Mediaboss Marketing

REUTERS/Will Burgess

Amnesty International volunteers tie cloth gags across their mouths during a protest in central Sydney in July, 2008. They demonstrated against what they claim is the Chinese government's censorship and surveillance of internet users in China.

A new study by the Center for International Media Assistance has found that, over the last five years, China's media restrictionshave begun to seriously affect the reportage and operations of international organizations.

As China's international political and economic power has grown, so has international coverage. The number of foreign correspondents in the country has nearly doubled since 2002. As a result, the Chinese government has moved to use its increased clout to control international opinion and reportage.

The Communist Party thinks its now powerful enough to intimidate [non-Chinese], from business people to diplomats to academics and journalists, and its willing to throw its weight around, veteran China reporter Paul Mooney said. It has learned that this often works and is willing to do anything to protect its image and stop negative news from being reported.

The Communist Party of China engages in four main strategies for influencing international media, according to the study:

The study found that, during the last six years, foriegn journalists have been assaulted while reporting on land protests in Zhejiang and an activists trial in Sichaun, among other incidents.

In addition, journalists have expereinced delays in visa processing or had their applications rejected directly based on the content of their reporting. In 2013, ten percent of respondents reported difficulty obtaining press accreditation because of their reporting.In 2012, al-Jazeera Englishs Melissa Chan and the New York Times Chris Buckley were denied visa renewal and forced to leave the country, in what the Foreign Correspondents' Club of China called the most extreme example of using journalist visas to censor and intimidate foreign correspondents in China.

The other major facet of the Chinese censorship enterprise is the use of economic benefits or repercussions for businesses and publications, based on their coverage.

A few examples from the study:

See the article here:
Chinese Censorship Is Spreading All Over The World

Batman Arkham Origins | Let`s play | ep.2 | It`a not Halloween, take your mask OFF!
Awesomeness at it`s finest. Like, Comment, and Subscribe. My Channel: http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2tNNwn4dzoVKFMgPbSdOHw ...

By: Gamerwizarddrew1

More:
Batman Arkham Origins | Let`s play | ep.2 | It`a not Halloween, take your mask OFF! - Video

Social networking is something that teenagers and many other age groups to participate in with regularity. The most popular social network right now is Facebook, which has recently made an effort to expand some of the features available for teens. A new social network specifically made for teens has been announced called Shots of Me.

Shots of Me is set to launch this week and comes from a company that developed social mobile games under the RockLive brand in the past. The company has announced that it has received an investment from Justin Bieber. Beiber has reportedly lead a $1.1 million seed round of financing for the company.

Other investors in the teen social network include boxer Floyd Mayweather, Shervin Pishevar, and Tom McInerney. Biebers investment in the social network is said to be his first venture capital investment independent of his manager.

RockLive says that it became familiar with Bieber when he began to play their social games and tweet about them. Bieber has a massive twitter following that is sure to help land teen users for the new social network. With Biebers investment, the company has now raised $2.7 million. The social network will launch as an app on the App Store this week.

SOURCE: Fortune

Read this article:
Shots of Me social network for teens lands investment from Justin Bieber

PROVIDENCE, R.I.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

ShapeUp, the leading global provider of social networking and incentives-based employee wellness solutions, announced that it has raised $7.5 million in new funding. This financing round, comprised of $5 million of equity from venture capital firms Cue Ball Capital and Excel Venture Management and $2.5 million of debt from Silicon Valley Bank, will fund strategic investments in mobile technology and global capabilities to drive member engagement and expand platform accessibility.

ShapeUp is a proven company with a stellar team and a product that continues to lead the next generation of corporate wellness offerings, said Tony Tjan, chairman of the Board of Directors at ShapeUp and managing partner of Cue Ball Capital. This investment underscores our belief that there is incredible opportunity ahead for this company in the rapidly growing social and mobile wellness space.

Excel Venture Management managing director Juan Enriquez said, Very few startup companies have been able to deploy globally across multiple languages and countries. It is a testament to ShapeUps management and product that they are ready to invest this new capital to further grow their Fortune 500 client base and remain global leaders in the wellness market.

ShapeUp will use a significant portion of the investment to build upon its existing mobile capabilities and launch the industry's leading mobile app and device integration infrastructure. This focus will help fill a major market gap by organizing and connecting the hundreds of different wellness-related mobile apps and devices now being used by consumers into a single, engaging, and effective corporate wellness platform. The company is also integrating with smartphone technology including GPS, accelerometers, co-processors such as Apples new M7, and companion smart watches to empower employees to track their fitness, share their progress with others, and receive personalized feedback throughout their daily routine. ShapeUp projects that the majority of participants will access its platform primarily through mobile devices by 2015.

No one in the corporate wellness space has effectively harnessed the power of mobile technology, but thats about to change, said Dr. Rajiv Kumar, founder and CEO of ShapeUp. Adopting lessons from our research in the direct-to-consumer space, were going to bring mobile wellness innovation to our hundreds of enterprise customers and their employees.

ShapeUp will also increase investment in its global wellness offering. The company currently leads the corporate wellness industry in global capabilities, serving the needs of multinational corporations by offering its platform in 23 languages, mastering the logistics of shipping fitness devices to any country, and providing 24/7 translated phone and email technical support to participants around the world. ShapeUp plans to further its offerings by adding global marketing expertise, regional health content, and enhanced localization tools.

ShapeUp is in a growing space, hitting our stride at the right time with an incredible opportunity to be the best wellness company in the world, said Ann Brady, chief financial officer of ShapeUp. We are excited to put this capital to good use as we scale and build out our mobile functionality and global reach.

ShapeUp, which offers a comprehensive software-as-a-service (SaaS) wellness platform to meet the needs of employers and health plans, had previously raised $9 million in funding since its inception. The company, an early pioneer of evidence-based social wellness programs, counts nearly ten percent of the Fortune 500 among its customers. ShapeUp reached profitability in 2013 and currently has 75 employees. The company expects to double its workforce and open satellite offices in Boston, New York, and San Francisco in the next 24 months.

About ShapeUp

Here is the original post:
ShapeUp Raises $7.5 Million to Expand Mobile and Global Employee Wellness Offerings

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/zld5v3/enterprise_social) has announced the addition of the "2013 Report on the Enterprise Social Software/Networking Market - with Forecasts to 2018" report to their offering.

The rising need for enterprise internet working amongst employees, partners, distributors, suppliers and others in the business value chain has given way to growing employment of ESS across desktops, laptops and mobile personal devices. While enterprises across the globe are looking forward to incubate ESS into their current work scenarios, ESS providers look forward to gain better competitive advantage in the emerging market by creating new technological features that facilitate the quicker adoption of these.

The need for increasing enterprise productivity, along with cost control measures is playing a pivotal role in shaping the future of enterprise social software. Even though the adoption of these tools is relatively slow due to closed mindsets of the top management ; these solutions are expected to grow steadily and have a pervasive existence across all major verticals, owing to the growing demand of social connectedness', on a real-time basis.

Key Topics Covered:

1 Introduction

2 Executive Summary

3 Market Overview

4 Enterprise Social Software: Market Size And Forecast By Deployment

5 Enterprise Social Software: Market Size And Forecast By Type Of Service Consumer

Continue reading here:
Research and Markets: 2013 Report on the Enterprise Social Software/Networking Market - with Forecasts to 2018