Media storm surrounding Scarcella interview

Friday night, Francis Scarcella walked into the Northumberland County Prison for a chat with accused murderer Miranda Barbour.

Sunday morning, the world blew up when what she told him was revealed.

After claiming to kill more than 22 people (but less than 100), Barbour’s story has gotten renewed attention and everyone is talking about it.

Here’s just a small sampling:

• TMZ is covering the heck out of the story. Here’s a story and the links to their others
• People Magazine.
• CNN – both online and on TV
• Celebrity gossip show Inside Edition

There’s just too many to list all of them.

But the number one place to get this information – DailyItem.com people!

Susquehanna Reporting: 2013 in review

WordPress has issued its annual report for my blog – yay!

It’s a fun feature that lets me see what was popular and put things in perspective.

The most popular stories this year were:

1.  Bonus photos: Lottery tickets ornaments
2. Should we watch?: Kevin Ware and Youtube
3. Yummy Yogurt coming to Lewisburg!
4. A fake legend in Williamsport – starring Nick Cage? Um, OK.
5. Touring Boston

Not what I would have thought – but nice to know.

Here’s a little bit more and a link to the full report – enjoy! 🙂

Here’s an excerpt:

The concert hall at the Sydney Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 8,900 times in 2013. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 3 sold-out performances for that many people to see it.

Click here to see the complete report.

Now Trending on Facebook: Week of September 29

This week has been full of big news, mostly coming from our nation’s capitol, but big news all the same.

The govt shutdown has been the talk of our Facebook page this week.

Here’s that and some other crowd favorites:

• The question of whether politicians should get paid during the shutdown sparked a lot of response, mostly from those saying absolutely not: Tina Auman “Absolutely NOT!! They all need a reality check so they can see how their ‘decisions or in-decisions’ affect their own lives and they should not be exempt.”
• Other people expressed frustration at the technical glitches surrounding the launch of the Health Insurance Marketplace on healthcare.gov, saying they were not able to access the site: Ken Dieffenbach Jr. “This is what I got around 5am today. I went back and it was running, but they failed to identify my identity by me answering the security questions. Then I was given a code to call Experian to answer them via the phone. I can’t imagine the plans are any cheaper than what I have now and will cross the bridge once my premium is raised (which is inevitable at this point I’m certain!)”
• On a lighter note, the preview video from the Elysburg Haunted House has been popular, with people gearing up for this annual Halloween treat:

Happy weekend everyone!

Now Trending on Facebook: The most viral picture on the Daily Item ever?

A picture that was on this blog earlier this week went absolutely viral on the Daily Item Facebook page – making it possibly the most popular image yet on the page.

This is the photo:

Posted on 9/11, it got 430 likes and 74 shares. That’s pretty amazing for a small newspaper.

Other topics heating up on the page:

• People in the Valley are talking about the coming 10-digit dialing. This was a surprise hit, garnering 60 comments.  Here’s a sample: Christina Ayala “I don’t think it is that big of a deal, i have it stored in my phone book that way anyways, and when i taught my kids their phone number i always gave them the area code when teaching them, bc honestly if they got lost or kidnapped and used the phone who knows where they would be and if they would need it!”
• And the Bean Soup Festival is hot – and we’re not just talking about the food. The festival has a lot of support from fans on the Facebook page, professing their love for the old-time recipe.

Now Trending on Facebook: Week of September 1

A lot of stuff has been heating up our Facebook page this week, here’s a peek at what’s been hot:

• Syria has been the big news topic all week, and it was the most commented-on topic on our page. Here’s the most popular thought: Teresa Kovalick “Stay out of it…..stop trying to be the ‘savior’ to every country in the world. We need to take of our own country. Get jobs back in the US, help people get housing, take care of the children, elderly and disabled that are neglected here.”
• The Bloom Fair lifting the firearms ban was also a big topic, probably the most divisive we had this week. Here’s out most popular thought there: Brach William “I am 100% for the right to carry (a big hunter and recreational shooter myself), but sorry to say, the Bloomsburg Fair, or any other fair for that matter, is NOT the place to have a gun. Some crazed nut job who gets angered over a game that they think was rigged or a person that butts in line could potentially pull the gun and end up injuring or killing someone. Congrats to those people who felt the need to make this a massive demonstration just to prove a ‘point.’ You have made me and a lot more people all the more hesitant to visit the fair this year.”
• A squeaker topic, which garnered some interest was the photo of John McCain playing poker during the Syria hearings, with most people saying he was in the wrong. Here’s the photo:

Make sure to check out our Facebook page to get in on the conversation!

My new social media obsession: Vine

I resisted getting into Vine – a social media application which helps you make six-ish second videos and easily put them online, on Twitter, Facebook, whatever.

I didn’t really see the need for it at first – in a world with Youtube, do we need another video service?

The answer, as it turns out, is yes. And I’d like to apologize for doubting you, Vine.

I downloaded the application after seeing it come up in the App Store on my iPhone. I wasn’t sure I’d use it, but I decided to give it a try.

I was amazed. It is so easy to use, and it is a fun way to give a snapshot of what you’re doing and where you are with little to no effort.

You simply press down, record and bam – your video is there.

Here’s one I made this weekend while riding the Grand Carousel this weekend with my fiance.

It took me literally 10 seconds to do. And it shared right on my Twitter page.

And I’m not the only Daily Item staffer using it. Photographer Amanda August is too.

I’m pretty excited to see how it evolves, though I love where it is now – simple, fast and fun. It’s exclusively on mobile, which means that its exclusively made for app users and people on the go. Which I like, because that keeps the app focused.

Are you on Vine? What do you like about it?

‘After Deadline’ comes alive once more!

Yesterday, we at the Daily Item re-launched an old favorite: the daily video segment known as “Daily Item After Deadline.”

It stars reporters Francis Scarcella and Rick Dandes. I’m the executive producer.

It kind of a twist on the “newsroom reveals its budget for the next day” trend.

Here’s where you can watch the first episode.

The daily segment will feature all of the day’s major headlines, as well as include some cool features like special guests, on-the-street reporting and weather segments as time goes on.

It will be posted at dailyitem.com each day at around 5 to 6 p.m., depending on how the day’s going – for example today it was up after 6, wince it was a super busy day in the newsroom.

Hopefully you’ll be tuning in each day, and we’d love to hear from you what you think and would like to see! Let us know on our Facebook page!

Below are some still shots from behind-the-scenes of the first day of production, showing Francis, Rick and Dave Hilliard working the camera:

Story goes Facebook viral

If there’s one thing I know about the news, it’s that people love restaurant news – what’s opening, what’s closing, what’s even thinking about opening a new location.

And now with social media, it’s even easier to get people the news they’re dying to know about.

Take, for example, a story that broke this week, that Texas Roadhouse is planning to take over the former Ruby Tuesday site in Hummels Wharf. I posted the story on Facebook, and it exploded. It got something like 150 likes.

But that’s not the most impressive stat.

Facebook metrics tracks a stat that indicates how many “shares” a story has. It shares this data on your newsfeed when you like a page to give you an idea of what people with similar interests are talking about. If there’s a really exciting story, sometimes it will have 200 shares.

Here’s the stats that popped up on my newsfeed Friday:

847?! Amazing!

Just goes to show you – sometimes it’s not the investigative, hard-hitting news people want to read…..it’s just as simple as checking zoning applications.

 

“Bubble Gun” story goes viral

An incident first reported in the Daily Item has officially gone viral.

Numerous news outlets – including The Huffington Post, the New York Daily News, ABCNews (and GMA) and FOX News just to name a few – picked up on the story of a young girl suspended after “threatening” her friends with a Hello Kitty bubble gun (similar to the one pictured).

[Note: The Huffington Post article cites and links to the Daily Item coverage too!]

The school says she made legitimate threats; her mother and lawyer say she’s just a 5-year-old girl saying things that she doesn’t fully understand.

The story has attracted numerous reactions, both in support of the young girl and the school, with both sides citing recent events – some saying that school shootings have left the public oversensitive, while others say you can’t be too careful these days.

A Facebook post we did on the subject got 94 comments.

So now, the question is, what do you think?

12/12/12!

Yesterday was 12/12/12!

While some people scoff, these date-based days won’t be around again until 2101 – so if you missed your opportunity to celebrate, you have a while to wait for the next time!

Here’s some ways our Facebook friends said they were having fun yesterday:

Other cool replies included:

 

• Justin Yoder:  My family and I are at Disney World!
• Marissa Stigerwalt: Possibly giving birth today. Fingers crossed!
• Kristi Bell-Goss: My birthday!!!

I tweeted:

12:12 ON 12/12/12!

— Ashley Wislock (@wisashl) December 12, 2012

What did you do on 12/12/12?