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.