About Talia Whyte

Posts by Talia Whyte:

Spring Cleaning Your Marketing Strategy

The Web Design ProcessGlobal Wire Associates is giving 10 percent discount on our suite of communication services through 7 April 2018.  Now is a great time to clean up and refresh content strategy.

Check out our offerings and let us help you with your next communication project.  Contact us today.

Brand Development

Having a clear brand strategy is very important for every individual and organization today, but are you clearly delivering your message? Whether you are looking to motivate your customers or supporters, establish credibility or grow your organization, it is vital to spend time researching and building your brand with a solid content development strategy. We can help you develop a brand strategy that serves your content marketing purposes.

Content Strategy

It really doesn’t matter how fabulous your website looks or how many social media tools you use. If you don’t have great content on your sites, most people will not only not care about your web presence, but they will also not care to learn more about you or your organization. Having high-quality content on your web presence is a top priority for establishing both your credibility and your brand. Global Wire Associates can write and edit persuasive copy, as well as provide suggestions on how to best use digital photos, graphics, and video for marketing your cause, service or product.

Copywriting

You might already have a content strategy in place and are just looking for someone to write copy for your blog, website or other marketing collateral. We can also provide ghostwriting services for confidential purposes. Our staff is made up of experienced writers, journalists, graphic and web designers and other multimedia content producers ready to serve you.

Media Development

Global Wire Associates was started by journalists guided by the principles of freedom of expression and diversity in journalism. We provide technical training for journalists around the world who support democratic dialogue through a free, independent media.

Media For Development

Media for development is a term referring to the use of mass media to convey messages about current international development issues. We work with individuals and organizations in developing countries on constructing content strategies and message development.

Why I Still Use An iPod

I was waiting for the bus the other day and a young, Millennial-ish woman standing next to me notice that I was shuffling songs on my iPod nano.  She asked me what the small contraption was, and I told her it was an MP3 player with an FM radio.

“Interesting,” she said.  “I have never seen anything like that before.  Did you get that in Japan or China or something?”

“No, this is an Apple product that was discontinued a couple of years, unfortunately,” I said.  “But it is still a great product.  It is quite possibly Apple’s best product in my opinion!”

The iPod nano and shuffle were discontinued, but the iPod touch, which is basically an iPhone without data, is still available.  It is the norm today to stream music on your phone with one of the many music subscriptions, so it is not a surprise that MP3 players are going into an old technology grave.  However, after talking to the young lady about my reasons for still being an iPod fan, I may have convinced her that maybe using the mobile phone isn’t really the way to go depending on your music listening lifestyle.  Here are the reasons I gave her:

Battery life: Streaming music on a mobile phone can drain your battery really quickly, rendering you to always having to charge your phone.  Even if you download music onto your phone, listening to music in addition to reading social media and emails, gaming, using other apps, and making and taking phone calls will force you to have to use a phone charger at all times.  I know I’m an “old,” but I still need to use my phone to make calls and not worry about having a dead phone! Batteries on iPods and other MP3 players are specially designed for low power consumption for the single purpose of playing music.  The same is true for other single-purpose devices on the market like Kindle e-readers (not the Fire tablets) for people who only want to read books. I can play my iPod’s downloaded MP3s, podcasts or audiobooks for 30 hours straight or listen to the FM radio for seven hours before having to charge it again. It only takes about 10-15 minutes to recharge.  This allows my iPhone to have enough battery juice to power through the day for other purposes.

It’s Simple: I love listening to music and I don’t need an overly complicated device to do this.  I only need to press shuffle or select a specific playlist, artist or song to start listening.  Sometimes less is more and single-purpose devices are the way to go.

Compatible with a pedestrian lifestyle: I don’t have a car, so I do a lot of walking and taking public transit every day.  The iPod is lightweight and I bought a clip holder to put on my clothes or in my pocket and not worry about it.  I don’t like taking my phone out of my purse unless I really need to because I fear that it will get lost, stolen or even worse, break or crack the screen.  Apple products, especially mobile phones, are not cheap to replace, Y’all!

Play all the music I want without paying a subscription:  I digitized my whole CD collection many years ago, and I have over 3,000 songs on my external hard drive.  I have not purchased any new music in YEARS.  I don’t see the point of a music subscription since most of today’s music is trash.  I’m not a fan of the mumble rap/autotune/trap music craze going on right now.  I can just press play on my iPod and listen to an eclectic music selection ranging from Sade, Lauryn Hill, Bob Marley, Frank Sinatra, Erykah Badu, U2, Miles Davis, A Tribe Called Quest or other REAL music.

No need for an Internet connection: You need to always have an internet connection to stream music.  This doesn’t work if you are on an airplane, taking Amtrak or in an area with limited cell towers.  Yes, you could download the music, but why pay the money for a subscription?  I can play my iPod without disruption anywhere at any time.

Nike + and active lifestyles: If you have a later version of the iPod nano, it should have the Nike+ app, which tracks your running and walking.  I can clip the iPod onto my clothes when I go for my morning jogs.  It is a lot more efficient and lightweight than wearing an armband for the iPhone.  As a bonus, I don’t have to listen to Kevin Hart on the iPhone Nike+ app, but you still have to listen to Tiger Woods on the iPod app.  I guess that depends on who you have a lower tolerance for…

I will always be about that iPod life!

The Relationship Between Disability and Handicap

I got into this really interesting conversation the other day with a colleague about her struggles living with a disability. Much of it has more to do with how society views her disability than anything else, and especially the language used to describe her. Many people don’t realize that it isn’t okay to use the word ‘handicap’ and it is preferred to use people with disabilities. I went online and found a lot of discussions just on the differences between disability and handicap. This video does a good job of explaining the issue.

The Plight of Mega Commuters

I was talking to my friend Charlene the other day.  She and her family recently moved to Poughkeepsie, NY.  This is the third time she has moved in five years.  She works as a medical billing specialist in a Manhattan hospital.

Charlene was born and raised in Brooklyn but was forced to move out in 2013 due to the housing crunch and gentrification.  Her commute to work on the subway from Brooklyn took 20-30 minutes.  She moved to Flushing, Queens and lived there for about a year and a half until her landlord sold her building and the new owners doubled the rent.  Her commute from Flushing to midtown Manhattan on the subway also doubled to 40-60 minutes.

She then moved to New Rochelle and her commute actually improved a little, as she was able to take the Metro-North into Manhattan in about 35 minutes, but she had to take a bus, Uber or have someone drop her off at the train station, which was a 10-minute drive.  Unfortunately,  her husband’s job was downgraded to a part-time position, which meant a lower salary.  This summer Charlene, her husband, and three kids decided to move to Poughkeepsie into an affordable housing unit.  Charlene’s commute to Manhattan is now two hours.  She had thought of getting another job, but she says that she now has seniority at the job with good benefits, and if she took another job in her field, she would have to start at a lower salary and work her way up again like an entry-level employee.  Her job also requires her to be a New York resident, so moving to New Jersey or Connecticut is not an option.

This is the plight of a growing number of Americans who are considered by the U.S. Census Bureau to be “mega-commuters” – those who commute more than 90 minutes and 85 miles one way to work regularly.  According to the Bureau’s report, there are 600,000 mega-commuters throughout the country. If you include people who commute at least an hour each way, that number jumps to 10.8 million, or a little over 8 percent of U.S. workers.

While telecommuting is on the rise, there are still going to be jobs that require workers to be in a designated workplace, which can be many miles or another city or state away.  Why is this happening?  Most of these mega-commuters are being forced to live further away from major metropolitan areas because of raising property rates, which also cause higher rental rates.  Many low to middle-income people are being forced to live further away from their jobs.  This is a very unfair, unfortunate result of gentrification.

I remember having a job once when I was younger where my commute was two hours.  I didn’t own a car, so I had to take one bus for 20 minutes, a subway ride for 40 minutes and then the commuter rail for 20 minutes and another bus for 20 minutes to this job west of Boston. It was one of my first jobs out of college and couldn’t afford a car and Uber wasn’t around back then.  I needed the job not just because it was good money for an entry-level person, but also because it would help leverage my resume for a better job.  That better job closer to home did come about a year later, but this was a grueling commute.  Today, I am very lucky that I am self-employed and can telecommute, but what about the other mega-commuters?

Clearly, there needs to be a serious discussion about regulating housing rates for all households, regardless of income, but this is also an infrastructure issue as well.  If this country had better mass transit options, especially for intercity rail systems, maybe commutes could be shorter and more efficient.

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