Social Media

Twitter and web radio carried a new kind of prime-time crime drama in Baltimore Saturday when a Waverly man refused to allow police to serve a warrant and then broadcast the ensuing standoff after a S.W.A.T. team arrived. He was on the air live Saturday night for more than 5 hours, much of it spent talking to a police negotiator before surrendering peacefully. Another day and night in the brave, new world of social media… Frank James MacArthur, a cabdriver, who tweets, blogs and broadcasts on the Internet as The Baltimore Spectator, left the airwaves just before 11 p.m. saying, “All right, it's 10:57.

Today is my last day at The Baltimore Sun. It's been an amazing 12 years at this newspaper. I started here as an editorial assistant on the business desk. I covered business news for years -- from the fall of Bethlehem Steel to the rise of Millennial Media. I also spent several years covering Baltimore's police department and crime. Along the way, I grew incredibly interested in technology, from the gadgets and Internet services that were changing my profession to the people and companies that were on the cutting edge here in Maryland.

In the past, Americans watched the presidential debates and heard the TV and newspaper commentary afterward. In 2012, however, the setup changed. This year, instead of watching the debates, citizens read live, moment-to-moment commentary on the event via Twitter, the social networking site. In 140 characters or less, users of Twitter (over 500 million worldwide) can tweet about anything and everything, including how the presidential candidates were performing in the debates. People could watch the debate on television while simultaneously tweeting about it from their laptops.

Don't forget, the annual Mobbies Awards Bash is Wednesday at the Creative Alliance. Now in its fourth year, the Mobbies are the Baltimore Sun's awards for Maryland's best blogs and social media accounts. Voting was conducted in 23 categories, including best politics blog, pro sports blog, personal Twitter account, Instagram account. There's a food and dining category, too. The winners will be announced on Wednesday at an election-themed happy hour sponsored by Flying Dog Brewery and Clementine at Creative Alliance.  There's more information on the Mobbies Facebook page.

The partisan media madness started early Tuesday on the "Fox & Friends" morning show with host Steve Doocy somehow turning a report on midnight voting in Dixville Notch, N.H., into an attack on President Barack Obama for his handling of the September attack on an American consulate in Benghazi, Libya. "Appalling" was the word U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) used to describe the president's behavior. And, with Doocy priming the pump of vitriol, she was only warming up. Meanwhile, on the other side, former Democratic National Party chair Howard Dean was on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" minutes after the polls opened in Pennsylvania, already alleging voter suppression in Philadelphia based on hearsay.

Tuesday night's election generated a record-setting political coversation of 28.5 million social media comments, according to Bluefin Labs. The previous high was 12.2 million social media comments made in connection with the second presidential debate, according to the Boston-based firm that specializes in social-media metrics. The first debate drew 11.2 million comments. Not surprisingly, the high point Tuesday came between 11:15 and 11:30 p.m. after NBC News, CNN and others projected Barack Obama's re-election.

For November, I'm cultivating an attitude of gratitude. You might have seen people giving thanks for something daily on social media. I'm posting each day this month on Facebook acknowledging the things (and people) big and small that I am lucky to have in my life. Maybe it sounds hokey, but for me, it works to keep me focused on the good and away from the negative chatter and the snark that can surround us. And I've noticed that when I'm keeping my eye out for positive things to post about, I notice even more of them.

A Pew study on coverage of the presidential race reveals a generally negative press for both candidates -- and a particularly hostile social media. It also catalogs a sharp shift toward more favorable coverage for GOP candidate Mitt Romney after President Obama's poor first debate performance. Obama does, however, get a slight edge in favorable coverage over the length of the study. The first finding might seem like only piling up of data on the obvious, but if you go inside the numbers and think about them, there is much to chew on. I think the resolutely negative tone on Twitter and Facebook especially is a real problem for democracy.

The Baltimore Fire Department has implemented a strict new social media policy outlining what firefighters can post on Twitter, Facebook and personal blogs — drawing criticism that the department is trampling on First Amendment rights. Under the policy, department personnel can be reprimanded for anything they write online about their jobs that doesn't adhere to conduct rules, which require "good judgment" and "courtesy and respect to the public and to fellow employees. " The policy also restricts them from sharing information about fire scenes.

Local coverage of Hurricane Sandy has been going on since Friday night -- if you want to be technical about it. But it really kicked into gear over the weekend. Saturday night, WBFF Fox45 messed up stretches of the World Series to run mostly unnecessary crawls about the impending storm. I don't mind needless information in crawls -- it has become the norm on cable -- but every time a crawl appeared, the audio of the game from Fox was screwed up. During several stretches, it was a full five seconds behind the action viewers saw on the field.