Weekly New Digital Media - 30.11.16 (24)

The Sun spent £96,000 on poster backing Brexit

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/nov/29/the-sun-spending-poster-backing-brexit-leave-campaign

Summary: The Sun spent more than £96,000 publishing a pullout poster backing Brexit, forcing its parent company, News Group Newspaper (NGN) to register as an official leave campaign group with the Electoral Commission. The headline on this newspaper was published just a week before the referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU. Editorially the paper was one of the most vocal backers of leaving the EU, but the double-page spread fell under the Electoral Commission’s rules regulating campaign spending because it was designed to be displayed, even though the money was reported as a payment from NGN to itself. A spokesman for NGN said: “As part of its campaign for Brexit the Sun ran a pullout poster. In accordance with Electoral Commission guidelines it registered as a participant and has declared the cost.” 

[] The cost of the poster made NGN one of the largest spenders among 48 groups who had their campaign finances revealed by the Electoral Commission on Tuesday, all but two of which spent under £250,000. The remaining 28 groups who spent more, including the official leave and remain campaigns 

[] BeLeave received £625,000 in three payments from Vote Leave on 14, 17 and 23 June, while Veterans for Britain received £100,000 in May. The bulk of spending by both groups went on targeted digital advertising across social media and other outlets.

[] Facebook was also listed as one of the main recipients of spending, with direct payments to the social media firm totalling almost £340,000 out of just under £3m spent on advertising.

 My Opinion: I think that the newspapers headline was very bold and attractive to the audiences which could have possibly persuaded some audiences mind on the vote. To spend a lot of money on the newspaper headline is very high, to which i personally did not expect. 

Weekly New Digital Media - 30.11.16 (23)

Facebook doesn't need to ban fake news to fight it

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/25/facebook-fake-news-fight-mark-zuckerberg

Summary: Mark Zuckerberg’s social media site doesn’t have to become a censor to help tackle false stories. It can do a lot by helping its own users with context. Ev Williams, the co-founder of Twitter, Blogger and Medium, posted his own example a few days later: links, claiming to be from ESPN and CNN, to stories that implying that Tiger Woods had died and Donald Trump had been “disqualified”, right next to the Facebook chief executive’s post. There’s little agreement on where to draw the line. Open questions like this explain why many are wary of pushing Facebook to “take action” against fake news. “Do we really want Facebook exercising this sort of top-down power to determine what is true or false?” asks Politico’s Jack Shafer. “Wouldn’t we be revolted if one company owned all the newsstands and decided what was proper and improper reading fare?” the company’s goals are to maximise time spent on site, to try and make sure readers come back every day and continue to share posts, engage with content, and, ultimately, click on the adverts that have made the social network the fifth largest company in the world by market cap.

Facebook could do to help deal not with fake news, but with the negative effects it has on our society: de-emphasise who shared a story into your timeline, instead branding it with the logo and name of the publication itself, and encourage readers to, well, read, before or instead of liking, sharing and commenting. Doing so might not be great for Facebook’s bottom line, of course. The site would be less “sticky”, users would be more likely to click away and not come back, and the amount of sharing would drop. 

[] Mark Zuckerberg has finally said that Facebook will take it seriously. “Our goal is to connect people with the stories they find most meaningful, and we know people want accurate information,” 
[] 10 months leading up to the election, the top 20 fake news articles being shared on Facebook skyrocketed from 3 million “shares, reactions, and comments” to nearly 9 million, while mainstream media articles declined from 12 million shares, reactions, and comments in February to just 7.3 million by Election Day

My Opinion: I believe that audiences should always be active in terms of what they read and share, we should all check twice if the information is real by going on other sources and seeing if a similar information have been said. Social media can never be trusted as a lot of people give away false news to generate the whole point of media as "dumping down" and for Andrew Keens quote to be true "web pages and blogs are like million monkeys typing nonsense" in this case it is also on social media accounts. From now, I think Facebook will be impacted by whatever Mark Zuckerberg decides to do next and if the audiences would react. 

Gone Too Far; Film Review + Argument

Write your own original 300 word review of the film.

“Gone Too Far” is a cultural movie that hits millions to laugh. This low budget movie shows the cross culture and invites audiences to accept their culture. The scriptwriter, Bola Agbaje and the director of the movie Destiny Ekharaga have created a comedy movie that’s acted out in Peckham where the writer herself grew up in.

The movie revolves around a typical teenager (“Yemi”) living in south London, trying to fit in with the society and everyone else – listening to the music everyone talks about, wearing clothes that won’t cause double looks from society. By having a mother in the film that shows a reflection of how a Nigerian mother can be like, the humour within this role does allow the audience to be affectionate towards the character. However things do get shaken up when his Nigerian bother (“Ikudayisi”) comes to stay, adventurously Ikusaysisi decides to rock up with his sock-and-sandals and a clash in clothing, causes the two brothers to have a long night ahead of them that’s filled with lots of danger and excitement that they face together. In addition the audiences were able to build personal relationships and identity both directly and in directly from the film.

Having this comedy, drama film based around London allows audience to particularly feel involved and engaged with the movie through the use of language spoken and the references made throughout the film. This film was brilliantly made, which it went to an extent that audience were so intrigued with the different relationships between the characters in the film that while watching the movie, comments had to be made! It was a film where we as the audience had something to talk about. This comedy, drama film, had a strong message at the end that audience could accept their own culture as well show it off.

6. "This house believes that films featuring ethnic minorities should only be produced by those who have the ethnic identity being represented."

In my opinion, I believe that films featuring ethnic minorities should only be produced by those who have the ethnic identity being represented, because the film would represent the true identity and wouldn’t come as unrealistic or not true by audience, as also it would be more easier for audiences to create personal identities within the film because it would be a true representation of identity. Films that feature ethnic minorities should only be produced by those who have the ethnic identity, as they would understand the situation, the culture but the benefits and struggles that come along with the background. I strongly believe that no other person with a different ethnic background can truly represent other ethnic identity that is being represented in films as much as they believe they can just because they simply wouldn’t understand or be able to pull it off as effectively as those who are.

Marxism & Pluralism - homework essay

"The development of new/digital media means the audiences is more powerful in terms of consumption and production. Discuss the arguments for and against this view." 

New and Digital media is a powerful source, it is becoming more advanced than ever. Through the internet, it is changing and controlling us as audiences/users, within this, they are both drawbacks and positives out of this. By the development of new and digital could mean that audiences are powerful in terms of consumption and productions but it could also mean that audiences aren't, this is what i will be discussing. 

A Marxist perspective would argue that the so-called “information revolution” has done little to benefit audiences or to subvert the established power structures in society. Far from being a “great leveller” (Krotoski, 2012) as many have claimed, it has merely helped to reinforce the status quo by promoting dominant ideologies. The most popular news website in the UK by a considerable margin is the ‘Mail Online’, which receives more than 8 million hits every month and is continuing to expand rapidly – with forecasts that it will make £100 million or more in digital revenues in the next three years. Similar to its tabloid print edition, the website takes a Conservative, right-wing perspective on key issues around gender, sexuality and race and audiences appear to passively accept what the Marxist theorist, Gramsci, called a hegemonic view. When one of their chief columnists, Jan Moir, wrote a homophobic article about the death of Stephen Gately in 2009 there were Twitter and Facebook protests but, ultimately, they did not change the editorial direction of the gatekeepers controlling the newspaper.

As a pluralists view, they would believe the audiences is more powerful in terms of consumption and production due to the development of new and digital media. Audiences are seen as capable of manipulating the media in variety of ways according to their proper need and dispositions, it will be enabling them to 'conform, accommodate, challenge or reject' (Gurevich et al) this theory suggest that the classless society can do this. An example of this is through UGC. Through the use of new and digital media, audiences are becoming more active, they are willing to challenge the powerful, in terms of UGC, audiences are using social media sites such as Twitter, and using trends and hashtags to raise awareness about issues to a wider audiences; audiences are taking control and being powerful to how they are questioning the powerful. The audiences are using new and digital media to their advantage, this illustrates that are audiences are more powerful in terms of consumption and production. 

Although this could be again disagreed by a Marxists, as they believe that even though audiences are in power; they're not. Marist tend to to reinforce the role of media in the reproduction of the status quo. Gramsci’s theory of hegemony would reinforce this as it states that dominant ‘media conglomerates’ feed audiences the necessary information.  It suggests that audiences are not empowered through the development of new and digital media as the dominate and higher class "rule and control" the media. An example of this, is the Arab Spring revolution in 2011, this was a protest for democratisation that that agreed with the pluralists views, as audiences took to Twitter to voice their opinions about this. However, an Marxists would argue that even though audiences had done a protest and took to social media to voice their opinion, no changed happen, the result of all the audiences taking part, nothing changed in the media. So even though audience believed they were in power in terms of consumption and production, they weren't because their actions didn't lead in anything. The media/ dominate social class will always be powerful and can not be over ruled. 

On the other hand, a pluralist perspective would argue that the development of new and digital media is an ‘empowering tool… an exciting and revolutionary prospect" (Al Gore). Active audiences have made sure they are in power through citizen journalism. Citizen journalism is when an ordinary member of the public comes up with a content and publishes it other viewers to see, through this it allows real footage to the audiences to see from a persons perspective that has been in the situation themselves and felt it, and it does show the rawness to it, but when it is by professional journalists themselves, the audiences are not to be made unconscious to distinguish reality from a situation (Baudrillard :hyper-reality) through the words and stories of the media that professional journalisms do make it feel like, there is a different feel to it as it would be over produced and wouldn't meet to the audiences emotions rather than when its done by original people themselves. An example of this is when the first UGC was created, it was the example of Rodney King, and African american was that was speeding, four police men were really abusive towards him, the police men battering Rodney King was caught on camera by an onlooker. From this raw footage it showed the racism from the police officers towards a black african, which now people more opened about showing and exposing professionals, they are challenging them and exposing them to a wider audiences. This reinforces that audiences are becoming more powerful in terms of consumptions and production through the developments of new and digital media. 

However, marxists perspective would reinforce the theory of the hypodermic needle, they would reinforce that audiences are drip fed with information that they don't question nor think if its true or not. This is shown with the developments of online newspapers, since they are online and highly established, it can lead to consumers of the internet to be exploited with stories that are either false or really biased, this is also shown on social media networks. Additionally, these Marxists believe that a "a minority of media producers always serve a majority of consumers" (Pareto's Law), this is due to the exploitation of their power. Audiences are now becoming powerless as they have no say or control of media producers, who have the ability to mediate the content and change it for the consumers and show what they want to see. Like Alain De Botton said "how do we get popular news to be the most important"  a marxists would argue that us audience are to blame in this case, its because we prefer the softer news or non-political news because it would grab our attention more than the other, we'd like to see more of the negative news (Galtung & Ruge's.) This all makes me realise that audience are not empowered but news are in control more than anything. 

A pluralists would argue that institutions would allow us as audiences be more involved in the media and news especially, the option of online comments under some news issues allow the audiences to have their point and opinion across to the professionals but other viewers to engaged themselves with and have a discussion with, if they agree or disagree. This supports the pluralists view about how the role of media is promoting freedom of speech. 

In conclusion, I believe that the developments of new and digital media that are becoming discovered by the audiences are becoming more advanced and intistution are adjusting to them, but audiences are slowly becoming powerful in terms of consumptions and production. 

_________________

Marxism & Pluralism: Alain de Botton on the news

1) To what extent do you agree with Alain de Botton's views on the News?
I do agree with Alain de Botton in terms of news being bias, where news don't have views themselves, as they are feeding us the information, we as the audience as well as the news organisation should be able to make judgements so we can come up with conclusions of the story they say. Alain de Botton quoted "neutrality is impossible" news is unbalanced. News channels only just explain what has happened in today world but don't really go in deeper, explaining their views and concluding what should happen next but instead they just feed us the news and move on, which in my view is a problem. Furthermore, Alain de Botton said that there is a lot of excess in news, theres too much news which makes it harder to know the priorities of what news we, as the audience should take in, through all this excess news, we have become less political. News distracts as all from the important problems that are happening in society, at times news much focuses on softer news or news that is not as important as others - Alain de botton said a really good quote that i think it is very relevant and makes me question our society; "how do you get the most important news the popular news" us audience are to blame in this case, its because we prefer the softer news or non-political news because it would grab our attention more than the other, we'd like to see more of the negative news (Galtung & Ruge's.) This all makes me realise that audience are not empowered but news are in control more than anything. 

2) How can you link Marxism and Hegemony to de Botton's criticisms of the News?
I think that somethings that Alain de Botton says do sometimes link with what he says about news but it is majority of the time linked with Marxism and Hegemony. For example, Alain de Botton says that news do focus on one comical class over others and the media/news would portray them as the higher class would see the other classes or their own - they are controlling what we know and need to know, this reinforces the status quo since we are only retaining the information/stories that news are showing without questioning or challenging it. Marxism is strongly linked with how Alain de Botton criticises the news, news will do everything they can in order to keep their jobs but also gain profit, they will show what the audience want to see; negative news, which may not even be important news hence why Alain de Botton said "news corrupts us"

3) How could you use Pluralism and new technology to challenge de Botton's views on the News?
We can use pluralism and new technology to challenge de Botton's view on the news is through UGC which is then lead to citizen journalism. Pluralists believe that audiences are perceived as capable of manipulating the media and having access to 'plural views of society' enabling them to 'conform, accommodate or reject' - they believe that audience are able to challenge the news, and UGC and citizen journalism can challenge de Botton's views on how the audience react to news. This would reinforce that audiences are no longer passive but now active and get to control what they take in from the news/media.

4) Choose two news stories from the last six months - one that supports de Botton's views and one that challenges his belief that the News is used for social control.

Suppports de Botton views - I'm A Celeb bosses accused of 'fixing' show by giving Scarlett Moffatt extra airtime

Challenges de Botton views - Andrew Lansley chides chancellor lack of NHS and social care funding

Weekly New Digital Media - 23.11.16 (22)

Barack Obama on fake news: 'We have problems' if we can't tell the difference

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/nov/17/barack-obama-fake-news-facebook-social-media

Summary; President Barack Obama has spoken out about fake news on Facebook and other media platforms, suggesting that it helped undermine the US political process.Since the surprise election of Donald Trump as president-elect, Facebook has battled accusations that it has failed to stem the flow of misinformation on its network and that its business model leads to users becoming divided. Obama said we live in a age with "so much active misinformation" that is "packaged very well." Fake news on the social network swayed voters in the US presidential election. That’s in spite of analysis by BuzzFeed that showed that fake news on the site outperformed real news in the run-up to polling day. Google and Facebook announced plans to go after the revenue of fake news sites, kicking the hoaxers off their ad networks in an attempt to prevent misleading the public from being profitable. Although this reduces the financial incentive to generate fake news websites, it doesn’t tackle the distribution of such content on Facebook.

[] At a Democratic party rally on 7 November, Obman denounced the “crazy conspiracy theorizing” that spreads on Facebook, creating a “dust cloud of nonsense”.

[] If you were to believe the top Google result for “final election results” on Monday, you’d think that Trump won the popular vote in the 2016 election. He did not.

[] Google’s algorithms are also susceptible to fake news, the company wants to be seen as better at tackling it than Facebook.

My Opinion: The fact that Obama is speaking this issue shows that fake news is a major problem and have effected a lot of the outer issues such as the US elections. I agree with Obama when he said that it is becoming a problem when we don't know if information online is fake or not. This on going battle is becoming a problem with both the institutions and the audiences, because it is a problem for audience to trust the institutions and its a problem for the institutions because they need to be able to contain their audience and keep their social networking popular among the audiences/ 

Weekly New and Digital Media - 23.11.16 (21)

Still in vogue: luxury magazines defy print market gloom 

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2016/nov/20/still-in-vogue-luxury-magazines-defy-print-market-gloom

Summary: In this article, it explains that Vogue and design and lifestyle bible Wallpaper - the luxury magazines appear to be defying the advertiser and reader exodus rapidly eroding the rest of the magazine market despite the 100 years of Vogue. This is in contrast to the fortunes of the luxury magazine market, which appears resilient to the wider change in consumer reading habits in the digital age. 

International president of Vogue; Nicholas Coleridge said that content on a table or Ipad cannot match the experience of that "magazine moment." "It is very hard to replicate the physical allure of a luxury magazine on other platforms.""Many people say that press advertising is dead or dying, but glossy magazines are holding their own,” said Jo Blake, head of publishing at Havas Media Group.

[] More than a million British consumers stopped buying print magazines, or gave up their subscription, in the year to the end of June. 

[] NME has been forced to go free to find an audience as paying print fans dry up.

[] Titles such as Loaded, Zoo, Nuts, FHM, Company, InStyle and Reveal have closed or embarked on digital-only reimaginings.

[] WPP’s Group M media arm has forecast print ad spend on consumer magazines in total will fall 14% this year, to £320m, the luxury market is breaking records.

[]Vogue’s centenary issue in June, which featured the Duchess of Cambridge on the cover, was at 464 pages its biggest ever – and contained a record number of pages of advertising - 264

[]Time UK’s Wallpaper – in its 20th year – put out a record 508-page edition in September with a bumper 230 pages of advertising. 

[] Cara Delevingne’s appearance on September’s Vogue helped drive sales to 230,000, pointed out that a number of its luxury titles are doing better than in the pre-internet days.

[]Vogue sold 135,000 copies in 1989 but now sells about 200,000 on average

[]GQ is up from 40,000 to over 100,000

My Opinion: Even though print is dying, there is something about magazines especially fashion magazines that do attract an audience to buy a physical copy. This can be due to the celebrities on the cover or an issue that is discussed in the magazine. As Nicholas Coleridge said “It is very hard to replicate the physical allure of a luxury magazine on other platforms - this could be due to the fact with the sheen of the paper, the way that the ink sits on the page, the smell of money and desire that wafts off the page. Readers move into a different mode when they engage with a glossy. Advertisers understand this." This could be a persuasion for the audience to buy the magazines. 

New Digital Media: Marxism, Pluralism & Hegemony

Marxism, Pluralism and Hegemony are some of the most challenging theories we'll learn - but also extremely relevant to the case study we're working on.

These theories go to the heart of whether the media elite or the audience have the power in a 21st century digital world. There are compelling arguments to both sides and recent world events only add fuel to this debate. Complete the tasks below to reinforce the work you've done in the lesson.

Main task

Read the Media Magazine article ‘Web 2.0: Participation or Hegemony?'. Go to our archive of Media Magazine issues and click on MM39 - the article you need is on page 58. Answer the following questions:

1) Research the Ian Tomlinson case. What would the traditional, hegemonic view of the police be in a case like this? How did new and digital media create a different story? What does the police officer's subsequent acquittal suggest about the power of new and digital media?
From the Ian Tomlinson case, the view of the traditional, hegemonic would be that the Police do not care about anything and wouldn't try to understand the situation before trying to accuse someone. New and Digital media created a different story by user generation; filming the footage themselves - trying to really show what happened, in the footage you can really tell that Ian Tomlinson was just strolling past the event and minding his own business; whoever the police just took their chance to use Ian as their target. The story went viral online through audiences. New and digital media is powerful especially with active audiences, but because the police are in power - in the media eyes; the police weren't the ones to blame.     

2) What does the author argue regarding whether hegemony is being challenged by Web 2.0? 
Since the media is so wide, it is difficult to get information - information that is true or not. Problems are not being faced, when UGC are taking over the internet with their views and events that are happened, since producers of news have the power, they want to be able to protect the powerful and not question them - this is why it is making it less hegemonic. It could be that in time user-generated content may develop its own codes and conventions different to those of the traditional media.

3) In your opinion, does new and digital media reinforce dominant hegemonic views or give the audience a platform to challenge them?
In my opinion, i think it is a bit of both - this is because audiences are able to challenge the dominant hegemonic through the use of social media, audiences do feel through as if online it is easier to express their views and opinions to the outer public, so they can be heard. Social media is also a platform where things do go viral very quickly especially on Twitter; "trends." However, the media can reinforce the dominant ideology of hegemonic, this is because of their power and social class - because their powerful they feel like they don't need to share everything with the public and wouldn't really question the powerful because it could ruin their reputation or authority.  

4) Do recent world events such as Brexit or Donald Trump's election in the US suggest dominant hegemonic ideologies are being challenged or reinforced? There are arguments for both sides here - explain your opinion and why.

Recent events such as Brexit or Donald Trump election in the US, the media did reinforce the dominant hegemonic ideology to their advantage, they done this in several newspapers - they done it also because it may have fitted their ideologies. They would do to make sure the audiences are picking up their newspapers and reading the latest popular gossip in order to gain profit and keep in the industry for a bit more longer. New and Digital media however, could have challenged this, this is because the audiences can be very opinionated online and can become a big issue on social media as a lot of people get involved wherever they can get the chance and don't really bother with what social class people are in - whereas bigger news outlets do. 

Weekly New Digital Media - 16.11.16 (20)

Facebook 'pauses' WhatsApp data sharing after ICO intervention

                  

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/nov/08/facebook-pauses-whatsapp-data-sharing-after-ico-intervention

Summary: Facebook has agreed to "pause" its plan to use data from UK users of messages service - WhatsApp for advertising and product improvement purposes across the rest of its business, after an intervention from the UK information Commissioner. Although it will continue to share information for spam fighting. Elizabeth Benham wrote to Facebook expressing her concerns over a new plan to share more data between the social network and WhatsApp. In August, WhatsApp said that they wanted to "explore ways for users to "communicate with business that matter to you, whilst still giving you an experience without third-party manner ads and spam" The plans involved using the phone numbers associated with a WhatsApp account to aid Facebook in targeting adverts on the user's main Facebook profile. Facebook has agreed to pause the use of its data for advertising and product improvement purposes, although it will continue to share information for spam fighting. The company says it is holding back from promising any permanent changes for now, partly because of the pressure it faces over data sharing. Elizabeth Benham, expressed her view in this and said: "“I don’t think users have been given enough information about what Facebook plans to do with their information, and I don’t think WhatsApp has got valid consent from users to share the information,” she wrote, adding she believes users should be given ongoing control over how their information is used, “not just a 30-day window”

[] Information Commissioner’s Office raised concerns over social network’s collection of messaging app’s data 
[]  The company says it is holding back from promising any permanent changes for now, partly because of the pressure it faces over data sharing.
[] Facebook says it wants to avoid inappropriately agreeing specific resolutions with any one particular regulator. But it denies that it didn’t give enough information to users avoid how their data would be used.

Summary: Privacy is very important to users of the social network and audiences who use WhatsApp. By Facebook wanting to use data from users from Whatsapp for advertising and product improvement purposes, Facebook users haven't not been told about us or they haven't been given enough information to them about what their plans are, and if Whatsapp do agree to go on this plan at a later date, they have been given permission from their users, and if not, they they would have a lot to answer from, from their customers but also when they lose their sales. Facebook is powerful, but it is through the amount of users are on their site, if users are not being told about the changes or plans that they are considering, than for them also it can cause problem. From this article, it shows that companies merge vast amount of customers personal data become an asset to be bought and sold - there's a a lot of danger that consumers will have little control as datasets are matched and intrusive details revealed. 

Weekly New and Digital Media - 16.11.16 (19)

NSPCC records 88% rise in children seeking help for online abuse 

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/nov/14/nspcc-records-88-rise-in-children-seeking-help-for-online-abuse

Summary : This article explains that children and young people have been tormented by online trolls, this has been increased by 88% in 5 years. At the start of anti-bullying week, the NSPCC said that in a quarter of its counselling sessions children and young people were also given help with mental health and wellbeing issues including low self-esteem, self-harm, suicidal thoughts and depression. Children young as 7 told Childline they were being tormented and abused by malicious and hurtful messages from which they felt there was no escape. The comments posted on their social media profiles, blogs and online pictures ranged from bullying and abusive words about the way they looked to death threats and even being told to kill themselves.

[] Report shows that number of children who contacted ChildLine increased by more than 2,000 over five-year period

[] ChildLine, counselled 4,541 children about online bullying in 2015-16, compared with 2,410 in 2011-12.

[] In nearly a third (31%) of counselling sessions for online bullying, children and young people talked about gaming or social networking sites as platforms for abuse or humiliation

[] Online bullying is quickly becoming the main type of bullying that children and young people contact ChildLine about, and the 24/7 nature of social media only exacerbates the issue. 

[] The average time spent online is three hours per day, up 50% from two hours last year. 

[] ChildWise research also shows that in 2011, 68% of seven- to 16-year-olds had used social media in the week prior to being surveyed, but that by 2016, this number rose to 78%. 

[] The proportion of children and young people that can go online in their bedroom has also increased dramatically. In 2011, 58% of five- to 16-year-olds could do this, but in 2016 the proportion rose to 71%. 

[] mobile phone ownership has dropped slightly in the past five years, this is because tablet ownership has increased dramatically, from 11% of five- to 16-year-olds in 2011 to 67% of the same age group in 2016.

My opinion : These statistics are shocking, it supports the idea of the new and digital media growing and becoming more powerful and many people are taking an advantage of this. Online and cyber bullying has been online for a long time but recently it has grown, this may just because people may find it as a 'easier way out' or find it that their identity is hidden if they are bullying someone by being anonymous. Through the warnings and raising awareness about cyber bullying, this issue is quite tricky to handle and can get out of hand due to the fast changes and developments in the technology. 

New Digital Media: News Values

Galtung and Ruge (1981) defined a set of news values to explain how journalists and editors decided that certain stories and photographs were accepted as newsworthy, while others were not. 

The following list is adapted from their work:

Immediacy: has it happened recently?
Familiarity: is it culturally close to us in Britain?
Amplitude: is it a big event or one which involves large numbers of people?
Frequency: does the event happen fairly regularly?
Unambiguity: is it clear and definite?
Predictability: did we expect it to happen?
Surprise: is it a rare or unexpected event?
Continuity: has this story already been defined as news?
Elite nations and people: which country has the event happened in? Does the story concern well-known people?
Negativity: is it bad news?
Balance: the story may be selected to balance other news, such as a human survival story to balance a number of stories concerning death.

1) Read Media Factsheet 76: News Values and complete the following questions/tasks.

2) Come up with a news story from the last 12 months for each of the categories suggested by Harriss, Leiter and Johnson:

• Conflict ; Donald Trump winning the American presidential election 2016
• Progress ; Andy Murray winning the tennis tournament  
• Disaster ; Oklahoma shaken by strong earthquake causing 'significant' damage
• Consequence ; 
• Prominence ; Prince Harry's relationship with Meghan Markle - the monarchy vs the media 
• Novelty ; 

3) What example news story does the Factsheet use to illustrate Galtung and Ruge's News Values? Why is it an appropriate example of a news story likely to gain prominent coverage?

The news story that the factsheet used was ' British servicewomen dies after Afghan bomb blast'. This news story illustrates to Galtung & Ruge's News Values because in the explanation in the factsheet as they do use key words such as continuity, predictable, unusual and unambiguity. As this coverage is online, it is likely to be seen by many people, as explained in the explanation that this particular story had 3,100,000 search engine results, this shows that it was high on the scale of news values for many institutions as well as being of interest to audience.  This particular story can also be popular among the audience is because it meets to the Galtung and Ruge's news values, it meets to the audiences interests and attracts them in the way that they want to be attracted. 

4) What is gatekeeping?
A gatekeeper is someone or people which go through a process through information which is 'filtered' so it right to be published or broadcasted for the viewers. 

5) What are the six ways bias can be created in news?
Bias can be created in news through: 
- selections and omission
- placement 
- headlines 
- photos, captions, and camera angles 
- use of names and titles
- also by choice of words. 

6) How have online sources such as Twitter, bloggers or Wikileaks changed the way news is selected and published?
Some critics argue that rise of e-media and the developments in technology are challenging the way of media institutions 'gatekeep' news. Some news that are posted on the online sources are not reliable and fake - this is the main reason it can be difficult for how news is selected and published.  

7) Give an example of a news story from the last 12 months that was reported as a result of online technology - Twitter, Wikileaks or similar.
In the last 12 months, some critics argue that rise of e-media and the developments in technology are challenging the way of media institutions 'gatekeep' news. Some bloggers have high profiles on the internet, many are regarding as reliable sources of news. For example, one of the stories were that a blogger; Ana Marie Coz released exit poll results during Obama presidential election campaign - something the mainstream press wouldn't do as they think it can affect the outcome. 

8) Complete the task on the last page of the Factsheet regarding Sky News and Twitter:

• What does this reveal about how Sky views Twitter as a news source? 

Sky views Twitter as a reliable source, because they have been showing the latest news before any other news source. They would say it is efficient source as it provides already provides sky with the instant news instead of them doing their own research. 

• What does it say about how news is being produced?

Social media can also be a powerful news source, audience themselves are providing the news (UGC) and news stories are always found by professional news institution or journalists. This shows that news can be broadcasted/produced anywhere and doesn't always need to be done by/through professionals. 

• What role does the audience have in this process?

Citizen journalists, they are the news providers, they are becoming more active within these matters and is becoming a benefit for them but they're impacting the professionals job roles of professional journalist or news organisations broadcasting the news first to its audience and not the other way around. 

• Why might this be a problem for journalistic standards?

It can be a problem for journalistic standards because it could be seen as citizen journalists are taking over their jobs already and they may decline as citizen journalists can exceed in the future as it already so popular. 

Final tasks

9) In your opinion, how has new and digital media technology changed Galtung and Ruge’s news values? 
New and digital media technology hasn't changed Galtung and Ruge's news values but have made a lot of impact. When looking at stories from the news or online, no audience really thinks about the news values expect the professionals. Audience watch news for their own interests and it keeps them informed, professionals i think in any platform of news would look at Galtung and Ruge's news values as 'techniques' to engaged and keep their audiences interested, it these news values are used by professionals then it would allow news to be noticed and hopefully still also allowing news to not decline on tv or other platforms such as online - newspapers in general are becoming to a decline but the reason of that is because of NDM.

10) How would you update them for 2016? Choose SIX of Galtung and Ruge's news values and say how each one has been affected by the growth of new and digital technology.

Immediacy : By viewing something current through social networking gets viral so quickly that many people would know about the news in matter of hours. An example of this is just yesterday another member was added to the Kardashian family, through a simply photo posted on Instagram, news channels, fans, even Snapchat stories straight way informed their audience. Immediacy in news allows people to always talk about something that has happened recently and keeps them interested.

Predictability: New and Digital media is something that is uncertain in terms of the content on it. On social media, things can be very known to audiences if they like it or hold interests in. Hashtags and 'most popular' is how things go vital, no body can predict how things it get so popular and how the latest things get out to the world but all of it depends on the audiences and how they react to it online. 

Unambiguity : When news websites post new stories for their audiences, it needs to be clear for the audiences to understand what the news is about. With NDM comment section can allow audiences to help each other out and raise debates on what they think about the stories that is becoming told on the news websites - NDM allows a lot of interactivity with one and other and using comment sections can help news to be clear and definite, if news websites aren't themselves. 

Continuity : Many news stories that are broadcasted they do have a regular update or a continuous story line, especially online. Audience would also keep talking about something until another big story comes up that holds their interests. For example, a recent shocking and disappointing results came through about the US presidential election 2016 - This will be definitely a on going talk on news and online, through professionals and users/audiences. Regular comments will be posted, 'memes' online have been already broadcasting online about this issue, since this is recent and a big matter it will be something that is always spoken about.

Negativity : Negative issues and stories have always been on show for the audiences, issues that are negative will be broadcasted more than positive news - negative news is always going to be something that attracts the audience. Positive news wouldn't have much impact to the audience than negative news, this is in both traditional news or online. 

Balance :  In any news, whether it is broadcasted on television, newspapers or online, they would always provide a balanced opinions on both sides of the story - this way it would cause less controversial discussions by the audiences.  As Galtung and Ruge's news value explain to us that 'the story may be selected to balance other news, such as a human survival story to balance a number of stories concerning death' I don't think now through new digital media, this is the case and nor do they think about the balance in terms of what Galtung and Ruge's news values. News that is broadcasted online through news organisations or by audiences themselves consider of a balance stories, I think that would always be highlighted on traditional media instead. 

Weekly New Digital Media - 09.11.16 (18)

Student’s fake John Lewis Christmas advert is runaway hit 

https://www.theguardian.com/media/video/2016/nov/06/fake-john-lewis-christmas-advert-student-

Summary: An A-level student who created a spoof John Lewis Christmas advert as part of his coursework has attracted hundreds of thousands of fans after the video was posted on YouTube. Bearing all the hallmarks of the traditional tear-jerker from the British department store, Nick Jablonka’s advert, titled The Snowglobe, has led to many viewers calling for him to be hired by the company

My opinion: Through this, it shows that institutions work can be carried out by ordinary people who have the same passion and can deliver their work to a large audiences to their standards. John Lewis's Christmas adverts are always so famous and popular among people, this is through their strong message and the visuals it delivers to their audiences, in my opinion, this A level student done a good job showing that too. However, at the very end of that video, as it has put John Lewis's brand name could be something that persuaded people to actually think it was really done by the institution itself. 

Weekly New Digital Media - 09.11.16 (17)

Make Google and Facebook pay for public service reporting

https://www.theguardian.com/media/greenslade/2016/nov/08/make-google-and-facebook-pay-for-public-service-reporting

Summary: Media Reform Coalition and National Union of Journalists are hoping to make Google and Facebook fund for the public service reporting in Britain. They want to persuade politicians to include a new amendment to the digital economy bill - this is currently going through parliament. Media Reform Coalition (MRC) argues that “digital intermediaries” such as Google and Facebook “are not only amassing eye-watering profits and paying minimal tax in the UK, they are also bleeding the newspaper industry dry by sucking up advertising revenue”. The digital economy bill addresses a range of policy issues related to the electronic communications infrastructure and services, including copyright infringement, restrictions on access to online pornography and Ofcom’s relationship with the BBC. 

- Politicians urged to amend digital economy bill to ensure digital giants pay a 1% levy in order to fund investigative public interest journalism
- It will propose a 1% levy on the operations of the digital giants in order to pay for independent and non-profit journalism.

In my opinion, i think it is fair for such big organisations to fund public service reporting as they are popular and such demanding organisations. In addition this is damaging the profession of journalists that it needs to be heard by the parliament and hopefully there can be something done by them. The new and digital media have a big impact due to their advancement and their accountability towards its audiences and users.