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With the NCAA Men's Division I basketball tournament in full swing social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter have been exploding with predictions, game scores and upsets. College basketball fans across the nation are setting social media records for their college basketball teams such as Kanasa with its latest 18,000 followers and 137,000 Facebook "likes."

March Madness is always a phenomenon however, with the increase in social media through the use of smartphones and tablets march madness is being taken to a whole new level this year.

Check out my latest podcast on the NCAA tournament and how they are using social media to their fullest advantage! The podcast includes music from SoundClouds The Verve remixing "Bittersweet Symphony" with instrumentals.

You lin some and you lose some

The power of social media has recently been displayed with the “rags to riches” New York Knicks phenomenon Jeremy Lin. For those who may not follow the NBA as closely as other sports Jeremy Lin received no athletic scholarships out of high school and was undrafted out of college. The 2010 Harvard graduate recently joined the New York Knicks for the 2011-2012 season only to prove his greatness to the world and its doubters. He was recently promoted to the starting line up for the Knicks while leading the team to a winning streak. After his winning streak with the Knicks the new term “Linsanity” was developed for him and his prominence. 

Due to his recent track of stardom, his name has been headlined in many news sources and social media outlets including ESPN. Due to the speed of social media and the ability to never hide from your mistakes the headline published by ESPN titled “Chink in the Armor” made trending topics and blew up social media outlets globally within 35 minutes. The writer responsible for publishing the headline on ESPN.com was fired immediately and ESPN Ancho Matt Bretos was suspended for 30 days after using the term on national television. The headline went up around 2:30 p.m and was taken down at 3:05 p.m. after the commotion it caused.

Social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook blew up with shock toward the indecent and inappropriate headline issued by ESPN.com. Although the writer who published the headline claimed there was no racism toward the headline, there was no returning from a globally trending topic and huge mistake. Once you are guilty in the court of public opinion it becomes almost impossible to reverse.

The speed of social media has made it impossible for writers, editors and reporters to make mistakes. When mistakes are made it is usually known nationally within a matter of seconds even before the writer has caught it. For example, Erin Andrews used the wrong “your” in one of her tweets and was called out by multiple Twitter followers and fans after making this common mistake. “You are not perfect anymore” one tweet stated after her grammatical mistake. She quickly issued a tweet in reply to her fans and followers saying, “that is why spellcheck is important.” In today’s world of social media, speed and quickness is everything however, we cannot forget about double and triple checking our tweets and posts before pressing send because it is impossible to hide once we have made them. 

According to Twitter the winner is...

As the Academy Awards, televised in more than 100 countries, are quickly approaching the social media buzz prior to its airing has generated numerous trending topics, the creation of live blogs, and thousands of online predictions. Twitter users have been predicting Oscar winners for the past few days and Twitter estimated approximately 476,000 tweets were gathered to make various predictions so far this year. In previous years there has always been excitement and enthusiasm prior to the Oscars, however; the hype has never been quantifiable. Through the use of social media today Twitter and Mashable launched mRank, a newly created system to measure the Oscar buzz across Twitter and Facebook.  A chart was created listing the movie titles and the amount of tweets each one received. Right now The Artist is leading for best-predicted picture with over 13,000 tweets. The only movie that comes close to the first predicted movie is Hugo directed by Martin Scorsese with 4,900.

The Academy Awards are not only using Twitter and Facebook to promote the award show, but Mashable created a live blog specifically for people that may not be able to watch the show live on television. Similarly to Super Bowl XLVI, the Oscars will not be streaming live, however; fans will have the opportunity to receive the fastest updates through Twitter and Mashable’s live blog. Not only did the Academy Awards and Mashable join together to launch a blog with updates by the minute, ABC is offering an official Oscars Back Stage iOS application for the iphone and ipad. The new application offers behind the scene footage from the Oscars including access to the control room, views from multiple different camera angles, and select interviews with the Oscar winners. In comparison to last year where the Oscars offered an all access online pass for $4.99, the iOS application will be free for all iphone and ipad users. It is apparent that the Oscars are using social media in 2012 to their greatest advantage. The Oscars preshow is asking Twitter followers to hashtag #bestdressed and #oscars during the preshow and #oscars along with the award presented during the show. 

Super Bowl scores with their use of social media

Planning to attend Super Bowl XLVI this year and do not know where to park or need a suggestion on where to eat? It won't be a problem this year because you can tweet for help! For the first time in Super Bowl history the host committee in Indianapolis is using social media to its full advantage. What is the purpose of this? It is to engage the fans of course! I think the idea is genius ultimately because there are always numerous problems that occur during game day and Super Bowl weekend that have nothing to do with the host city or NFL however, it can ruin a fans experience.

I am attending my first Super Bowl volunteering for the PR staff at the NFL and I have had the opportunity to tweet and use Facebook for help here in Indianapolis! Although I have never been to a Super Bowl before from what I have heard from other workers is that the host committee staff has never used social media to the extent in which Indianapolis is this year. In today's society and after seeing the positive feedback that the host committee has received from fans I think it is something that should be done every year by future host cities.

Here in Indianapolis if you are flying into the city you are greeted with a "Get Connected" card with information on how visitors and fans can become involved with the Twitter and Facebook chats about Super Bowl XLVI. The card contains Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare links along with a QR Code to the host committees website. The host committee has created a website created a Super Bowl event finder where fans are able to type in a location and date in order to find out events around Indianapolis they can attend. They have also created a blog area where fans can share and upload their stories from Super Bowl XLVI and there is an online question and answer service sponsored by Cha Cha. It is the most socially interactive Super Bowl that the NFL has ever seen with the first ever social media command center in downtown Indianapolis to encourage fans and visitors to use social media and share their experiences online. If you are attending this years Super Bowl and want to share your story  along with the 150,000 fans in Indianapolis the official twitter is @SuperBowl2012 and the official hashtag is #sb46. Questions can be answered 24/7 during the week leading up to and on Super Bowl Sunday. The host committee also reached out to 46 of Indiana's most influential bloggers to share the social media story of this year's new changes. "This is the first time this kind of large-scale social media monitoring has been tried at an event of this size . . . and it’s giving us a peek into the future of intelligent 1:1 marketing." (Forbes.com)

During an event as large as the Super Bowl there will be fans using social media around the world to engage with each other and share stories. However, the host committee in Indianapolis has made the experience special in the social media world. For those attending Super Bowl XLVI in Lucas Oil Stadium or even those visiting as fans that may not have tickets can still share the experience. The stadium is limited to approximately 74,000 people although there are over 150,000 people in Indianapolis for the Super Bow. This is a way to interact with all fans and not just those that are lucky enough to attend the game.

Here in Indianapolis I have only heard positive feedback about the new social media changes and I think it will be used continuously in some way or another at future Super Bowls. At an event so large like Super Bowl XLVI it is truly the only way to engage all of the fans at once in one area.

To read more about the new social media engagement read this article.

The faults of social media

For news outlets today it is not about the facts, it is not about researching, it is not about ethics and it is not about quality writing. Unfortunately, news today is about who gets the facts first. It is about who can get the information first and tweet it to thousands of followers before any other news source. Since the emerging trend of social media outlets, it is not even about news outlets reporting correctly anymore as seen by Twitter posts displayed last night, January 21. At 8:45 p.m. on January 21, 2012 Onward State tweeted to 19,613 followers that former head football coach Joe Paterno had passed away. In a matter of seconds CBS sports sighted the tweet and made a similar one mentioning Joe Paterno’s death. In under one minute “Joepa” became the number one worldwide trending topic on Twitter. This is the world of news we live in today. What used to be called the "Golden Hour" during a crisis has been trickled down to a few golden minutes, maybe seconds to fix the problem and release a statement. After thousands of Twitter and Facebook users began releasing this news to their friends and followers, from what they assumed was a credible news source, Jay Paterno tweeted the reports were incorrect and that Joe Paterno was "continuing to fight." After learning that Joe Paterno had passed away and then discovering the reports I personally felt premature in my tweets that night. I began receiving text messages to my phone asking where I got my source from that Joe Pa had passed away, where was there an article citing this and had I heard from a Paterno source? Of course I hadn't. I was relaying news I saw on Twitter to my followers. Meanwhile, only about five minutes had passed since the first tweet about this topic was released. 

A few minutes later the second worldwide trending topic became "CBSSportsSAYs" followed by ridiculous tweets such as "Tim Tebow lost his virginity," "Michael Jackson is white" and "the colts are in the Super Bowl." This journalistic mistake is a perfect example of how social media can break or make a credible news source. It is a perfect example of how news outlets do not check their sources anymore because they want to be the first to deliver the news. However, it is a huge consequence for the news outlet as seen by last night's blunder. In the midst of social media users' increasing confusion Devon Edwards, the managing editor of Onward State, released a statement of apology and resignation as of immediately. The letter from the managing editor is posted below: 

A letter from the Managing Editor of Onward State:



Earlier this evening, Onward State reported that Joe Paterno had passed away. However, the mountain of evidence stacked opposite that report is too much to ignore. At this time, I would like to issue a retraction of our earlier tweets.

I never, in a million years, would have thought that Onward State would be cited by the national media, and today, I sincerely wish it never had been. To all those who read and passed along our reports, I sincerely apologize for misleading you. To the Penn State community and to the Paterno family most of all, I could not be more sorry for the emotional anguish I am sure we caused. There are no excuses for what we did. We all make mistakes, but it’s impossible to brush off one of this magnitude. Right now, we deserve all of the criticism headed our way.

In this day and age, getting it first often conflicts with getting it right, but our intention was never to fall into that chasm. All I can do now is promise that in the future, we will exercise caution, restraint, and humility.

I can only hope and pray that the outstanding work our writers and photographers do on a day-to-day basis is not overshadowed by the events of tonight. I understand that our reputation is in serious question, but I hope you will continue to stand by us as we do everything in our power to make amends.

To begin that process, I will be stepping down from my post as Managing Editor, effective immediately. I take full responsibility for the events that transpired tonight, and for the black mark upon the organization that I have caused.

I ask not for your forgiveness, but for your understanding. I am so very, very, sorry, and we at Onward State continue to pray for Coach Paterno.



Sincerely,



Devon Edwards

While Devon Edwards was busy writing a letter of apology to all of Onward State's followers and the Paterno family, CBS Sports failed to release any type of apology or acknowledgement of the mistake. Due to the escalation of social media today it is easier to lose the publics trust than to gain it. Unfortunately, one false tweet and all credibility is depleted as seen by the mistakes of last night's posts. This is what social media has transformed the news outlets into today.