Well, we’re waiting for the Winter Storm of the Decade to arrive. The kids are still asleep. \u00a0The husband is not yet driving nurses all over the county in scary weather. \u00a0And I’m not prepping for class because i’m pretty sure the University is going to be closed tomorrow. \u00a0Sounds like a prime opportunity to take advantage of the time to update my academic blog.<\/p>\n
During the build up to this storm, I’ve become a big fan of Brad Panovich’s Facebook page<\/a>. \u00a0And I am not the only one. \u00a0A few days ago, he even updated his status expressing amazement about all his new “likes” had come from and could they explain how they got there.<\/p>\n I have my own ideas about why he is so popular.<\/p>\n 1) \u00a0He’s funny. \u00a0He has great graphics about when it’s time to buy bread and milk and when it’s time to buy a sled. \u00a0We in the South raid the grocery store for bread and milk at 1″ of snow. It’s funny. \u00a0He even introduced a new graphic about how many loaves one should buy to weather this storm.<\/p>\n 2) \u00a0He’s informative. \u00a0The graphs are cute, but I think he’s figured out the formula of using Facebook to inform us about the weather and promote his “real job” as head meteorologist at the local NBC affiliate. \u00a0He posts youtube videos about his interpretation of the weather models. \u00a0And he does from home early in the morning, at night before he goes to bed, and yesterday in between TV broadcasts. \u00a0In these, he briefly talks about his family and going to pre-school parent-teacher conferences and then he teaches us about what he sees in the variety of models he uses to make his decisions. \u00a0I feel like a student. \u00a0And like a student, sometimes I have no idea what the hell he is talking about. \u00a0But when I do get it, I feel like an insider on the weather forecast. He even explains why his forecast is different from others and it \u00a0makes sense to me.<\/p>\n 3) He makes the audience feel like an insider. \u00a0Academically, this is interesting to me. \u00a0I refer to him now as “Brad” around the house. \u00a0(The husband* is confused.) \u00a0It feels intimate for him to be explaining to *me* about the weather and tiny insights about his family. He wears a t-shirt on YouTube and a suit on TV. \u00a0I recognize his voice before I recognize his appearance. \u00a0I prefer his t-shirts to his suits. \u00a0His jokes are funny feel like insider jokes between him and me. \u00a0Between him, a couple of 20,000 other people, and me.<\/p>\n I think this could be one path to the future with traditional and new media. \u00a0I have started watching the TV broadcast this week because of him. \u00a0That said, I’m COMPLETELY prefer his videos. \u00a0But I am watching the TV. \u00a0(I never watch TV during the day and never local broadcasts, I suppose that is saying something. \u00a0Well, it also says the kids are home and the Olympics are on) \u00a0I’m wondering whether and how other traditional media could use this. \u00a0It could be that his example only generalizes to particular developing news topics. I love Kathleen Purvis’ column <\/a>and blog <\/a>on The Charlotte Observer<\/a>, but I don’t know how she could incorporate a video into her weekly news. \u00a0That said, if she did sit down and video tape her thoughts about food and cooking every week, I’d totally watch it.<\/p>\n I’m going to ponder this. \u00a0And I’d love to hear your thoughts about the intimacy of videos. I’m sure there’s been research on these media with Hollywood celebrities. \u00a0That bores me. \u00a0But old media become new media celebrities: \u00a0that sounds interesting.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n *Yes, I do realize it’s sexist to call my husband “The Husband” and I could use the abbreviation “DH” for Dear Husband, but that seems too precious for an academic post. \u00a0Plus, it’s kind of funny.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Well, we’re waiting for the Winter Storm of the Decade to arrive. The kids are still asleep. \u00a0The husband is not yet driving nurses all over the county in scary weather. \u00a0And I’m not prepping for class because i’m pretty sure the University is going to be closed tomorrow. \u00a0Sounds like a prime opportunity to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":124,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p67nDP-45","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":397,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2020\/03\/19\/the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it-i-feel-fine\/","url_meta":{"origin":253,"position":0},"title":"The End of The World As We Know It: I Feel Fine","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"March 19, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Surely, you are saying this at some point. We are. I know my husband and I are old farts, but this song is right on. And, indeed, I spent more than a few nights dancing to this song with the special R.E.M. dance moves (mostly straight arms, snapping hands, shuffling\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/Z0GFRcFm-aY\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":124,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2011\/08\/02\/telecommuters-and-the-virtual-office\/","url_meta":{"origin":253,"position":1},"title":"Telecommuters and The Virtual Office","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"August 2, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"This article came through on my twitter feed yesterday from Technology Review: The Rise of the Virtual Office. \u00a0Since this is one of my main areas of research, I have tons of thoughts of this. First, I think it's incorrect to talk of the \"rise\" of the virtual office. \u00a0It's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":143,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2011\/09\/14\/sabbatical\/","url_meta":{"origin":253,"position":2},"title":"Sabbatical","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"September 14, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I am on sabbatical this semester, although at UNCC, we call it reassignment of duties leave. \u00a0(I think it's illegal to call it sabbatical in NC. \u00a0WHOOPS!) \u00a0So I tell people that I'm on leave this fall, which of course makes them think I'm sitting around eating bonbons and watching\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":279,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2015\/04\/28\/paying-for-online-gifts\/","url_meta":{"origin":253,"position":3},"title":"Paying for Online “Gifts”","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"April 28, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"This is one of those blog posts where I'm not sure I'm supposed to post it on my personal blog\u00a0or my professional one. \u00a0This topic is one that I'm using in my personal life, but I can't stop analyzing from my research\/academic perspective. \u00a0So I'm opting for the professional one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":262,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2014\/05\/13\/writing-by-hand\/","url_meta":{"origin":253,"position":4},"title":"Writing By Hand","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"May 13, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"So \u00a0sometime during the last semester, a study came out demonstrating that taking notes by hand (i.e., writing) helps students retain more information than typing notes on their keyboard. \u00a0I posted that to both my undergrad and graduate class online pages. \u00a0But it ended \u00a0up sparking a discussion a few\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":391,"url":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/2020\/03\/18\/love-in-the-time-of-cholera\/","url_meta":{"origin":253,"position":5},"title":"Love in the Time of Cholera","author":"Anita Blanchard","date":"March 18, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"My lab had our second online meeting this week. Part of our discussion was keeping socially connected even while practicing social isolation. A 21st century Love in the Time of Cholera as it were. ((Or maybe not. I'm rereading the wiki summary and clearly, I did not understand it the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/03\/Homeschool.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/03\/Homeschool.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/03\/Homeschool.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2020\/03\/Homeschool.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/124"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":258,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253\/revisions\/258"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pages.charlotte.edu\/anitablanchard\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}