media

Sasheer Zamata on social media & her comedic influencer killing “Spree”

By Gertrude Aziz 8 hours ago

Sasheer Zamata in “Spree” Dreamcrew Entertainment

“Originally it was going to be just purely an indictment of this horrible trend in America of white male mass murderers,” says “Spree” director and co-writer (with Gene McHugh) Eugene Kotlyarenko. “Then when we came upon the idea that actually there’s a lot that horrible people like that share in common with influencer culture.”

Shot largely with GoPro and phone cameras and unfolding in a livestream format, “Spree” takes what could be a gimmicky concept and turns it into an unnervingly comic horror tale. “Stranger Things” actor Joe Keery is Kurt Kunkle, a rideshare driver and frustrated aspiring social media star who decides to start poisoning, stabbing and drilling his hapless passengers in pursuit of likes. But when he crosses paths with Jessie Adams (“SNL” veteran Sasheer Zamata) a comedian with a sharp social media game, he begins to think she may hold the

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The Trump campaign accidentally gave YouTube ad money to Chinese state media

By Gertrude Aziz 3 days ago

trump russia china youtube ads
trump russia china youtube ads

Omelas

  • The Trump campaign is unintentionally funding Chinese and Russian state media outlets by running YouTube ads on their channels, a new study found.

  • At least 22 Trump campaign ads ran on YouTube channels linked to the Chinese government this month alone, according to an analysis of thousands of YouTube videos by cybersecurity firm Omelas.

  • The findings come after the Trump administration cracked down on Chinese-owned media outlets earlier this year, imposing steeper requirements on how they operate in the US.

  • The Trump campaign said it didn’t intentionally target those YouTube channels. YouTube ads typically target specific types of viewers, rather than individual channels, but ad buyers can choose to opt out of showing ads on certain channels.

  • Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

President Donald Trump has made China a target of his campaign for reelection — but in an ironic twist, some

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I’m a 19-year-old TikTok influencer. Here’s how I turned social media into a job

By Gertrude Aziz 4 days ago

Parker James, 19, is a social media creator based in Dallas, Texas, who has made a name for himself on TikTok through his family-friendly comedic character “StEvEn.” His character is the endearing and curious CEO of the Dino Club, a fictitious club he created for dinosaur lovers. Below James shares in his own words how he went from being an average high schooler to a TikTok powerhouse with over 6 million followers, a talent agent and making a living from creating videos.

I’ve always enjoyed making others happy.

When I was younger, I started making funny videos in hopes of making my friends and family laugh. Their reactions always made me so proud and motivated me to continue to come up with new jokes and skits.

However, as I grew older I got more into sports than my previous comedy passions. Unfortunately, while trying out a new trick on my

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The Kiwi media mogul challenging online giants

By Gertrude Aziz 4 days ago

Tucked away in Sinead Boucher’s sock drawer is the one-dollar coin that transformed the former journalist into New Zealand’s biggest media mogul, giving her a platform to challenge Facebook and other social media giants.

Boucher, 50, bought media giant Stuff Ltd for the nominal sum of NZ$1.00 (US$0.67) in May, taking control of New Zealand’s most popular news website, stuff.co.nz, and mastheads such as Wellington’s Dominion Post and the Christchurch Press.

Already a senior executive at the company, Boucher was well aware of the challenges facing news media world-wide — describing a business model “shredded” by the online giants, with revenues further slashed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some companies, such as Germany’s Bauer Media, decided New Zealand’s small market was not worth the bother and shut their local operations, a fate Boucher was determined Stuff would avoid.

“I couldn’t bear the thought of all these titles, not just the website

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30% of British sportswomen say they have been trolled on social media, survey finds

By Gertrude Aziz 5 days ago

Susannah Townsend, English international field hockey player: Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images
Susannah Townsend, English international field hockey player: Photo by Mark Kolbe/Getty Images

Almost a third of female British athletes have said they have experienced trolling on social media, with some describing the abuse they have encountered as “threatening” and “scary”.

BBC Sport recently conducted a survey of 537 British sportswomen representing 39 sports to ascertain the different experiences of female athletes.

The survey questioned the participants on topics including how much money they earn, whether they believe the media does enough to promote women‘s sport and if they are supported to the same extent as male athletes.

They were also asked about their experiences on social media, with 30 per cent saying they have been trolled online.

This marked a significant increase from 2015, when 14 per cent of respondents said they had been trolled on social media.

Several athletes – including Wales rugby union international player Elilnor Snowsill, Olympic

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online workshops, writing books, and more social media

By Gertrude Aziz 2 weeks ago

Four years ago, I realised that my interest in writing about varied subjects could be fulfilled only by being a freelancer. Since then, I have been writing regularly for various publications on subjects ranging from elections to features on travel and cinema. But just as I was settling into a comfortable rhythm and the opportunities seem to be multiplying, the Covid-19 virus brought the world to a standstill.

Suddenly, I was staring at many months of no assignments. A column I had started at the beginning of the year was put on hold and a publication I frequently contributed to, put a pause to freelance contributions.

Romantic notions

Freelancers are looked upon as the lucky few who have managed to break the clutches of bonded employment by working on their own terms. Interestingly, in most of the professional fields/domains today, freelancers are known to have strong bargaining power for their

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Turkey tightens grip on social media with new law

By Gertrude Aziz 2 weeks ago

Istanbul (AFP) – Turkey’s parliament on Wednesday passed a controversial bill giving the government greater control of social media, a move criticised by human rights advocates as an attempt to increase online censorship.

Under the new law, social media giants such as Facebook and Twitter have to ensure that they have local representatives in Turkey and to comply with court orders over the removal of certain content or face heavy fines.

The legislation targets social networks with more than a million unique visits every day and says servers with Turkish users’ data on them must be sited locally.

If companies refuse to comply, they will face fines and restrictions making the platform unusable.

The bill was submitted by the ruling AKP and its nationalist partner the MHP, which have a majority in parliament, and passed after a night-long marathon.

Twitter, contacted by AFP, did not make an immediate comment.

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Misleading viral coronavirus video shows flaw in social media platforms

By Gertrude Aziz 2 weeks ago

A video that made false claims about the coronavirus received tens of millions of views and amplification from President Donald Trump when it went viral on Monday — until Facebook and Twitter removed it from their platforms.

The incident illustrates a flaw in how social media companies police misinformation, tech mogul and philanthropist Bill Gates told Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer on Tuesday.

Gates, a top backer of global public health initiatives and co-founder of Microsoft (MSFT), said that the spread of the “outrageous” video illustrates the way social media platforms struggle to contain damaging misinformation on social media platforms before it gains wide attention, adding that they “probably should have improved” how they monitor such posts to prevent outcomes like the one that occurred on Monday.

The video “spread so fast that even though, eventually, the social media people stopped it,” he says. “It was so famous that now

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Egypt female social media influencers get two-year jail terms

By Gertrude Aziz 3 weeks ago

Cairo (AFP) – An Egyptian court Monday sentenced five female social media influencers to two years in jail each on charges of violating public morals, a judicial source said.

The verdict against Haneen Hossam, Mowada al-Adham and three others came after they had posted footage on video-sharing app TikTok.

“The Cairo economic court sentenced Hossam, Adham and three others to two years after they were convicted of violating society’s values,” the judicial source said.

The ruling, which can be appealed, included a fine of 300,000 Egyptian pounds ($18,750) for each defendant, the source noted.

Hossam was arrested in April after posting a three-minute clip telling her 1.3 million followers that girls could make money by working with her.

In May, authorities arrested Adham who had posted satirical videos on TikTok and Instagram, where she has at least two million followers.

Lawyer Ahmed Hamza al-Bahqiry said the young women are facing

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Egypt female social media influencers get 2-year jail terms

By Gertrude Aziz 3 weeks ago

Cairo (AFP) – An Egyptian court Monday sentenced five female social media influencers to two years in jail on charges of violating public morals, a judicial source said.

The verdict against Haneen Hossam, Mowada al-Adham and three others came after they posted footage on video-sharing app TikTok.

“The Cairo economic court sentenced Hossam, Adham and three others to two years after they were convicted of violating society values,” the source said.

The ruling — which can be appealed — included a fine of 300,000 Egyptian pounds ($18,750) each, the source added.

Hossam was arrested in April after posting a three-minute clip telling her 1.3 million followers that girls could make money by working with her.

In May, authorities arrested Adham who had posted satirical videos on TikTok and Instagram, where she has at least two million followers.

The arrests highlighted a social divide in the deeply conservative Muslim country over

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