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Snapchat is a popular source for news among college students
A number of studies have shown that people turn to social media for news, and of all of the social networks out there, Facebook consistently leads the pack in this regard. But a new study from the Knight Foundation has turned up a surprising finding -- that among college students, Snapchat is the second most popular social media pathway to news behind Facebook.
A first look at Instagram's IGTV
As rumored, Instagram is ready to get into long-form video. And today the company made those plans official with the reveal of IGTV, its new standalone video app geared toward internet creators, like the ones who have made a living out of YouTube. IGTV is all about vertical videos, and although it has its own app, you can get the full experience within the main Instagram application, too -- from uploading to keeping up with your favorite content makers, including the cutest dog on earth, Jiffpom. Inside Instagram, soon you'll see an icon that'll take you into the full vertical video experience, or you can choose to download the IGTV app if you want to keep Stories and pictures out of it.
Instagram takes on Snapchat and YouTube with IGTV
Where there's smoke, there's fire. For Instagram, that smoke recently came in the form of rumors about it launching a feature to host curated, long-form videos in its app. And well, there's fire, alright. Today, at an event in San Francisco, Instagram made IGTV official, a new standalone app geared toward creators like those on YouTube and Snapchat Discover. As expected, this is all about giving users the ability to upload videos that are longer than a minute (up to an hour). And yes, the footage is vertical, as this is intended to be a mobile-first experience. IGTV will be available on Android and iOS "in the coming days," but you can watch the longer videos starting today inside the main Instagram app.
Snapchat swaps mess for money
Snap Inc. took a major risk when it completely redesigned Snapchat a few months ago -- it's no secret that people don't like change. But after constantly struggling to add new users since going public last February, the company decided it needed to make adjustments in order to attract people and keep others coming back. The solution was to refine the app with an easier-to-use layout and to separate friends' posts from media content. Suddenly Snapchat became a more refined app. It no longer feels like an overwhelming, discombobulated mix of stories from people you know, others you don't and publishers that are trying to get your attention. And based on Snap's Q4 2017 earnings report, the move seems to be paying off.
Nobody knows if Snapchat shows are actually successful
Snapchat hasn't been coy about its obsession with making original video content. Snap Inc., its parent company, sees TV-like programming as the holy grail and key to its long-term success. The quick, raw, disappearing videos that made Snapchat popular with teens are no longer enough to keep users locked in. Especially as Instagram has started stealing its most popular features, like Stories. Snapchat won't admit it, but Facebook may have inadvertently driven its push into original programming. Conquering that world won't be easy, and right now there are more questions than answers about whether Snapchat shows are working and how viable they are.
Snapchat’s redesign separates friends' posts from media content
Snapchat's major redesign is here and it's all about separating your relationships from content. Snap CEO Evan Spiegel wrote on Axios today that Snapchat has always been primarily geared towards conversing with friends and with the new layout, Snapchat will make that even easier. "With the upcoming redesign of Snapchat, we are separating the social from the media, and taking an important step forward towards strengthening our relationships with our friends and our relationships with the media," he wrote.
ESPN looks to reinvent itself with a SportsCenter for Snapchat
More than three years ago, ESPN opened a 194,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art production facility known as Digital Center 2. That space was built to house five studios, including the home of its flagship show SportsCenter, which has been airing on TV since 1979. The goal from the beginning was to make the show futureproof, by laying the foundation for its studio to support incoming technologies like 4K and 8K content. It was also set up to handle the rise of social media, what with a wall made of 56 screens giving the anchors' the ability to interact with Twitter or Facebook posts from athletes in a real-time 3D environment. The Digital Center 2 brought SportsCenter into the 21st century.
CNN is the latest to make a daily news show for Snapchat
NBC isn't the only major US broadcaster hopping on the Snapchat daily news show bandwagon. CNN has launched The Update, a survey of events that will run in the Shows section of Snapchat's Stories at 6PM Eastern. Each regular episode will cover five or more stories in a quick, just-the-facts format. Logically, there will be out-of-cycle updates for breaking news. CNN's Snapchat news output has so far been limited to infographics and story links, so this is a much more concerted effort to court the mobile crowd.
CBS greenlights another James Corden show... on Snapchat
James Corden's viral-friendly Carpool Karaoke videos have given The Late Late Show exposure well beyond it's timeslot. Now CBS wants to squeeze out a little more of Corden's magic by giving the singing Brit his own (fictional) competitive reality show called James Corden's Next James Corden, in which fake contestants compete to (eventually) take Corden's job. But the show won't be on CBS or All Access when it arrives this fall -- instead, James Corden's Next James Corden will be headed straight for Snapchat Discover.
Snapchat fights clickbait in Discover stories
Clickbait headlines and fake news aren't limited to the web and social networks. They're also problems in mobile services, and Snapchat wants to do something about it. The company is instituting rules that prevent Discover publishers from misleading users. Creators can't use headlines or images without editorial value, and they can't produce or link to fake news. The aim is to create an "informative, factual and safe" space for news, the company tells the New York Times.
The NFL and Snapchat make their partnership official
While Snapchat has been courting sports fans and major leagues for some time now, the National Football League will be the first to announce an official, multi-year deal with the social media platform. According to the league's announcement, Snapchat Discover and NFL Media will produce official content and Live Stories for every single game of the season, including the Super Bowl.
NFL starts working on a Snapchat Discover channel
Big-name sports leagues have briefly teamed up with Snapchat before (mainly for Live Stories), but the NFL appears to be in it for the long haul. The football league is hiring a managing editor that would produce content for a Snapchat Discover channel full of animations, articles and videos. The exact nature of the content is under wraps, to no one's surprise. However, it's reasonable to suspect that the NFL would offer the sort of bite-sized content that it does on its website, such as news and game highlights.
Snapchat faces class-action suit for sexually explicit content
Snapchat has been slapped with a class-action lawsuit accusing the service of showing sexually explicit content to minors without providing the proper warning. A 14-year-old John Doe and his mother filed the lawsuit in California after he came across several X-rated posts on the app's Discover section. The court documents specifically named a handful of articles, including "10 Things He Thinks When He Can't Make You Orgasm" and "I Got High, Blown, and Robbed When I Was A Pizza Delivery Guy," among others. But the lawsuit focused on one BuzzFeed post in particular entitled "23 Pictures That Are Too Real If You've Ever Had Sex With A Penis." That post used Disney movie stills with explicit captions.
