Topic Area: News
Impact on audiences:
- Audiences can access the news whenever they want (easy, quick access)
- Global news: wider range of knowledge, wider access to knowledge and news
- However audiences may accidentally access inaccurate news and spread it
- UGC e.g. 'Citizen journalist', audiences can report news and capture moments through the use of cameraphones that huge news stations may not have due to not being there
Impact on institutions:
- Fall in newspaper circulation
- Fall in News TV viewing
- Loss of journalist jobs
- A brand can be tarnished due to the use of inaccurate information
- Some newspapers have been forced to move with the trend and go online which leads to better communication with people and news
- News is considered free nowadays (apart from paying for a TV license)
- Newspapers have lost advertising revenue and are blaming NDM for that e.g. Google and craigslist etc.
Links to theories and debates:
- Lin and Webster: 75% of user volume accounted for is from the top 5% of sites
- Pareto's law (80/20)
- Globalisation
- Pluralism
- "Dumbing down of society"
- Castells: "Ushers in the information ages"
- "The internet is the most important medium"
Thursday, 9 January 2014
Tuesday, 7 January 2014
No, Larry Page and Sergey Brin are not to blame for the decline of the media industry
http://gigaom.com/2014/01/02/no-larry-page-and-sergey-brin-are-not-to-blame-for-the-decline-of-the-media-industry/
1) Why has Google led to the decline of the newspaper industry?
The article states that many newspaper companies blame Google and Craigslist for stealing the advertising revenue from them. Google is able to reach a larger amount of potential customers and could be cheaper (pay per click/visit) and therefore attract a large amount of newspapers potential advertisers.
2) Personal opinion: Do you blame Google for the loss of journalist jobs and closing of newspapers?
No, I believe that Google had actually created an opportunity for newspapers to follow the emedia trend and if the newspapers were fast enough to set up a site they may have had their advertisers to have followed them on their sites. Plus most advertisers in newspapers especially local ones aren't always set up gloabally (aren't a franchise) and therefore are likely sole traders or partnerships with one or two stores and are most likely not going to benefit from advertising on google, they'll be more likely to benefit from advertising on the newspapers site
1) Why has Google led to the decline of the newspaper industry?
The article states that many newspaper companies blame Google and Craigslist for stealing the advertising revenue from them. Google is able to reach a larger amount of potential customers and could be cheaper (pay per click/visit) and therefore attract a large amount of newspapers potential advertisers.
2) Personal opinion: Do you blame Google for the loss of journalist jobs and closing of newspapers?
No, I believe that Google had actually created an opportunity for newspapers to follow the emedia trend and if the newspapers were fast enough to set up a site they may have had their advertisers to have followed them on their sites. Plus most advertisers in newspapers especially local ones aren't always set up gloabally (aren't a franchise) and therefore are likely sole traders or partnerships with one or two stores and are most likely not going to benefit from advertising on google, they'll be more likely to benefit from advertising on the newspapers site
Monday, 6 January 2014
New and Digital Media Article 2: Pirate Bay plans new 'anti-censorship' browser
http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jan/06/pirate-bay-anti-censorship-browser
This article states that pirate bay has found ways around the ISP blockers by creating its own web browser which has been creating controversy as it has apparently also found its way round international censorships in countries such as Iran and North Korea
After 2.5m downloads of its first PirateBrowser, filesharing site still attacking 'domain blocking, domain confiscation, IP-blocking'
I believe that what pirate bay do is obviously wrong as they are allowing filesharing illegally which is damaging to the businesses who created the certain file e.g. some people would find torrents for final cut pro, logic, photoshop etc which is all quite expensive and therefore with every illegal download the business who created the product e.g. Apple is losing out on potential sales. However technology is so advanced that if pirate bay did shut down people would always find new sites, new ways to get a certain file and this will be a continuous trend as it is difficult to maintain and control.
This article states that pirate bay has found ways around the ISP blockers by creating its own web browser which has been creating controversy as it has apparently also found its way round international censorships in countries such as Iran and North Korea
After 2.5m downloads of its first PirateBrowser, filesharing site still attacking 'domain blocking, domain confiscation, IP-blocking'
The Pirate Bay's own PirateBrowser web browser has been downloaded more than 2.5m times since its launch in August 2013, but the filesharing site is already working on a successor.
PirateBrowser was designed to help people access The Pirate Bay and other torrent services even if they were blocked by their ISP, while also circumventing other kinds of internet censorship in countries including Iran and North Korea.
It reached 1m downloads by mid-October, and has added a further 1.5m since then, but it seems set to be replaced by a new client later in 2014 that will use peer-to-peer technology to evade ISP-level blocks on people's online activities.
Thursday, 19 December 2013
New and Digital Media: end of unit question
Pros - Easy access to global news stories. It's allowed greater communication between countries and people, allows the sharing of users information, photos and videos to each other and therefore allows users to be updated and connected to each other. Businesses can now use the internet to look at competitors and their pricing as well as using the internet as a source of research. More freedom (can be on pros and cons) A lot of user generated content can be found especially on sites such as YouTube and Blogger, this can therefore lead to a more unbiased news report or even a quicker reporting of the news e.g. many crimes committed during London Riots were filmed and uploaded on YouTube.
Cons - However, the internet is difficult to control. There are billions of websites with false information which many users end up spreading across the internet and possibly leading to a 'dumbing down' of society. Due to the internet being difficult to control, many users can easily come across many dangerous and explicit; harmful material which can easily influence any young user. Paedophilia and internet safety as always been an issue, many users may not portray themselves as who they truly are. Cyber-bullying has been created due to the improvement of technology.
Theories:
- Pareto's law: follows a similar idea as the 80/20 rule. The majority of the ownership of the media we consume is produced by a minority of media businesses.
- Copy-cat theory: the copy cat theory can be linked to the internet as the information and videos we consume online could possibly lead to influencing many users. E.g. London riots was heavily reported over twitter and created large groups of teenagers wanting to copy what is going on around London, in their local area.
- Sherry Turkle: "Alone together" author, states that we communicate with each other but not in traditional ways. We communicate over the internet instead of in person which therefore can be quite a worrying concern for society in both physical health and mentality.
- Briggs and Burke: "The internet is the most important medium"
- Castells: "An application that will usher in the information age"
- Andrew Keen: The author of 'The Cult of the Amateur - How Today's Internet is Killing our Culture' states in his book that the activity and creation of webpages and blogs is similar to a million monkeys just typing nonsense
- Lin and Webster: State that the 5% of all websites accounted for almost 75% of user volume.
New and Digital Media Stories:
- MySpace: MySpace founder believes that Rupert Murdoch destroyed his site after he bought it.
- Funeral selfie: Obama's selfie with David Cameron and the Danish Prime Minister was seen as disrespectful as it was at the funeral/tribute ceremony celebrating the life of Nelson Mandela.
- Twitter: A Guardian journalist replies to an article published in The Australian who states that the use of internet and social media such as twitter is destroying a journalists job. The Guardian journalist disagreed with this statement and believes that twitter is a useful tool. News can easily spread across the internet, it allows users/readers of the newspaper to contact journalists easily and give them the news quicker than anyone who doesn't use social media sites. It also allowed journalist in certain countries to pass on information to other journalist across the world. Sometimes when a big event or war is going on within a country and journalist find it difficult to land their helicopters, they can contact a journalist who is already in the country to provide them with up to the minute news.
- London Riots: The riots were heavily reported over Twitter allowing journalist to gather information from their followers all over London, it also allowed a video of helpless people being beaten and robbed during the riot to go viral. Negative uses of twitter was that some users used it as a way to communicate on when or where to attack certain stores.
- Occupy Wall Street: Videos went viral all over YouTube, Facebook, Twitter etc. and allowed protesters to communicate with each other easily.
- G8 Riots: The G8 riots saw the death of a male at the hands of policemen. A man named Ian Tomlinson was pushed hit by a police baton on his legs and then pushed to the floor and died shortly after. A video of this went viral after the man recording the video found out about the death. It was stated that the police officers did not take responsibility of Ian's death and did not tell the truth of the whole story until the UGC video was released and went viral.
Cons - However, the internet is difficult to control. There are billions of websites with false information which many users end up spreading across the internet and possibly leading to a 'dumbing down' of society. Due to the internet being difficult to control, many users can easily come across many dangerous and explicit; harmful material which can easily influence any young user. Paedophilia and internet safety as always been an issue, many users may not portray themselves as who they truly are. Cyber-bullying has been created due to the improvement of technology.
Theories:
- Pareto's law: follows a similar idea as the 80/20 rule. The majority of the ownership of the media we consume is produced by a minority of media businesses.
- Copy-cat theory: the copy cat theory can be linked to the internet as the information and videos we consume online could possibly lead to influencing many users. E.g. London riots was heavily reported over twitter and created large groups of teenagers wanting to copy what is going on around London, in their local area.
- Sherry Turkle: "Alone together" author, states that we communicate with each other but not in traditional ways. We communicate over the internet instead of in person which therefore can be quite a worrying concern for society in both physical health and mentality.
- Briggs and Burke: "The internet is the most important medium"
- Castells: "An application that will usher in the information age"
- Andrew Keen: The author of 'The Cult of the Amateur - How Today's Internet is Killing our Culture' states in his book that the activity and creation of webpages and blogs is similar to a million monkeys just typing nonsense
- Lin and Webster: State that the 5% of all websites accounted for almost 75% of user volume.
New and Digital Media Stories:
- MySpace: MySpace founder believes that Rupert Murdoch destroyed his site after he bought it.
- Funeral selfie: Obama's selfie with David Cameron and the Danish Prime Minister was seen as disrespectful as it was at the funeral/tribute ceremony celebrating the life of Nelson Mandela.
- Twitter: A Guardian journalist replies to an article published in The Australian who states that the use of internet and social media such as twitter is destroying a journalists job. The Guardian journalist disagreed with this statement and believes that twitter is a useful tool. News can easily spread across the internet, it allows users/readers of the newspaper to contact journalists easily and give them the news quicker than anyone who doesn't use social media sites. It also allowed journalist in certain countries to pass on information to other journalist across the world. Sometimes when a big event or war is going on within a country and journalist find it difficult to land their helicopters, they can contact a journalist who is already in the country to provide them with up to the minute news.
- London Riots: The riots were heavily reported over Twitter allowing journalist to gather information from their followers all over London, it also allowed a video of helpless people being beaten and robbed during the riot to go viral. Negative uses of twitter was that some users used it as a way to communicate on when or where to attack certain stores.
- Occupy Wall Street: Videos went viral all over YouTube, Facebook, Twitter etc. and allowed protesters to communicate with each other easily.
- G8 Riots: The G8 riots saw the death of a male at the hands of policemen. A man named Ian Tomlinson was pushed hit by a police baton on his legs and then pushed to the floor and died shortly after. A video of this went viral after the man recording the video found out about the death. It was stated that the police officers did not take responsibility of Ian's death and did not tell the truth of the whole story until the UGC video was released and went viral.
Thursday, 12 December 2013
Pareto's Law
1) What is Pareto's Law? Sum it up in a paragraph.
Pareto's Law (Lin Webster 2002) States a minority of media producers always serve a majority of consumers. Which links to the 80/20 rule
80% of the market share is owned by 20% of the companies
80% of complaints come from 20% of the customers
80% of value is achieved with the first 20% of effort80% of work is completed by 20% of your team80% of software problems are caused by 20% of bugs80% of customers only use 20% of software features 80% of wealth is owned by 20% of people
3) List three arguments in FAVOUR of Pareto's Law applying to the internet:
4) List three arguments AGAINST Pareto's Law applying to the internet:
5) Even if Pareto's Law applies to internet ownership, does it still apply to the content we read online?
2) What other industries or examples can you apply the 80/20 rule to?
80% of the population is served by 20 of businesses 80% of the market share is owned by 20% of the companies
80% of complaints come from 20% of the customers
80% of value is achieved with the first 20% of effort80% of work is completed by 20% of your team80% of software problems are caused by 20% of bugs80% of customers only use 20% of software features 80% of wealth is owned by 20% of people
3) List three arguments in FAVOUR of Pareto's Law applying to the internet:
- google own 127 sites from Feb 12th 2009 - June 11th 2013 including Youtube, Doubleclick, Feedburner, Salesforce, google adsense, picasa, google maps, panoramio, Gmail, Google Earth, blogger.
- top 5% of all websites accounted for almost 75% of user volume.
- 80% of searches on the internet are searched on 20% of search engines
4) List three arguments AGAINST Pareto's Law applying to the internet:
- Sites such as twitter don't own what is produced or tweeted as that's user generated.
- Blogger is owned by Google but doesn't produce the blogs, there is a variety of people and opinions, the majority are the producers.
- The above also applies to tumblr posts and instagram pics
5) Even if Pareto's Law applies to internet ownership, does it still apply to the content we read online?
Internet ownership applies to Pareto's law as the above arguments in favour show e.g. Google owning 127 sites. But doesn't apply to content as big companies such as twitter don't control what is poster however, when it comes back to audiences Pareto's law could apply again e.g. 80% of tweets come from 20% of tweeters.
Monday, 9 December 2013
New and Digital Media Article 1: So Twitter is ruining journalism? Really?
So Twitter is ruining journalism? Really?
This article published by the Guardian by Bronwen Clune and is a reply to what was published by 'The Australian' newspaper was stating that Twitter will ruin journalists. Clune states that the argument made in the article seems to say that Twitter exists as some sort of "alternative media universe" run by narcissists with no hardcore news values. Clune obviously wrote this article disagreeing with what was said in 'The Australian' article as she believes Twitter is a powerful journalistic tool. Clune then goes onto giving examples of when Twitter has been a useful tool e.g. during the 2011 uprisings in Egypt and the middle east many journalist including US based Andy Carvin from NPR and Australian based Jess Hill formerly at ABC used twitter to gain reliable sources about what was going on when many media organisations were unable to get many reporters on the ground. Another example was the 2011 London Riots where many citizens worked alongside journalist to report news all over London, Twitter allowed the voice of the public be heard with the help of journalists. One of the major news stories like Bin Laden's death in May 2011 was reported on twitter by Keith Urbahn.
I agree with Bronwen Clune, Twitter is powerful. Twitter could potentially be the replacement of many newspapers as it is quick and instant and allows journalist to summarise a whole article in 140 characters. It can also help connect journalist to many citizen journalist. The internet is one of the fastest way news is spread and twitter is used by billions of people around the world and therefore can make any story viral within minutes, it gives journalist the advantage of being first to report viral news to a mass audience rather than it slowly (in internet time) making its way around to everyone.
Tuesday, 19 November 2013
hegemonic view of Young people/teenagers
Hegemonic: ruling or dominant in a political or social context
"Teenagers with smartphones have more sex than those with ordinary mobiles, according to a new report." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2225661/Teenagers-smart-phones-sex-access-internet.html#ixzz2kbyxkEVV
"Whether it is Snapchat or the 20m-times-downloaded Android and iOS version of BlackBerry Messenger, there’s no disputing that Facebook is feeling the pressure from other platforms" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/10416903/Facebooks-rebellious-teenagers.html
"WhatsApp, the most popular messaging app in the UK and on half the country's iPhones, according to Mobile Marketing Magazine, has more than 350 million monthly active users globally. That makes it the biggest messaging app in the world by users, with even more active users thansocial media darling Twitter, which counts 218 million. About 90% of the population of Brazil uses messaging apps, three-quarters of Russians, and half of Britons, according to mobile consultancy Tyntec. WhatsApp alone is on more than 95% of all smartphones in Spain. The power users and early adopters of these apps, the ones you're most likely to see tapping their thumbs over a tiny screen, are under 25." http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/10/teenagers-messenger-apps-facebook-exodus
"Police data reveals 1,892 London teenagers committed violence against their own parents between 2009 and 2010" http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/nov/03/parents-fear-violent-teenagers-support
"More than 3,000 teenagers are killed every year across America in car crashes caused by texting while driving compared to 2,700 from drink driving." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2322393/Texting-wheel-kills-teenagers-year-drink-driving-study-reveals.html
"Teenagers who text more than 100 times a day tend to be shallow, image-obsessed and driven by wealth." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2416612/Are-mobile-phones-causing-teenagers-turn-criminal-Frequent-texting-linked-antisocial-behaviour.html#ixzz2kc08WTpZ
The hegemonic view of teenagers across "The Daily Mail", "The Telegraph" and "The Guardian" portray quite negative views of teenagers within society, most linking to social networking sites and their mobile phones. For exmaple, "Teenagers who text more than 100 times a day tend to be shallow, image-obsessed and driven by wealth." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2416612/Are-mobile-phones-causing-teenagers-turn-criminal-Frequent-texting-linked-antisocial-behaviour.html#ixzz2kc08WTpZ. Some articles do see teenagers in a positive light saying that they're only "growing up" and therefore being antisocial and using their phones constantly, they are being antisocial even though they are building their friendship over the phone and in person when possible. But the majority of articles stated that teenagers and social networks or using of their phones are negative, they cause more deaths, anti-social behaviour and violence as well as racism and bullying in some cases.
"Teenagers with smartphones have more sex than those with ordinary mobiles, according to a new report." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2225661/Teenagers-smart-phones-sex-access-internet.html#ixzz2kbyxkEVV
"Whether it is Snapchat or the 20m-times-downloaded Android and iOS version of BlackBerry Messenger, there’s no disputing that Facebook is feeling the pressure from other platforms" http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/facebook/10416903/Facebooks-rebellious-teenagers.html
"WhatsApp, the most popular messaging app in the UK and on half the country's iPhones, according to Mobile Marketing Magazine, has more than 350 million monthly active users globally. That makes it the biggest messaging app in the world by users, with even more active users thansocial media darling Twitter, which counts 218 million. About 90% of the population of Brazil uses messaging apps, three-quarters of Russians, and half of Britons, according to mobile consultancy Tyntec. WhatsApp alone is on more than 95% of all smartphones in Spain. The power users and early adopters of these apps, the ones you're most likely to see tapping their thumbs over a tiny screen, are under 25." http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/nov/10/teenagers-messenger-apps-facebook-exodus
"Police data reveals 1,892 London teenagers committed violence against their own parents between 2009 and 2010" http://www.theguardian.com/society/2013/nov/03/parents-fear-violent-teenagers-support
"More than 3,000 teenagers are killed every year across America in car crashes caused by texting while driving compared to 2,700 from drink driving." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2322393/Texting-wheel-kills-teenagers-year-drink-driving-study-reveals.html
"Teenagers who text more than 100 times a day tend to be shallow, image-obsessed and driven by wealth." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2416612/Are-mobile-phones-causing-teenagers-turn-criminal-Frequent-texting-linked-antisocial-behaviour.html#ixzz2kc08WTpZ
The hegemonic view of teenagers across "The Daily Mail", "The Telegraph" and "The Guardian" portray quite negative views of teenagers within society, most linking to social networking sites and their mobile phones. For exmaple, "Teenagers who text more than 100 times a day tend to be shallow, image-obsessed and driven by wealth." http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2416612/Are-mobile-phones-causing-teenagers-turn-criminal-Frequent-texting-linked-antisocial-behaviour.html#ixzz2kc08WTpZ. Some articles do see teenagers in a positive light saying that they're only "growing up" and therefore being antisocial and using their phones constantly, they are being antisocial even though they are building their friendship over the phone and in person when possible. But the majority of articles stated that teenagers and social networks or using of their phones are negative, they cause more deaths, anti-social behaviour and violence as well as racism and bullying in some cases.
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