Author Archives: marcusmessner

“Shoveling tweets” study published

The journal of the International Symposium on Online Journalism has published a study on Twitter adoption and use by American newspapers and television stations, which my former graduate students Maureen Linke and Asriel Eford conducted with me. The results of … Continue reading

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Facebook prepares for future battles

Facebook has bought hundreds of former AOL patents from Microsoft in order to prepare for future battles with Google and Yahoo! With its anticipated IPO in May, Facebook will rise into the same league with the other Internet giants. Yahoo! … Continue reading

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The flameout of Kony 2012

When the Kony 2012 video went viral and caught the attention of millions of viewers within only a few days in early March, it seemed as if the nonprofit Invisible Children had done everything right. But only six weeks later, … Continue reading

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Knight News Challenge proposal: Building a mobile health news network

The Knight News Challenge has selected our grant proposal for a mobile health news network as one of 51 finalists out of the more than 1000 submissions in the first round this year. My colleague Yan Jin and I have … Continue reading

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Wikipedia and the BP Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill

As previous studies with my research partner Marcia DiStaso from Penn State University have shown, the online encyclopedia Wikipedia can have a strong influence on how a company’s reputation is framed online. Our latest study, which was just published in … Continue reading

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Tumblr Founder David Karp speaks at VCU

The founder of the microblogging platform Tumblr, David Karp, delivered the Turpin Lecture at VCU’s School of Mass Communications on Tuesday evening. Before and after speaking to an audience of around 200 students, faculty and media professionals, the 25-year-old entrepreneur … Continue reading

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Social media supervision on the job

A state government department in Maryland has asked job applicants for their Facebook usernames and passwords. While questions about marital status and family background are generally off limits during job interviews, this trend raises many privacy concerns. At the same … Continue reading

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