Link to Pinterest:

http://pinterest.com/

Description:

Pinterest is a virtual pinboard which allows its users to organise and share images through a social media forum. Users can browse through other users’ ‘pinboards’ to discover new ideas and gain inspiration from others with similar interests.

It allows users to ‘re-pin’ images from other pinboards, onto their own, or alternatively ‘like’ or ‘comment’ on another user’s photo. Ultimately, it is a sharing board, for the most part for the user to view a multitude of images on particular genres of interest.

 

Hyperlinked articles:

1. A marketers guide to Pinterest (MDGadvertising, 2012), provides viewers with statistical information about Pinterest, including the number of users, demographic of users, businesses and corporations which have adopted Pinterest as a point of sale, and a basic guide of how to use it and how to; ‘make Pinterest work for you’ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfyByLwiIe8
2.  An article featured on Bizrate Insights, discussed ‘online consumer pulse Pinterest vs. Facebook’ and which site ‘wins at shopping engagement’. It provides readers with significantly detailed graphs showing percentages of consumers in relation to certain aspects of online shopping and comparing trends between Pinterest and Facebook. http://bizrateinsights.com/blog/2012/10/15/online-consumer-pulse-pinterest-vs-facebook-which-social-sharing-site-wins-at-shopping-engagement/
3.  Four ways to use Pinterest in education, explains the advantages of Pinterest within the classroom. Morrison discusses aspects such as lesson plans, sharing ideas, organisation and student use (Morrison, 2012). http://www.pearsonschoolsystems.com/blog/?p=424
4. The fourth link reports on Pinterest becoming the 4^th largest traffic driver worldwide and provides readers with graphics and statistical evidence to support the claims (Perez, 2012). http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/06/report-pinterest-beats-yahoo-organic-traffic-making-it-4th-largest-traffic-driver-worldwide/ 
5. Pinterest Tutorial, is a basic tutorial, explaining to the viewer how to use Pinterest, and the various activities that Pinterest affords the user. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtmmGA0M_yk

Instructions:

Pinterest is a virtual pinboard, which enables users to categorize images and ideas into ‘pinboards’ and provides users with canvas to express and share ideas and inspiration.  With an incredibly simple user interface, gathering information on a particular category on one page, the user is presented with a clear and documented collaboration of images.

Categories are easily searchable with a list encompassing most areas of interest and a search bar for those not listed.  Categories are compiled into the most popular searches and grouped accordingly.

Users are able to re-pin images onto their own pinboard, like, and comment on others’ images. Users are able to see each other’s comments.

The ability to create your own ‘board’ is available, with users documenting various areas of interest for example, fashion and style boards, travel, cooking, gardening, wildlife photography etc.

 

Analysis 1: The tool in principle

In the past decade Social Media has evolved rapidly, and now more than ever, media professionals, and more specifically journalists, have found the increasing need to actively engage in these social media platforms.

With 62% of the world’s population connecting with social media (Reaney, 2012), and the demand for journalists to consistently stay abreast of the ‘trends’ and engage in a wide variety of media platforms (Stassen, 2012), journalists are  under the pump and the pressure of keeping up with the rapidly changing media landscape has become very challenging. Social media platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest, have now evolved into such powerful tools for communication, that they are being ‘harnessed by the news media to interact with audiences’ (Stassen, 2010).  The immediacy of social media and news on the Internet is the foremost reason users have become so dependant on online interaction.

A Purposive affordance presented by Sarah Marshall, editor of blog.journalist.co.uk considered Pinterest ‘Tool of the week for journalists,’due to the way it combines features of Twitter, Facebook and Search Engine Optimisation. Afforded to its user, Pinterest encourages the practice of re-pinning others’ images and the ability to comment and follow users, which enables journalists and users alike to keep up with trends and movements in society. Pinterest also makes it easy to discover new trends with the ‘popular’ on Pinterest search feature (Lavin, 2012).

A technical affordance of Pinterest is its ‘virtual bookmarking system’ that can be used by newsrooms to curate and share news (Marshall, 2012). As Pinterest incorporates other social media into its own social platform, users are not only able to share pinned images to Pinterest users but images posted by the user are also posted on Facebook, directing others, as yet possibly not members of Pinterest, back to the original users’ board.

A purposive constraint may be content of images in relation to the gender affiliation of categories within Pinterest. According to a YouTube clip by MDGadvertising, the gender comparison of male vs female users is quite significant. With a 60% female user base, under half of the active Pinterest users are male, possibly raising issues of biased content with a heavy dependence on categories more suited to a female audience and subject matter which is less appealing for male viewer-ship. For example, the images featured on the Pinterest home page, vary every time it is opened, however more often than not, images displayed are predominantly more female orientated than male.

Journalists aiming to reach a wide audience of both male and female may have difficulty obtaining a male following, as would advertisers and marketers for a product targeted for males.

A technical constraint and one of the main points of discussion between many Pinterest users is the issue of copyright. Although Pinterest is a public sharing board of images, the issue of copyright is still foggy to some. In particular when considering photographers who post their work, which can then be re-pinned hundreds of times, the question of the authenticity and the originality of ones work becomes of an issue and concern. “No matter what, passing around images without properly attributing them is far, far too easy” (McHugh, 2012).

 

Analysis 2: The tool in use

In terms of journalistic utilisation of Pinterest, the way it affords its users to create, connect and gain inspiration is quite significant. Pinterest is the fastest growing stand-alone site in history to cross the 10 million user mark and the opportunity for journalists to communicate, broadcast and interact with a wide audience is achievable. Pinterest ‘is an absolute goldmine for lifestyle journalists’ (Cresci, 2012), however in terms of hard news, Pinterest is not the place to search this type of information, at least not yet.

With a very specific demographic of 25-50 year-old women making up 80% of Pinterest users, statistically, this age bracket fits into the category of ‘seamless’ readers (Cresci, 2012). Journalists writing for media outlets such as women’s magazines and blogs would find Pinterest suitable for reaching a similar audience (Stassen, 2012). With the growing desire to stay ahead of the trends, Pinterest affords its users this ability, enabling the creation of pin boards for every category desirable. Affording journalists the opportunity to view current trends and sentiments, it is simple to add or take away from your board, depending on the latest developments and crazes. Pinterest gives journalists a more compelling way to display and communicate information than other social networks.

An ‘article,’ recently featured on Pinterest through the use of an infographic, in the form of an image which encompassed all aspects of a news article, however in a non-traditional format. The use of the infographic to present news, provides the reader with a very simple format by which to absorb information.

The presentation of Pinterest information was greatly augmented by using an infographic as the content was easily recognizable, aesthetically pleasing and presented a fresh model of information communication. Rather than using long passages of text, the infographic uses images, statistics in the form of graphs and maps, pictures and colour engagement to entice the reader. A purposive affordance being the easy readability and presentation of the information, which is of course also design-dependant.

Barbara Alevras, the curator of this post, has used the design-preferred approach in terms of the clear and concise presentation and the modern formatting of the information, which may also be aiming to entice a younger readership.

Evaluation: Recommendations and pro/con matrix

Pinterest as a tool for 21^st century media professionals is extremely beneficial in terms of presentation, readability, appealing to a younger demographic and communicating information clearly and concisely. Presenting ideas on a neat ‘pinboard’ specifically designed to fit a certain category or genre of interest, the journalist is able to present content through and contemporary mode of communication.

Matrix:

Research Tasks
Selecting a Topic	Pros		Cons		N/A
Media Research	Research within soft news and trending news may be researched using Pinterest		Media research in regards to hard news and investigative news is very difficult
Newsworthiness	“Seamless” leisure news aimed for a magazine audience can be found		Hard news cannot be obtained through Pinterest
Angle	In terms of staying ahead and keeping up with trends, an angle on a certain topic/trend may be achievable		Finding an angle on a hard news story would not be achievable
Defining Topic
Choosing Sources	Finding the source of the original user to post an image can be achieved through the ‘original source’ button
Gathering Information	Pros		Cons		N/A
Facts and Figures	Facts and figured can be obtained through infographics etc		Hard facts and figures regarding latest stories would be unattainable
Interviews					Interviews are not conducted through Pinterest
Anecdotes
Documents, photographs, video and audio information/content	Pinterest is the ultimate platform for finding photographs and infographics		Audio and video files may be difficult to find
Analysis	Pros		Cons		N/A
Checking Credibility					Pinterest does not cater for credibility controlling
Selecting most important data					Not applicable to Pinterest
Presentation Tasks
Writing		Pros		Cons	N/A
Pyramid Structure					Not applicable to Pinterest
Flow/clarity		Pinterest is extremely clearly structured and well presented
Presentation		Pros		Cons	N/A
Designing Layout		The design layout of Pinterest is extremely aesthetically pleasing and clearly presented
Publishing		Pros		Cons	N/A
Audience Reach		Pinterest reaches a large audience of many differing interests
Accessibility		Pinterest is accessible and the user interface is very simple
Criteria derived from Ricketson (2004) and Spencer (2006)

 

Research Tasks
Selecting a Topic	Pros		Cons		N/A
Media Research	Research within soft news and trending news may be researched using Pinterest		Media research in regards to hard news and investigative news is very difficult
Newsworthiness	“Seamless” leisure news aimed for a magazine audience can be found		Hard news cannot be obtained through Pinterest
Angle	In terms of staying ahead and keeping up with trends, an angle on a certain topic/trend may be achievable		Finding an angle on a hard news story would not be achievable
Defining Topic
Choosing Sources	Finding the source of the original user to post an image can be achieved through the ‘original source’ button
Gathering Information	Pros		Cons		N/A
Facts and Figures	Facts and figured can be obtained through infographics and graphs etc		Hard facts and figures regarding latest stories would be unattainable
Interviews					Interviews are not conducted through Pinterest
Anecdotes
Documents, photographs, video and audio information/content	Pinterest is the ultimate platform for finding photographs and infographics		Audio and video files may be difficult to find
Analysis	Pros		Cons		N/A
Checking Credibility					Pinterest does not cater for credibility controlling
Selecting most important data					Not applicable to Pinterest
Presentation Tasks
Writing		Pros		Cons	N/A
Pyramid Structure					Not applicable to Pinterest
Flow/clarity		Pinterest is extremely clearly structured and well presented
Presentation		Pros		Cons	N/A
Designing Layout		The design layout of Pinterest is extremely aesthetically pleasing and clearly presented
Publishing		Pros		Cons	N/A
Audience Reach		Pinterest reaches a large audience of many differing interests
Accessibility		Pinterest is accessible and the user interface is very simple
Criteria derived from Ricketson (2004) and Spencer (2006

 

References:

Burnham, K. (2012) 18 Staggering Stats From Facebook’s IPO. Retrieved October 23, 2012 from http://www.cio.com/article/699397/18_Staggering_Stats_From_Facebook_s_IPO

Creschi, E. (2012) Are you Pinterested? – Journalism and Pinterest. Retrieved October 21, 2012 from http://www.elenacresci.co.uk/2012/02/09/are-you-pinterested-journalism-and-pinterest/

Kanalley, C. (2012) The problem with the media’s social media addiction. Retrieved October 21, 2012 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/craig-kanalley/problem-social-media-addiction_b_1949488.html?view=print&comm_ref=false

Lavin, C. (2012) Pinterest for Journalists: For notes, community and staff. Retrieved October 21, 2012 from http://carllavin.wordpress.com/2012/02/20/pinterest-for-journalists-for-notes-community-and-staff/

McHugh, M. (2012) What Pinterest needs to fix – and fast. Retrieved October 21, 2012 from http://www.digitaltrends.com/social-media/what-pinterest-needs-to-fix-and-fast/

MDGadvertinsing (2012) A marketer’s guide to Pinterest. Retrieved October 21, 2012 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AfyByLwiIe8

Morrison, A. (2011) Four ways to use Pinterest in education. Retrieved October 21, 2012 from http://www.pearsonschoolsystems.com/blog/?p=424

Online Consumer Pulse Pinterest vs. Facebook: Which Social Sharing Site Wins at Shopping Engagement? (2012) Retrieved October 21, 2012 from http://bizrateinsights.com/blog/2012/10/15/online-consumer-pulse-pinterest-vs-facebook-which-social-sharing-site-wins-at-shopping-engagement/

Perez, s. (2012) Report: Pinterest beats Yahoo organic traffic, making the 4^th largest traffic driver worldwide. Retrieved October 21, 2012 from http://techcrunch.com/2012/09/06/report-pinterest-beats-yahoo-organic-traffic-making-it-4th-largest-traffic-driver-worldwide/

Pinterest Stats. (2012) Retrieved October 23, 2012 from http://www.repinly.com/stats.aspx

Pinterest tutorial. (2012) Retrieved October 21, 2012 from http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtmmGA0M_yk

Reaney, P. (2012) Email connects 85 percent of the world; social media connects 62 percent. Retrieved October 21, 2012 from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/03/27/email-connects-the-world_n_1381854.html

Ricketson, M. (2004). Writing Feature Stories: How to Research and Write Newspaper and Magazine Articles. Crows Nest: Allen & Unwin.

Spencer, L. M. (2006). News Writing: The Gathering, Handling and Writing of News Stories. Boston: D.C. Heath & Co.

The Social Intelligence Report: Social Media (2012) Retrieved October 23, 2012 from http://pinterest.com/pin/53480314295970554/

Vi Pham, T. (2012) Pinterest as new tool in journalism. Retrieved October 21, 2012 from http://www.upstart.net.au/2012/05/22/pinterest-as-new-tool-in-journalism/

 

Part 2: Production using the tool

Link to my infographics – Pinterest board

http://pinterest.com/sammieobrienx/infographics/