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How President Donald Trump is Disrupting the News Business

Reginald Edward
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How President Donald Trump is Disrupting the News Business

In the month of November 2016 nearly every source of news put out articles, posts, etc. stating what the media got wrong about predictions of the US Presidential elections; the Washington Examiner, Washington Post, Press Club, Fortune, and CNN just to mention a few.

Pollsters believe there has been too much of an emphasis on the demographics of the country; which means perhaps they relied too much on the Hispanic voter to turn out and vote. They further believe they under-sampled non-college-educated Whites, a group that President Trump appealed to and got their support. They also questioned the premise that voters will be completely honest with the people asking them questions who happen to be total strangers.

As the media struggles to fill the 24-hour news cycle, there seems to be more and more acceptance of “alternative facts.” Alternative facts as defined by Sean Spicer, White House Press Secretary & Communications Director, and Kellyanne Conway, Counselor to the President. As a result, the Washington Post has an occasional feature on what Presidential Trump got wrong on Twitter in any given week. There focus will be fact checking.

For example, Trump tweeted on January 2nd about the murder rate in Chicago:

However, Chicago’s murder rate was not a record setting number. It was high but not record setting. There were 762 deaths, according to the Chicago Police Department. In the 1990’s Chicago was at an all time high rate for murders but the city was then facing gang activity and the drug activities that go along with the gang culture.

In the 1920s and 30’s, fascism controlled the conversation. Hence we have been reading and hearing comparisons to President Trump. Yes, President Trump has wrestled the discussion away from the media, and labeled it as “fake news, ” but control was the media’s to lose.  Having the ability to go directly to most of your audience through social media has put the President out in front of the press.

Where does the media go from here on out? Fact checking, getting the story right, truth telling, have always been cornerstone ideas of a free press; staying away from name calling and labeling of people and groups would be good for the order.

Verizon Now Offers an Unlimited Data Plan

Reginald Edward
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Verizon Now Offers an Unlimited Data Plan

Worried about going over on your data? If so, then I have some great news for you. Verizon is bringing back their unlimited data plan starting tomorrow. According to a CNBC report, Verizon will sell these new unlimited plans for $80 per month for a single user or $45 per line on a family plan. However, the company points out that if you use over 22GB of data in a month, Verizon will “prioritize usage behind other customers in the event of network congestion.”

It is important to note that Verizon has canceled their unlimited data plans for new customers six years. In fact, last July, Verizon announced they would be removing users who used more than 100GB of data each month off of their unlimited plans. Then, last September, Verizon CFO Fred Shammo said at a conference, “At the end of the day, people don’t need unlimited plans.” All of which illustrates the company’s changing stance on unlimited data packages.

Verizon Unlimited Data
NEW-YORK – CIRCA MARCH 2016: woman taking a selfie in Manhattan at evening. Manhattan is the most densely populated borough of New York City (Sorbis / Shutterstock, Inc.)

How does this new unlimited plan compare to Verizon’s competitors?

Well, AT&T offers unlimited data plans for $100 per month and for every additional line it will cost $40 per month. However, it is important to highlight the fact that to qualify for this package you must sign up for both DirecTV or U-Verse. Meanwhile, Sprint offers an unlimited package for $90 per month for five lines. T-Mobile offers an unlimited package for $160/month for four lines.

How is Verizon marketing this new package? Verizon is calling their new unlimited package launch: “You asked. We answered.”

Twitter Stock Falls as “Trump Bump” Fails to Make Twitter Great Again

Reginald Edward
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Twitter Stock Falls as “Trump Bump” Fails to Make Twitter Great Again

Twitter reported their slowest revenue growth since it went public in 2013. Consequently, share prices fell more than 10% on Thursday on market apprehension Facebook, Google, and the upcoming IPO release of Snapchat are controlling the advertising market.

Revenue from advertising dropped from 2015 and a 4% year to year rise was below analysts predictions.

Also, many believed Donald Trump’s frequent use of Twitter would help increase the number of Twitter users on the social media app. However, the fourth quarter earnings report reveals that did not help.

Twitter has struggled to take their social media platform and turn into a growing business. The lack of revenue growth led to the end of the Vine app. Consequently, many financial markets assumed a Twitter sale was on the table, but no one has taken a single bite yet.

Twitter’s CEO Jack Dorsey told analysts on Thursday that Twitter was investing in ways to engage with advertisers.

“It will take time to show the results we all want to see, and we’re moving forward aggressively. The whole world is watching Twitter,” he said.

It is important to note that revenue growth for Twitter is the slowest it has ever been since the company first went public. Revenue for advertising in Twitter’s fourth quarter declined by .5% year-to-year to $638 million. As a result, advertising revenue will struggle to rise until the company can increase users.

Many assumed the Presidential election between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump would help Twitter since the Trump frequently uses the platform.

The number of Twitter users rose to 319 million, which is less than the 319.6 million Wall Street analysts expect.

Last year, analysts assumed Salesforce.com Inc or Walt Disney Co. would purchase Twitter but, that never came to fruition.

Late last year, Twitter announced they planned on shutting down the Vine app. Vine helped launched the careers of several social media stars who left the app to promote their lifestyles, short videos, and audience on Twitter’s competing social networks including Instagram and YouTube.

Travelers’ Password Collection Proposal Raises Alarms

Jonathan Antonio
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Travelers’ Password Collection Proposal Raises Alarms

To determine if foreigners traveling to the United States should be allowed access, the U.S. may start demanding visa applicants to reveal their passwords to their social media accounts, a proposal that has many up in arms.

On Tuesday, the head of the Department of Homeland Security said, “If they don’t want to give us the information, then they don’t come.”

Kelly discussed the proposal during a congressional hearing when asked about how the department was examining visa applicants’ social media accounts. Kelly said it was “very hard to truly vet” the visa applicants from the “terror-prone” countries listed in Trump’s immigration ban.

Kelly said investigating the social media accounts visa applicants use and asking for their passwords will become part of the vetting process. That said, Kelly said the Department of Homeland Security is only considering this idea of obtaining social media account passwords.

However, late last year, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection began asking foreign visitors traveling under a visa waiver program to provide their social media account IDs as an option and not a requirement. Ultimately, U.S. authorities are hoping that by obtaining social media passwords it will help them identify “nefarious activity”.

Free-speech advocates said the U.S. might use the information to keep certain individuals out of the country unfairly. For instance, Michael Macleod-Ball, the chief of staff with the American Civil Liberties Union of the Washington Legislative office, argued the U.S. could ban someone from entering the country based on their political affiliation.

“The issue is what information are they (U.S. border agents) looking for, and how are they interpreting it,” he said. “We’ve had all kinds of concerns over the ambiguities.”

Robert McCaw, the government affairs department director for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said: “The price for admission into the United States shouldn’t mean giving up your online life.”

McCaw added: “Do you remember every email account, or Facebook account, or every message board you signed up for?” he asked. “If you forgot to disclose one, wouldn’t you be lying to a federal agency?”

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Invests $50 Million to 47 Research Investigators

Jonathan Antonio
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Chan Zuckerberg Initiative Invests $50 Million to 47 Research Investigators

Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan have awarded their first series of grants to scientists thanks to their biomedical research program. The Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative gave grants to a broad range of topics including genomics, cancer, and memory devices.

Forty-seven investigators were chosen out of 700 faculty members who applied. Those selected each will receive up to $1.5 million each in the next five years from the Chan-Zuckerberg biomedical research initiative.

“We’re investing $50 million in this first class of investigators. This program will provide 5 years of funding to some of the most innovative researchers in the Bay Area, especially focused on young scientists early in their careers,” Zuckerberg explained in a Facebook post.

Zuckerberg added, “This first group includes a Stanford data scientist working to analyze massive quantities of genomic data, a doctor from UCSF looking at how malaria spreads, an engineer from Berkeley who is designing tools to better understand human biology, including a miniature foldable microscope, and more. This is a diverse group, with almost 50% women and 15% underrepresented minorities.”

Announced in 2015, the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative is a limited liability company founded by Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan. The Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative launched with an investment of up to $1 billion Facebook shares in each of the next three years. The mission of the initiative is to “advance human potential and promote equality in areas such as health, education, scientific research, and energy.”

Outside of the investigator program, the Chan-Zuckerberg Initiative has other initiatives including the Infectious Disease Initiative to help find ways to stop the spread of diseases. Also, the bio hub has the Cell Atlas project to help map the cells in the body to help discover new therapies.

 

Eating Whole Grains May Help You Lose Weight, Study Finds

Brent Edward
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Eating Whole Grains May Help You Lose Weight, Study Finds

Researchers suggest switching to whole-grain foods may actually help you lose weight. How much weight can you lose by using whole grains? Well scientists say by eating whole-grain foods is just as good as taking a brisk 30-minute daily walk.

Whole grains foods lower the total number of calories the body can absorb during digestion and can also speed up metabolism.

Nutrition scientists J. Philip Karl was the lead researcher in the study. Karl made the discovery while working on his Ph.D. at Tufts University in Boston.

Previous research has shown that people who eat whole grains have a lower body fat than those who do not eat whole grains food. But, it is reasonable to believe that people who work out tend to eat whole grains.

However, Karl’s research was able to establish why whole grains help the body. Karl found men and women ages 40 to 65 and during the first two weeks of the study everyone ate the same type of food. Then, Karl and his team determined how many calories each person would need to maintain their weight.

Afterwards, researchers randomly assigned people to eat whole-grain or a refined-grain food without changing their daily routine. Karl discovered that those individuals with whole-grain diet absorbed fewer calories and their metabolism was higher. Karl believes the fiber content helped those individuals lose weight.

“The energy deficit in those eating whole grains compared to refined grains would be equivalent to the calories you would burn if you were to walk about a mile [in] about 20 or 30 minutes,” he said.

“‘We don’t know over the long term if it would translate to weight loss,” Karl said, but his team suspects it would. “This would translate to about 5 pounds in a year,” Karl estimated.”

Last year, researchers discovered aspartame was linked to weight gain. Scientists have found mice that drank artificially sweetened water blocked an important stomach enzyme. As a result, aspartame made mice more likely to gain weight and develop diabetes.

Wikipedia: Daily Mail is “Unreliable” and No Longer a Source

Jonathan Antonio
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Wikipedia: Daily Mail is “Unreliable” and No Longer a Source

Wikipedia labels the Daily Mail as “generally unreliable” and bans the news site as a source on their website.

After a discussion, Wikipedia editors have chosen to ban the use of the Daily Mail as a source on their website in most cases.

In a statement, Wikipedia said, “Consensus has determined that the Daily Mail (including its online version, dailymail.co.uk) is generally unreliable, and its use as a reference is to be generally prohibited, especially when other more reliable sources exist.”

Wikipedia added, “As a result, the Daily Mail should not be used for determining notability, nor should it be used as a source in articles. An edit filter should be put in place going forward to warn editors attempting to use the Daily Mail as a reference.”

Wikipedia editors discussed the request to ban Daily Mail as a source with some editors calling the website “yellow journalism.”

Daily Mail
(Radu Bercan / Shutterstock, Inc.)

“As others have said it is a byword for the worst kinds of yellow journalism, it is (in effect) a fake news organ. Just because a lot of people buy it (or even by it) does not mean it is a reliable source for anything other then it’s own views.”

Henceforward, Wikipedia will start reviewing, removing and replacing the thousands of existing citations linking back to the Daily Mail.

This news comes after many websites are struggling with the fake news. Facebook has launched a war against false news with several features, initiatives, and projects to stop the spread of misinformation on the website. Also, researchers also have begun studying ways to teach people how to spot and identify fake news and avoid getting persuaded.

Most notably, Facebook, who was publicly accosted for spreading false news during the election by former President Barack Obama, has since released new features. These features including a journalism initiative to help journalists cover information, reporting tools to report fake news, and hiring new staff to lead their news division.

Is Macy’s the Next Retailer to Drop Ivanka Trump?

Reginald Edward
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Is Macy’s the Next Retailer to Drop Ivanka Trump?

Macy’s may be feeling the pressure to drop Ivanka Trump’s fashion line.

Macy’s was reportedly hit by weak holiday sales and announced they would be cutting more than 10,000 jobs across the United States.

Now, many consumers have taken to social media to voice their frustration with the retail giant and their decision to sell Ivanka Trump products.

“ Retailers, the answer is “No.” Carrying Trump=Pushing the Trump agenda. Please stop,” one user tweeted.

“Cancelled my credit card bc of them attacking more than enough places 4 things I like”, another user tweeted.

But, Twitter is not the only place Macy’s customers are calling for the retail store to stop selling Ivanka Trump’s products. On Macy’s, Facebook users are posting nearly every 5 minutes asking the company to #DumpTrump.

“Dump Macy’s until you Dump Trump. The entire Trump family are a national and human disgrace. She supports her father who is a sexual predator, misogynist, fat shamer, xenophobe, racist…. This list goes on! She works in a White House that promotes LGBTQ discrimination. Dump Trump Macy’s!,” Karen Friedman posted on Macy’s Facebook page.

Following pressure to drop Donald Trump daughter’s brand, Ivanka Trump’s clothing is no longer available at several retailers other retailers.

Last week, Nordstrom reported they would stop selling the Ivanka Trump collection due to poor sales. Since then, Ivanka’s company is no longer available from five additional stores including Neiman Marcus, Belk, Jet, ShopStyle, and Home Shopping Network, according to a new BuzzFeed report.

That said, Buzzfeed reports Ivanka Trump does not have a direct relationship with Jet, Home Shopping Network or ShopStyle and any Ivanka Trump’s products would have come from another distributor.

ShopStyle reportedly sold over a thousand Ivanka Trump products on their website. But, as of Tuesday, the site does not feature any of the items on their website.

Also, Home Shopping Network also had Ivanka Trump products until last week. HSN told Buzzfeed they are taking their customers and partners views into account and celebrate the diversity of thought. Also, HSN stated they are “non-partisan and our product decisions are based solely on a continue evaluation to our business.”

Belk also no longer features Ivanka Trump’s fashion line. The company explained that they review the brands they carry and they make adjustments based on performance.

Ivanka Trump
NEW YORK- DECEMBER 15, 2016: Ivanka Trump Fine Jewelry Boutique inside Trump tower in Midtown Manhattan (Leonard Zhukovsky / Shutterstock, Inc.)

Jet is still selling products featuring the name Trump but, they are from retailers not affiliated with Trump.

Neiman Marcus is also no longer selling Ivanka Trump’s brand. In a statement to Racked on Friday, the company explained: “Neiman Marcus has a very small Ivanka Trump precious jewelry business which is comprised 100 percent of consigned merchandise (merchandise owned by the vendor).”

Neiman Marcus added, “Based on productivity, we continuously assess whether our brands are carried in stores, on our website, or both.”

Last week, Ivanka Trump’s fashion line responded to being dropped from Nordstrom. In a statement  released to Business Insider, Rosemary K. Young, Ivanka Trump‘s senior director of marketing said, “The Ivanka Trump brand continues to expand across categories and distribution with increased customer support, leading us to experience significant year-over-year revenue growth in 2016.”

Starbucks To Offer Free Legal Advice to Employees Affected By Trump’s Immigration Ban

Reginald Edward
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Starbucks To Offer Free Legal Advice to Employees Affected By Trump’s Immigration Ban

Following Donald Trump’s immigration ban, Starbucks will provide free legal advice to their employees and their families who are affected by Trump’s executive order.

The company explained that they are partnering with Ernst & Young to “help navigate immigration issues and get answers in these uncertain times.”

“If you are a partner or a family member and you have questions about immigration travel restrictions or how the Executive Order and any related actions may otherwise impact you, please access this legal support guidance,” The Hill reports.

Last month, Donald Trump followed through with his campaign promise by signing an executive order that banned Syrian refugees from entering the country. According to the executive order, no Syrians are allowed to enter the United States. Also, for the next three months, residents from “terror-prone” (Iran, Iraq, Syria, Sudan, Libya, Yemen, and Somalia) countries will not be allowed to enter the U.S.

This news comes after Starbucks vowed to hire 10,000 refugees affected by the Immigration ban. Starbucks’ CEO said in a statement, “We are living in an unprecedented time, one in which we are witness to the conscience of our country, and the promise of the American Dream, being called into question.”

Schultz’s harsh stance against Trump’s immigration ban was fought back by Trump supporters on social media. As a result, #BoycottStarbucks quickly went viral.

Starbucks is not the only company fighting back against Trump’s executive order. Last month, Mark Zuckerberg argued on Facebook that the executive order is against American values. “We should keep our doors open to refugees and those who need help. That’s who we are.”

Companies are stepping up and stand up to Donald Trump’s immigration ban. On Monday, nearly 100 companies filed a legal brief against Trump’s immigration ban. Facebook, Google, Apple, and many others argued the new legislation “inflicts significant harm on American business, innovation, and growth as a result.”

Pornhub Traffic Dropped By Nearly 30% During the Super Bowl

Jonathan Antonio
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Pornhub Traffic Dropped By Nearly 30% During the Super Bowl

Super Bowl 51 has come and gone leaving the New England Patriots victorious over the Atlanta Falcons. The game had over 100 million viewers, and a few ads sparked controversy during one of the most-watched sporting events in the world. But, the impact of football stretched far beyond the field. In fact, according to a new blog post by Pornhub Insights, pornography consumption changed thanks dramatically in part to the Super Bowl.

What is Pornhub?

Pornhub has one of the largest collections of pornography on the Internet. Pornhub launched a decade ago; the company has servers located around the globe. Earlier this year Pornhub revealed the company had 64 million views every day with over 700 page views per second.

How did pornography change during the Super Bowl?

Following the kickoff, traffic across the United States dropped by nearly 30% on the website. However, visits surged 9% above average immediately after the game. Unsurprisingly, the biggest website traffic changes took place in Massachusetts and Georgia reaching as low as -37% below average at one point during the match. Then, once news broke that the New England Patriots were making a comeback, traffic in the Bay area states, dropped by more than 50% below average.

But, the fluctuations in traffic were not the only noticeable changes during the Super Bowl. Pornhub Insights reports that visitors visited the site and searched for very specific types of video content.

“Searches for “Super Bowl” and “Superbowl” were up 2451% on February 5th, along with a 407% increase for “NFL” and a 394% increase for “Football,” Pornhub said.

“Once again “Patriots” won with a 1608% increase for their team name versus 386% for “Falcons.” For many viewers, it was “Lady Gaga” that stole the show with a 598% increase in searches for her name and 2432% for “halftime”.”

This news comes after Pornhub announced the release of free sex education. The website is providing free information about sex topics typically found in a sexual education course.

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