Cyber Flashmob Attacks WSJ Facebook Page

An individual claiming to be associated with online hacking group, Anonymous, posted a call to virtual arms on a German Facebook page today. They were requesting that people show their opposition to the Wall St Journal’s portrayal of the group and the “deliberate dissemination of false information” and “lobby journalism“.

The Facebook post stated: “ATTENTION PLEASE! 3.15 p.m. – Comment flashmob on the site of the WSJ! We hope for active participation”

Comments were directed to both the German Wall St Journal Facebook page and the paper’s main page with the ‘spam attack’ lasting several hours.

Read more on this here.

Augmented Mirror – The Future of Media?

The New York Times have taken the fairytale concept of turning to ‘Mirror, Mirror on the wall’ for insight and given it a 21st century makeover.

In an effort to show how facial recognition, voice commands and gesture recognition (using Micosoft Kinect) can combine to change how people consume content and go about their daily routine, the New York Times R&D Lab created the ‘augmented reflection’ and it’s pretty impressive.

I’ll take one please. Wrapped. For Christmas.

Reveal Project - Personal Data Mirror from NYT R&D on Vimeo.

Journalists Tweets to be Regulated Under Press Complaints Commission Code

The Guardian is reporting that the Press Complaints Commission (PPC) in the UK are set to regulate the social media posts of newspapers and journalists. The regulatory body rightly deems that tweets and other social media posts are part of a “newspaper’s editorial product” but at present such writings are not covered under the PPC code.

The article states that the PPC would look to distinguish between a journalists professional and personal accounts – cue journalists adding disclaimers a go-go and securing profiles in variations of their name in preparation!

So if this comes to pass will it change the online habits of journalists? Will they now be slower to give comment and opinion on emerging issues or are those working in the media in this digital age already mindful of the regulator when pressing the ‘enter’ key?

QR Codes Allow Print Ads To Really Speak to the Reader

Quick Response codes (QR codes) are starting to become more mainstream in Ireland, popping up in print adverts in national press, posters and in-store promotional material just to name a few places. For those of you mulling over the potential of QR codes for message delivery, be inspired by this clever campaign for ‘Reporters Without Borders‘ by Publicis.

Print adverts featuring the dictators Gaddafi, Ahmadinejad and Putin contained a QR code at the bottom which asked readers to scan the code and then place their phone over the mouth of the person. A mouth appears – the mouth of a journalist telling you about what is happening in that dictator’s country. The tagline being ‘Because there are mouths that will never speak the truth‘.

The end of the video directs people to the campaign website where they can find more info. Clever stuff…it certainly adds a new dimension to print advertising and opens a new realm of possibilities.

This video explains the ad campaign:

Create your own Enda Masterpiece

Yesterday the latest Fine Gael promotional efforts got the web talking. In a ‘thank you’ video posted to the site, a steely-eyed Enda Kenny in full on ‘Minder‘ gear urged people to get involved in their campaign. Well Enda has gotten his wish…

Rónán Mistéil (@ronnymitchell) created a great simple text editor allowing you to make your own Enda Kenny poster and people are loving it.

Check out some Enda masterpieces on boards.ie and politics.ie.

So everyone is talking about the latest promo material from Fine Gael and the party’s ‘Team Ireland 2.0′ is being heard – granted most people thought the poster was a joke, but at least they’re aware of it and talking about it.

So is this initiative a great success or a failure?

It’s often said that ‘all publicity is good publicity’. However, since Brian Cowen made Ireland the butt of many a joke following his infamous hangover interview, and revelations around the economic crisis have called the calibre of our public representatives into question, a budding Taoiseach should be doing all in his power to be seen as a serious and credible leader.

In this case, although the Fine Gael posters have got people talking, it is for all the wrong reasons – mocking Enda Kenny, questioning the campaign tagline and causing people to generally wonder….are they for real?!

Given that Enda’s leadership skills have often been called into question and since people already don’t take him seriously, the hijacking of their poster campaign is more likely to lose the party votes than win them and as such is unlikely to be heralded a success by Fine Gael.