Positively Media

How we connect and thrive through emerging technologies.

by Pamela Rutledge, Ph.D.

Media Psychologist, Clinical Psychologist or Media Personality?

I get lots of questions about media psychology, such as ‘What is it?’ and ‘What do you do with it?’ A big stumbling block seems to be the common view of a media psychologist as a psychologist who appears in the media. Wrong answer. Read More

Rethinking Maslow's Hierarchy: Implications for a Socially-Connected World

In my November 2011 PT post “What Maslow Misses,” I argued that Maslow’s popular Hierarchy of Needs pyramid undervalues the role of social connection in human basic survival needs and, therefore, as a driver of behavior. Storytelling and management guru and Forbes contributor Steve Denning picked up this idea in the context of how management can better meet the psychological needs of empl Read More

Does ‘No Such Thing As Bad Publicity’ Apply To Psychologists?

Psychologists who appear in the media is a topic of much debate, especially since there is no such thing as isolated 'mass' media anymore. Bad publicity is pretty clearly bad for professionals, but no publicity or presence can be bad too when people use the Internet to check the legitimacy of services and information and can’t find you. Read More

#RIP Twitter Celebrity Death Hoaxes

Twitter has been teeming with celebrity death hoaxes. Twitter has many benefits—a lifeline during crises or an open platform for sharing ideas—but it also makes it easy to pass along fiction as fact. Parents of tweens and teens can use this as a teaching moment to talk about how easily false information can spread. Read More

Whitney Houston: Celebrate Now, Look for Answers Later

The loss of Houston is not just a private event. It is a public event; a shared cultural and emotional experience because her work was a meaningful part of our experiences. Music, like no other art, is part of our lives and we come to own it. So, today we celebrate Whitney Houston. Tomorrow is soon enough to look for answers. Read More

Shooting Your Kid’s Laptop Is No Solution to Media Literacy

The dad who shot his daughter’s laptop over a Facebook post shows the critical need for media literacy. His YouTube video response, showing the laptop’s demise at the hands of his 45 revolver, underscores the fallacy of publishing things you really want to stay private in what is fundamentally not just public, but permanent and searchable. Read More

A Dangerous Method: Engaging but Not Satisfying

The newly-released film, A Dangerous Method, is an ambitious effort to portray the complex and tumultuous evolution of the relationships and theories among the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud, his protégé Carl Jung, and the patient-turned-psychoanalyst, Sabina Spielrein. The movie was beautiful and engaging but not very satisfying. But then, it is based on the untidiness of Read More

Reverse Mentoring Won’t Work

The Wall Street Journal reports that reverse mentoring has finally cracked the workplace. Reverse mentoring won’t work. It violates the very premise of the social media environment that it purports to address, ignoring the importance of a two-way flow of information and respect. What organizations need is collaborative mentoring. Read More

All the World’s a Story

Transmedia storytelling is becoming the new ‘must have’ in marketing and entertainment. With transmedia storytelling, it’s easy to be distracted by the promise of the tools and overlook the substance. Good transmedia storytelling starts with the story. The story doesn’t live in the storyworld. The story starts with, and lives in, the brain. Read More

10 Traits of Good Interactive Apps for Pre-schoolers

It’s time for people to get used to the idea that kids think media is for interacting and not watching. Parents can take comfort, however, in knowing that interactive technology allows children to actively engage in their own learning. Here are 10 things about Endemol’s Wendy’s Giant List iPad app that would make Piaget proud. Read More

Social Networks: What Maslow Misses

Maslow’s hierarchy of needs model speaks to human potential in motivation. In spite of its popularity in business, marketing, and education, however, insights from social networks combined with human brain science show that our understanding of Maslow’s model misses the mark in a very fundamental way. It undervalues human connection. Read More

Unlikely Heroes: Resilience with a Dragon Tattoo

The Hollywood remake of the movie “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” is scheduled for release in December. The marketing build-up, concerns over the explicit sexual violence, the intrigues of casting, and the inevitable comparison to the Swedish version have eclipsed the true power of the book—the psychology of the characters, particularly that of Lisbeth Salander. Read More

Transmedia Storytelling: It’s the Story, Stupid

'Transmedia storytelling' has become the buzz term du jour, obscuring its fundamentals. ‘Transmedia’ is an adjective. ‘Storytelling’ is the noun. However amazing and interwoven the media pieces, a storyworld is only as effective as the story it is built on because that's where the audience participates. Read More

Using Transmedia Storytelling to Raise Awareness of OCD

Stories are powerful things; they are a primal form of communication that allows us to capture and share authentic human experience. . The International OCD Foundation is putting transmedia storytelling to work to raise awareness and overcome stereotypes about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) called "Dare to Believe"... Read More

Taking Aim at Facebook: Just Whom Are We Protecting?

Social networking is the new poster child for fear. While the UK ponders restrictions, Missouri has already enacted legislation strictly limiting student-teacher online interaction. There is a political and emotional appeal in artificially suppressing people's ability to connect. But I guarantee you it won't work. Read More

Us Versus Them: It's Time for "We're All In This Together"

We need a nationwide campaign taking a cue from Virgin America's info-cartoon. The use of fear and blame makes people feel afraid and powerless. When they do, one of three things happens: 1) the act of destruction becomes an act of agency 2) they give away more rights to feel “safe” or 3) they seek out a segment of society to blame. Read More

London Riots: Blaming Social Media

After four days of riots across the UK, people are looking for answers. The violence spread rapidly, not as single oozing mass, but more like an outbreak of the measles. Its speed and range is attributed to the rioters’ use of social media. Focusing blame on social media is akin to killing the messenger and is both naïve and dangerous. Read More

Behavioral Targeting: To Track or Not to Track, That Is the Question

If the majority of people don’t want to be tracked online, advertisers and search companies are risking a public relations disaster to target consumers. The companies can target us, but in doing so, they skew search results and make our world narrower and less rich. Whatever happened to freedom of information? Read More

Hating Selena Gomez

I don’t hate Selena Gomez. But from the eyes of a passionate teenage Bieber fans, I do understand how some teens might feel the rage of rejection and lash out against the cold harsh world of reality by inappropriately targeting Ms. Gomez. Read More

Should Teachers and Students Be Facebook Friends?

Ask most students if they are Facebook friends with their teachers and they will tell you, “it depends on the teacher.” That alone should tell us that a blanket policy prohibiting teachers from interacting on social networks with students is the functional equivalent of burying your head in the sand. Read More

Six Weiner Lessons for Using Social Media

Politicians, CEOs and Rock Stars are the kinds of people who can be competitive, narcissistic, and have a need for power along with having talent, tenacity, resilience, and the willingness to take risks. It's a big problem, however, when success turns into Celebrity Syndrome, especially in the age of social media. The only cure is a serious reality check. Read More

Transmedia Storytelling: Neuroscience Meets Ancient Practices

Transmedia storytelling development has four fundamentals 1) the psychological and neurological drivers of story; 2) current shifts in consumer psychology; 3) an authentic story; and 4) matching platforms to audience motivations. The storyworld comes last. A birthday cake needs decorations, but fancy icing without a good cake makes for an unsatisfying party. Read More

Transmedia Psychology and Innovation

Definitions, like cognitive maps, define our view and in doing so, limit our vision. My view of media psychology is better labeled ‘transmedia multi-psychology.’ Silly? Yes, but media psychology has to address converging technologies, blurring boundaries and shifting psychologies in a world where our basic assumptions are continually changing. Read More

Perverts, Stalkers, and Cyberbullies, Oh My!

Shame on LA Times columnist Sandy Banks for perpetuating ignorance and the fear of technology. It exemplifies the response of people who aren't willing to learn what it's like to be a kid living with technology today. Read More

The Case of the Missing Cobra: Making News Compelling Through Story

The Bronx Zoo misplaced an Egyptian cobra. I read about it in the LA Times. This isn’t the first errant zoo animal, so why would a west coast paper carry news about an east coast zoo faux pas? Because it became a story. Read More

Should You Share Regrets Online?

When things don’t go as we plan or hoped, we feel regret. Regret can be difficult to manage because it involves self-blame—regret is about our lost opportunities and possible selves. The regret can be painful and enduring. Here are four reasons why sites like SecretRegrets.com can help. Read More

Tips for Applying to College: Using the Web to Lower Stress

It’s the end of another college application season. High school seniors are waiting for the fat envelopes. High school juniors are visiting schools. It's stressful for everyone. Zinch.com can help. Read More

Does the Internet Make You Happy? Thoughts from SxSW

At SxSW Interactive, our panel asked the question: Does the Internet make you happy? My answer is ‘No.’ Let me tell you why. Read More

The Warm and Fuzzy Side of Technology

My 85-year old Dad took issue with an LA Times interview with Dr. Sherry Turkle warning about the inhuman side of technology and the dangers of virtual companionship. In fact, my parents emailed me the article, along with a list of all the benefits of the digital age from their eyes. Read More

Twitter and Sheen: A Match Made in Media Heaven

Twitter's Authenticity and Immediacy are turning Charlie Sheen into (even more of) a Media Sensation. It's more than morbid curiosity. Sheen has created a very compelling narrative and we crave the sense of closure. Read More

Pamela Rutledge, Ph.D., M.B.A., is Director of the Media Psychology Research Center and teaches media psychology at Fielding Graduate University and UCLA Extension.

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