NDM story

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/apr/02/infringing-websites-list-anti-piracy

This article states that taking individuals to court over piracy isn't doing much and so in 2014 there are going to be attempts to follow the revenue generated. That means focusing their efforts on piracy sites, through three main tactics: pressuring search engines to remove links to infringing files and demote piracy sites in their rankings; forcing ISPs to block their customers from accessing those sites; and trying to squeeze their flow of advertising revenues.

An Infringing Website List (IWL for short) was created to gather the URLs of piracy sites and persuade brands, media agencies and ad networks to ensure they're not advertising on them.

The IWL is the result of a three-month pilot in 2013 backed by a host of creative industry bodies – the BPI and IFPI from the music industry, FACT from software, The Publishers Association from books – as well as advertising industry bodies the IAB, ISBA and IPA.

"Disrupting the money unlawful websites make from advertising could make a real difference to the fight against copyright infringement," said creative industries minister Ed Vaizey this week. 

Not everyone agrees that it's such an excellent thing, however. The Pirate Party UK has criticised the initiative, pointing out that the IWL will not be made public, and that even if website owners find they are on it, it is unclear how they can apply to be removed.

I believe that it is a better and more effective way of dealing with piracy however, it won't prevent people trying to download things for free, they may attempt to go around these tactics and won't be prosecuted as everyones focus would mainly be on the sites as a whole and their owners who create the filesharing sites.

NDM Story

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/apr/01/uk-wifi-routers-internet-attacks

Millions of routers worldwide vulnerable to digital criminals, 800,000 of which are in the UK, with potential for serious disruption

As many as 24m routers across the world can be used by cybercriminals to launch massive attacks on internet infrastructure, while simultaneously disrupting home connections and costing communications companies dearly.

Research shown exclusively to the Guardian showed 800,000 of those routers are based in the UK, opening up the potential for serious disruption of the country’s data networks.

Over a single day this year, Nominum said it recorded 5bn requests for such domains. This produced 12 terabytes of traffic, which is a significant amount of data flying around the internet solely for malicious means.

Nominum said over a single day in February more than 5.3m of the routers running the feature were used to generate attack traffic in Asia. An attack in January used up 70% of an internet providers Domain Name System servers.

News On The Tweet

Why are respected news brands good news for Twitter?

News brands bring an audience to Twitter and entertain them as well as inform them. Audiences which had been selected as a sample for a twitter and news report called "#NewsOnTheTweet" states that top three answers to why they use Twitter were that it allows time to pass (39%) which could be used scrolling through news stories on Twitter, Twitter also allows audiences to be aware of what is going on in the world (39%) which obviously refers to reading news stories and audiences also wish to stay connected to people they're interested in but don't know (38%) which may refer to celebrities that audiences are fans of which suggest they use newspapers to tweet on the latest gossip of that celebrity. A large proportion of the sample also agree that they enjoy seeing news on twitter and watching it break on Twitter first before breaking worldwide, Twitter allows them to stay updated faster than anyone. 40% check Twitter frequently to see what's going on with their favourite newspaper brand(s). 60% are actually more likely to be a daily Twitter user to check in the news than non-followers of a brand. 

Why in turn is Twitter good for respected news brands?

Twitter allows 60% of people an opportunity to engage with newspaper brans they wouldn't normally read in print form e.g. Mr Halsey buys The Guardian but wouldn't buy the Daily Telegraph, he would however follow them on Twitter to keep track of how they report certain stories in the media. Twitter also allows quite a quick, easy and instant access to the online newspapers

The report suggests that old and new media “are not, in fact, in direct competition, but often work extremely well together to enhance both the media eco-system and the consumer experience”. What evidence do they provide to support this idea? Do you agree with it?

53% of people feel that Twitter helps them keep connected to their favourite news brands. Both Twitter and Newsbrands provide gossip and banter, knowledge, opinions and can help surround readers in a community of like-minded people. This therefore suggests that working together can enhance user experience as they are able to connect more easily over the news they have read from news brands on twitter and can formulate opinions and speak to like minded people and have a bit of a gossip. An instant update from a trusted news brand makes a lot of readers gossip and spread news through word of mouth so if the news brand is on twitter it could encourage billions of people to gossip about the news and the fact its from a verified news brand it makes the news legitimate and trustworthy. Twitter helps make the news reach people more quicker, it allows to give audiences "the chance to consume news within a community (online) of like-minded people (globally)". Many use twitter to get a summary of the news and keep up-to-date in the morning before going about their day.

On page 24/25 of the report, the focus turns to gossip or banter. What example tweets from journalists are used to illustrate this?

The example tweets at first seemed mainly about celebrities and football but then do eventually talk about politics and university however all of these tweets are used in jokingly ways or mockingly. E.g. Lucy Tobin tweets how a uni has spend £20,000 building a pub to allow students to investigate why people get drunk… it's poking fun at the irony. Other examples are like Neil Ashton tweeting "Arsenal are toast" referring to the arsenal toaster instead of the match they are going to be in, he then says "in all seriousness now, what are the sales figures like for this kind of stuff?".

Do you think the increasing amount of gossip or banter is harming the reputation of news and journalists?

I believe it breaks down the professional barrier between readers and journalists. It makes the journalist seem less professional as they are poking fun at news stories. However, I think it actually makes news more appealing to younger audiences and can attract more people and possibly get more retweets suggesting that the news will be spread much more quickly and much more if the news contained some gossip and banter. 

What does the report say about trust in Twitter and journalists (look at pages 34-39)

That news content is important and needs to be from a trusted and verified brand as it helps build trust in the content. Having personality from a journalist is more attractive and appealing than the news brand itself and therefore having journalist on twitter can allow readers and journalist to deepen their relationship (according to 48%), having them on twitter makes the news trustworthy and a faster source of news according to 39%.

Finally, do you think new and digital media developments such as Twitter have had a positive or negative impact on traditional newspapers?

New and digital developments such as Twitter has had both a negative and positive impact on traditional newspapers. It has allowed the journalist from newspapers to engage and interact more with their readers as well as break down the professionalism barrier which encourages their readers to read and follow their newspaper. However, it has led to many newspaper go head-to-head in price wars trying to lower their prices to gain greater circulation of their newspapers. The online sites such as twitter could encourage readers to buy print copies but its unlikely that will happen, unless the news story on the front cover or the newspaper issue is a special edition or special story e.g. the royal wedding.

News Corp

1) Research News Corporation’s response to the growth of new and digital media by listing each of the institution’s brands (Sky News, Times etc.) Have any closed, changed or been in the news in the last five years for any reason?

- Falling sales cut into profit of the Times and The Sun

- News Corp can save money on staff thanks to New and Digital media. News Corp can now use User Generated Content and citizen journalism instead of professional journalist. However the use of UGC leads to a loss of quality and that could tarnish the News Corp brand image as the professionalism is lost. The Sun on Sunday is also an example of how News Corp is saving money, they use the same journalist and resources as The Sun to cut costs.

- Rupert Murdoch felt that his company was at threat by New and Digital technology as it has allowed audiences a greater choice of variety of news and websites to obtain the news from for free. This therefore led to The Sun and The Times to put their content behind a pay-wall to ensure that their status remains high and that they can try and attract a loyal fan-base that receive perks of paying for the pay-wall e.g. The Sun giving people the opportunity to receive up-to-date goals on football sent to their phones.

- The use of New and Digital media has led to an opportunity to attract younger audiences. Due to many teenagers receiving their news online, News Corp can try and appeal to teenagers through the use of their websites and making their main page story being mainly about celebrities

- Sky Go is easy to watch on the go and is convenient for the majority of audiences which may affect other aspects of the business e.g. Sky News (TV) or The Sun (Online and Newspaper version)

- Price wars. Many newspapers are competing to be the cheapest or to have some major promotional offer to entice an audience in to pick up their newspaper and increase their readership and circulation

- Phone hacking scandal had led to the closure of News Of The World. Which later was replaced by The Sun on Sunday.

2) Develop examples of the impact that new and digital media has had on News Corp’s brands (paywalls, readership figures, audience share etc.) I think I already spoke about them in the above question

- Rupert Murdoch felt that his company was at threat by New and Digital technology as it has allowed audiences a greater choice of variety of news and websites to obtain the news from for free. This therefore led to The Sun and The Times to put their content behind a pay-wall to ensure that their status remains high and that they can try and attract a loyal fan-base that receive perks of paying for the pay-wall e.g. The Sun giving people the opportunity to receive up-to-date goals on football sent to their phones.

- Phone hacking scandal had led to the closure of News Of The World. Which later was replaced by The Sun on Sunday.

- Sky Go is easy to watch on the go and is convenient for the majority of audiences which may affect other aspects of the business e.g. Sky News (TV) or The Sun (Online and Newspaper version)

- Falling sales cut into profit of the Times and The Sun

- News Corp can save money on staff thanks to New and Digital media. News Corp can now use User Generated Content and citizen journalism instead of professional journalist. However the use of UGC leads to a loss of quality and that could tarnish the News Corp brand image as the professionalism is lost. The Sun on Sunday is also an example of how News Corp is saving money, they use the same journalist and resources as The Sun to cut costs.

3) Use what you have found out about News Corp to answer the following question:

Why and with what success are traditional media institutions adapting to the challenge posed by new/digital media?

I feel that News Corp has attempted to adapt and to some extent has done so with some success. News Corp felt threatened and therefore had placed a paywall up to make their news and up-to-the-second goal app. They had attempted to entice football fans to pay for the paywall just for the goal app, this therefore was a successful way of adapting. However, there are many other sites for just general news which the majority of users would go to. Sun readers online may just check twitter for news (especially if they are teenagers) as twitter has now become one of the fastest ways of communicating news to a mass audience, by the time newspapers print it or even post an article, millions of people would have read a brief summary of an event. The Sun being behind a paywall will therefore be at a disadvantage at this point as many of the people online would want a range of viewpoints and will most likely go to the free online sites such as The Guardian. This could have also been the cause of the fall in sales of The Sun and The Times.

The fall in sales could also have been due to the whole new/digital media as it provides much quicker and more convenient access than a newspaper. The internet also provides billions of online reviews, opinions, articles etc from professional journalist and also bloggers and this content tends to be free. Linking to the professional journalist, News Corp did lose News Of The World due to the phone hacking scandal but led to the creation of The Sun On Sunday which used some of the journalist from News Of The World. Some journalist may also not be needed as the internet and the creation of camera phones has allowed anyone and everyone to become citizen journalist recording events as they happen on their phones and then sending it in to a newspaper to print about and inform readers that the video is on their website. Sky Go was also created as a way to keep up with the changing world of today, we are able to view videos on our phones or tablets while going out, it allows more convince and is quite successful in the battle against digital media and institutions.

I believe that the creation of new and digital technology has led newspaper to a near end. Newspapers are becoming redundant and News Corp has decided to try and revive their news institution through the use of new and digital technology and have been successful to some extent.

1. 9/12/13 - So Twitter is ruining journalism? Really?

2. 6/1/14 - Pirate Bay plans new 'anti-censorship' browser

3. 13/1/14 - UK entertainment spending increasing

4. 28/1/14 - Obama's funeral selfie is a fitting end to my Tumblr – Selfies at Funerals

5. 29/1/14 - Teenagers say goodbye to Facebook and hello to messenger apps

6. 29/1/14 - China blocks the Guardian, censorship-tracking website says

7. 29/1/14 - Yes, I sometimes Google my patients. Is this surprising?

8. 29/1/14 - Does technology pose a threat to our private life?

9. 29/1/14 - ITV to launch pay-TV drama channel on Sky

10. 29/1/14 - Pirate Bay ban lifted in Netherlands as blocking torrent sites ruled ‘ineffective’

11. 5/2/14 - Web advertising: still a small net in a very large pond

12. 5/2/14 - Sky's internet service mistakenly blocks web-critical plugin

13. 11/2/14 - Flappy Bird creator removes game from app stores

14. 12/2/14 - @Future of Journalism: Hans Rosling on the case for data

15. 10/3/14 - Jasmine Gardner: News travels fast in cyberspace but can we trust it?

16. 10/3/14 - Boy, 12, raped younger sister after viewing porn on games console

17. 19/3/14 - Daily Mail and Guardian digital 'minnows', says News UK chief

18. 19/3/14 - Thousands of Morrisons staff personal details leaked online

19. 19/3/14 -Flappy bird may return to app stores

20. 7/1/14 - (An additional NDM done in class) No, Larry Page and Sergey Brin are not to blame for the decline of the media industry

Marxism and Pluralism (I want to add more)

Developments in new/digital media mean that audiences can now have access to a greater variety of views and values.  To what extent are audiences empowered by these developments?

I believe that audiences are empowered to some extent with these developments. Yes audiences do have more power over using UGC and becoming citizen journalist but the mass media have major control suggesting that we live in a marxist world instead of a pluralist world. Pluralists argue that we live in a classless society and media organisations are responsive to an audience and are economically determined while Marxists believe that the mass media are a tool used by ruling bodies to maintain hegemonic control over the masses and a class divided society. Hegemony is a word used to describe the dominance of one social class over others, this dominant class can decide what is accepted as normal or what is normal.

In modern day society we as audiences have been given more control and power due to new and digital technology. The internet is possibly the most "empowering tool" (as according to Al Gore) and is considered the "most important medium of the twentieth century" (Briggs and Burke). In some cases such as the K-Pop artist who had used parts of the Quaran in songs had led to many audiences being empowered as they were able to convince the singer to apologise through the use of comment sections on videos on sites such as Youtube, it did also lead to the hashtag being created and widely used known as #StayStrongCL which allowed audiences to show their support for the artist and come together in helping the artist stay positive against any negative comments. The internet along with smartphones, apps etc. have created an access to wider content and more variation of where to obtain their news from. e.g. from blogs, online organisations such as MailOnline or through twitter. This variety of views and content can allow the audience to formulate their own opinions and therefore empowered in that sense. New technology can also help create citizen journalist and capture something which media organisations wouldn't usually capture which therefore makes it possible for audiences to decide on what is news, the new technology can also lead to UGC and allow the truth to be revealed e.g. the Ian Tomlinson case. Audiences and UGC through the use of smartphone recordings had recorded the attack on Ian Tomlinson before his death, which is when he was pushed onto the ground during a G8 riot by police officers. At first the police weren't considered to be at fault for the death until the video was emerged and became news. Other ways in which the audience were empowered by new and digital technology would be through comments sections again, during the olympics after the opening ceremony a journalist had mocked the NHS and opening ceremony as well as been racist by saying that a white woman and black male cannot be living together in a house happily (as portrayed in the opening ceremony). As soon as this article was posted a herd of users had flooded the comments hating on the journalist and what the article had stated which led to the article being pulled down shortly after. Other than this online news organisations and sites such as twitter, youtube and Facebook had given  audiences power as they all gave valid reasons for the London Riots stating that the riots weren't positive but occurred due to the Government ignoring those in need. In a slightly more positive note, youtube and Facebook did create a viral video to assist a young asian male during the riots and a male who had been knocked off his bike which was then robbed, the asian male was a student who came into contact with a gang who robbed his backpack and then beat him and left him to stumble off. This video made many online organisations pick up on this and decide to choose the videos (UGC videos) as main/home page news as well as try to raise money and support for the asian student. Earlier on there was a small negative empowering of audiences through the riots and the K-Pop artist being hated and to add to the list wikipedia allows many people to publish anything on the site, it does get monitored and checked but doesn't mean every page can be 100% reliable and could lead to a "dumbing down of society." 

Some believe that the 80/20 rule (Pareto's law) can be applied to new and digital technology and that 80% of the news consumed by audiences come from 20% of the major mass producers, however that is just a theory unlike Lin and Webster's data which suggest that the top 5% of all websites accounted for almost have 75% of user volume. This therefore suggests differently to the pluralist perspective and leads on into marxism. People such as Rupert Murdoch has hegemonic control and chooses what does on to Sky and what can go into the Sun etc. This suggests that even though audiences have empowering tools they can never choose what is considered news. We don't have gatekeeper control an example of this would be when Rupert Murdoch chooses to say that the Times man of the year award goes to George Osbourne. Other ways in which the media is empowered instead of audiences was when Nek Nom challenges were going on which is when friends challenge others to do a certain task which usually is drinking a certain number of shots etc. and these have at some points led to deaths of those participating. Once the media organisations had told people about the dangers and deaths the Nek Noms had decreased which therefore decreased the number of deaths that may occur. 
  

Globalisation and news

Is our news influenced by American cultural imperialism?

The majority of our news I believe has been influenced by American cultural imperialism. Most of the news we consume is usually relating to American life or celebrities, we have similar ways of presenting the news to Americans and we also do have 24-hour news channels which I believe was first introduced by CNN. However, some of the news we consume isn't influenced heavily by American cultural imperialism, we consume news that usually is important to British people and concern British people.

Has the increased globalisation of news improved the audience experience? How? Why?

The rise of globalisation of news has improved audience experience as it allows audiences to now receive quick, live up-to-date feeds of global news. News can travel much more faster and can generate conversation between billions of people globally. However, not all the news received can be completely reliable as sometimes news spreads too quickly and is false and therefore has not benefited of improved the audience experience as they would have been believing and spreading false news which once found out would seem embarrassing, especially if it is a news institution who reports the fake news believing it was real.   

Has globalisation benefited or damaged major news institutions?

Globalisation has both benefited and damaged major news institutions, a major benefit is that they now do not need to pay to have a lot of staff as globalisation makes quick easy links between countries and journalist and also encourages citizen journalism to help cover news that journalist may not have seen or been able to report. But the damaging effects of globalisation is that the news that is sent in from citizen journalist may not be as reliable or professionally done as the news institution would have done themselves. Also globalisation has increased news institutions competition as globalisation makes them compete with other news institutions globally which therefore makes it harder for the major institution to be seen or heard on a global scale, which means they could potentially lose some of their audience.

NDM article 19: Flappy bird may return to app stores

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/mar/12/flappy-bird-may-return-to-app-stores

The popular Flappy Bird game which was removed over the creator receiving threats and hate mail may return. Some users did assume it was taken down due to  copyright issues as it has a similar background and pipe design to super mario.

Since its absence from smartphone app stores, a cottage industry in Flappy Bird clones has grown up, with dozens of games sporting titles like Hoppy Frog and Splashy Fish dominating the charts. There are also versions that run on PC and Mac, including one massively multiplayer take on the recipe. So whatever happens with the original title, we are assured of many flappy returns.

NDM Article 18: Thousands of Morrisons staff personal details leaked online

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/mar/14/morrisons-staff-personal-details-stolen-published-online

This article talks about how a breach in internet and new digital media has led to the theft of Morrisons staff's details such as salaries, bank accounts which had also been published online. This issue had caused the shares fall by 12%

NDM 17: Daily Mail and Guardian digital 'minnows', says News UK chief

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/mar/05/daily-mail-guardian-digital-minnows-news-uk-mike-darcey4

This article talks about the issue of whether advertising or paywalls are better in generating revenues. Mike Darcey believes that the Daily Mail and the Guardian as "digital minnows" Because, they focus on advertising to generate revenue which could lead to problems in the future and is a dangerous strategy. As a result, Darcey favours paywalls as free online "undermines the incentive for people to pay for print editions". Relying on adverting revenue is putting themselves in competition with global conglomerates such as Google and Facebook which may put them at a disadvantage. Significantly, he states: "If this is your only revenue source, then you need to think about the fact that you are head-to-head with the global internet titans". 

To conclude, I disagree with the Darcey's view that the Guardian and Daily Mail are digital minnow, because if companies included paywalls this could decrease their readership. Although there would be problems if the companies reply on online advertising as their revenue streaming, this may not effect their readership if they do not include paywalls.

NDM article 16: Boy, 12, raped younger sister after viewing porn on games console

This article explains how a naive/curious child was at a friends house playing the xbox and was shown pornography on the xbox by his friend. The child was then intrigued and felt stimulated by what he saw and therefore decided to attempt sexual actions on his seven year old sister. The child was taken away into social services care and is on the sex offenders list for 2 and a half years. He will not return back until the whole situation is sorted, even though he did attempt sexual actions on his younger sister she does state how much she misses her brother and wishes he comes home soon.

This article I had chosen to talk about because it links to my critical investigation and well in my opinion it is quite a shocking and disturbing thing to read. It goes to show how easily accessible porn is for a young child and how it may affect them. It could link to the bobo doll/ copy cat theory as the child saw sexual actions portrayed on screen and therefore reenacted those sexual actions on his younger sister.

http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/mar/03/boy-rape-younger-sister-porn-games-console

NDM Article 15: Jasmine Gardner: News travels fast in cyberspace but can we trust it?

The article states how news over social media spreads quite rapid making stories become viral in a matter of seconds e.g. Morgan Freeman dying three times: once on twitter and twice on Facebook. Another example being tigers were let loose during London 2011 riots and most recently David Moyes (ManU boss) was apparently sacked. These all were of course rumours and lies which was what inspired the article to be written. We cannot believe everything we read on the internet which is why King's College Lonodn are creating a project called Pheme which over the next 18 months will be a built web app that will determine the likeliness of a statement being true or false.

In the US a third of all adults under 30 are said to get their news from social media, with half of all Twitter users receiving their newsflashes in 140 characters. 

According to FastCompany, social media has overtaken porn consumption as the number one activity on the web. 

More significantly, a survey late last year by market researcher Populus showed that in Britain, Twitter is now an everyday news source for 55 per cent of opinion formers. In other words, a majority of influential people get their information from a potentially unreliable source.

I do agree that the article by Jasmine Gardner is correct, we do get news quite fast and it does spread quite fast especially due to twitter and not every piece of the news sent and spread around is going to be true. But I don't believe an app will be enough to prevent rumours from spreading. It'll most likely help in some way e.g. if Morgan Freeman tweeted a few mins before his fake death or after his fake death then it'll most likely pick that up and state the statement is a lie.

http://www.standard.co.uk/comment/comment/jasmine-gardner-news-travels-fast-in-cyberspace-but-can-we-trust-it-9159845.html

Learner Response: Answer to Question 3

I would say that the websites allow some success for films in box office ratings however films such as Inception didn't focus too much on their main website but focused on viral marketing through the use of technology. Inception had posters all over the streets as well as on buildings and billboards to give some idea of the narrative but the enigma and audience participation as well as user generated content encouraged audiences to view the film. Christopher Nolan, the director, placed QR codes on t-shirts and posters. The posters would say "Mind crime is real, protect your thoughts." This was an enigma as the posters didn't give much about the movie away apart for the fact it may involve mind crime. The fact that the poster states "Mind crime is real" and is a physical item people could hold and touch, it made an opposite effect of suturing. The audience are still sutured into the film however it's the film that is becoming more real, instead of the person being placed into the world the world of the movie is coming out to the audience which interacts with their daily lives. Some other ways in which marketing was successful for Inception was through some unofficial sites such as forums, Christopher Nolan delivered a storyboard like guidebook with parts of the pages missing or being torn off and crossed over with black ink to a popular newspaper and online reviewers site which added to the enigma. This booklet was in a fragile state but parts of it was released to the general public which lead to forums discussing the possible storyline. Even after the film, many members of the audience were confused by the ending because it was an enigma and was sort of leaving the audience on a cliffhanger so they ended up talking and planning the best possible ending on forums.

The Dark Knight Rises is another film that did well due to marketing and a bit of its official website. However unlike Inception which was a brand new idea, there was already an established fan base for The Dark Knight Rises which already helped its success, previous films as well as DC Comics fans would watch the film as they are apart of that fan base. The director, Christopher Nolan, therefore decided to engage with audiences through a giant scavenger hunt in the cities of the U.S. He'll send out gifts and goody bags containing items such as a phone which plays the jokers recording saying to go to a certain store or to put on face paint and dress up like the joker. Each instruction led to a new clue and allowed the audience to feel sutured into the world of the film and feel escapism as they were involved more. One of the clues would lead to a link to the main site of the film which had the trailer however when the audience got to the site it'll say that the joker had beaten them there and had written/drawn over the trailer and they'll have to continue the hunt to gain the rest of the free goodies and a view of the trailer, which was later revealed and projected on the side of a building.

Those were two examples of how marketing mainly helped the success with a tiny bit of help from both official and unofficial sites. Now there are some films which can determine a films success or failure. Sites which are unofficial such as IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes, Forums, Youtube, Twitter etc. can make or break a movie. IMDB is a site many audiences will go to before viewing or buying a film to check ratings however some critics state that IMDB is quite biased and favour the films and portray them positively. While sites such as Rotten Tomatoes gives a less unbiased review of films, they give both critic and audience reviews and give overall ratings for films. However not everyone will go to these sites first to check out a film these sites are typically used as research or if looking for a good film etc.

Sites such as Twitter is where most people view their reviews first especially incases where twitter bombing happens. Twitter bombing can either be quite positive or quite negative and can hugely affect a films success. Films such as Bruno or The Lone Ranger both had hugely successful fan bases and A-list stars but once a few people went to go watch it, especially young teenagers, they'd use their twitter apps to tweet and start hashtags and get them trending e.g. #Rubbish or #Don'tWatchIt this word of mouth over twitter had destroyed the potential success of the films.

Mock Exam Teacher Comments

17 marks
Q1 = 4/8
Q2 = 7/12
Q3 = 6/12
Grade C

WWW: There is the basis of an excellent response here and you've clearly engaged with the questions but we need to work on time management

EBI/LR: The balance is wrong - You've written the most for Q1 despite it being worth fewer marks

where is Todorov for Q1?!

Organisation is an area to look at as Q2 and Q3 are one paragraph each. Perhaps a brief plan would help?


Q2 you drift from representation to audience it's part of the Question but I think you lose the Rep. focus

Re-write Q2 or Q3 on your blog, adding a lot more and organising

News Values

How has new and digital media technology changed Galtung and Ruge’s news values?

How would you update them for 2014?

In a blog post, write how each news value has been affected by the growth of new and digital technology.

E.g. Immediacy is more important than ever due to news breaking on Twitter or elsewhere online. However, this in turn changes the approach of other news sources such as newspapers as the news will probably already be broken by the time the paper is published so different angles might be required.

Immediacy: has it happened recently? -> This has become crucially important due to new and digital technology such as Twitter, phones, apps etc. News can break on Twitter and become old news within a few days. While the news breaks on Twitter newspapers will be writing their articles which obviously will end up being published the day after and by then the story would have already had several different angles covered leaving newspapers to recap other views or to rewrite a view similar to theirs.

Familiarity: is it culturally close to us in Britain? -> I guess with new and digital technology we have become more globally aware of news stories which affect other countries both big and small, U.K. users of the internet could also go to U.S. news sites. I believe that nowadays due to technology we are only interested in stories which are big in the U.S. or has some sort of British individual being affected, the more British people affected then the more it'll be covered by from several online sites aimed at the U.K.

Amplitude: is it a big event or one which involves large numbers of people? -> Amplitude has been affected by the growth of new and digital media because if it is a big event then more people are most likely going to be concerned and affected which therefore leads to more UGC and the UGC is typically raw footage quite shaky which seems more realistic and therefore grabs more attention than professionally edited footage.

Frequency:  did the event happen fairly quickly? -> Events which happen quite quickly are typically recorded on phones and UGC and the scene of the incident tends to have already been cleared up or blocked off before new reporters can get on scene.

Unambiguity: is it clear and definite? -> If it isn't clear and definite then new and digital technology now allows many confused people to group together ideas on forums and end up forming several possible clear ideas

Predictability: did we expect it to happen? -> If the event was expected to happen then ideas would have already been formed about the event occurring through social media and forums therefore possibly affecting immediacy as the news is already old to those who spoke about the news on forums

Surprise: is it a rare or unexpected event? -> Usually a rare or unexpected event would go viral through social media

Continuity: has this story already been defined as news? -> Before gatekeepers were able to say what is and isn't news but now thanks to the internet, apps, social media and technology audiences feel more empowered and are more able to create news or choose what is news

Elite nations and people: which country has the event happened in? Does the story concern well-known people? -> If the event occurred in a foreign country then the news is most likely going to break over social media and if it concerns well-known people the story will go viral

Negativity: is it bad news? -> If the news is bad then it typically causes a lot of talk on blogs, forums etc and involves a lot of user comments in the comment sections online, it could also spark debates between commenters

Balance: the story may be selected to balance other news, such as a human survival story to balance a number of stories concerning death -> New and digital media has caused balance to potentially become unbalanced as one story may spread more virally than another and audiences are therefore some sort of gatekeeper and have chosen one story to be more important than another.

Citizen journalism

1) What is meant by the term ‘citizen journalist’?

The concept of citizen journalism is based upon public citizens "playing an active role in the 

process of collecting, reporting, analysing, and disseminating news and information." 

2) What was one of the first examples of news being generated by ‘ordinary people’?

The recordings of the beating of Rodney King by four police officers was one of the early and most recognised examples of news being generated by 'ordinary people' it had been recorded, sent it by an everyday average man and was spreading across the internet and through newspapers, the policemen were then taken to court but were acquitted which then led to several days of riots within LA (I think). All because of that one moment where a man looked out his apartment window and decided to record the events of a beating became a huge news story.

3) List some of the formats for participation that are now offered by news organisations.

Comments sections
Forums
Allowing videos and photos to be sent in
Twitter to message or send info one to one with a journalist

4) What is one of the main differences between professionally shot footage and that taken first-hand (UGC)?

Professionally shot footage is taken at/recorded in high quality, has been edited and altered if needed, isn't shaky and usually has a journalist on site explaining a certain incident along with a set of lights to give a clear view of the journalist and the event unfolding behind them. While first-hand UGC is usually shaky, recorded on a low quality camera phone being slightly pixelated and hasn't been edited. The lighting would also be slightly off and there would be no professional on-screen/ on-site journalist

5) What is a gatekeeper?

A gatekeeper is someone who has control over saying what is news and what isn't, they have control over what is going to be shown to the public and portrayed as news an example of a gatekeeper would be a newspaper editor.

6) How has the role of a gatekeeper changed?

The role of the gatekeeper has changed because they now have less control over what is news and what isn't news, the public are now more in control especially with UGC as it could make a video go viral and have everyone talking about it, therefore a UGC became news through word of mouth and not the gatekeepers

7) What is one of the primary concerns held by journalists over the rise of UGC?

One issue that has risen from the rise of UGC is that journalists feel slightly threatened as their jobs are being taken over by members of the public, audiences are more likely to believe a raw footage than to believe a journalist who is on-site of an incident an hour after it had happened.

Finally, consider the following questions:

What impact is new/digital media having on the following:

• news stories
• the news agenda (the choice of stories that make up the news)
• the role of professionals in news

News stories have now changed, new and digital media has risen and millions have camera phones nowadays which therefore allows accidental citizen journalism to occur and a wider variety of stories to be captured on camera.

The news agenda has changed because of the variety created from the camera phones. UGC could also go viral and therefore have the public interest which may cause the news agenda to add in a certain story because of

Journalists feel slightly threatened as their jobs are being taken over by members of the public, audiences are more likely to believe a raw footage than to believe a journalist who is on-site of an incident an hour after it had happened. Professional content is losing its value and audience.

Citizen journalism: Is reality becoming more real? The rise and rise of UGC

examples
We first felt the effects of the new technologies way back in 1991. Video cameras had become more common and more people could afford them…unfortunately for four Los Angeles police officers! Having caught Rodney King, an African-American, after a high speed chase, the officers surrounded him, tasered him and beat him with clubs. The event was filmed by an onlooker from his apartment window. The home-video footage made prime-time news and became an international media sensation. This video sparked six days of riots, 53 died, 4000 injured.
The natural disaster of the Asian Tsunami on December 26th 2004 was another turning point for UGC. Much of the early footage of events was provided from citizen journalists, or ‘accidental journalists,’ providing on-the-spot witness accounts of events as they unfolded. Social networking sites provided witness accounts for a world-wide audience, helped survivors and family members get in touch and acted as a forum all those involved to share their experiences.


The London bombings on July 5th 2005, provided another opportunity for citizen journalists to influence the mainstream news agenda. No one was closer to events than those caught up in the bombings, and the footage they provided from their mobile phones was raw and uncompromising. This first-hand view, rather than professionally shot footage from behind police lines, is often more hard-hitting and emotive. An audience used to relatively unmediated reality through the prevalence of reality TV can now see similarly unmediated footage on the news.


Footage that student Jamal Albarghouti shot on his mobile phone video camera. Rather than concentrate on saving his own life, he recorded events from his position lying on the ground near the firing. The footage, available on YouTube and CNN brought events home to a worldwide audience. We now expect passers by, witnesses, or even victims, to whip out their camera phones and record events

Twitter and flickr came to the forefront during the Mumbai bombings in India in late November 2008. As bombs exploded across the city, the world’s media got up-to date with events through reports on Twitter and Flickr. There were questions raised, however, that by broadcasting their tweets, people may have been putting their own and others’ lives at risk.

The story of the Hudson River plane crash on January 15th 2009 was broken to the world. With a dramatic picture of a plane half sinking in the river, and passengers crowded on the wing awaiting rescue Janis Krun tweeted:

There’s a plane in the Hudson. I’m on the ferry going to pick up the people. Crazy.

theory (audience reception etc.) 
Audience reception - Institutions created news and broadcast it to passive and receptive audiences. Now new tech means that the audience are no longer passive receivers of news.

Uses and gratifications - Entertainment, informed etc.


benefits to institutions 
UGC is cheaper and therefore could save institutions money, they can make staff redundant
They are able to have a USP if they are given video footage or a photo that is exclusive

benefits to audience 
We receive wider raw news (more real)
More hidden offences are able to be caught (e.g. the police beating of Rodney King)

wider issues and debates 
big institutions created the news and broadcast it to a variously passive and receptive audience. Now new technologies mean that the audience are no longer passive receivers of news. The audience have become ‘users’ and the users have become publishers. Audiences now create their own content. We are in the era of user generated content (UGC) where the old divide between institution and audience is being eroded.


Are the gatekeepers still fulfilling their old function of deciding what is and isn’t news, and what will and won’t be broadcast? In some ways, yes. You can send in as much UGC to the major news organisations as you want, with no guarantee that any of it will ever be aired. In fact, last year a BBC spokesperson reported that a large proportion of photos sent in to the news unit were of kittens. While this may represent the interest of the audience, or users, it still doesn't turn the fact that your kitten is really cute into ‘news.’ 


SHEP
Social - 
Historical -
Economical - 
Political - We as citizen journalist have some political say or right with video footage we capture

NDM article 14: @Future of Journalism: Hans Rosling on the case for data

The article states that Hans Rosling believes that we need to make news more interesting and we need to bring data alive to the world and allow everyone to easily understand and enjoy it. He states that well made videos are some of the ways of making data come more alive and become more appealing to audiences instead of just having one person talking and staring blankly into a single static camera, the BBC do well with animation but it's all for branding and not enough for making data come alive. He believes that this is where newspapers and their websites are failing.

NDM article 13: Flappy Bird creator removes game from app stores

Flappy bird the new popular iphone game has been taken down from the app store yesterday. The creator of the popular game states that the only reason to why the game had been taken. However, it is suggested that the game creator had actually taken down the game due to potential copyright infringment as the pipes used in the game as well as background look similar to those of Nintendo's famous Mario franchise. Flappy Bird has been downloaded more than 50 million times, making it this year's most popular mobile game so far. I believe that it is to do with legal issues as he does repeat it quite a few times on twitter and most people related the game to Mario when it was first released 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-26114364

Murdoch's Paywall

1) Do you agree with James Murdoch that the BBC should not be allowed to provide free news online?

I disagree with James Murdoch that the BBC should not be allowed to provide free news online. The BBC isn't the only way people can receive news, if they don't receive it from the BBC then they'll just go else where, they could potentially get news from non-newspaper sites such as twitter or Facebook or Yahoo! News or they could receive professional journalist reviews and news from sites such as The Guardian. Also the BBC was created for the public, to serve the public and their remit. They'll be unable to properly fulfil their services and their remit if they are behind a paywall. 


2) Was Rupert Murdoch right to put his news content (The Times, The Sun) behind a pay-wall?

I believe that Rupert Murdoch had every right to put his news content online behind a pay-wall, he had a USP of the up-to-date seconds of goals, he has over 140,000 paying digital subscribers who are willing to pay for this service, it's not necessary but some hardcore fans are willing to pay for it, it would make up for any loss in profits that NewsCorp may have made due to the decline in newspaper circulation and sales as well as advertising revenue. If readers wish to receive free news then there are plenty of other sites that they could potentially use.

Newspapers in decline: Telegraph group takes a great leap into the digital unknown

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jan/26/daily-telegraph-tony-gallagher-digital-unknown

The article is about the departure of the Daily Telegraph's Editor Tony Gallagher. He was fired even though he made profits for the business, it was a shocking decision made by the Telegraph Media Group as they attempt to move on to the next phase of its digital transformation.

Has the Telegraph made a good or bad decision in sacking editor Tony Gallagher? 

I believe that the Telegraph made a bad decision in sacking its editor Tony Gallagher, he has been with the business since 2006 and has made profits for the business and improved its popularity as well as provided huge stories such as MP's salaries and pay. If he was willing to go into the digital unknown then it's possible that his skill set and experience would have helped greatly.

New and digital media article 12: Sky's internet service mistakenly blocks web-critical plugin

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/28/sky-broadband-blocks-jquery-web-critical-plugin

This story is about how Sky had accidentally blocked a plugin that helps the operations of thousands of websites. The plugin and access to the code.jquery.com website was blocked by Sky's content filter, it was listed as being "malware and phishining." The site hosts code for jQuery, which is used by over three-quaters of the top ten-thousand websites to ease the burden of creating responsive websites. Which means that sites such as google and the guardian weren't able to deliver a quick instant response which most users expected. The code required to enable those instant responses is usually hosted on one of three "content delivery networks", run by Google, Microsoft and jQuery itself. The Guardian believes that the best explanation for this mistake is that an actual malware site was using the code hosted on jQuery and was found by Skys filters and therefore incorrectly categorised the plugin.

I believe that the Guardian are potentially correct in stating that it's possible that an actual malware site caused the incorrect categorisation of the plugin. This could have potentially damaged sky's brand image as they would have upset a lot of customers and received a lot of complaints and had left customers feeling frustrated.

New and digital Media article 11: Web advertising: still a small net in a very large pond

http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/feb/02/web-advertising-small-net-large-pond

The article talks about how the internet and web advertising is growing as well as the revenues it produces but isn't yet big enough compared to other advertising streams such as TV, Radio and Newspapers. 

I believe that in its current position that internet advertising will dominate global revenue eventually, currently it is quite cheap but most likely will increase in prices once it dominates advertising as a whole



Info from the article
Internet ad revenues are growing fast. But, even now, they make up only 4.5% of the global whole

 Revenues via the internet are up 32.4%, up 4.3% via TV and 5.1% on posters. But they're down 2.2% fornewspapers and 1.1% on magazines (with radio and cinema also in negative territory).

Step back, though, and look at the whole cake, neatly sliced. TV, at 57.6%, is the king of the jungle. But if you add newspapers and magazines together, they're a fat 28.7% against the net's 4.5% (which is outgunned by radio, too, and scarcely better than billboards).

What audience pleasures or gratifications does online news content offer?

Within online news audiences can feel a sense of entertainment through the fact that they could potentially find news they want from the newspaper on the online site instead and they may not need to pay for this content e.g. the guardian newspaper, Daily Mail etc. Online also provides easy access to all audiences as they can read the news whenever they want, wherever they want through their phones, tablets, eBook readers and apps such as the BBC News app or The Guardians app. Audiences also can view comments online below the article itself and can post their own comments, they feel a sense of being informed and socialisation as well as acceptance and identification with others as they are discussing with other readers and sharing their own opinions which they may agree with or disagree with. Audiences feel more informed or better informed from online news as it is able to be updated whenever something happens related to the story or could be removed if seen as inappropriate e.g. when a journalist on the Guardian (I think) mocked the Olympic opening ceremony and the NHS as well as being a bit racist. This therefore allows audiences and readers/viewers to receive up to date news about global events. The internet also can on some sites be localised to certain areas or audiences could search up national or international news. The news being online does as already stated allow socialisation and interaction with audiences but also allows a greater chance of citizen journalism to be discovered, many readers of a certain paper may have recorded something or photographed something that the newspaper companies did not see and the viewers then decide to send that photo or video to a certain paper such as the telegraph or the guardian or send it directly to a journalist over the internet through social networking sites such as facebook or twitter (mainly through twitter as facebook is usually a page and not always a direct message to the journalist). This also leads me onto another point; the internet also provides visual pleasure of video. Newspaper can only print photos while online newspapers can have both a video and photo.

New and digital media article 10: Pirate Bay ban lifted in Netherlands as blocking torrent sites ruled ‘ineffective’

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/29/pirate-bay-ban-lifted-in-netherlands-as-blocking-torrent-sites-ruled-ineffective

Earlier on in my research of articles I spoke about the new pirate bay browser and well in the Netherlands the Dutch court states that the ban should be lifted on pirate bay after two dutch internet providers, Ziggo and XS4All too this to court which led to the reversing of the blocking order. Niels Huijbregts, spokesman for XS4All stated that the free internet was victorious and that they are "pleased that the court ruled in favour of the freedom of information, protecting a fundamental right of all Dutch citizens." The judges believe that blocking the pirate bay at ISP level didn't stop users from using the BitTorrent network and illegal downloading, it actually did the opposite and increased piracy.

I believe that if something is taken away from an audience or group of people then they will most likely find a way around it so of course this banning was ineffective but it was surprising that piracy actually increased with the loss of the site. It's possible that it caused some sort of moral panic in illegal downloaders and that of course led to them all trying to find new ways to get their software before other sites get banned and then they'll be unable to obtain any sort of illegal stuff.