Review of Fredericton’s use of new media
Posted by Lamespotting on 24 Aug 2009 at 04:00 am | Tagged as: Fredericton, Reviews
Many organizations and people are using the Internet. Some are better than others, here are some quick reviews:
Fredericton Mayor Brad Woodside – A+
He’s doing a great job with Twitter and he engaged the citizens with his Facebook group about the Costco (although may not have given him the desired result).
City of Fredericton – D
They have a website, but there’s barely anything on it.
CBC – A+
The CBC have fully embraced Twitter and are using it to post little tidbits of news that aren’t quite worthy of a story. They are also the fastest at getting stories online as they don’t have to wait until it has aired.
The Playhouse – B
They are using new technologies well, but they are missing one key thing. There is little to let you know what shows will have tickets for sale soon. You only get notified of new events after the tickets have been on sale and all the good seats have been taken.
CTV Atlantic – C+
They don’t post stories online, but they do make excellent use of the Facebook group. They regularly read comments from their group on the air.
The Daily Gleaner – B
The good: they post every story to their website. The bad: they wait until the paper has been printed until they post their story.
Astral Radio Stations – C
I’m referring to CapitalFM, The Fox and KHJ here. They post their news on the website, but it’s quite often only posted several hours after it airs. They don’t retain older newscasts, but they do take song requests over Twitter.
RogersTV – F
Local Matters, but only if you have cable.
Charles LeBlanc is usually faster than CBC with stories.
The CBC’s comment section is the scum of Canada. The Gleaner’s isn’t as bad, but it isn’t great.
I have to defend Rogers somewhat, they likely don’t have the budget or support to afford a broadcast license.
Thank goodness you didn’t evaluate New Maryland…
In defense of the Playhouse, they send a regular e-newsletter to fans and patrons announcing upcoming shows often before the tickets go on sale (ex. Terri Clark, Bill Anderson). Anyone can sign up for the newsletter to receive their 3 regular updates “Coming Soon”, “What’s New” and “On Sale this Week”.
Susan,
Yes, they do have newsletters, but they have no real way of announcing pre-sales to all the shows that go there. This is especially true of shows that aren’t locally produced, such as kids’ shows.
Remember it wasn’t that long ago when it was virtually impossible to get New Brunswick news online. CanadaEast was for print subscribers only (and my password never did work), CTV had nothing, and CBC didn’t have much. I really like what CBC is doing, but for some reason Jacques Poitras has blocked me from following him on twitter.
I said this on another board…the Gleaner desperately needs to get into the breaking news game. Every non-Irving paper in the Maritimes posts updates on their site through the day. The car crash downtown was a perfect example…barely too late for the Saturday deadline, so they had nothing til Monday.
Charles LeBlanc is quick, but his personal vendettas really get in the way. I’ve always thought NB should have something like halifaxlive.com.
I know that about Charles’ site and you’re spot on in your assessment.
He does get stuff up fast though. I don’t know if he follows trouble of if it follows him.