

The goal of the update was to prevent fraudulent news stories by encouraging more personal conversations, but the consequence is less exposure to brands and public content.

It seems like a coordinated strategy with Facebook compartmentalizing its two channels. Minimizing third-party exposure on Facebook will return the channel to its more personal social roots with friends and family, while simultaneously drumming up business for its advertising (it’s not harder for brand posts to be seen for free). But social media marketers can still promote their brand on Instagram for free, and with even better results, as long as the content is sound.

Instagram vs. Facebook: marketing effectiveness —

Now that we’ve looked behind the scenes, let’s look at what’s happening on the main stage.

To wrap a nice bow around it, Instagram is better for direct marketing: engaging with customers, spreading awareness, showcasing new products/services, comparison shopping, and influencer marketing. Furthermore, Instagram is a powerhouse for the under 30 demographic, especially teens.

Facebook, on the other hand, remains the best for visibility with older age groups, as long as you’re using paid advertisements. It’s also worth noting Facebook makes it easier to funnel users to a third-party site like an online store. Instagram prohibits link sharing in posts and comments, and any outside links appear in your bio only; the extra steps required to visit your site make it harder to generate traffic.

Food magazine Bon Appétit posts awesome cooking videos on Facebook. Who could resist clicking on that link to their website to get the recipe?

A lot of it boils down to the motives of each person using each site. In principle, Facebook tries to be more about personal interactions and sharing content with people you know. As such, 40% of Facebook users don’t like engaging with companies at all, preferring more intimate connections.

Instagram, though, places more emphasis on discovery and observation, and less on interaction—although ironically their engagement rate is much higher. Particularly for Millennials, Instagram is seen as a style resource, an ideal place for learning new trends and discovering new artists, as well as keeping up with their favorite celebrities. As you can see by the chart below, Instagram dominates industries like fashion, beauty, interior design, architecture, photography and celebrity news.

Instagram outperforms Facebook in visually-dominant industries. Via Facebook.

This makes Instagram better for influencer marketing and free exposure; users on Instagram more often sign on actively looking for product recommendations, as opposed to Facebook where they actively ignore them.

Instagram’s other advantage is customer engagement. A 2014 Forrester study put Facebook’s engagement rate at 0.7%, a huge lag behind Instagram’s 4.21%. A Selfstartr study brings more up-to-date statistics: Only 32% of Facebook users regularly interact with brands, compared to 68% of Instagram users. Their final tally cites that brands receive 58x more engagement per follower on Instagram than Facebook.

A lot of that has to do with Facebook followers not even seeing the posts in the first place, thanks to the algorithm. According to the above Selfstartr report, while Instragram brands reach 100% of their audience per post, that number drops drastically to 6% for Facebook.

Maybe it’s the mindset on users, or perhaps the limitations Facebook’s new algorithm puts on brands, or maybe it’s simply the culture of each channel. Regardless, Instagram is the winner for having an actual back-and-forth with customers.

And let’s not forget the presence of competition, or lack-there-of. The presence of marketers on Facebook is nearly 3x that of Instagram: 93% of marketers use Facebook, compared to only 36% using Instagram [Selfstartr again]. Perhaps that has to do with the brand fatigue felt on Facebook.

But perhaps the difference between marketing on Facebook vs. Instagram is best understand by looking at performance over time. Organic marketing on Facebook has declined by 63% since 2012, while it’s increased 115% on Instagram in that same time. It seems the writing has been on the wall even before Facebook’s latest algorithm changes.

7 best practices for switching your marketing focus —

Enough statistics and observations. Let’s talk about what a brand can do to maximize the effect of Instagram marketing.

1. Don’t abandon facebook. With its reach and emphasis on sharing, Facebook is still relevant for marketers, so don’t abandon it completely. Facebook is a great place to post curated content and brand news, and their paid advertising is more effective than Instagram’s. But when it comes down to building a brand reputation and relationships with customers, Instagram is better.

2. Up the visual content. While visuals outperform text on both channels, on Instagram it’s downright necessary. Facebook may be more forgiving of text-based posts like blog articles or novella-length status updates, but with Instagram, if has to look great to perform great.

Power through the day with help from #FLEXVOLT. What job are you getting done this week? Photo Credit: @mike_builds_

A post shared by DEWALT POWER TOOLS (@dewalttough) on Jan 31, 2018 at 7:30am PST

3. Create original content. Again, posting or sharing other works is perfectly acceptable on Facebook, but with Instagram it’s assumed that images are original. Instagram is less a place for sharing the work of other people (unless it’s a picture you took yourself of another person’s work), so invest in strong, original content.

4. Go heavy on the hashtags. You can’t directly target user groups on Instagram, but hashtags are the next best thing. List all the relevant hashtags to help your post get seen by the right people. Up to 30 hashtags fit in the description, but you can always add more in a comment on your own post.

5. Create contests. Contests are always great for engagement spikes, so take advantage with an Instagram photo contest. Having users promote your brand in their pictures is free advertising, just don’t forget to create an original hashtag for the campaign. You also have the opportunity to participate in other universal trends, like the #lemondancechallenge below.

Watch @gal_gadot take the @nerd #LemonDanceChallenge with @mettenarrative at her #revlon shoot! Take the #LemonDanceChallenge and tag @revlon #LiveBoldly for a chance to be featured on our stories!

A post shared by Revlon (@revlon) on Feb 1, 2018 at 4:14pm PST

6. Work with consistent themes. Niche targeting is big on Instagram (another reason hashtags are important), so pick a dedicated theme and stick to it. If you’re a travel brand, only post travel images. If you’re a restaurant, only post food porn. The more you specialize, the better (as long as there’s enough interest), so as soon as you find your niche, dive deep.

7. Optimize your bio and description. As the only places to talk about yourself, your Instagram bio and description are vital. In addition to your site URL, you should include a slogan and brief elevator pitch, as well as your most relevant hashtags. Don’t shy away from using your logo as your profile photo, either.

Adidas knows a simple product photo won’t fly on Instagram. Notice their stylized—and consistent—thematic backgrounds, adding that visual allure that Instagram lives off of. Via Instagram.

Takeaway: the dual strategy —

Rather than dumping all your eggs from one basket to another, it’s best to use both Facebook and Instagram simultaneously and play on their individual strengths.

Facebook’s paid advertising is still quite effective, and it’s able to reach older groups than Instagram. Facebook is also a better gateway to external sites or online stores because you can post links to anywhere.

But when it comes to direct customer engagement and building your brand identity, Instagram is the clear winner (based on the data). It’s also more direct access to the under 30 crowds, and with less competition.

If the trends continue, Instagram will overtake Facebook in advertising in the near future, and maybe even in the amount of users as well. But for the time being, Facebook is still relevant for marketing. Don’t abandon Facebook just yet—but keep an eye on the horizon by developing your Instagram presence.

Need a great social media page to market your business?

Our designers will have you #trending in no time!

Yes please!

The post Instagram vs. facebook: what’s the better marketing avenue? appeared first on 99designs Blog.

Instagram vs. facebook: what’s the better marketing avenue? published first on https://www.lilpackaging.com/

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pamelahetrick · 7 years ago

Text

Instagram vs. facebook: whats the better marketing avenue?

When Facebook bought Instagram in 2012, were they preparing to train a successor?

Is Instagram the new Facebook?

Instagram vs. Facebook: the algorithms —

Long story short, it’s not about your visibility per se, but more about your visibility with the right people.

The seeming randomness of your social media feed makes strange partnerships, like Garry Shandling and the Pope. Via Facebook.

Instagram’s Algorithm

Engagement. How many hearts and comments on each post.

Relevancy. Are the post’s genres relevant to the user?

Relationships. Posts from accounts that the user interacts with more frequently are ranked higher.

Timeliness. More recent posts are ranked higher.

Profile searches. Posts from accounts that users search for regularly are ranked higher.

Direct shares. Posts from accounts the user directly shares with others are ranked higher, and the person who receives the shared posts gets a rank boost on their own posts.

Time spent on post. The time spent actually looking at a post (not scrolling).

Facebook’s new algorithm

Friends and family. Posts from people the user knows personally are ranked higher. This is important because it means posts from brands are demoted.

Engagement. How many likes, comments and shares the post receives, factoring in time.

Encouraging engagement. Posts likely to start to a conversation are ranked higher.

Images and videos. Visual posts are ranked higher and text-only posts are ranked lower.

Bait is demoted. Posts that aggressively bait for likes, shares, comments, votes or tags are ranked lower.

Promoting a product like the Han Solo Star Wars movie is easy when your fans do all the work. Via Instagram.

The goal of the update was to prevent fraudulent news stories by encouraging more personal conversations, but the consequence is less exposure to brands and public content.

Instagram vs. Facebook: marketing effectiveness —

Now that we’ve looked behind the scenes, let’s look at what’s happening on the main stage.

Food magazine Bon Appétit posts awesome cooking videos on Facebook. Who could resist clicking on that link to their website to get the recipe?

Instagram outperforms Facebook in visually-dominant industries. Via Facebook.

7 best practices for switching your marketing focus —

Enough statistics and observations. Let’s talk about what a brand can do to maximize the effect of Instagram marketing.

Power through the day with help from #FLEXVOLT. What job are you getting done this week? Photo Credit: @mike_builds_

A post shared by DEWALT POWER TOOLS (@dewalttough) on Jan 31, 2018 at 7:30am PST

Watch @gal_gadot take the @nerd #LemonDanceChallenge with @mettenarrative at her #revlon shoot! Take the #LemonDanceChallenge and tag @revlon #LiveBoldly for a chance to be featured on our stories!

A post shared by Revlon (@revlon) on Feb 1, 2018 at 4:14pm PST

Adidas knows a simple product photo won’t fly on Instagram. Notice their stylized—and consistent—thematic backgrounds, adding that visual allure that Instagram lives off of. Via Instagram.

Takeaway: the dual strategy —

Rather than dumping all your eggs from one basket to another, it’s best to use both Facebook and Instagram simultaneously and play on their individual strengths.

Need a great social media page to market your business?

Our designers will have you #trending in no time!

Yes please!

The post Instagram vs. facebook: what’s the better marketing avenue? appeared first on 99designs Blog.

via 99designs Blog https://99designs.co.uk/blog/business-en-gb/instagram-vs-facebook-marketing/

0 notes

nofomoartworld · 7 years ago

Text

Hyperallergic: Kara Walker’s Show is a Painful, Necessary Reminder That US Culture Wars Never Ended

Kara Walker, “The Pool Party of Sardanapalus (after Delacroix, Kienholz)” (2017), Sumi ink and collage on paper, 125.5 x 140 inches (all images courtesy Sikkema Jenkins & Co.)

Atop Kara Walker’s large-scale drawing The Pool Party of Sardanapalus (after Delacroix, Kienholz) (2017), currently on view at Sikkema Jenkins, a mammy reclines; below, a group of young girls pull the entrails from a white man held down on the ground. Nearby, a hooded black male wields a shank against another black man, and a white man in a corset stabs a black male in the chest. On the outskirts of the composition, other characters are either oblivious, witnessing these acts, or simply turning away. Here, Walker adapts Delacroix’s 1827 painting, fixating on his depiction of the Assyrian king’s indifference to human life. Not dissimilar to Sardanapalus’s uncaring disposition, the work alludes to a 2015 incident in McKinney, Texas, where a white police officer, responding to a disturbance call about a neighborhood pool party, body slammed a young black girl in her bathing suit, and pulled a gun on two young boys who came to her defense. The cop, Eric Casebolt, not only used excessive force, his actions highlighted the denial of innocence to black children, who are criminalized early and often because of the color of their skin. Walker’s twisted, draconian pictures are a cypher for the present moment inasmuch as they skeptically obscure the possibility of alternative futures for our nation.

I approached Walker’s new show of figures sketched and collaged onto paper and linen with somber eyes and a growing impatience for spectacle. A prominent critic posted on Instagram that they felt “uncomfortable” being in the room, perhaps a desired effect of the artist. I shared their discomfort, though not because of a squeamishness brought on by white guilt, but because, quite frankly, like Walker, I’m vexed. I’m incensed. I’m fatigued. At times I’m almost too weary to look on. These feelings are all too familiar. Mere weeks after violent white supremacist neo-Nazis stormed Charlottesville, our president took a momentary reprieve from publicly shaming black American athletes for their peaceful protests of racism, inequality, and police brutality to throw paper towels at Puerto Rican citizens fighting for their survival after a catastrophic hurricane. Just days ago, a white American terrorist with easy access to automatic weapons slaughtered 59 people and injured hundreds more at a country music concert in Las Vegas. Feeling or acknowledging momentary discomfort is not a substitute for doing the work of dismantling structures, attitudes, and mindsets that perpetuate racism and inequality. Minutes into seeing the show, I quickly realize my energies are better reserved in outrage for our country’s never-ending political quagmire. Walker is still the art world’s proverbial soothsayer, rabble-rouser, and provocatrice; her artworks are surprisingly less shocking than our national news cycles. And if her machinations, as some critics suggest, leech onto black pain, they also reveal the psychodramas of our current reality. As Jennifer Baker eloquently wrote for Electric Literature: “We need to better understand that the Black body is not simply a conduit that receives violence but also one that exudes beauty and complexity.” Walker obviously begs to differ. She continues to dirty her hands in the mud of US racial mythology, a job not for the faint of heart. I’ve reconciled Baker’s sentiment with my own desire to see more art that engages with black vitality, resilience, and perseverance. But yet and still, we must not look away.

Kara Walker, “The (Private) Memorial Garden of Grandison Harris” (2017), oil stick and Sumi ink on paper collaged on linen, diptych, 90 x 144 inches overall

In the painting The (Private) Memorial Garden of Grandison Harris (2017) Walker depicts Harris, an enslaved man who, in the 19th century, was forced to rob graves to supply medical students from Georgia College with cadavers, dragging a lifeless nude black woman away from a dark hole in the foreground. Adjacent to the figure of Harris, Walker collages a scene reminiscent of the “Fearless Girl” of Wall Street, here seated behind the reigns of a toy bull and beneath what appears to be a silhouetted rendition of one of the Confederate obelisks that still populate the American South — or even a 19th-century medical syringe. Raging debates about public monuments bring to mind recent protests against South Carolina doctor J. Marion Sims, memorialized in Central Park. Sims performed medical experiments on un-anaesthetized enslaved black women. Walker’s antebellum phantasmagoria of Lady Libertines, politicians, grave robbers, carpet baggers, bullet-riddled soldiers, Confederate flags, tar babies, Bre’er rabbits, and police officers equipped with riot gear are all complicit and bound within a vast ecosystem that feeds on sexualized trauma, unbridled violence, and a spreading malaise of apathy. How are we to wrangle such entanglements between victims and victimizers, witnesses and perpetrators, debauched pleasure and overwhelming disgust?

Kara Walker, “U.S.A. Idioms” (2017), Sumi ink and collage on paper, 140.125 x 176.625 inches

Ironically, most of the works in Walker’s show will go to museums that will proudly collect them, while the sake of political neutrality many will likely remain timid when the time comes to roll up their sleeves and speak truth to power. As difficult and divisive as her images are, they point to a reckoning that we can no longer afford to ignore. Racism will remain inseparable from America’s history, its present, and its future. It penetrates every crevice and corner of our institutions, and pervades every fiber of our collective being. Walker’s work does not signal an impending culture war; it is a reminder that the previous ones never ended.

The post Kara Walker’s Show is a Painful, Necessary Reminder That US Culture Wars Never Ended appeared first on Hyperallergic.

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aaronjungethnics-blog · 8 years ago

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Notebook #4 Feedback for Amanda

Aaron Jung

Ethnics 2

2.a. “The Tortoise and the Hare” expressed through the motif of a zine, presents the traditional story of a tortoise and a hare who challenge each other to a race. The hare is confident he will win, so he disregards the latter and is ultimately punished for his foolish demeanor and overconfidence. There are many ways to interpret the story, and Amanda utilizes the background of the fable writer as a slave to justify the many meanings throughout various places. There are different outlooks for individuals in different areas and parts of their lives. Thus, the intended audience would be for those who want to find another meaning than what is given at face value. Anyone can interpret the story in various ways which is what makes the fable so special in the first place.

2.b. I thought that, “However, I read something today that explained the story as having another lesson that truly resonated with me. The lesson was to be happy with your lot in life and do the best you can with what you have” was a relevant quote. The fact that the different perspective is explained through the words of the author herself and is something that she agrees upon is needed. The personal voice that drives the zine and the values instilled into what difference means and how people react to that, is especially significant to the overall theme of the zine. Thus, if she were to include this in some sort of analysis after presenting the original values, would definitely make a stronger zine.

2.c. In terms of content, I thought the idea that, “Aesop’s fables were told to all classes of people,” was interesting and relevant. When looking at the zine through the relations of blackness and what it entails in response to how history has developed, it would be rare to see that he would be able to tell his stories to people of different ranks. Especially because he was a slave, the idea that he was allowed to, or rather because his stories were so interesting that even people of higher hierarchical status would listen is unheard of. This idea relates back to how various people of various areas, ages, mindsets all interpret the story in different way. While providing the sentiment to how a piece was able to survive all this time, it also acts to reinforce the idea of difference and how it affects various individuals to produce all sorts of meaning.

2.d. This was the only picture for now, so I’ll comment on this. It provides the basis for the theme of the zine, and represents a door for various individuals that may be interested which is definitely a selling point. To prevent copyright issues, I would guess to provide some more quotes that would interact with the image, although I’m not actually sure if that was hand drawn, which if it was then it should be fine.

2.e. Rewording Notebook 1

i. Stories are a result of many things. If a story is ‘good’ it sticks around, and in some cases if it’s ‘really good’ or ‘really bad’ these days, it gets shared by many people and survives many generations.[If a story is widely accepted, the traditions and values that warrant “good” or “bad” would be communicated and shared by various individuals of different timelines even.] Some stories come into existence due to boredom, others as a byproduct of a good imagination, and some as an attempt to teach a lesson. I am going to focus on one short story in particular, and that is the story of the tortoise and the hare. This story was one created to teach a lesson and exists in many versions all over the world.[The Tortoise and the Hare present a multitude of values and lessons that exist in many versions around the world even today.]

In case you are unfamiliar with this tale, it goes a little like this:

So there’s this tortoise who’s just chilling, you know minding his own business, when along comes a real nasty hare (which is a rabbit). The hare comes up and totally just disses on the tortoise because of how slow he is in comparison to a speedy hare like himself. So the tortoise is all like, “well let’s have a race then and see how fast you really are”. I would have said something else, but this tortoise, he’s a chill guy. So, of course the hare eagerly agrees, and a local fox bystander is appointed as judge. They agree on some distance and then line up to begin. As soon as the race starts, the hare takes off leaving the tortoise way behind as expected. But then, deciding that he could really rub in his win, the hare decides to take a nap at the halfway point. The tortoise on the other hand continues at his pace, and continues, and continues. At some point the hare wakes and experiences that disoriented state that most of us know too well. When he realizes what is going on, he sees that while he slept the tortoise had not only passed him but was just about to cross the finish line. So the hare gets up and races as fast as he can, but despite his best effort the tortoise crosses the line first and takes the win. [Not an edit, but the personal take on the story represents the author’s voice and definitely provides a more thorough and significant take on the whole analysis.]

- This is my personal interpretation and as such please ignore the parts you don’t like

There are a ton of lessons you can take away from this story, but the writer intended one main lesson, which is written in common day interpretation as:

“Slow and Steady wins the race”

There are many versions of this tale depending on where you grew up. In many places, the story is still told involving a tortoise and a hare with only slight differences. If you are in Switzerland the story is told with a fox and a snail who race, and in this tale the snail wins by outwitting the fox who decides to nap before starting the race. In the Netherlands the story is told with a frog and a snail who race each other to a decided spot, and again the underdog snail wins because although he reaches the gate much later than the frog he doesn’t have to wait for it to be opened he just crawls over it. If you are in Romania there is a version involving a buffalo and a hare, and again a race takes place but the lesson and the story are set up differently. There are many more stories from other lands that could arguably be linked to the tortoise and the hare fable, but what I am trying to point out is that this fable or story was so good that is has been shared many times and has survived many generations, changing here and there along the way. [Thus, the multitude of cultures that embrace one form or another of this specific story relate to the origin of why it was passed down from generation to generation and exists in the present.]

The creator of this well-known fable, was known as Aesop. Aesop was a black slave and also a storyteller. He is thought to have been born way back in 620 BCE, or a time period close to this. Aesop told many stories like the tortoise and the hare, and in fact the collection of his stories is very well known and referred to as Aesop’s fables. He is thought to be one of the first to implement the genre now known as fable (A fable is a story that teaches a moral lesson, and uses animals or inanimate objects as the characters). A really cool[interesting] aspect to the circulation of Aesop’s tales is the fact that they were originally only told by word of mouth, so his stories were so good they spread and survived because people heard them and just remembered. To this day Aesop’s fables are still being told all over the world. There are interpretations in cartoons, children’s books, probably t-shirt spin offs, and so on. That is to say that an ancient black slave was able to teach moral lessons that he himself held to be true in a unique way that has been adopted in many cultures and lasted all the tests of time.

ii. The analysis enables the reader an entrance into the specific fable and why it exists today. The analysis reads with a personal voice that engages the reader and promotes critical thinking behind the origins of the story. While at the same time, providing the analysis of different meanings, points to specific aspects of why and how such interpretations have resonated with her as well.

iii. Some suggestions would be to flesh out more of how the origins relate to the current existing forms of the fable today. By referencing the points more succinctly, readers would be able to understand and delve deeper into the themes laid out by the Tortoise and the Hare, and approach the purpose of the zine more efficiently. Otherwise, the personal voice and choice of words add the flair which may be interchanged, but that’s just a personal thought. The zine, regardless doesn’t carry too many topics that need to be changed and is strong at explaining and providing what is needed.

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