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http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=144443433&m=144470778. Celebrities are Paid to Tweet.
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http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=144443433&m=144470778http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=144443433&m=144470778
Celebrities are Paid to Tweet Rapper Snoop Dogg gave props on Twitter to an ad for the Toyota Sienna minivan. Actress Tori Spelling linked to a website for rental cars. And reality TV star KhloeKardashian soliloquized about the brand of jeans that accentuates the famous Kardashian derriere. "Want to know how Old Navy makes your butt look scary good? Ask a Kardashian," the reality TV star wrote, or tweeted, on the social media website. Of course, she capped off the reflection with a smiley face. These celebs aren't just writing about family cars and fashion choices for the heck of it. Stars can get paid big bucks – sometimes $10,000 or more per post – to pontificate about clothes, cars and movies in the 140 characters or less allowed per tweet. That adds up to about $71 per character. • -- Associated Press, November 2011
Respected Bloggers Are Paid to Endorse Products, too • Colleen Padilla, a 33-year-old mother of two who lives in suburban Philadelphia, has reviewed nearly 1,500 products, including baby clothes, microwave dinners and the Nintendo Wii, on her popular Web site Classymommy.com. Her site attracts 60,000 unique visitors every month, and Ms. Padilla attracts something else: free items from companies eager to promote their products to her readers. – New York Times, July 12, 2009
Cable TV network TNT paid popular blogger, Melanie Notkin, founder and chief executive of SavvyAuntie.com, a site for women who aren’t moms but are committed to other people’s children. Ms. Notkin was paid to send out several messages to her more than 10,000 Twitter followers on Tuesday nights, when a new episode of “Saving Grace” is shown. Ms. Notkin declined to disclose how much she is paid by TNT, only saying that she is “well compensated.” But she says she is upfront with her readers about the relationship with the network by labeling every commercial tweet with “[sp],” which stands for sponsored post.
Besides stretching the truth (James Frey), being artsy (Sleeveface), telling funny personal stories (Waiter Rant)… and advertising and selling stuff, what else is the reality genre about?
Counterpoints • Reality TV, blogs, memoirs, and social media can inspire people to pursue dreams and make changes in their lives: -American Idol, Biggest Loser; thousands of self-help blogs, books, and social media feeds • Reality TV, blogs, memoirs, and social media inform and shed light on other cultures/places and sometimes-mysterious American subcultures: • All-American Muslim, 19 and Counting; Memoirs of a Geisha; Reading Lolita in Tehran … Anybody can create it thanks to YouTube, Tumblr, Facebook, etc.
Yes, people post pointless things on Facebook, but could Arab Spring have been possible without it? • WaelGhonim is the Google executive who helped jumpstart Egypt's democratic revolution ... with a Facebook page memorializing a victim of the regime's violence: • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sBiUKNQhErY
Why Do We Tell Stories? • Stories help us make sense of life: What’s culturally normal, what’s not. Where does Jersey Shore fit in? 16 and Pregnant? • They’re a form of therapy: Garfield Minus Garfield? Biggest Loser? • Through stories we learn about our world and the worlds of others (in the past and today): Keeping Up with the Kardashians? • Stories tell us we’re not alone – other people have gone through the same things we have: A Million Little Pieces? • Stories help us form identity: Who am I? Who do I want to be? Facebook?
So What is the Reality Genre? • Freewrite for 5 minutes: What is it? What is it not? • Be sure to list good and problematic characteristics (advertising? education?); • Kinds of texts: Is it TV, memoir, blog, social media? Some of these and not others? Other texts we haven’t talked about?