Facebook, the Movie

Is the omnipresence of social network sites about to reach a whole new level? In October, director David Fincher starts shooting a new film called “The Social Network”. The movie deals with social network site Facebook, and aims to bring its foundation into focus. Set up in 2004, the popular site has been the brainchild of Mark Zuckerberg and some of his fellow Harvard students. One of them, Sean Parker, will be impersonated by Justin Timberlake.

Will this mix of old and new media be able to upgrade Facebook's status even more? We have to keep in mind that lately Facebook has known a decrease in its student participation rate. In the last six months, there has been a drop of 20 percent, 15 percent for pupils. Older ones, on the other hand, are apparently becoming one of Facebook's new target audiences: their presence has risen sharply, up to 514 percent.

Putting a teenage idol like Timberlake into action is definitely a move with a lot of potential, but whether the movie will be able to appeal to an ever wider public without losing some of Facebook's earliest enthusiasts remains highly questionable.


Sources:
http://www.deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws/cultuur%2Ben%2Bmedia/film/090923timberlake_facebook
http://www.istrategylabs.com/?s=Facebook&x=0&y=0

Experienced Surfers Only?

Hyperlinks, striking pictures, and matching movies. What we generally assume to be one of the biggest trump cards of a lot of informatory internet sites should probably be handled with a little bit of skepticism.

A senior thesis, recently upheld at the University of Leuven, states that news sites with innovatory applications don't always have the desired effect. When reading complicated articles, inexperienced internet users often get distracted by the decorations and the possibilities to make your own comments, instead of being stimulated by them. Whereas this digital gaudery can be a mnemonic device when added to rather simple texts, their presence can make experienced users get bored quickly.

These findings make it rather difficult for journalistic sites or news blogs to orientate themselves towards a certain readership. It appears that students between 18 and 25 for instance, fall short on expectations; in any case they are not the hoped-for fans of RSS-feeds, blogs and news sites. So where should we look for these fans and how can we make a distinction between different users and their needs? When does a popular eye-catcher become an unwanted attention-getter?

This is definitely something to take into consideration when creating an informatory website. It seems to me that the target audience should be defined properly before deciding to add all kinds of electronical extras. If a news site wants to attract different types of people, maybe the amount of additional pictures and movies can be modified in accordance with the content of a certain article. Less is more?


Source: www.deredactie.be/cm/vrtnieuws/cultuur%2Ben%2Bmedia/media/090923Online_extra

fanemX is now fanemka

FanemX changed its name.

Welkom to fanemX

Hi

This is fanemX's blog. FanemX is a group of Ghent University MTB-students (Meertalige bedrijfscommunicatie - Multilingual Business Communication) who are on a quest to help build and improve web2.0.
In the following months they will post comments on their project's progression and thoughts on communication in general.

Fabrice Hofman