You heard that right: If you think Twitter is for old people while Facebook is for the young'ns, think again.
A Pew report released last month -- just noticed yesterday by the indispensible @NiemanLab -- found the median age of a Twitter user to be 31, while the median age of a Facebook user is now 33. Back in May 2008, Facebook's median age was 26.
As a youth organization that's always thinking about the best ways to reach our demographic, this shift has big implications for Campus Progress. We use pages and, occasionally, ads to reach young people on Facebook. On Twitter, we've got an account as well as lists that categorize our members by the program and department they're involved in.
Of course, we've all seen Twitter accounts belonging to users who signed up only to use the service infrequently or abandon it altogether. (Research indicates that a huge proportion of Twitter users are barely active.) When conducting its survey, Pew asked subjects if they ever use Twitter, but not how often they use it. The real question needs to be: What's the median age of active Twitter users compared to to active Facebook users.
I haven't seen anyone try to quantify Facebook users' level of activity -- leave a comment if you know of such a study -- but my totally un-scientific sense is that there tends to be less deviation among Facebook users: Almost everyone I know checks it at least once a day.
So maybe we shouldn't jump to any conclusions just yet about which service is "better" for reaching young people. If age were all that mattered, MySpace, with a median user age of 26, would be the unquestionable choice for reaching our audience.
As my friend and former professor Eszter Hargittai haswritten, there are substantial differences in the way people use social networking not just based on their age, but also based on their socioeconomic status, ethnicity and religion. Campaigns and organizations like ours that want to attract a broad audience need to utilize a variety of outreach tactics and social media tools, not just one or two.
The editor at large of one of our sponsored publications was arrested in late September for chalking on campus sidewalks at the University of Arizona.
The editor, Evan Lisull, was charged with a class one misdemeanor carrying a maximum sentence of six months in jail and a $2,500 fine. He was ultimately able to avoid jail time.
Lisull wrote "chalk is speech" and "freedom of expression" on campus sidewalks. He was expressing opposition to the arrest of his friend, Jacob Miller, a graduate student at UA who chalked during a protest of UA's budget cuts.
Lisull is editor at large of the CP-sponsored Kosmopolitan Online at Kalamazoo College. He's written a regular column for UA's school newspaper, the Arizona Daily Wildcat, and he edits his own blog on campus issues at DesertLamp.com.
Amid a scandal at Towson University’s school newspaper, The Towerlight, our summer intern Rachel Fauber won a special election to become editor in chief. Congratulations, Rachel!
The Towerlight’s editorial board selected Rachel after the former editor in chief resigned in the middle of her term. Controversyerupted within and beyond Towson’s campus after that editor published an anonymous sex column encouraging mutual masturbation. (Gasp!)
Gawker made light of the situation, but I (and everyone else at Campus Progress) congratulate the talented, charming Rachel on her promotion. We have no doubt she’ll accomplish great things, and we wish her all the best.
Rachel Fauber herself!
Further reading: Campus Progress’ earlier coverage of the student sex column “movement” put the controversy at The Towerlight into perspective.
About 80 student journalists from Campus Progress' publications network filled the Center for American Progress office this past weekend for a jam-packed three days of training in reporting, writing and new media.
CP holds regular journalism conferences that are open to the public, but this was the first event focused entirely on skills-building and networking. Attendance was open only to writers and editors of CP-sponsored publications.
Five instructors from Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism led the training, which included sessions on photography and video skills, feature and news writing, and journalism that changed the world.
The instructors' message was clear: Student journalists need to conduct original reporting, localize their coverage and utilize the web and new media if they want to make a difference on campus and beyond.
Students' feedback from the weekend was extremely positive. "Motivating, inspiring -- I'm ready to make changes to my publication and get cracking! :)" wrote one attendee.
"This was one of the best conferences I've been to," wrote another. "Engaging all the different aspects of journalism really shows how much Campus Progress cares, and that is really inspiring."
For the new media component of the weekend, students divided into video and photography breakout groups. Each breakout had two and a half hours to capture, edit and publish footage to a web site, either an existing one or a blog they created at the summit.
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