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.