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InSites Newsletter

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Twitter for President

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Obama’s campaign harnessed the power of social media to make social change, and, according to some, changed American politics. As we’ve all followed the election coverage and analyses, the Vanguard team was struck by the campaign’s ability to anticipate its audiences social media dreams and deliver with multimedia content, quirky posts and hashtags, infographics [...]

Set your DVR – It’s Super Grover 2.0 Week!

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While this may not be big news to you – for a family with two kids in diapers – it’s HUGE!  Beginning today, Sesame Street will feature a daily segment with Super Grover, whose powers involve the “ability to observe, investigate, question and report phenomenon to help kids solve problems.”

Add “and build mutually beneficial [...]

The State of the State of the Union

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Photo Credit: MCS@flickr

How many times have those of us with children been asked, “Tell me the story about the day I was born” (or if they were adopted, “Tell me the story about the day you brought me home.”)? Children never get tired of hearing stories about themselves, because those stories help them [...]

Hostage Situation at Discovery Shows Words Still Make a Difference

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A scary afternoon in Washington, D.C. last week brought mental health back into the headlines. Earlier this year, I talked about the importance of using culturally and linguistically competent words, especially when talking about mental health. But in reviewing the coverage of the Discovery Channel hostage situation in Silver Spring, Maryland, it seems like [...]

If You Want to Reach Teens, Don't Bother to E-mail Them

My almost-teenager demonstrates what a new study from the Pew Research Center confirms–youth ages 12-17 aren’t using e-mail anymore. Headlines earlier this week focused on the hundreds of texts that teens send daily, but I found their lack of e-mail use even more fascinating. The study showed that 58 percent of teens text, while only 11 percent use e-mail. In fact, more teens are using landlines (33 percent) than e-mail. Is e-mail the new snail [...]