Including Twitter's new $uper Follows, the Barbican's use of Shorthand for digital storytelling and art history on TikTok.
Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the Digital Snapshot, bringing you all the latest digital news, ideas, tips and guidance for the arts, culture, museums and heritage world.
A reminder that The Audience Agency has a whole bunch of original research into audiences' digital behaviours during Covid and their future intentions. We are always here to help with your digital planning, including developing your digital strategy, conducting research or supporting with training, so please do get in touch.
And now for the latest digital updates...
Latest News
- TikTok overtakes YouTube for average watch time in the US and UK.
- Twitter has introduced Super Follows, a paid subscription for exclusive content from particular users.
- Twitter is also testing full-width images on IOS, bringing it up to speed with where Facebook and Instagram were about five years ago…
- The UK Government has announced sweeping reforms to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). This is expected to impact GDPR rules, tackling algorithmic bias and contribute to the government’s National Data Strategy, published last year.
- …there has been some immediate reaction to the news of the ICO reforms, with some praising the boldness of the plans in supporting new enterprise and the free flow of data, while others have raised concerns the government are planning to water down data protection laws in a post-Brexit environment…
- …but as The Register points out, we’ll still have to keep close to EU GDPR standard to avoid problems.
- China just banned young people from playing online games during the school week and also limited weekend play.
- On a related point, here’s research into screen time that parents will no doubt be (anxiously!) interested in. Notable too that one study stated that: “many parents reported lacking affordable alternative entertainment for their kids”: which could be an angle for promoting cultural organisations’ offline offers.
Useful / bookmarkable
- This Museum Next article details how a recent study shows that people in deprived areas benefit the most from museum visits.
- Here are some examples of how the Barbican has used Shorthand for digital storytelling, which might give organisations ideas to imitate.
- Culture24 announced the Pathway resource for digitally literate leadership.
Distracting / entertaining / inspiring
- Ahead of the COP26 summit, Exact Editions are organising a virtual exhibition of over 140 books on climate change and sustainability. This is a free, temporary exhibition of fiction and non-fiction titles donated by over 35 publishers. The exhibition will be publicly circulated on their website between 30 September – 3 October (Pre-COP meeting in Milan) and 1-12 November (COP26 meeting in Glasgow).
- We’ve been absolutely loving this TikTok account's approach to art history, especially this one on the Ghent altarpiece sheep.
Good Reads
- Lori Byrd-McDevitt wrote about the Great Social Media Exodus back in 2019. Now, she's written about how the pandemic is driving a wider Museum Exodus.
- With Twitter’s latest update, we could see a rise in more ‘culture bots’ flooding social media with cultural content. The Observer magazine recently reported on this trend and the popularity of bots that post art. Read about Andrei Taraschuk and Cody Braun’s plans to “share all of the world’s art and turn social media into the world’s biggest and most open museum.”
- Applause and the South Downs National Park Authority have launched a series of new podcasts to celebrate the magical rivers weaving through the South Downs landscape. Each episode in the series works with a different acclaimed writer or poet, to explore the landscape in a creative way.
- Worth a listen: The BBC’s Digital Planet podcast takes a look back on 20 years of programming and how the tech in our lives has changed in that time.
And that’s all for this edition. Let us know if you have anything to share in the next edition by getting in touch by email or sharing on Twitter. You can also post your thoughts on digital and data related topics to us and a wider community through our newly launched Community forum.
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The Digital Snapshot newsletter shares the latest, most important news from the social media and digital world - as relevant to the arts, culture and heritage sectors.