Final project presentation for COM 427 class, Fall '15 By: Liam Sullivan, Max Darrow, Connor Grossman and Andrew Morris

1. Snapchat ‘Live’ Stories
Liam Sullivan, Connor Grossman, Max Darrow and Andrew Morris

2. How many of you are on Snapchat?
How many of you watch the Live Stories?

3. Survey Says...

4. 10 to 20 Million Eyeballs
Everyday
http://www.fastcompany.com/3052322/why-snapchats-live-stories-are-the-most-powerful-new-social-media#3

5. Let’s check out Snapchat now

6. The Third Era of Snapchat
-First, simple photo messaging and then a larger social network through ‘My Stories’
-Now has become a broadcast system with crowdsourced ‘Live Stories’
-Originally for music festivals, has expanded to a broad range of topics
-Team curators in NYC and LA pick 50-60 snaps from as many as 20,000 submitted1
-Aim for a narrative arc with content from average users and behind-the-scenes peeks
-From just one to two stories a week to multiple a day2
-From a ‘Live Story’ curator team of 10 people to 40 people2
1:http://time.com/4049026/snapchat-live-stories/
2:http://recode.net/2015/06/17/snapchats-making-some-pretty-serious-money-from-live-stories/

7. What is an Echo Chamber
-Defined by Merriam Webster as: a room with sound-reflecting walls used for
producing hollow or echoing sound effects
- Many people thought the internet was going to be a social media echo chamber
itself
-Instead, social media has become the premier echo chamber
-On social media, content is:
-From only people you choose to follow
-User-generated
-Able to travel quickly
-Essentially, social media created the ultra-echo chamber
http://beta.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/echo%20chamber
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/21/upshot/social-media-deepens-partisan-divides-but-not-always.html

8. Escaping the Echo Chamber
-Live Stories give viewers the opportunity to break out of the echo chamber
-“Live Stories are a curated stream of user submitted Snaps from various locations and
events...The end result is a Story told from a community perspective with lots of
different points of view.”
-Allows people to see other parts & cultures of the world, literally
-One writer went as far as arguing the Live Stories are “The Most Powerful New Social
Media”
https://support.snapchat.com/ca/live-stories

9. “The Live Story can be a tool of
cultural education and respect,
and it can also be a tabloid. And
that’s okay.”-P. Claire Dodson
http://www.fastcompany.com/3052322/why-snapchats-live-stories-are-the-most-powerful-new-social-media#3

10. Twitter Moments
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sR73YnYa0e0

11. What’s the Point of “Moments”?
-Twitter’s playing up its strength — sharing and spreading news.
-Aggregating its most engaging content to tell stories in reverse chronological order.
Everything has a clear beginning, middle and end, unlike Snapchat Live Stories.
-Twitter is targeting its new users and trying to give them a platform to easily be “in
the know,” as most new users won’t know immediately who to find and follow.
-Appeals to new generation of Twitter users as a launching pad, and now the struggle
is how to appeal to experienced users already familiar with the platform.
http://recode.net/2015/10/06/twitters-next-hail-mary-project-lightning-has-arrived/

12. “In many ways, (Moments) is
Twitter’s most important
update ever”-Kurt Wagner
http://recode.net/2015/10/06/twitters-next-hail-mary-project-lightning-has-arrived/

13. Twitter Moments and the Echo Chamber
-Five categories — Today, Sports, News, Fun and Entertainment — allow for several
doors out of each user’s comfort zone
-But Moments are only compilations of content from a select few sources, with
priority given to those sources sharing video and picture content
-Twitter is built off 140-character messages and is just arriving to the rich media party.
Consequently, Snapchat is entirely built entirely off rich media (pictures, videos).
-As a more selectively curated feature, Twitter Moments doesn’t break down the echo
chamber as much as Snapchat stories.

14. Two social media giants
are acknowledging the
existence of the echo
chamber.

15. Takeaways?
-These platforms give users the vehicle to escape their echo chambers created by other
social networks
-They don’t force it; they give people the opportunity to expose themselves to new and
foreign content
-Current generation of technology users are slowly becoming brainwashed by
constantly interacting with rich media, and this is Snapchat and Twitter embracing it
-”The inclusion of rich media further encourages an escape from echo chambers” - L.
Sullivan
-Though it isn’t quite instantaneous, it allows the user to see different parts of the
world - both physical and cultural - by the power of your mobile device

16. Questions?

17. Thank You!