Weekly New Digital Media - 28.09.16 (6)

2nd story: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/shopping-and-consumer-news/12172230/Are-mobiles-changing-how-we-shop.html 

Are mobiles changing how we shop?

Summary: Many people are now shopping online, majority of the online shopping sales in the UK are now conducted through smartphones and tablets. This could be seen as a milestone in our changing buying habits. The reason why this is so popular is because of the convergence a mobile phone or tablet holds, the easy access and availability. Also, the fact that we are using smartphones for managing so much more with everyday life makes it understandable that the rate of completing purchases on retail sites would increase over the years. Despite the majority of customers being more likely to visit shops through their mobile phone than any other type of device, they are still more likely to make purchases on tablets.

- 51% of online sales between November and January in the UK involved hand-held devices rather than traditional computers or laptops - IMRG (Interactive Media in Retail Group), the trade body for internet retailers,

- 66% of visits to retail websites between November and January came through mobile devices -

- 49% of online sales came through traditional computers, whether desktops or laptops, with 51% on hand-held devices. That breaks down as 33% through tablet computers and 18% on smartphones.

My opinion: Nowadays, this is very common to shop inline, personally i don't do it myself but with our generation have grown up with the technology and the development with it improving so quickly it allows us to have the availability and the access of buying things online. Mobile phones are always with someone, it holds much importance because of the convergence the smart phones brings to its audience, hence why it is mostly used for majority of things for people. 

Weekly New/Digital Media - 28.09.16 (5)

1st story -  https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/sep/27/bbc-iplayer-password-tv-licence-fee

BBC denies iPlayer password plans are part of licence fee  crackdown

                       

Summary: BBC has announced that viewers who want stream BBC iplayer online or want to download programmes, they would need to enter a password to do so, this would start from early 2017. They have done this so it creates "more personal BBC for everyone." They have introduced this because a lot of people have been watching programmes on the iplayer without a TV licences. 

-  The government has asked us to review whether a verification system for accessing the iPlayer will be required in the future.”

My opinion: I believe that this is a better way to make sure everyone who streams the BBC iplayer all do have a TV licences but I think certain groups especially students who live away from home (uni students) would find it unfair and harder since they are not able to watch the shows they since they don't have get a TV licence. But in terms of making sure that people have TV licence whilst watching the Iplayer would be very effective and could be very beneficial towards the institution. This also allows the viewers to know the importance of TV licences and maybe the institution values, this in addition could be another way that BBC are earning more profit. 

How has news changed in the last 20 years?

How has news changed in the last 20 years?

The news has changed dramatically over the last 20 years, this is because the access from different platforms in the media world due to the fast development in the media. The frequent updates allows audiences to be aware about the news all the time from news apps, discovery page on Snapchat and online this is because technology is so advanced, this allows audiences to know more information about far corners of the earth. Audiences have benefited from this change massively just because as news is now highly view on social media such as Facebook and Twitter because audiences are now able to voice their opinions and views about the matter and have an discussion with other people as it is shared for others to see, this also reinforces audiences to be active. 

Institution have been the least who benefited from the change of news in the last 20 years, this is because of a lot of journalist have lost their jobs just because audiences are not viewing news the transitional way. This could be dangerous because journalists challenge the powerful for the audience, if journalism goes down in the years to come, we wouldn't have the professional journalists doing that for us. 

In conclusion, i think that in the next 5/10 years news would changed even more dramatically due to the increasing techolonigal change that is happening at a astonishing speed which for the news has to adapt to for it to be even more widely accessible and used. However this would lead to people view news in a less traditional way e.g. through print and broadcast but rather through social media and online which now slowly becoming the case already. 

Weekly New Digital Media: 21.09.14 (4)

The Sun cuts about 20 production jobs in shift to digital

Summary: The sun is cutting about 20 production jobs mainly in print as the newspaper moves to the digital side. The print market it is suffering from a long term shift away from print.In contrast, the Sun website has been growing rapidly since it dropped its paywall last November. 

- Last month its audience was up 14% to almost 3 million unique browsers a day

- The Sun remains the UK’s most popular daily, selling an average of more than 1.7m copies a day in August

My opinion: seeing the statistics that the sun sells 1.7m copies a day in August, is a huge amount but now everything is online, viewers like do find news more accessible through the internet rather than buying one. The digital development would be good for the business since its quicker to access. However, whatever they do The Sun shouldn't  reintroduce the paywall otherwise readers will go elsewhere, its not like they are short of choice. 

Weekly New/Digital Media - 21.09.16 (3)

(1st story)

The Great British Bake Off disaster: why the BBC got burned - https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2016/sep/13/the-great-british-bake-off-disaster-why-the-bbc-got-burned 

Summary: BBC one's show "The Great British Bake off" is now moved to Channel 4 from next year. Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins will not be joining the next year bake off because of the channel move, Paul and Mary are still yet to say about weather they're are going to stay or not. Some have suggested that ad-breaks at Channel 4 will ruin the experience as well as the reputation of bake off moving to a whole different channel. BBC couldn't keep Bake off due to their fundings. 

- up to 13 million viewers will suddenly be told to change channel for their favourite show has caused people take their views on social media.
- Bake Off has reflected some crucial BBC values: one Reithian – Mary and Paul are, in a light way, educational about their skills – and one more recent, in the commendable diversity of the contestants. 
- The BBC is understood to have offered £15m - Love Productions demanded an estimated £25m a year. 

My opinion: As a viewer of a watching The great British bake off, I feel though as if bake off would never be the same anymore due to the channel's views and values, and the reputation of the show would never be the same. Once a show starts on a channel it and gets removed from it, the show can change due to the show moving to a channel 4 to fit their target audience. Even though the show got moved because BBC couldn't offered to keep the show, the audience figures should have kept the show because due to the change many people may not watch the show now. 

Impact on Google

1) Why has Google led to the decline of the newspaper industry?
There has been more than $40 billion of advertising money that has disappeared from the newspaper business
over the last decade. Google has been taking all the money for advertisements. Authors publishing an article in a newspaper had to pay for it whereas on-line its easy and free to submit your work.The new and more modern way of keeping up to date with the news has lead to the decline of the newspaper

2) Find a statistic from the article that illustrates the decline of traditional news media.

3) Looking at the graph featured in the article, what period has seen the steepest decline in newspaper advertising revenue? 

2) Do you personally think Google is to blame for newspapers closing and journalists losing their jobs? Why?
With the technology advancing  as we continue on with our generations it hard to put all the blame on Google for being a company that allows audiences to search so quickly and keep up with current news by providing audience with different results and different sources for free in a few seconds. Therefore i don't agree, because newspapers and journalist i don't think are paying attention to the growing generation and their lifestyle interest To cater and meet to their needs, this could be a way that newspapers closing and journalist losing their jobs.

3) Read the comments below the article. Pick one comment you agree with and one you disagree with and justify your opinions in detail.
One comment I agree with:
Sorry, you didn’t convince me. So what if they didn’t invent the Internet. They did figure out a good way to advertise on other people’s content without sharing anything with the people who did the work. They could have built a system that actually paid the content creators. They could have tossed in a microcent every time someone clicked on a search link. But no, they kept ALL of the money for themselves. And they still do it. They seem to think that Google News is a service. It’s just a leech on the hardworking reporters.
I agree with this comment because other than just being completely bias this person has acknowledged that yes Google is smart for coming  up with the method to solve all  the issues of having to go out and waste money on newspapers, but also they are getting away with giving less credit to those who deserve it such as the journalists missing out on their credit-worthy work.


One comment i disagree with: 
obviously, Google is not to blame. I don’t think it’s about blame. I think the Internet is incredibly poorly designed.
Google does have some blame, its a multi-millionaire company getting bigger and better and some people let them get away with anything simply because of the increasing size of the monopoly.

Weekly new/digital media - 14.09.16 (2)

(2nd story) Facebook and Twitter join coalition to improve social media newsgathering - https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/sep/13/facebook-twitter-social-media-newsgathering

Summary: Channel 4 News, Telegraph, New York Times, Washington post and Buzzed have also signed up to network organised through Google-backed first draft. Facebook and Twitter have signed up to a coalition of news organisation aimed at improving repotting from social media and tackling fake news. All of the news organisation that i have listed above, they will work with the technology companies to try to improve news gathering techniques and improve the eye witnesses who are contacted by news companies. 

- First Draft already works so closely with both news organisations and social platforms that we feel uniquely positioned to coordinate efforts and facilitate real progress in tackling some of the key challenges facing journalists and their audiences.

- Help social media users assess news they find on networks.

My opinion: This is something that will allow the audience to be more active audience and think for themselves and see which news is real or fake. The concept is good because many audience reply on social media for news too, and by tackling fake news on social media shows how important and impact social media has upon all of us without even realising it that much. 

Weekly new/digital media - 14.09.16 (1)

(1st story) Ant and Dec 'close to signing £30m deal' with ITV https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/sep/07/and-dec-close-signing-30m-deal-itv 

 Summary:  Ant and Dec are ready to sign a new £30m three-year contract with ITV - because the broadcaster are wanting to keep them knowing the success their bring within their shows. The new deal is expected to be signed before they head off to film the next series of the Im a celebrity.. Get me out of here in January. The current deal expires at the end of this year, they are wanting to quickly sign the deal as the end of year is quite close. Both the broadcaster and the duo themselves want to stay since they do have build a good relationship along them. Ant and Dec could be looking to go into the ITV competitors (Netflix and Amazon) but they feel it is not necessarily for now." 

- Ant and Dec are set to receive about a 20% boost over 25m value of their last 3 year deal. 

- Extended the length of their exclude relationship with broadcaster to 18 years.

- ITV has a potential of £10n sales in the next few years. 

My opinion: Ant and dec are two very strong duo, they bring a huge success within Itv and to their shows, they have fantastic audience figures which shows they present their shows very well in terms of attracting audience. Ant and Dec are favourited by the audience and its clearly shown so by keeping them, ITV would be making the best decisions. By extending the length of their exclusive relationship with the broadcaster to 18 years is a very long time, a lot of the things in media and tv can change fairly quickly. For example right now, the younger audience whom ITV do target mostly do not watch TV that often nor get a TV licence since  you want watch everything on demand.. in 18 years time TV could possibly not be a thing? 

Research Activity

- Who are the major players in terms of news providers in the UK and what exactly do they own?
- companies, publications/channels/programmes, owners, statistics. 

Print/ broadcast..

Merdoch: 
 - He owns the twp big companies: 21st Century Fox and News Corp (UK)
 - He owns a little bit of everything - especially things in America - television, films, cable, newspapers, productions.  
- He has also owned  Satellite Television Holdings in China, and now he is also moving into places like the Middle East and Indonesia 
- Times(paywall) & Sun( conservative supporting)
2014: owns 1/3 newspaper market 


Mailonline: 18 million users/month (Right wing) 

BBC: 

The BBC is a Public Service Broadcaster as is owned not a profitable making business. It is paid for by TV License money. It is one of the biggest news providers. This is through BBC 1, but also have BBC News Channel, they have Newsround which is news targeted at a younder age group which is shown on BBC 1 and CBBC.

BBC 1

BBC 2

BBC News

CBBC

BBC website which provides news

TV news has to be politically neutral.