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