Category: Uncategorized

Paypal Looks to Buy Out Pinterest

On By Rachel BrancoIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/10/25/paypal-says-it-is-not-about-to-buy-pinterest.html

Paypal is looking to acquire the digital Image library, Pinterest, in order to make online shopping easier with a more seamless payment process and interface, almost mimicking the concept of Amazon. The deal, which is valued at 45 billion, would be the most expensive buy out of this decade’s internet company exchanges. For comparison, the LinkedIn buyout only cost Microsoft $26 billion. Paypal is willing to put a hefty price tag on this social network because of its investment in e-commerce. The concept of “buyable pins” on Pinterest is its most attractive feature at the moment. It connects the customers with a visual experience of planning and conception to having an immediate call to action which leads to revenue. Pinterest is most commonly used by women but has a vast user base that has a common thread to organization and creativity. In the older generations, Pinterest is used for home decor/improvements, wedding planning, and hundreds of styles of cooking. Younger users are quickly filling the app with fashion photos, editorial homemade shoots, and tutorials for everyday uses. The app is very versatile in content and usually serves as a portfolio-type landing space which provokes the idea for more e-commerce and shopping features. This particular deal is after a wave of social media restructuring to promote “shop” and revenue “in-house.” Facebook and Instagram have both added various shop elements to connect consumers to the physical products there selling on-screen. This intern only further solidifies the notion of micro consumers, informing their follower base of which digital platforms to buy from. Going forward, it will be interesting to see what Pinterest’s response is to this offer and how they might possibly seek a new platform structuring. 

Ozy Media is Being Investigated by the Justice Department

On By rfire911In UncategorizedLeave a comment

During the height of the pandemic we saw companies and individuals struggling for their next check. The government decided that it would be a good idea to give out PPP loans. PPP loans are a specific type of loan that allows businesses to continue to keep their workers on payroll. Ozy media took out several of these loans in order to keep their employees on payroll. Ozy media covers a wide range of topic from news around the world to politics here in the US.

They recently came under fire when several reports surfaced stating that Ozy has had some questionable business practices. A total of two loans were taken out for a grand total of 5.7 million dollars and that was to be allocated to employees. During the pandemic, after the company got approved for the loan, it was stated that the company made a total of 50 million dollars. However, early this year, the company had to lay off several staffers and cut salaries. These staffers that were laid off came to the news and stated that they have not seen one ounce of the PPP money was the company was approved for.

“It was disheartening. You work so hard and give your life to this company, to be dismissed and disrespected,” a former employee said.

Just yesterday, it was reported that the Justice department is now stepping in and investigating the company due to the surge of media reports. According to the New York Times, “Ozy’s operating chief, Samir Rao, impersonated a YouTube executive on a conference call with Goldman Sachs, which was considering investing $40 million in Ozy. The report also said Ozy had also allegedly inflated its monthly unique visitors, a metric used by media firms to lure advertisers.”

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/11/10/ozy-media-investigated-by-justice-department-and-sec.html

Netflix’s YuYu Hakusho Live-Action Adaptation Gets A Release Date

On By Noah Furcht-HeafitzIn Comics, Netflix, Streaming, UncategorizedLeave a comment
https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2021-11-09/netflix-schedules-live-action-yu-yu-hakusho-series-for-december-2023/.179396, Adriana Hazra

Last Tuesday Netflix announced that it will be releasing its live-action adaptation of Yoshihiro Togashi’s YuYu Hakusho manga worldwide in December of 2023. Akira Morii and Kazutaka Sakamoto, Netflix’s content acquisition directors, are executive producing and producing this project respectively. Sakamoto recounted his own fond experiences with the intellectual property in question and insisted that Netflix is doing its best to do right by the fans he knows the series has all around the world. The series follows a 14-year-old delinquent named Yusuke Urameshi who dies after throwing himself in front of a car to save a child. Because of his selfless act, Yusuke is allowed to come back to the world of the living as a “spirit detective” tasked with defeating demons. For this project, Netflix and TOHO Studios signed a several-year contract to lease two of TOHO’s stage facilities; stage 7 and stage 10. In addition, ten sound stages, two acting centres, and a production centre of TOHO’s will also be used to create Netflix’s original programming. This deal goes into effect as of April first of 2022. 

The popularity of YuYu Hakusho’s 19 volume manga (1992-1995) has led to the creation of an anime adaptation, two live-action films, two animated films, and a stage play that ran from August to September of 2019. Said films and anime have all been dubbed and distributed in various languages and territories by Funimation, Media Blasters and Central Park Media respectively. The series notably acquired fans domestically by way of its airing on Adult Swim’s Toonami block. Further emphasizing the popularity of this property is the fact that new animated material for it has been released as recently as 2018 to celebrate the series’s 25th anniversary.

This article interests me for two main reasons. For one, I’m generally happy to hear that an older property like YuYu Hakusho is getting a Netflix live-action adaptation. For another, I think Netflix’s partnering with TOHO Studios speaks well of the potential for more live-action anime adaptations going forward. This especially in the event that the soon to be released Cowboy Bebop and One Piece adaptations do well.

Erskine, Donovan. “YouTube to Make Dislike Counts Private on All Videos.” Shacknews, Shacknews, 10 Nov. 2021, https://www.shacknews.com/article/127617/youtube-to-make-dislike-counts-private-on-all-videos.

Google Loses Appeal in E.U. Antitrust Breach Case

On By emmaspaethIn UncategorizedLeave a comment
Google critics lobby EU's Vestager to take tougher antitrust action
Photo Via CNBC.com

The EU’s General Court, the EU’s second-most senior court, has ruled in favor of the European Commission’s fine against Google in 2017 for an antitrust breach. According to the European Commission, Google favored its own shopping comparison services over rival services and fined Google for 2.42 billion euros ($2.8 billion). Google’s parent company, Alphabet, had appealed the decision but was dismissed by the General Court. 

In a press release the court announced, “The General Court finds that, by favoring its own comparison shopping service on its general results pages through more favorable display and positioning, while relegating the results from competing comparison services in those pages by means of ranking algorithms, Google departed from competition on the merits”. 

In response, a spokesperson for google told CNBC, “Shopping ads have always helped people find the products they are looking for quickly and easily, and helped merchants to reach potential customers. This judgement relates to a very specific set of facts and while we will review it closely, we made changes back in 2017 to comply with the European Commission’s decision.”Google has the option to appeal the verdict to the EU’s highest court.

This ruling has strengthened existing antitrust arguments against US tech firms made by Margrethe Vestager, the European Commissioner for Competition. Vestager is an aggressive antitrust enforcer and this case is one of three penalties issues by Vestager against Google.  Vestager’s legal argument in this case and other antitrust breaches is that big tech companies like Google are able to ‘self-preference”, explained by the court as “favoring its own comparison shopping service on its general results pages through more favorable display and positioning, while relegating the results from competing comparison services in those pages by means of ranking algorithms.” This is a direct violation of antitrust law.

Self-preferencing is common practice in the tech world, this case could set the precedent for antitrust laws regulating digital marketing, but not without difficulty. This case is proving that the EU and other courts have many limitations when it comes to regulating big tech companies despite Google loosing their appeal. In the United States, Google is also facing a lawsuit from Justice Department for similar anticompetitive behavior.

SNL Return of Kieran Culkin (30 Years)

On By troypittman13In UncategorizedLeave a comment

Surprisingly, most people don’t know that Kieran Culkin, is the brother of the famous child star Macaulay Culkin. The Culkin brothers (Macaulay, Kieran, and Rory) are famous for their acting careers dating back to the 1990s. The most famous of the three happens to be Macaulay, overwhelmingly for his performance in Home Alone and Richie Rich. But this post is for Kieran, so let’s stick to the script. Kieran recalled his debut On Saturday Night Live in 1991, broadcasted on NBC. For this recent show SNL dug deep into their archives showing the first night he appeared on the show. In one of Kieran’s most memorable skits, his brother Macaulay plays the child version of Rob Schnieders Richard Laymer. This was a popular recurring character on SNL that annoyed his coworkers by giving them strange nicknames. Kieran happened to be the victim of this name-calling for the skit, but he was a good sport and enjoyed the opportunity to act with his brother.

Kieran is best known for his roles in Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and HBO’s Succession, to name a few. On Scott Pilgrim vs. the World Kieran plays Scott’s gay roommate whom he met in college. His character is witty and sarcastic but is also a prominent source of Scott’s wisdom. On HBO’s ‘Succession’ Kieran plays, Roman Roy. This character exudes an entitled attitude along with the cockiness he gets from his father that ultimately keeps him from advancing in his company. On his SNL opening monologue, he jokes about fans and critics stating that his snotty character on ‘Succession’ “suits him”. He announced the birth of his 2nd child, recently born in August, and acknowledged his wife’s support of his acting career. Before jumping into his segments, he reminds the audience that he appeared on the show 30 years at just 9 years old. He also reminisced when he was hoisted into the air by Kevin Nealon, another SNL cast member.

“It’s crazy. It’s absolutely insane. It’s been a dream of mine and it’s just surreal”

– Kieran Culkin

“Everyone says like, you know ‘Just try to capture moments or something because it just moves so fast. And I like can’t even do that because there’s so much work to be done”

– Kieran Culkin

Kieran threw a great show and the audience thoroughly enjoyed the sketches. He says since the start of season 3 of ‘Succession’ on October 17th, the show has maintained a loyal audience.

CNN Pulls Facebook page amid High Court decision.

On By rfire911In UncategorizedLeave a comment

In a surprising move, media company, CNN disables their Facebook page amid the new Australian High Court order that happened earlier in the month. The company stated that they had no choice and that their hand was forced due to the new legislation.

Earlier in the month, Australian High Court ruled that media companies are to be held liable for the comment that are under their posts. More specifically, they are responsible for the derogatory and defamatory comments that users leave under their posts. While the court ruling happened earlier in the month, approximately the 8th of September, we are just seeing the effects of the ruling now. While companies have the ability the disable comments, this doesn’t promote the ability to engage with your audience.

The discussion started when a young 17 year old Dylan Voller was jailed and put into a youth correctional facility. The teen was put all over the media and this also included how the teen was treated. Pictures of him strapped to a chair with a bag over his head created an outrage that gained more news coverage. Voller ended up suing multiple Australian news companies for the vulgar comments that were left under Facebook posts due to the fact that he was arrested rather than the comments about him being mistreated.

However, media companies are not the only victims of the High Court’s judgment. According to legal experts, not only can news outlets be held liable for their readers’ defamatory comments, but any social media user in Australia can be held liable for comments on their posts if they encourage other users to engage with their content.

https://itif.org/publications/2021/09/16/australian-high-court-ruling-threatens-social-media-and-online-news

Dozens of Crowd Members Injured and 8 Dead at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival

On By alanapotIn Music, UncategorizedLeave a comment
Erika Goldring / WireImage via https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/travis-scott-performs-during-2021-astroworld-festival-at-news-photo/1351663202?adppopup=true

On November 5th, 2021 at NRG Park in Houston, Texas the Astroworld Music Festival was held with Travis Scott as the headlining act. Extremely aggressive pushing, shoving and crowding in this sold-out crowd of roughly 50,000 attendees resulted in 8 dead and dozens injured.

Earlier that day, around 2:00pm, concert-goers entered the festival and hundreds stampeded the safety checkpoints, trampling other attendees.

As hours passed to Scott’s headlining performance, the crowd got larger and more dangerous. One attendee described her experience “like watching a Jenga tower topple. Person after person were sucked down…. You were at the mercy of the wave.” You can read her detailed account of her experience below:

8 victims, ages ranging from 14 to 27, died from the fatal conditions of pushing, shoving, trampling, and lack of air. So far, three concert-goers have filed lawsuits against Astroworld organizers, LiveNation and Travis Scott for negligence and encouraging violence at the event.

According to the Houston Chronicle, this event was one of the deadliest concerts in U.S. history. While covered by major news outlets, much of the information learned about the event is from social media posts. Scott took to Instagram with a video discussing the tragic situation and apologizing to the families of those who lost their lives, anyone injured, and everyone who attended the event. There are also several new reports coming out each day on Scott reimbursing ticket holders, covering funeral costs and other repercussions after the tragic events of November 5th.

After almost two years of social distancing and canceled live events, it is shocking to see this amount of injury and loss in a sea of 50,000 people.

Durney, Ellen. “Travis Scott And Drake Are Being Sued For Negligence And “Encouragement Of Violence” At The Astroworld Festival That Killed At Least 8 People” 8, November 2021. Buzzfeed News, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ellendurney/travis-scott-and-drake-astroworld-negligence-lawsuits

Guerra, Joey & Barned-Smith, St. John. “At least 8 Dead at Travis Scott’s Astroworld Festival”, 7, November 2021. Houston Chronicle. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/At-least-8-deaths-Travis-Scott-Astroworld-Festival-16597376.php?fbclid=IwAR0-UTPjXW-Zdl8g8TBVNTz3ign7IYTUUssANXBuFOzw3_GScSaOY1zr5GM

Meta to Open Retail Stores

On By flaviastrokaIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

As Facebook- now known as Meta- uses technology to transcend into the next level, they are setting out to build physical stores for consumers to use tools that will enhance their virtual experience. This initiative aims to amplify the meta experience and give the audience an accurate representation of the vision of the Metaverse as an immersive digital world of endless possibilities. Some of the products sold will include virtual reality headsets and augmented reality glasses which are believed to promote full human interaction by activating all human senses, except for, of course that of touch. As stated by The New York Times: “Meta has discussed opening retail stores that will eventually span the world, said people with knowledge of the project and company documents viewed by The New York Times. The stores would be used to introduce people to devices made by the company’s Reality Labs division, such as virtual reality headsets and, eventually, augmented reality glasses..” The general idea is that social media is now being presented more vividly than ever and it is imperative for Meta to utilize conventional business strategies that will increase product sales but encourage customer engagement.

Experts believe that this gigantic step toward technologic advancement is the first of its kind, as it encompasses a combination of tools and the cooperation of various fields of technology. According to SocialMediaToday, Meta is to play a key role in connectivity and functionality in this respect. These innovative strategies will eventually require the establishment of an independent consortium that may encourage other social giants to participate and elevate into the next stage as well.

I chose this article because I believe that it is very important for individuals to remain up to date on current media management strategies. We are inevitably transforming abstract concepts into something tangible this is the next big thing. in order to build the Metaverse and introduce its magnified concept in smaller parameters, first, Zuck will need to build stores to sell equipment and facilitate the execution of innovative ideas. https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/meta-is-reportedly-planning-to-open-retail-stories-to-sell-vr-ar-and-other/609603/

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Facebook and Facial Recognition

On By sophiamarrone8667In Social Media, UncategorizedLeave a comment

Source: The New York Times

Facebook has been making headlines all October long in lieu of leaked reports from former employee, Frances Haugen. On November 2nd, Facebook’s parent company, newly coined ‘meta’, announced that it would be terminating their decade old facial recognition software and all the data that came with it. Facebook may be cutting their losses with this elimination, as the technology has sparked many conversations about privacy concerns.

Vice President of Artificial Intelligence at Meta, Jerome Peseti, attributed the change to “many concerns about the place of facial recognition software in society because every new technology brings with it potential for both benefit and concern and we want to find the right balance.”

The introduction of this technology came in 2010 and satiated people’s obsession with time saving features. The application could automatically identify friends and family in photos using facial geometrics and link all the photos to their personal account. “Facebook now has built one of the largest repositories of digital photos in the world, partly thanks to this software.” Questions have come up in recent months, wondering what exactly Facebook is doing with all this information.

A decade later, and many are more concerned about their privacy being infringed upon then they are about saving time. Similar technologies have been recently misused in countries like China to control minorities. In the United States, the government employs this technology to help with policing, but many wonder if this feature is seamless enough to avoid problems such as mistaken arrests.  The algorithm used to make this feature possible is called DeepFace and has yet to be sold to any third parties. Despite all of this, Meta has not promised they won’t use this software in future products.

The Facebook Papers

On By emmaspaethIn UncategorizedLeave a comment

Photo Via T.J. Kirkpatrick from The New York Times

 

Former Facebook product manager, Frances Haugen, has come forward with a cache of internal messages, research, and documents that present internal concerns about the social media platform’s failure to regulate dangerous content and its adverse effects on children. Widely known as the Facebook Papers, include tens of thousands of pages and files collected by Haugen as well as redacted versions of news and articles from the Associated Press, The Atlantic, CNN, the Financial Times, Fox Business, Le Monde, The New York Times, NPR, Reuters and Süddeutsche Zeitung. Multiple US and European news outlets have followed suit and have published stories, research, documents, and presentations on Facebook and their failure to regulate the platform.

Haugen supplied the documents to the Securities and Exchange Commission before testifying at Congress and the UK Parliament on how the Facebook knowingly failed to filter misinformation, hate speech, and dangerous content across the platform. Haugen claims that the collection of data and internal documents prove that Facebook’s leadership continuously withheld information to maintain public image and profitability. Facebook declined to make an official statement but claimed that the internal documents are misleading and paint a “false picture” of the social media platform.

Among many experts, Haugen urged senators to implement regulations and antitrust initiatives to reduce the power the social media platform that is used by nearly half the world’s population. Several experts have suggest the formation of an independent regulatory agency and legal penalties for major media companies. This agency would include industry leaders and federal representative that would enact behavioral and privacy policies and well as regulations on the use of collected user data and information. For Facebook, this would require more transparency on internal affairs and policies and changes to its algorithms.